XBox One getting a digital TV tuner (DVB) accessory for EU countries

When I was saying it was a bad move some werent taking me seriously either. They were defending it as a great move which would drive the TVphile non-gamer to invest on console for an amazing TV experience. Really?
 
I don't think the results are proof of that theory simple because MS dropped supporting their vision before they really committed to it. We've no idea what the real result of pursuing the TVphile non-gamer would have been if MS had committed 100% to the idea including meaningful Kinect functionality. There's a (slim!) possibility that MS could have found a significant audience without having to compete head-to-head with Sony.

As ever, an endeavour is far more likely to fail if you believe it will fail and so don't invest fully in it. I still think MS were in two minds and that's really what tripped them up. The voices that won out in the design phase with promises of a great TVphile market lost out at the execution phase, and now we have a product that isn't really designed for its audience.
 
When I was saying it was a bad move some werent taking me seriously either. They were defending it as a great move which would drive the TVphile non-gamer to invest on console for an amazing TV experience. Really?
To be fair to ourselves the hardware has never been removed. It may be best to see what comes in e3 2015 before deciding that MS has moved the all in one entertainment on the back burner. 2014 was very much about repairing the damage to the product reveal.
 
To be fair to ourselves the hardware has never been removed. It may be best to see what comes in e3 2015 before deciding that MS has moved the all in one entertainment on the back burner. 2014 was very much about repairing the damage to the product reveal.

The argument back then though was that the console would be able to attract a massive crowd that is not interested in gaming, thanks to its TV features that MS was advertising at the time. The damage of the product reveal should not have stood as an obstacle to sell the console to the non-gamers, but only for gamers. An emphasis on TV should have been a positive and the game DRM wouldnt be of any concern to them as gaming would have been secondary. The damage repair was done in order to attract back the gaming crowd by focusing back to games which is simply a testament that their hopes to get the interest of the TV couch potato with the TV features and design, failed.

The fact that the technology is still there is because it is still a good feature to keep. Console consumers (those that play games) are also delighted to have a console that plays great games and can be used as an all in one device.

The TVphile that is not a gamer? Weeeeell........high price, the fact that the console does not replace existing devices (they are still required), the fact that not everyone owns satellite or cable TV, the fact that TVs evolved to record, play music and video files as well as a few other reasons. do not allow the console to be sold to people who feel satisfied with what they already have. The console was nothing more than a $500 universal controller that understood gestures and voice commands for those people.
MS will have to find solutions for all these problems in order to expand the market to "virgin" territories. Otherwise those features are competitive advantages only for the current market. But if they indeed find solutions to these, then they will surely get into an untapped market
 
Last edited:
The argument back then though was that the console would be able to attract a massive crowd that is not interested in gaming, thanks to its TV features that MS was advertising at the time.
heh, honestly I don't know if I was part of this forum back then, likely not, but at the reveal I was onboard with buying a PS4 [took me quite a while of debating to purchase a X1], I wasn't sold on the TV aspect entirely, it still is a great 'nice to have' but a far cry from a system selling feature. Xbox One has not yet reached a place where it can replace more than 1 device [your last gen console] making it a truly desirable product. The question begs whether it has the potential to replace an additional device for the consumer, one comes to mind and that is your PVR/DVR/Cable Box. Most newer PVR/DVRs run Windows Media Centre IIRC, and One guide is what I see nearly the same thing.

While they are having a tough time with that here in North America, I believe in Europe that have digital tuners and antenna tuners adaptors for their Xbox Ones.

My thoughts are this is to wait and see. If Xbox One does manage to replace the PVR/DVR unit (I guess they'll need a larger hard drive), then I think you are going to see mass adoption, especially if cable companies decide to bundle their cable/satellite package with an Xbox One unit over their own DVR.

The damage of the product reveal should not have stood as an obstacle to sell the console to the non-gamers, but only for gamers. An emphasis on TV should have been a positive and the game DRM wouldnt be of any concern to them as gaming would have been secondary. The damage repair was done in order to attract back the gaming crowd by focusing back to games which is simply a testament that their hopes to get the interest of the TV couch potato with the TV features and design, failed.
This would only be true if the console was designed specifically for non-gamers only. I'm not sure if that was ever the intention or not, it certainly was trying to be more than gaming console. The crowd that is clearly the most interested in the Xbox One (@reveal) are gamers first and foremost since that is their customer base, so the idea that their non customer base are ready to jump onto a product they don't know or care about even exists is baffling, and as you stated earlier it basically launched as a $500 universal remote with gestures to non gamers.
 
hm... How much are PVR/DVR units typically? Maybe MS & the cable companies ought to have it so that the gaming mode of the machine is locked until the user pays extra (another tier from the service provider), if you get my meaning.
 
