Print

[Xbox-Scene]

BT's 360 TV service on-demand only, over the air live TV not possible Posted by XanTium | January 9 21:40 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From xbox360fanboy.com: Upon reading a BBC article published today, it seems that British Telecom's planned IPTV service is much less attractive than we had hoped. It turns out that the service does not support live TV or digital video recorder (DVR) functionality, but will be entirely on-demand. In other words, 360 owners will have access to BT's programming library, but won't be flipping channels or recording their favorite shows to watch later. Looking through the CES press release again, the only advantage we can see over the standard set-top box service (which offers live TV and DVR) is that gamers can stay connected to Xbox Live while watching on-demand programming through their 360s, allowing them to send messages and receive game invites among other things. It turns out that BT's live TV offerings are all made over the air. In other words, live TV is received via an antenna, something the 360 currently can't do. The on-demand services, on the other hand, are offered through IPTV. Full Story: xbox360fanboy.com | bbc.co.uk

[Devedander]

I am not sure why this is so dissapointing... I mean it would be sweet to have the functionality of DVR with OTA signals, but isn't on demand access kind of better?  I mean it's like having  a DVR that records everything all the time isn't it?

I suppose it does suck that it takes bandwidth but other than that...

[Bucks19x]

this is very disappointing and ruins it, how are you suppose to watch football games and bball games if they are not live.  I mean who wants to watch a recorded football game. TV is pointless if it's not LIVE wtf!!!

[luther349]

maybe because m$ made promises of having iptv on the 360 including flipping threw channels and dvr modes. seems like windows loghorn just something else they just cannot delver.

[peter0328]

QUOTE(luther349 @ Jan 10 2008, 12:13 AM)

maybe because m$ made promises of having iptv on the 360 including flipping threw channels and dvr modes. seems like windows loghorn just something else they just cannot delver.

The problem is not with Microsoft or the Xbox 360, it is with BT and their TV service.  They are the ones limiting the Xbox 360 to only On Demand content, not Microsoft or the Xbox 360 hardware/software.  BT only does live broadcasts OTA and not through IPTV.  Because of this, the Xbox 360 cannot watch or DVR BT live TV because BT does not suport IPTV for it.  If they start sending live TV over IPTV, then the Xbox 360 will easily be able to watch and DVR it.

[g8crapachino]

A supported USB Tuner add-on for the 360 would be a simple fix for the OTA problem.

This post has been edited by g8crapachino: Jan 10 2008, 05:57 AM

[thor99]

QUOTE(peter0328 @ Jan 10 2008, 05:41 AM)

The problem is not with Microsoft or the Xbox 360, it is with BT and their TV service.  They are the ones limiting the Xbox 360 to only On Demand content, not Microsoft or the Xbox 360 hardware/software.  BT only does live broadcasts OTA and not through IPTV.  Because of this, the Xbox 360 cannot watch or DVR BT live TV because BT does not suport IPTV for it.  If they start sending live TV over IPTV, then the Xbox 360 will easily be able to watch and DVR it.

well said..

[koolkid1935]

Live TV is a possibility with Microsoft's Anywhere DVR for MediaRoom that they announced.  Essentially, the 360 will connect to the DVR (v-box in this case) and get content from it, be it live from the OTA tuner(s) or pre-recorded on the hard-drive.  Since BT is using MediaRoom, it is only a matter of time IMO.  

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=142432

QUOTE

BT points out that Xbox 360 users will also be able to hook up their consoles to their set-top box as well as the Home Hub, and feed the real-time TV and radio channels (and play their recorded TV programs) through the Xbox device.

 While the 360 can't natively tune into the OTA channels, it can use the v-box through Anywhere DVR to get them.  In theory though, this will tie up the OTA tuner so that the v-box can't be used unless it has a dual-tuner of sorts.

I wonder if Microsoft went with BT (instead of a pure IPTV solution like AT&T's U-verse) because of the fact it may have been an easier thing to implement?  This is just the beginning though, Microsoft will look to other companies to get the 360 on their IPTV network.

