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XBox Adding HD Tuners Next Year
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Sun Oct 21, 2007 10:20 AM
from the convergence-or-some-crap dept.
from the convergence-or-some-crap dept.
iloveCarla writes "Microsoft is partnering with Toshiba to turn the Xbox into a full fledged HTPC. With built-in HD DVD, a larger hard drive, revamped "MCE" interface, and possibly HDTV tuners, the Xbox would be in a better position to compete against the PS3 in the race to serve as the defacto entertainment hub for couch potatoes. According to the article "The new device is expected to be released late in 2008 or at the 2009 CES show in Las Vegas."
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Toshiba Denies 360 With Built-in HD DVD 50 comments
A few days ago we discussed the possibility of Toshiba working on an Xbox 360 with a built-in HD DVD component and HD tuners. Today, GamesIndustry.biz has word from Toshiba denying that they're working on that unit. "'It's got nothing to do with us,' said a spokesperson to gadget site Stuff. 'But we know Microsoft doesn't want to include the HD DVD so as not to limit the user's experience.' Microsoft currently sells the HD DVD player as a separate peripheral for the Xbox 360, and offers various deals for users who want to upgrade their console to a hi-definition movie player."
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Who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Who cares? (Score:4, Funny)
Not the enhancement people really want (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.ceyah.org/~jandrese/ | Last Journal: Thursday September 13, @11:11AM)
Re:Not the enhancement people really want (Score:5, Informative)
(http://www.myg0t.com/)
Adding New Features to Consoles (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Adding New Features to Consoles (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Adding New Features to Consoles (Score:4, Insightful)
Well then... (Score:5, Insightful)
Better position to compete? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Better position to compete? (Score:5, Interesting)
Imagine this Microsoft Dream World: You use Windows at work, hear about a cool new show, and schedule the recording via your Windows Mobile smartphone, and come home to your XBox, which has recorded all of your TV shows to your Windows Home Server in the closet. You can fire up your Windows Media Center computer, and watch them from there or from the XBox, or sync them to your Zune to watch on the go.
Microsoft wants to compete with basically every technology company out there. Not necessarily unlike Apple. The goal that both companies have is domination of your computing lifestyle.
Re:Better position to compete? (Score:4, Insightful)
You come home to your XBox, which has tried to record all of your previous TV shows, but silently stopped working because it couldn't update the guide data, same as MCE. You spend some time trying to force it to download the guide data from your perfectly good home internet connection, but only a reboot fixes it, for no good reason. Except there's now no list of the failed to record shows so no information to try to manually reschedule a repeat broadcast with. You finally manually schedule that cool new show you wanted, and then you find out the broadcaster has flagged it with the do-not-record marker, and your xbox won't even allow you to record it. You decide to try and watch one of your previously recorded shows, only to find the last 5 minutes has been lost because it screwed up the clock. Again.
You finally decide to download that cool new show via bittorrent, made harder by the artificial TCP connections limit imposed by microsoft on windows and your ISPs packet throttling. You'd save it to your Windows Home Server in the closet, but the mofo died from overheating in your poorly ventilated closet, and when you try to reinstall you've hit your activation limit. You'd fire up your Windows Media Center computer and watch it from there, but MCE sucks at sharing media with other MCE boxes, and besides, you don't have the codec installed. You try watching it off the Xbox, but it just red-ringed of death from overheating because you left it running all day.
You give up on TV, and go to check your email, only to find out you've just had your account cancelled by the only ISP in your area for going over your 1GB a day limit on your unlimited super-amazing mega-expensive account, and you've just been sued by viacom for copyright infringement for downloading a show you could have watched on TV if you didn't have to work 14 hours a day to pay for your bandwidth bill and windows licences.
Welcome to the modern world of digital media.
Retarded (Score:1, Redundant)
This HTPC crap is a waste of time. Both MS and Sony keep trying to turn their console into a "media center", which while a nice idea, isn't something that the mass-market really cares about.
I swear both MS and Sony have lost their minds.
