Xbox Live TV coming this year

[BrayWyatt]

http://www.qj.net/xbox-360

Microsoft continues to expand its Xbox Live offering with the upcoming implementation of a new live-streaming television service on the Xbox 360.



Though it's still on its early stage of development, Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer demoed the technology earlier this week, confirming the company's plan to launch the service later this year, and will include "news, sports, and your favorite channels."

The benefits of the new service? Well, according to Ballmer, it will make TV browsing easier, as the service was designed to allow users to search for TV shows from within Xbox Live using Bing and voice commands.

"Having all of that content is right on, it's fantastic, but it brings a new challenge with it," Ballmer added. "Certainly we all know the frustrations of using guides and menus and controllers, and we think a better way to do all of this is simply to bring Bing and voice to Xbox. You say it, Xbox finds it."

Ballmer hasn't revealed how the technology would actually work, but he hinted that its somewhat similar to the one used by Sky TV in the United Kingdom, Canal Plus in France, and FoxTel in Australia. Microsoft is also launching a new Dashboard update this fall, so who knows, maybe the new service will coincide with the launch of the update. But the question now is... Do we really need this one?

[BlakMajick]

AT&T U-verse has the option to use the 360 as a receiver. It uses the mediaroom software along with a coax to usb adapter that attaches to the back of your box. There is also talk of Microsoft being in meetings with Comcast and Time Warner to offer the service to their customers. I am assuming that if it is offered through the dash update then it will be similar to these. I get mine installed this Saturday. I will try to post a picture on this thread when it gets done.