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.
Also limited to Live TV only.
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.
http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/21/4...xbox-one-microsoft-didnt-learn-from-google-tvThe 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.