Still no SMB shares though (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://world3.net/)
The Evil Empire Grows (Score:1, Interesting)
MCE? (Score:1)
Better than a tuner how about (Score:2, Insightful)
(http://www.bitemyheadoff.com/)
Gee... (Score:2, Funny)
(http://solaris.andarazoroflove.org/)
This generation... (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Monday July 09, @11:31AM)
Examples of this abound. The one that pisses me off the most is Dual Shock 3. Some of the upgrades have been less than necessary, such as the Elite Xbox SKU, but rumble is a novel game input that you're completely missing out on for no reason if you bought or will buy a PS3 in the next six months. Some weren't even able to make the choice to wait because Sony lied about it.
Now with the HD tuner incorporated HD DVD Player MP3 jack extravaganda, why buy now? You know there will be a new SKU and it will make your box look like a chump. And this isn't like Apple releasing something new and you're paying opportunity cost (forgetting about the iPhone for a second), because most of these upgrades already exist and are minor. The only difference is if you buy them now you're paying probably twice as much for something that's half as well integrated with the box.
Maybe I should just buy a Dreamcast...now there's a stable SKU!
This means in the UK.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Flibberdy
You wouldn't hear the TV though (Score:2)
BUT: first they should take care of the noise the 360 produces. For me TV/Video watching is completely ruined when you have such a loud fan noise.
It is an incredible gaming machine, but I better use my 5+ year old DVD player than the 360 because the noise concerns.
And before you tell me to crank up the volume: every movie has silent/low volume scenes, and usually the ones when there is important conversation or other dramatic parts..... now that is when I do not want to hear a changing pitch of fan noise.
Other question a HDTV tuner
Dunno, maybe this game machine as an entertainment center idea does not get to me. I would better shove a minimac/mini pc into the hifi stand and than I have all the freedom to burn, record, show pix, etc
Toshiba Wishes (Score:1)
Open interoperability (Score:2)
- Define a set of acceptable video formats that the unit will play, starting with ATSC HDTV formats.
- Create a simple networking protocol to interact with PCs/Servers. Maybe UPnP is good enough, maybe not. It needs to stream the video and allow for flexible playback (FF/REW, Jump n seconds, jump to this point in time, pause, etc.)
An HD-DVD player, which could also play games, and can interact with my MythTV backend and Mac OS X iLife Apps (view photos, play movies, play unencrypted music) would be a no-brainer.
A game unit which also connects to Windows Media Center is not interesting.. Doesn't it already do that?? I'm not interested in a Windows-based media server, with all the related costs and limitations.
Haha, I knew it was coming. (Score:4, Informative)
Looks to me like we'll be seeing XBOX and PC gaming being synonymous in the next year or two. They've already got the hardware rating system in Vista as well as USB adapters for their wireless 360 controlers. It's just a matter of adding direct game support for XBOX titles on the PC.
Considering how fast PC hardware advances in comparison to consoles there is no reason not too. The only thing they'll have to watch out for is letting the software developers get too far head of the average customer's hardware, the very reason many gamers have abandoned PC gaming in the first place.
Personally I would love to see this since I have already distilled my living room entertainment package down to a PC and a 40" LCD HD TV, and don't care spoil that with the noisy, anemic, unreliable, one trick pony, 360, just to be able to play the few console titles I'm interested in.
HDTV Tuners? (Score:2, Informative)
And the Banshee wail? (Score:2)
(http://www.threaded.com/index.html)
Nah, living room entertainment centre? Don't think so somehow.
What? Microsoft bought the cable industry? (Score:1)
1) Classic Analog
2) Unencrypted QAM
3) Encrypted QAM*
4) Cablecard device
5) IPTV
As far as I know, HD content is not offered over classic Analog, and cannot be relied upon to be supplied
over unencrypted QAM. So now you are into connection options that require an authentication scheme
and some sort of trusted / authenticated relationship between the device and the cable company.
So far the closest analog (ignoring TVs with cablecard slots) is the HD-TIVO. One only has to scan the
threads on avsforum to see the good and bad experiences people have had trying to activate what cable
companies essentially consider a third party device on their network.
For your average slashdot reader the integration issues are likely something we would spend time working
through and could in fact navigate to a successful conclusion. But for the average consumer this could
prove a frustrating and potentially hopeless experience unless Microsoft's 360/MCE is an "officially"
supported device. And I don't see that happening without an investment from MS of some kind.
* I intentionally separated encrypted QAM from cablecard as cablecard's replacement is ostensible
on the horizon.
