British Telecom will be the first company to use the Xbox 360 as a set-top box

popper · 07-01-2008, 04:11

CES news:
http://www.destructoid.com/ces-2008-...es-63264.phtml
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CES 2008: British Telecom to offer first Xbox 360 set-top box capabilities

by Nick Chester on 01.06.2008 6 comments

Details are scarce, but Microsoft announced this evening that British telecommunications company British Telecom will be the first company to use the Xbox 360 as a set-top box.
Robbie Bach made the announcement this evening at the Microsoft CES 2008 press conference, offering no solid information about the service. He did mention that consumers would be able to get an Xbox 360 directly from British Telecom, but gave no further details.
As more details follow, we'll keep you updated.

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http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/new...hp?story=16849
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At the keynote, Microsoft exec Robbie Bach said that with the new additions, the Live Marketplace will have "more than twice as much HD content as any cable provider."

The company also announced, turning to future IPTV developments via its Microsoft Mediaroom campaign, that UK cable provider British Telecom would soon be selling a specialized Xbox 360 with Mediaroom functionality built in. No similar announcement has yet been made for North America.

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http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/06/b...l-ces-keynote/
"7:15PM PT - MGM! "Xbox Live will provide 2x on-demand content than any cable or sat provider. Our approach to TV isn't just through Xbox --

Media Center continues its success, and is on the vast majority of PCs in the market to date." Talking about Media Center Extender tech: "New extenders from Samsung and HP -- which we already heard about last week."

Finally Mediaroom (MSFT's awesome IPTV service): "First, we have tech called DVR anywhere -- distribute recorded content around the house."

Talking about interactive services with CNN. "The final announcement, last year we talked about the 360 being an STB -- this year we're excited to announce that BT will be the first to provide that capability. But a 360 and use it as an STB for your TV."
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i assume 'but' is a typo, and they mean 'buy'.

NTL/tw/VM should have done as i said, and used a PPC/Cell or even a straight PS3 (as they were touted and designed for STB use as well) instead of pushing out the old antiquated mpeg2 only V+

its a no brainer to partner with sonys PS3 tech for your long term STB, even way back then....

SMHarman · 07-01-2008, 05:12

But an XBox or PS3 as STB is way more money per unit than they will be paying SA for the Explorer 8300 derivative

---------- Post added at 01:12 ---------- Previous post was at 01:11 ----------

It is also untested technology and we all know how well VM and their predecessors got untested technology into the market place. There are a lot of good reasons why the SA8300 was not the right box, there are also a lot of reasons it was the right box. Nobody got fired for buying IBM, in the cable world that could easily be said about buying SA STBs and Moto CMs

07-01-2008, 12:57

You can't really compare the Xbox360 or PS3 with an existing cable STB (even one with H264 capabilities, not just the backwards V+ box). The STB is two way RF. The other two are IP. Maybe in the future if Virgin decide to give more of the RF over to IP streaming a cable modem and the games console could be a possibility.

popper · 07-01-2008, 17:44

in what way do you think the current *DVB-C STBs are two way RF ?

the return paths for all the STBS are infact TCP/IP based AFAIC, the samsung at least plugs directly into exactly the same UBRs the CMs plug into, and use the same docsis config files but are set at the lower bitrate.

plus they dont really need the extra speed for the very limited IP traffic the current crumby STB games can use (if the even crumbyer antiquated liberate middleware isnt stealing all the CPU processing at the time).

and again AFAIK, the forward path is transmitting the whole 1.3 gig DVB-C transport stream over TCP/IP Broadcast

they dont seem interested in useing IP Multicast, and are using massive bandwidth wasting TCP/IP Unicast (I.e generic webpage style TCP) for the current VOD.

* DVB =Digital Video Broadcast
and all the different DVB ways the UK is serving this to you, DVB-C, DVB-T, DVB-S, DVB-H, and the growing EU DVB-T2, DVB-H2, DVB-S2 and no doute the DVB-C2 once it emerges, all use virtully the same TCP/IP Broadcast methods.

07-01-2008, 20:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by popper

in what way do you think the current *DVB-C STBs are two way RF ?

the return paths for all the STBS are infact TCP/IP based AFAIC, the samsung at least plugs directly into exactly the same UBRs the CMs plug into, and use the same docsis config files but are set at the lower bitrate.

plus they dont really need the extra speed for the very limited IP traffic the current crumby STB games can use (if the even crumbyer antiquated liberate middleware isnt stealing all the CPU processing at the time).

and again AFAIK, the forward path is transmitting the whole 1.3 gig DVB-C transport stream over TCP/IP Broadcast

they dont seem interested in useing IP Multicast, and are using massive bandwidth wasting TCP/IP Unicast (I.e generic webpage style TCP) for the current VOD.

* DVB =Digital Video Broadcast
and all the different DVB ways the UK is serving this to you, DVB-C, DVB-T, DVB-S, DVB-H, and the growing EU DVB-T2, DVB-H2, DVB-S2 and no doute the DVB-C2 once it emerges, all use virtully the same TCP/IP Broadcast methods.

In what way do you think the DOCSIS signals get to and from the STB? The coax provides an RF connection between the UBR and the cable modems and STB's.

Theres no TCP/IP involved with the transport stream delivery. DVB C is QAM. The individual Muxed transport streams are just over 38Mb/s each. Theres no single 1.3GB/s transport stream.
And VOD has to be Unicast, thats the whole point, its a delivery specific to one user. But again VOD is only IP until the modulator where again it becomes part of a DVB C transport stream which is QAM modulated.

RealDiamond · 08-01-2008, 14:45

Its not untested. Korean's have got Download TV and IPTV on the PS3 allready, its all ready been up and running for ages. Microsoft are playing catch up again.
The Australian PSN provides free music vids for download. Hong Kong Store has About 6 episodes from a HK TV show (just started last month). Old news to some of us.

Alanmelon · 08-01-2008, 15:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by RealDiamond

Its not untested. Korean's have got Download TV and IPTV on the PS3 allready, its all ready been up and running for ages. Microsoft are playing catch up again.
The Australian PSN provides free music vids for download. Hong Kong Store has About 6 episodes from a HK TV show (just started last month). Old news to some of us.

Why knock it?! Apart from VM there are very few options for On Demand TV in the UK, so any efforts to bring this service to more people (especially with an already considerable user base) must surely be a good thing. As for "playing catch up", I think it's fair to say that apart from the few examples you have provided, there are very few similar services about, especially in the UK and Europe.

Bulky · 08-01-2008, 19:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by RealDiamond

Its not untested. Korean's have got Download TV and IPTV on the PS3 allready, its all ready been up and running for ages. Microsoft are playing catch up again.
The Australian PSN provides free music vids for download. Hong Kong Store has About 6 episodes from a HK TV show (just started last month). Old news to some of us.

oh righty then , will just nip over to korea and then a quick trip to Australia for my free music vids

, Sony are playing catch up in general as far as ps3 is concerned , live , user base , exclusives, and now iptv through bt , yes they will probably catch up but to mention what sony are doing in Australia and Korea is well . . . pathetic seeing as we live in the uk .