A new set-top box promises to unite all your content in one place
While you can connect more content and devices to your TV than ever before, a new problem is emerging: you need a roadmap to navigate all your disparate set-top boxes, dongles and sticks connected to your TV's rapidly filling HDMI ports.
A new solution to this overcrowding is Caavo, and yes, it's yet another set-top box, but don't hold that against it. The point of Caavo is to connect all your devices -- including your DVR -- through a single gateway so you can call up all their content within a single, seamless interface.
The team behind this überbox includes has lots of product experience (one of its founders worked for Dish and Microsoft) as well as the man who invented the Slingbox (although he passed away last year). They unveiled Caavo at yesterday's Code Media event after two years of under-the-radar development.
Caavo isn't a streaming platform, so you can't install any TV apps natively on the box itself. Instead, it acts as a kind of collaborative conduit for your streaming devices, cable and gaming consoles. And it should have plenty of room for all the media you'll need — the box has eight HDMI inputs, two USB ports, an Ethernet port and a 3.5mm jack for an infrared extension cable.
The development team behind Caavo touts an easy setup — the device is built to auto-detect devices once they're hooked up to the system. Once everything is connected, the platform can perform auto-search for content across platforms via the capacitive touch remote control, which also offers voice control and Amazon Alexa compatibility.
Uniting all your disparate content sounds like a steep task for one box, but Caavo has a brain to match its brawn — The Verge reports that the box runs on a unique AI system that simulates a human user by using machine vision to jump from program to program, a system the device's makers are calling “visual analytics,” or VA for short.
Caavo still has a few kinks to work out before it can claim it's a complete TV experience. The box doesn’t yet support all DVR features (partnerships with Dish and DirectTV DVR are in place, but other services have yet to sign on). Caavo reps also hinted at a "dynamic pricing" feature in the cards, which could automatically identify the best deal on video on-demand (VOD) options across the disparate platforms.
Once Caavo is ready to enter living rooms later this year (it's projected to start taking pre-orders this summer for a 5,000 unit limited run), it won't be cheap: the starting price is $399. That's a steep cost, especially when you consider the extra expenses for all the devices actually providing the content, along with monthly bills for cable, Netflix and the rest. But for frazzled TV junkies sick of shuttling between remotes, it might just be worth it.
Brett Williams is a Tech Reporter at Mashable. He writes about tech news, trends and other tangentially related topics with a particular interest in wearables and exercise tech. Prior to Mashable, he wrote for Inked Magazine and Thrillist. Brett's work has also appeared on Fusion and AskMen, to name a few. You can follow Brett on Twitter @bdwilliams910.
