Making your dumb TV smart | Bangkok Post: learning

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What can you do if you have a good TV but it lacks internet access? One Thai company has a possible solution.

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Making your dumb TV smart

Smart phones have been a big hit and it didn’t take long for television producers to notice. Now we have smart TVs which allow viewers to watch traditional programming and serve as a computer at the same time.

With the new TVs, viewers can now send email, play games, surf the internet or connect to social network sites.

The problem is that many of us already own television sets which give us excellent quality and service and we may not want to buy a new one just to add the internet.

That is where the “set-top- box” (box on the top of the TV set) comes in. With the set-top box, users can transform their traditional TV into a smart TV that lets them enjoy entertainment programmes while hooking on to the internet.

A group of Thai programmers have introduced a set-top box service here called "SNA@home video rental".

“Our set-top box will enable normal TVs to function the same as smart TVs do," says managing director Somsak Limcharoenjit.

The set-top box, priced at 6,900 baht, runs on the Android 2.3 system with high performance ARM Cortex full HD.

Initially, there are some 300 movie titles in local and international content provided by two partners: United Home Entertainment and EVS Entertainment.

The programme is offered in two packages: a buffet package with 150 titles that costs 300 baht per month, and 50 titles of the latest movies which will be offered as video-on-demand, priced 30 baht per title, which users can view for three days.

Users can also access any applications, free and commercial, at Android Market.

Meanwhile, the team is now developing the iOS platform that will enable the service to run on Apple devices.

Adapted from a story in today’s Bangkok Post by Sasiwimon Boonruang. You can read the original story here: http://bit.ly/sfFRLX

dumb – stupid โง่
smart – intelligent  ฉลาด, มีเชาว์ปัญญา
hit – a successful product
notice – to see or hear somebody/something; to become aware of somebody/something สังเกต
traditional – things (buildings, clothes, music, customs, etc.) that have been part of a country or society for a long time แบบดั้งเดิม
serve – to function as; to be used as ใช้เป็น, ทำหน้าที่เป็น
excellent – extremely good  ยอดเยี่ยม, ดีเยี่ยม
quality – the standard of something when it is compared to other things like it; how good or bad something is คุณภาพ
transform – to change from one form into another  เปลี่ยนไปสู่อีกสิ่งหนึ่ง
hook on to – to connect to
rental – the act of renting something or an arrangement to rent something การเช่า
enable – to make someone able to do something, or to make something possible  ทำให้เป็นไปได้
normal – typical, usual or ordinary; what you would expect ภาวะปกติ
function – to serve as; to be used as ใช้เป็น, ทำหน้าที่เป็น
HD – high definition; a very clear, high quality picture
initially – at first ในระยะต้น
partner – one of the people who owns a business and shares the profits, etc or works together with another business in an activity หุ้นส่วน, ผู้ร่วมมือ, ผู้ร่วมกระทำ
video-on-demand – a system which allows users to select and watch video when they want to
access – to be able to get or use something ได้รับสิทธิ์หรือโอกาสในการใช้
application – a program designed to do a particular job; a piece of software โปรแกรมใช้งาน
commercial – intended to be sold ซึ่งมีจุดประสงค์เพื่อหวังกำไร
platform – the type of computer system or the software that is used
device – a machine or piece of equipment that does a particular job อุปกรณ์ เครื่องมือ เครื่องจักร

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