Microsoft To Bring Cable TV To 360 133
iONiUM writes with a CNET article outlining the next step in Microsoft's plans for cable television, which he says "seems like yet another step forward in killing traditional cable companies." From the article: "[Microsoft] announced this morning that nearly 40 television content providers — including Comcast, Verizon, and HBO in the United States — will roll out programming over Xbox Live. The company also has deals lined up with providers in the U.K., Spain, Canada, Mexico, Germany, and Italy."
Re:Hmmm (Score:4, Interesting)
I work for a telecom company that has been providing tv service to parts of canada for the past 7 years. One of the options we give our customers is the ability to use an xbox as a digital set top box, this saves them the rental fee for a normal stb, and makes for one less device on the shelf by the tv.
The system generally works well, however there are some drawbacks, the first is boot time, stbs are somewhat "always on" and wake up near instantaneously. The xbox takes a moment to boot, and then another moment to launch our tv application. The second issue is the remote, xbox remote controls just arent as easy to use as our dedicated ones.
For those that were asking about bandwidth, our iptv service uses its own vlan seperate from the internet service, so although both go through the same modem, the iptv doesnt count toward bandwidth caps, nor does it interfere with your download speeds on the computer