Today's Show: Recently, Kevin from Wright City Missouri sent in an email asking us if we had heard anything more about Microsoft's plans for IPTV using their Xbox360 as a platform. Way back in January, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division, showed the IPTV service at CES and since then we haven't heard much more about it. At that time they said the service would be available around the Holiday season, which is just around the corner. So what will the service provide?
Xbox 360 and IPTV
From Microsoft's original press release:
IPTV on Xbox 360 is expected to give consumers all the advantages of an advanced TV service along with the benefits of next-generation gaming, as well as unique new capabilities that the integrated solution brings.
Xbox Live, the largest online social network in the living room, will be seamlessly integrated into the experience, providing consumers with a wide range of community-based features, such as voice chat, sending and receiving text and voice messages, and accessing Xbox Live Marketplace, all while watching TV.
The service offers advanced features such as instant channel zapping, a rich and responsive user interface, video on demand with branded video-on-demand storefronts, digital video recording and high-definition television.
Commercial deployments currently under way with AT&T in the United States, BT Group PLC in the United Kingdom, Deutsche Telekom in Germany, T-Online in France and Swisscom in Switzerland.
So does this mean you just update your Xbox 360 and now you have IPTV. We'll the answer is no. You need some fat pipes and on top of that AT&T has to be the company providing the pipes. What this is turning out to be is another way to get AT&Ts U-Verse service but using Microsoft's Xbox 360 as the Set Top Box. At some point any ISP can offer the service but they will have to be able to provide at least 32 Mbps down to have more than two simultaneous HD streams. Of course you'll have to pay for the service so what's the big deal? Xbox 360 integration? Now don't get us wrong. Ara loves his Xbox, but at this point in time its rather loud and can overheat. Imagine having to leave it on for hours watching one HD program while recording another. What's that going to do to the thing?
Another feature that Microsoft touts is the ability to chat while watching TV. Are they crazy?!? We turn our telephones off when watching. Speaking of telephones, we've had the ability to chat while watching TV since the 50's. We know we are taking this a bit too far but from what we can tell is there is nothing new here. If you have AT&T's U-Verse or Verizon's FiOS then you already have this stuff without the Xbox 360 integration. Is the Xbox 360 integration a big deal? Let us know.
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