Moved the TV fallout discussion here as post-release console review, not News and Rumours, plus reference to the Euro TV adaptor.
 
hm... How much are PVR/DVR units typically? Maybe MS & the cable companies ought to have it so that the gaming mode of the machine is locked until the user pays extra (another tier from the service provider), if you get my meaning.
If I got it right you propose that MS could "sell" their consoles through cable companies as a PVR/DVR device thus non-gaming consumers would automatically have one in their homes and automatically perceive it as an all in one entertainment device.
It could work. It would be one expensive "PVR/DVR" device though. I wonder what kind of agreement could be arranged in order for MS to break even or profit from it since games wont be primary for those consumers. And also the console should either have a card slot or support internet TV services too.
Are you suggesting a completely new console or are you talking about XB1?
 
where is my post? I got a notification that it moved here but I cant see it (edit: it is still in the older thread)
 
If I got it right you propose that MS could "sell" their consoles through cable companies as a PVR/DVR device thus non-gaming consumers would automatically have one in their homes and automatically perceive it as an all in one entertainment device.
It could work. It would be one expensive "PVR/DVR" device though. I wonder what kind of agreement could be arranged in order for MS to break even or profit from it since games wont be primary for those consumers. And also the console should either have a card slot or support internet TV services too.
Are you suggesting a completely new console or are you talking about XB1?

Right, so... I was thinking standard Xbox One - MS would have to make a change to the OS for the service providers so that, by default, it only has the TV/media functions out-of-the-box for customers, and that if customers want the gaming function of their otherwise standard Xbox unit, they pay extra.

Perhaps break-even (HW cost) would be a decent compromise for MS? In the long run, I thought it'd be covered by the customer's on-going subscription and then some.

The gaming and XBL fees would be part of the subscription not unlike adding channels etc. Strategically, it'd be better for MS to get the HW out there. It'd be hella expensive in the long run for consumers, but so are phone plans. :p idk.
 
Last edited:
Right, so... I was thinking standard Xbox One - MS would have to make a change to the OS for the service providers so that, by default, it only has the TV/media functions out-of-the-box for customers, and that if customers want the gaming function of their otherwise standard Xbox unit, they pay extra.

Perhaps break-even (HW cost) would be a decent compromise for MS? In the long run, I thought it'd be covered by the customer's on-going subscription and then some.

The gaming and XBL fees would be part of the subscription not unlike adding channels etc. Strategically, it'd be better for MS to get the HW out there. It'd be hella expensive in the long run for consumers, but so are phone plans. :p idk.

In Canada we pay anywhere between $200-300 (help?) for a Cable PVR (for Rogers @ Costco). I'll wait for someone here to confirm, I'm not usually on the lookout for PVRs to purchase but here is one such deal:

http://forums.redflagdeals.com/costco-rogers-8642-hd-pvr-399-97-ymmv-1225488/
$399.99 @ 40 Hrs HD recording (320GB HDD) in 2012

This is pretty close to the cost of a X1. Most cable companies have their own version of smart glass, but it's not nearly as fast or as good. AFAIK MS implementation in terms of both feature set and performance surpasses anything I've seen in Canada. Most PVRs here are astonishingly slow, and the mobile apps to support them aren't much better and certainly a hassle.
 
Prob with X1 was not that it tried to serve a tv audience, but that it didn't have the features the tv audience wanted. You can't use it as a DVR being the primary one, and it doesn't have a built-in tuner to replace the cable box you already own. So if you have a DVR and cable box already, it doesn't really replace it.

I'd still be very happy to buy a digital tuner for North America and get an HD antenna. Doesn't seem like that's going to happen.
 
Yep. IIRC the rumours were a TV box was being developed as well as a console. Maybe the boardroom wrongly decided that converging them into one product would be best but couldn't deliver the right product at the intended price. Basically new console + super camera tech + PVR functionality was too much to fit into one box. So they axed the recording side of things and gimped the TV experience. Then, with an impotent TV capability, they axed the camera too to return to a basic console.

I wonder if they had looked at a modular system at launch with optional PVR, camera, etc, if it'd have done better? If they had talked about during their TV TV TV reveal, people would have seen a nice package of options, from cheapest console to full-fat all-in-one.

Then again, how much does it really cost to add TV capacity to a computer that already has an HDD? I suppose that's massively affected by the US market and its cable oligarchy weirdness. In Europe, MS could have made a box with a tuner without needing to spend much more.
 
I wonder if down the road they can release an Xbox One DVR edition. Once they've slimmed down the rest of the internals, they could maybe stick a second drive in it for DVR, or just a larger one. Maybe fit a tuner in the actual design, though I don't understand all the ramifications of that with cable provider protections and cable cards in some countries.

Maybe the non-watered down experience could be available in 3 years, with Kinect, at an affordable price.
 
It's certainly an option - Sony did similar with PS2 and that wasn't at all designed for the job in the beginning. Just needs software on the console and tuning hardware.
 
with the new tv standards coming down the pipe in 2016 or so , I doubt they need to add anything to the system. It seems like they have everything already set up and the hdmi in will allow them to have been testing their service for a few years plus allow a person to run a mix of cable boxes and iptv
 
Back
Top