What Happened to the Xbox 360’s IPTV?

Xbox 360

By Chexd Published: 16 August 2008 4:09 PM MDT

Gamers first heard of the intriguing service that the Xbox 360 was going to offer all the way back in January 2007. At the time it was seen as a first for consoles and a very innovative step forward in the home console market but now Playstation have their own method for delivering television to the living room.

So just where did the console’s IPTV go?

IPTV was supposed to allow Xbox 360 users the ability to watch and record television on their console, as well as simultaneously allowing recording and gaming. The service was meant to launch Fall 2007 but never materialized.

Towards the end of 2007 there was at least some help for people in the United Kingdom. British Telecom announced a partner ship with Microsoft which would see BT’s Vision television service available to 360 users who currently had a Fusion subscription. Vision is essentially BT’s anwser to TiVo or Sky+ and allows subscribers to record and view television content as well as granting access to Video-On-Demand.

It wasn’t long before Playstation announced their (arguably more impressive) “IPTV” service which would effectively turn the Playstation into a Freeview television box with recording capabilities. Whilst PlayTV is not technically “IPTV” it has roughly the same features as what the 360’s would offer with an additional option of porting media to your PSP. However, the PSP feature has sadly been dropped, likely due to legal copyright reasons. PlayTV will likely never be released outside of Europe due to compatibility issues and incompatible formats due to the delivery method.

So PlayTV is due out this September but where is Microsoft’s product to conquer the living room? I can only assume they have decided to delay the idea and possibly include it within the Xbox 3. There is absolutely no news on it and hasn’t been since late 2007. With no appearance at any of the major conventions so far this year we can only assume it has ended up the same was as the Live Anywhere announcement. Perhaps it would be better for Microsoft to announce products once they know for certain they will see the light of day.

UPDATE:

I specifically said “PlayTV is not technically “IPTV”” and I also put the word “IPTV” in Italics.

Thanks for letting me know about my “Fusion” mistake. I am aware it is called Vision as I have it myself but simply got muddle up with the word. Thanks go to Derboy for pointing it out.

BT did announce
the XBox announcement “FYI”.

BT VISION DOES allow for recording via provided Hardware at an extra cost.

Guys - I think some of you are the misinformed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bt_vision

@ IrnChriz - Both your comments were misinformed, spam, wrong and of a trolling nature. We will not be seeing you on here again.

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