This is smart (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Wednesday September 28 2005, @12:05PM)
With the Xbox 360, however, it's a different deal. None of the upgrades are going to effect the gaming capabilities of the Xbox. Even the hard-drive limitation won't stop you from playing any games. What you get with an upgraded Xbox is a more capable box for movies and general home entertainment.
On the other hand, despite this being a good technical idea, Microsoft is most likely going to flub it like they did with 6 editions of Vista. If Microsoft does flub it, people will worry about which edition of the Xbox they should buy, and hold off purchasing altogether.
Feature sell machines. More features, more sales. (Score:1)
I'm perfectly happy with my Playstation as a Game Console and BD-ROM player.
It's quiet and has all the outputs I need to make that perfect connection to my Home Cinema equipment.
Yes, I have Linux on there so I can use it to watch 'downloaded' media content, but it's not the reason I bought it.
(An XboX can't even do that without a PC with Windows Media Player 11 on a networking doing all the hard work.)
With Linux, a PS3 can already use any linux-supported (HD)TV receiver, or any other (Linux supported) USB device.
Because of HDTV and ever-more-powerful processors, one machine will someday sit in the living room, recording your TV shows, string your music, doubling as Internet Appliance for browsing an e-mail.
At the very least.
If people will still have hard-wired phones, the machine will answer the phone for you.
Home Automation will also be interesting (toggling lights when you're on vacation, climate control, remote alarm check-up/signaling, providing access to the networked webcam in the baby room).
The possible privacy issues are just as endless.
Any machine successful enough gets the attention of 'the power that be' and will be used for things people will not like. Just as phone companies log your calls, ISP's keep track of all your sent and received e-mail and cars with LoJack are already monitored (Did I mention Cell Phone tracing?), every bit of information will be monitored, logged and, if you're unlucky, scanned and reported.
Everything automated can also be controlled.
Just like TiVO's deleting shows at the broadcaster's command and digital music becoming suddenly unplayable , someone will always be annoyed at the endless possibilities and will want to keep the possibilities within limits.
What will -really- make the device sell is something I don't know yet.
It's 'killer feature' maybe has not even been invented yet.
the Halo Gaming Platform (Score:2)
PS3 TV (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://slashdot.org/~Doc%20Ruby/journal | Last Journal: Thursday March 31 2005, @01:48PM)
history (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://reallydodgy.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday January 05 2006, @03:54AM)
Just ask sega about how well console "upgrades" sell - eg MegaCD, 32X, etc.
Too loud, too hot (Score:1)
(http://consciousmedia.blogspot.com/)
Implications for Intel (Score:3, Interesting)
(http://symbolset.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Saturday May 26, @11:53PM)
With their crapulent MCE OS offerrings MS has just about convinced Intel there is no market for HTPC. Now we find that MS wants the whole market with its non-Intel XBox.
Will Intel respond with some non-Microsoft developments, or will they surrender another market to the Beast of Redmond?
Ultimately Microsoft has to take ownership of the entire PC hardware market if they are to sustain growth. They are already an OEM of desktop PCs in India. If they take the consumer electronics space also there's nothing left but servers. How long before they're drooling over that high margin business?
xbmc anyone? (Score:1)
Toshiba produces the CELL! (Score:1)
Did anybody keep in mind that Toshiba is one of the backers of the CELL Processor? They just renewed and extended their Joint-Venture with Sony [reghardware.co.uk]. They also developed a "reduced" CELL Processor called SpursEngine [reghardware.co.uk].
They should be working on a PS3 version, not a XBOX360 Version...
neat idea but too late (Score:1)
Glad I never bought one (Score:1)
We're sorry... (Score:2)
(http://www.fxtech.com/)
Gaming will be enabled when recording completes, in: 28 minutes
MS's way of making money (Score:1)
Lets quickly put out a system. It doesn't need to be real fancy, just have lots of games. In a year we will have a new system with some new hardware and all those suckers that bought one will sell it and buy another one. Then a year from then put out another system with some more small upgrades to start the cycle over again. This is better then putting out one great system to start that is ahead of its time.
</sarcasm>
Re:What are they doing? (Score:2)
(http://www.milkme.co.uk/ | Last Journal: Friday February 13 2004, @10:48AM)