XBox Adding HD Tuners Next Year 279
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."
Who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not the enhancement people really want (Score:4, Insightful)
Adding New Features to Consoles (Score:5, Insightful)
Well then... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Adding New Features to Consoles (Score:5, Insightful)
Better than a tuner how about (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Adding New Features to Consoles (Score:1, Insightful)
Yeah, God forbid new features be added to a product. We should all be driving the Model T. Or better yet we should be living in caves and afraid of fire.
You fucks are really a bore. If someone upgrades a product you bitch about being an early adopter (The fucking machine is 2 years old, do you think this is the Atari 2600?) if they never upgrade it you scream "Where's the innovation?"
Get over yourselves. There is progress in the world. If you don't like it go live with the fucking Amish.
This generation... (Score:5, Insightful)
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!
Re:This generation... (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't see anything wrong with this. Alaunch XBox 360 or launch PS3 is going to play new titles just as well as the new models. Mostly the new models are toying around with stuff peripheral to the core experience. On the PS3, it may even be that the new models are less desirable in some ways than the launch models since they lack BC, but on the other hand they cost a lot less too.
As for the Wii... It should be obvious that Nintendo will revamp it at some time or another, no doubt telling people how it fixes all sorts of issues with the first one. You can imagine the sorts of things they could add - better screen tracking, rechargable controllers, more storage, DVD playback, possibly even an HD output / scaler. And when they do revamp it, many of the people who crowed how cheap the Wii was will go and buy it all over again. This is after all exactly what Nintendo have done with their handhelds for years now. How many Gameboy models were there?
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.
The Dual Shock 3 will work in a launch PS3 if you choose to buy one. So what's the problem? As for Sony lying, to paraphrase Phil Harrison, Sony were in a lawsuit / negotiations with Immersion so did you really expect them to rave how great rumble was when there was a distinct possibility that it would never happen?
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.
I'll believe the TV tuner story when I see it for real. It may well be that the story is BS, or that Toshiba are still desperate to get their HD DVD going and in a last gasp attempt are paying MS $$$ to licence or produce a hybrid HD DVD / console to compete with the PS3. I think Microsoft is happy to take their money but I see nothing that says they care one jot for HD DVD except to prolong the format war as long as possible.
Anyway if SKUs annoy you, you might be happy to know that for the time being at least that the planned DVB-T twin tuner for the PS3 due in Europe early next year is an attachment. So if you don't want it, don't buy it.
Re:Adding New Features to Consoles (Score:2, Insightful)
I'd have to argue this though, the first DVD player most gamers had was the PS2. Back then VHS was still ok and no one had a need to go out and buy an expensive stand alone DVD player.
I mean one night we were at the video store and we saw a DVD to rent instead of a VHS and we said to ourselves "Oh, if I only had a DVD player. Oh wait!"
This really drove the format and many kids with PS2 could also watch DVD movies. Of course now the players are $20 bucks for a new one and its a moot point.
Of course the whole issue of the HDVD and Bluray wars is kind of killing both formats at this point.
Re:Retarded (Score:2, Insightful)
I'd tend to agree with the suggestions that improvement of the console is required to maintain interest, that a larger hard-drive, or allowing the use of any, generic, hard drive would be a vast improvement, particularly for games developers (if they could count on a hard drive being present then I suspect games might stream slightly better without so many obvious, and sometimes painful, loading screens. The use of a generic hard drive would also have the benefit of reduced manufacturing costs for Microsoft (though potentially also reduced profits) and also a reduced purchase cost for the consumer.
As for the 'better games' that's a problem that's not entirely limited to MS' X-Box, every console, from the NES onwards has had more than its share of paltry games, but so long as sufficient people purchase those games they'll continue to be made and sold, sadly.
May I ask what was your research methodology? While I believe that this would benefit MS, by encouraging people to participate in the X-Box Live! environment it'd be more likely that people would pursue that environment to other platforms (PC, older X-Box and whatever others MS might introduce). It'd also help to increase any potential advertising revenue, which might not off-set the lost income from charging, but would have far more potential viewers which should increase the value to MS and its customers (obviously in this sense 'customers' would refer to the advertisers, not the X-Box purchasers). I also, despite that last, feel that free membership to the Gold service would be valued by the customers but, among others, I don't feel it's at the top of the list. I'd hazard a guess that cheaper consoles, improved reliability, reduced noise levels and improved networking features would be further up the list, as you already noted.
I'd suggest that the success and popularity of Myth TV, HTPCs, Media Center and X-Box Media Center show that there is quite a high level of interest in the HTPC and HD TV tuner addition. If nothing else I'd like to be able to control my TV, Sky, DVD and music from one place without having to get up to change channels, turn on and turn off equipment and then find the right remote for whatever appliance I'm currently wanting to use. I confess that this is 'lazy' but that's part of the innovation and improved convenience to the consumer; and if I get bored with TV or whatever and want to play a game then, with the apathy of boredom, it'd be easier if the X-Box was already plugged in, turned on and ready to go.
And even better if I was able to store game images on the console or network, so I don't have to do the getting-up to change discs. But that might be just too damn lazy...;-)
Re:Adding New Features to Consoles (Score:3, Insightful)
Chicken wings and a six-pack of Bud (Score:3, Insightful)
Here is one example: The big game recorded off-air in pristine digital HD. Looks damn good in large screen projection - better than DVD video - even with the constraint token enabled.
No MythBox to assemble. 2-Way CableCard support. Begin the build-up to the match with a good console sports game.
In this beer and pizza border town that is not a tough sell.
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.
Re:PS3 TV (Score:1, Insightful)
Linux on the PS3 has access to six of the seven SPEs. The guest OS exists on top of a virtualization layer that restricts access to the RSX (Nvidia's graphic chip) on purpose. You won't get native 3D graphics, because by definition it can't access the RSX.
What you can do is create a faster software OpenGL implementation by offloading the calculations to an SPE instead of relying on the PowerPC core which is the out of box behavior of MesaGL. Of course, since most computers don't have such a thing as an SPE this would be new functionality for MesaGL.
Re:Adding New Features to Consoles (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Not the enhancement people really want (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's not forget the Firestone/Ford Explorer fiasco. The problem was discovered in 1996, but 6.3 million Wilderness AT, Firestone ATX/ATXII tires were not recalled until the year 2000. And these problems caused DEATHS. Not just minor inconvenience by having to wait for your gaming box to get repaired.
Satisfied?
Re:Who cares? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah! Why would I want my cable company's dodgy set-top box, when the industry has done everything in its power to weaken the CableCard mandate that would have given us more freedom?
Oh, were you talking about the X360? Half a dozen of one...