Gizmodo
It seems that there's been a lot of confusion over what exactly IPTV on the Xbox 360 is bringing to the table, and moreover, what it'll take to bring it to your table. So I sat down with Microsoft to get a demo and clear up a lot of the confusion that's been going on since the initial announcement here at CES. First off, the service will be available to all 16 of its current IPTV customers, such as AT&T, by the end of the year, as it is essentially the same as the standard Microsoft IPTV software, it's simply running on a 360. Both deploying the service AND the available content is up to the providers, however, and who will be rolling out the service is still to be determined. No one's confirmed yet, in other words. Continued with a gallery and videos after the jump...
It's ultimately available to any service provider that offers Microsoft IPTV now or in the future, though. Interestingly, one option service providers may explore in getting customers to buy into the IPTV program is to lease out the 360 like a cable box, or they can follow a cell phone model, where you buy a 360 from the service provider at a subsidized price bundled with IPTV. Or, if you already have a 360, you can download the software and go from there, though this obviously requires a hard drive.
As all of the video decoding is done by software, rather than by a hardware tuner, you will be able to record HD shows (DVR and VOD capabilities are there, in other words, as long as your provider offers them) while playing a game. Moreover, due to the software decoding, the number of streams able to be recorded simultaneously is essentially a matter of bandwidth, so it's theoretically possible to record multiple streams while gaming to boot. The priority now, however, is simply making sure that recording an HD stream while playing a game works flawlessly — the other is extra, so we'll get exact numbers closer to launch.
So where are you going to put all of those shows, as well as the IPTV software itself? Like Michael at Kotaku, I couldn't get a confirmation of the upcoming higher capacity drives, simply that the all 360s are "designed now" to add an HD. Asking about hot swapping drives, supposing a "theoretical" higher capacity one existed, got a reply of "stay tuned." The rep added, however, that the digital compression used will allow HD content to fit in half the space it typically uses on a traditional cable set up and that the IPTV client software itself "isn't very big."
Comments
I still don't find that very clear.This isn t gonna be true IPTV. If the internet speed is not high enough, there's no way people will watch LIVE TV on an XBOX. The service exists in France for a while now and it s choppy as hell at low speed. THe only way to get XBOX working at low speed is to use it as digital recorder then watch the show with a delay. This isn't real TV. More like something in the middle of PPV and Tivo... At high speed, i d tend to agree, Live TV is possible but how many towns around the US got very high speed DSL ? ... 'cause we are talking about phone companies. not cable companies...
The big question that I have is do I have to live in a certain area to get IPTV.
Because here in the middle of Iowa (land of the dim) there is no such service happening.
Matter of fact, I'm still quite shocked that they have in-door restrooms and electricity.
Hmmm. Stupid question: is it free to download as many shows as you want, or is there some type of billing system Microsoft will try?
It's not up to Microsoft; this is not a Microsoft service. It's a service from your cable or phone company that happens to use Microsoft technology.
Just like your existing cable service, you will pay a subscription fee for this, some channels will cost more per month, some on-demand shows will be free and others won't.
Can someone tell me what good this is? Seriously if you already have cable/satelite and a DVR.
Will this be available in the UK?
If you have cable or satellite you might only get a few off the wall channels that you don't get now. But if all you have is an internet connection with no cable or satellite, then you subscribe to channels that you've always wanted to see but never could.
My guess is that it's sort of like that "A la carte" cable that some senator wanted to pass a while ago. It's where you only pay for the channels you want.
This is good I think. If AT&T and others can offer TV shows, then Cable and Sattelite will have to come up with some better pricing. Theoretically.
Mr. Matt mentioned that there are 16 providers in the article... Anyone know who they are besides AT&T?
I think this is sort of like a digital cable package, but instead of a set top box, or cable card, you use your xbox 360 and your intronets? Maybe? I do like the concept of renting out xbox 360s to customers like they do cable boxes (unless of course some day I buy my own xbox 360)
For those that are confused, an IPTV service is essentially like a cable service. You'll be paying for a channel lineup, and watch TV as you would normal cable. The difference is the TV comes to you streamed through your a TCP/IP connection. The IPTV data is sent using private IP addresses that allow the infrastructure to prioritize the traffic (so firing up bittorrent on your PC won't cause frames to suddenly start dropping on your TV). This means you'll most likely still have to use Comcast broadband network, for example, to be able to use Comcast IPTV. The fact that it is a network video stream does open up for the possibility of better on-demand, and viewing of multiple channels without the need for more tuners. Some UI demos I've seen are pretty damn sweet (i.e. - have 4-5 sports games running simultaneously, with one having larger screen real estate, and the others displaying around the main game).
M$ attacks again, PAY AS YOU GO... so much for iTV Bill is stealling from us again, im going back to my modded xbox with Xbxmc wich is working grat.
Microsoft isn't actually running the IPTV service. It's just a software platform that service providers can buy from Microsoft to deploy in their IPTV offerings. The 360 service enables the 360 to basically be used like a cable box, which I think will greatly raise awareness of IPTV, which is currently remarkably low. I believe there's a list of the 16 on Microsoft TV's site, but off the top of my head, AT&T and Verizon in the US, BT in the UK, Bell Canada (guess where), as well as one in South Africa are part of the 16.
"M$ attacks again, PAY AS YOU GO..."
What are you talking about, Microsoft is just the technology provider here. I am glad some major players are stepping up to deliver on this service. It's about time.
Don't worry you can still use your tin foil hat with your linux xbox.
IPTV Service will be delivered over a 32 megabid xDSL service, so don't think of the bandwidth in terms of todays 1.5 - 6Mbit service. The 32Mbit service is enough bandwidth to handle up to four standard definition or two high-def channels. And the xDSL service is delivered over new dedicated, high-availability network infrastucture.
The channel lineup will consist of everything you're able to get from your Cable or Satellite TV provider (local channels, cable channels, etc.). Additionally, you'll have access to internet-based streamed and downloaded content such as (or similar to) iTunes, youTube, and Yahoo Music.
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