[ca102455]

I wonder if someone at BT finally realised their complete joke of a clunky congested network would totally grind to a halt if all that extra traffic was pipped through their rotting broadband lines.

So why on earth will this attract Xbox users i ask??  

I shall be sticking with with my far superior digital sattelite Tv service which offers me around 16 High Definition channels & 100's of standard definition channels, where as BT can only offer standard definition fuzzy TV on demand, lol  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[turk3y]

QUOTE(ca102455 @ Jan 10 2008, 08:54 AM)

I wonder if someone at BT finally realised their complete joke of a clunky congested network would totally grind to a halt if all that extra traffic was pipped through their rotting broadband lines.

So why on earth will this attract Xbox users i ask??  

I shall be sticking with with my far superior digital sattelite Tv service which offers me around 16 High Definition channels & 100's of standard definition channels, where as BT can only offer standard definition fuzzy TV on demand, lol  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

you just pay your £50 a month then to that tosser, personally old Murdoch can whistle, he will never get my money, as for 16hd channels, i presume you use hdmi in which case that is 16 HD channels in stereo as the sky hd box cant output anything other than stereo over hdmi.... wow thats a technology breakthrough, (you can use optical as a second cable to get 5.1 if you amp supports seperate audio with hdmi video). Really tho I think the who pay TV sucks ass, you pay an arm and a leg and then get what seems like 20% of all the broadcasts as adverts, so you effectivly pay twice. BBC manages with fees and no adverts and ITV and the rest of freeview manages with just adverts... why cant their channels, and this applies to cable as well?

this is about as good as we could hope for in the Uk i suppose, M$ pretty much had to partner with bt as they are the only one with anything close to national coverage. Whilst live tv on my 360 would have been cool as most people state they already have live digital channels, so perhaps ondemand stuff is more relevant anyhow. I am just happy that this iptv was not left as a US only option as so many cool gimiks are.

[1nsan3]

There is no point in even releasing this,, less than 25% of the world will get this.. most likely the people who dont have cable /digital / satalite tv... I sure wont touch this... no recording.. no live tv.. ITS POINTLESS.. common sense...

UNLESS you misses a tv show while at work... then you get to use your bandwidth to download the show... BUT WAIT THEN YOU cant play on xbox live,, while your 3 gig television show is downloading.....WASTE!!!



This post has been edited by 1nsan3: Jan 10 2008, 04:39 PM

[koolkid1935]

QUOTE(1nsan3 @ Jan 10 2008, 09:37 AM)

There is no point in even releasing this,, less than 25% of the world will get this.. most likely the people who dont have cable /digital / satalite tv... I sure wont touch this... no recording.. no live tv.. ITS POINTLESS.. common sense...

UNLESS you misses a tv show while at work... then you get to use your bandwidth to download the show... BUT WAIT THEN YOU cant play on xbox live,, while your 3 gig television show is downloading.....WASTE!!!

The limitation of the 360 on BTs platform is not how the 360 will act on all services.  For example, had Microsoft chosen AT&T's U-verse first instead of BT, the 360 could watch anything a normal STB can right now, including live TV and VoD.  Once Anywhere DVR is released, the 360 can watch shows that have been recorded to the DVR's HDD.  It can even schedule shows to the normal DVR sparing the 360's HDD from getting full.

Maybe you don't get the point of Video on Demand...You don't have to download anything, it is on demand.  Once you hit play, it plays.  You can even time shift through the whole show the instant you press play, without downloading a thing.

In the case of AT&T's U-verse, you don't have to waste bandwidth either.  That is why in order to take advantage of using the 360 as a STB you need to have an IPTV provider.  In order to take full advantage of the 360 (live TV for example), you need a provider that uses IPTV throughout, unlike BTs hybrid solution (OTA for live video and IPTV for VoD).

This post has been edited by koolkid1935: Jan 10 2008, 07:02 PM

[elitegamer360]

BT Sucks, I said it in the other thread. But some guys keep bullshiting, now this should make them shut the fuck up. BT They say FTW.  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

This post has been edited by elitegamer360: Jan 10 2008, 08:39 PM