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Xbox One: live TV available in US only at launch, requires separate device

Killthee

helped a brotha out on multiple separate occasions!
Separate device is obviously your existing HDMI enabled cable/satellite box, but people who haven't been keeping up with the rumors and just watched the conference might not be aware it's required.

Xbox One: live TV available in US only at launch, requires separate device

Xbox One’s live TV fucntionality will only be available in the US at launch, a press release from Microsoft has confirmed.

In a release sent to VG247 this evening confirms that Live TV with Kinect navigation, Live TV with One Guide, Trending, and NFL on Xbox will only be available in North America at launch. The release added that Microsoft anticipates a global roll-out over time.

As shown in the Microsoft reveal stream, and confirmed in the release, “Live TV will require a supported receiver device with HDMI output,” which is sold separately.

What do you make of the above then?



Also limited to Live TV only.
The Verge has an interesting piece comparing the One to the failing Google TV project.
It faces the exact same problems.
The problem is that the Xbox One's TV integration is the same familiar nightmare we've known for nearly 20 years now. Instead of actually integrating with your TV service, the One sits on top of it: you plug your cable box's HDMI cable into the Xbox, which overlays the signal with its own interface. If you're lucky enough to own a newer cable box, you'll get to change channels directly through the HDMI connection, but most people will find themselves using the One's included IR blaster to control their cable or satellite boxes — a failure-prone one-way communication system that stubbornly refuses to die.

If this sounds familiar to you, it's because it's exactly the same way Google's flailing Google TV platform works. (Google TV even had an NBA demo when it launched in 2011.) If you're a little older it should be even more familiar: it's exactly how Microsoft's own doomed webTV platform worked. We've been overlaying fancy interfaces on top of cable signals and praying for IR blasters to adequately control the boxes for years now, and it's never worked — the content and information on your cable box is too valuable to relegate it to second place, and jumping back and forth between interfaces is irritating and stupid.

What's more, these systems only really work for live television, which you probably aren't watching. Want to watch a show recorded on your DVR? There's no way for the Xbox One to know about it, so you have to use the DVR interface. Found a great show using the One's search and discovery tools and want to record the season? Time to switch to the DVR interface again. IR blaster miss a channel change? The One's guide and channel bar will show different information than the cable box. The cable box is the canonical interface for television, and every attempt to usurp or overlay it has failed.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/21/4...xbox-one-microsoft-didnt-learn-from-google-tv
 

Hoo-doo

Banned
So you need to buy a separate add-on plus a monthly XBL Gold fee just to get access to these TV features?

Dudes.
 

Resilient

Member
Separate device. You have got to be fucking joking. OMG you can't make this shit up. At least the dog had an ear tattoo.
 
That confirms my suspicions. All of the TV watching was faked.

If it's just communicating with the set top box over HDMI or the IR Blasters, there's no way in god's green earth he could EVER change channels that fast. Ever.
 

Akey

Banned
Just buy the Xbox one, a tablet, a receiver, and cable what a amazing service at an amazing price.....
 
This is what I've always said. It's the only way to be compatible with all services. Every TV service from Comcast to DISH to Warner to DirecTV to the IPTV providers all offer boxes with HDMI output. You can't make this thing a universal tuner, it's cost prohibitive.
 

Sydle

Member
So the complete, instant, and simple philosophy is already being compromised.

Sigh.

If the base box w/ Kinect is the right price for a great games console and the Live TV accessory isn't too expensive then it's fine.
 

Ponn

Banned
So I still have to rent my $10 HD cable box, and probably lose the On Demand functionality. Sounds wonderful.
 

kuppy

Member
tumblr_mgozbhtqap1qhnoxno1_500.gif


Love the support for Europe
 

ASIS

Member
Dear MS. Even Wii U is making more sense than you right now >_>. My god, all of them lost their minds completely. Thank god for Sony.
 

The_Monk

Member
Guess they really are releasing the USA-Console.

Good for Americans, I guess. Shame on Europe, guess they don't want those costumers?
 

Vamphuntr

Member
If I'm understanding it well, they simply say you need to have a cable box with an hdmi out? I mean yeah that would be the logical thing.
 
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