Microsoft has been a frenemy to the pay-TV industry for a long, long time. So now that the company is taking over TV interfaces with its Xbox One HDMI pass-through feature, I thought it worth looking back over the company’s (sometimes torturous) history with pay-TV providers. (Note: Nothing on Media Center PCs or WebTV here. That’s another story.)
Timeline
2003 – Microsoft TV Foundation Edition Launches in June at the National Show
Microsoft’s software platform for the cable industry includes an interactive program guide that operators can use to create “On-Demand Storefronts”
2004 – Microsoft and Comcast do a deal to bring the Foundation software to subscribers in Washington state
Microsoft gets its big break in the cable industry
2006 – AT&T launches U-verse IPTV service with Microsoft inside
U-verse is the first major IPTV service in the U.S., and it runs on Microsoft code
2006 – Microsoft announces the Xbox Video Marketplace
New video store cements the Xbox as a Trojan Horse in the living room
2007 – Comcast gives up on Microsoft’s Foundation software
Microsoft’s short (and not sweet) dance with Comcast ends
2007 – Microsoft announces the Mediaroom IPTV platform in June
Just after the Comcast announcement, Microsoft unveils its newly-branded IPTV middleware
2009 – Microsoft streams live BSkyB TV on the Xbox
Microsoft gets live TV on the Xbox… in the U.K.
2010 – AT&T introduces the option to use Xbox as a U-verse set-top
After nearly four years of promises, Microsoft makes good on set-top plans
2011 – Microsoft announces deals to bring Comcast and Verizon apps to the Xbox
Comcast and Verizon decide IP is the way to go in retail
2013 – Microsoft sells off Mediaroom to Ericsson
The Mediaroom era ends as Microsoft turns full attention to the Xbox
2013 – Microsoft introduces the Xbox One
Microsoft takes control of the TV interface with an HDMI pass-through feature that allows it to overlay its own UI on a cable video feed (So much for the CableCARD?)
There has to be more to the xbox one than hdmi passthrough. That is the killer feature? They really did not announce anything that you couldn’t already do.
Xbox One is looking to be a bit of a white elephant, I mean: IR Blasters, in this day and age, really? The HDMI passthrough is only really useful as an alternative to having to switch to another interface, the world doesn’t need another Google TV type device where their interface is overlaid over another interface (your cable box). It also seems to ignore the rest of the world where Digital TV means that often people don’t even have set-top boxes. As a console experience it’s looking to be underpowered compared to the PS4, so other than the Kinect thing (which honestly is a gimmick), what are they going for here?
“what are they going for here?”
Looks like they’re going with the kitchen sink. And it may not congeal as they hope. I wish Sony would reveal their hardware enclosure already – want to see if it’ll fit in my narrow TV stand. Although my wife would say we need a new TV stand.
“Looks like they’re going with the kitchen sink. And it may not congeal as they hope.”
No compromises!
Windows 8 everywhere!
Hey, I’ll probably buy an XBox One to play Kinect games with my daughter. But I don’t have high expectations for the home video stuff. Its possible that they haven’t revealed everything yet. Maybe there’ll be HDMI-CEC control of Comcast cable boxes. Or TiVo’s. Or network control of certain DVRs allowing them to know what content is on your DVR.. Or SOMETHING. And they’ll announce it closer to when the box is ready to ship in the 3Q or so. Maybe.
But it seems unlikely, since none of those people has any interest in co-operating with Microsoft on this play. Right?
So it’ll play out like the Google TV, all promise and no delivery.
Hey, you won’t have to switch inputs. And the overlay stuff MIGHT be worth something in some circumstances, like the Fantasy Football stuff, or a twitter stream to the right of the Oscar broadcast. Or something. Maybe.
It’ll be a fine game console. Hopefully Kinect will work a little better than the current generation. And it’ll have some nice OTT offerings. And maybe if the app launching times are better than the 360, that’ll be worth something. I don’t think it’ll reverse the slide of the game consoles vs. phones & tablets. I don’t think it’ll outsell the current generation. Too bad. Maybe there’s just no way to crack this nut right now.
@Dr_LHA… I was under the impression that the PS4 and the XBox One were using virtually the same AMD x86 CPU/GPU so I’m not clear why you think the PS4 is going to clean house here…
I would have thought you would have mentioned the DirecTV/Microsoft box that was a competitor with the DirecTV/TiVo box back in the late 1990s / early 2000s.
When I watch TV on my Xbox I don’t have to switch inputs either… since I stream it to the Xbox from my HTPC with Windows Media Center.
I hope that can still be done with the Xbox One. I really don’t want to have to deal with more cables and I only use OTA.
Why can’t they get it to work with the network connected SiliconDust / Ceton cable card tuners? No clunky IR blasting, UI on top of UI madness. 500GB hard drive in the Xbox is good to start as a DVR, but I see USB ports and network connectivity so adding storage externally shouldnt be a problem.
Partner with big TV providers to do VOD over IP and then you have a nicer 6 tuner DVR (with the new 6 tuner Ceton device) that runs circles around any cable providers 1990’s era poorly designed SD user interface.
@Mike – All the speculation I’ve seen is that the XBox’s days as a WMC Extender are at an end. PC Pro was explicity that if you want this capability you should hold on to your existing 360. Given how Microsoft stopped working on WMC ages ago this shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. After years of trying they finally threw in the towel. Obviously some people love it but most people just rent the crappy DVR from the cable company.
@Cypherstream – Seems wildly unlikely this will happen. Microsoft recently sold off the division that did the AT&T STB back end stuff, has moved all the staff from WMC onto other projects, didn’t update WMC for Windows 8, and apparently isn’t going to be offering extender functions in XBox One. You really think they’re heading towards this future you imagine? They’re obviously going in another direction–either integration with an existing box OR IP delivery. And abandoning their previous attempts at providing their own CableCARD based solution…
Okay, what about DLNA support for CableCard tuners like the HDHomeRun Prime? That is already here now, there are just no good clients for DLNA cable streaming yet. Sure you can stream to Windows Media Player and some apps for tablets and phones, but when are the console apps coming? And DLNA DVRs? I can dream.