New Xbox may integrate DVR - patent

By Robert Purchese Published 4 January, 2012

Record telly while playing games.

A next generation Xbox may be able to record TV direct to your console.

This DVR - digital video recorder - technology was detailed in a freshly granted (27th December) Microsoft patent. The patent was filed in January 2007, hence the rather antiquated (and terribly scanned) accompanying drawings (you'll need a TIFF viewer for your browser to view them).

"An integrated gaming and media experience is disclosed, including recording of content on a gaming console," the patent, via Kotaku, read.

"A digital video recorder (DVR) application running alongside a television client component allows users to record media content on the gaming console.

"The DVR application also integrates itself with the console menu. Once integrated, users can record media content while playing games.

"Alternatively, users can record content when the gaming console is turned off.

"The recorded content can include television programming, gaming experience (whether local or online), music, DVDs, and so on.

"When in the recording state, users can also switch between various other media modes, whether gaming, television, and so on."

Microsoft is expected to announce its new Xbox this year. Two new machines are apparently planned: one a paired-down console that serves as a set-top portal for Kinect; the other a fully-featured next generation machine.

The announcement may happen as soon as this month, at the CES electronics show in Las Vegas. This takes place from 10th to 13th January.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (56) Latest comment 5 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • felicitous_blue #1 5 months ago

    My first thought was that this was probably filed in response to PlayTV. If I was less lazy I'd google when that was first announced...

  • gunark #2 5 months ago

    Chances of there being any tuner besides ATSC - none if Microsoft track record on TV outside of the USA is anything to go on. Hey Microsoft, there's a world outside the US too...

  • Skyclad #3 5 months ago

    Another useless feature for a GAMING console ...

  • spatuluk #4 5 months ago

    Didn't Sony do this a long time ago with the PSX, and then again with PlayTV?

  • Toothball #5 5 months ago

    @Skyclad

    I was thinking that until I got to the part where it mentioned you might be able to record gaming footage. Now I'm very keen to see such a thing on any gaming hardware.

  • johnson81 #6 5 months ago

    I used to use PlayTv all the time and loved it until I realised there was nothing worth recording.

  • Shikasama #7 5 months ago

    Now this is the sort of thing that might convince me to use it as a media box.

    I already have facebook, iplayer and other associated shit on platforms better suited to them. This is the sort of thing I can actually use.

  • FireMonkey #8 5 months ago

    I bet you'd need a frickin gold account to use it though

  • jaguarwong #9 5 months ago

    Nice feature

  • spatuluk #10 5 months ago

    "..users can record content when the gaming console is turned off.".. now that's something no other DVR can do! Also, the patent seems to indicate that users can record DVDs that're playing. Yarrrrr!

  • arcam #11 5 months ago

    users can record content when the gaming console is turned off

    This makes no sense. If it's recording stuff then surely it's not turned off by definition. Somehow I don't think it's work if you pulled the plug out...

  • Deadly_Spike #12 5 months ago

    @toothball

    I'll second that mate. The ability to record gaming footage without having to buy a capture card and the like is a very interesting notion. If that's indeed the case, all I need now is to know that it can be imported onto a PC/Mac/Laptop for editing.
    And yes, this would be a major new feature for a gaming machine - and one I think most gamers would get a lot of use out of.

  • vizzini #13 5 months ago

    I'm all for them adding in simple features that might also prove useful, but I'm quite sure just from reading what the patient claims to do, this is another nonsense Microsoft patent that the US patient Office really shouldn't have granted; on the grounds of obviousness and prior art of game replay saves, PC capture cards and video stream grabbers like Glinterceptor, gdebug.

    It sounds as useful as the feature in Uncharted 3's online for youtube publishing replays, but it certainly isn't patent worthy.

    @arcam

    I assume off means standby, just like how PlayTV can record when the system is power scaling the Cell and HDD.

  • Daddy-Doom-Bar #14 5 months ago

    How is it possible that a company can patent something like this? I'm no patent expert, but does this mean that if Sony ever wanted to enable PS3 owners to record TV to their PS3, they'd be sued by MS?
    If that's right, it's fuckin stupid. And I take it this is the same sort of reason everyone is sueing Apple and Samsung (and vice versa)?
    So, if I patent putting a shrub outside my front window, anyone that has one or places one can be sued by me?

    Is there a patent for supplying porn on the internet?

  • Daddy-Doom-Bar #15 5 months ago

    However, I am liking the idea of having the ability to have Black Ops type replays available for any game I play. Especially BF3. (Or BF5 or whatever it is by then...)

  • AdbulAbay #16 5 months ago

    Better NEWS!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FvJ5ioDjJo

  • AdbulAbay #17 5 months ago

    NEWS!

  • berelain #18 5 months ago

    @Daddy-Doom-Bar "How is it possible that a company can patent something like this? I'm no patent expert, but does this mean that if Sony ever wanted to enable PS3 owners to record TV to their PS3, they'd be sued by MS?"

    Not necessarily be sued, but they'd probably have to license the right to use the same technology. That's what most companies do. Apple is sort-of unique because it prefers to not license its patents (and turn a tidy profit from doing so) in favour of pursuing lengthy and uncertain court cases against companies who infringe them...

  • telboy007 #19 5 months ago

    Oh goody, we can all look forward to having that cheap hdd upgrade option to get the most out of this from MS. Am I right?

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #20 5 months ago

    The more patents I see like this the more I die inside.

    PVRs exist. Games consoles exist. Sticking the two together hardly constitutes creative and/or technical intellectual property.

    I'm off to create exactly the same patent but replacing games console with "Tablet Device".....what a genius. :rolleyes:
    Edited by SpaceMidget75 at 04/01/12 @ 13:27

  • Syrette #21 5 months ago

    Fuck me - I just want to play games.

    Sitting down, not waving my arms and legs around, not watching TV.

    GAMES :mad:

  • simsini #22 5 months ago

    Completely unnecessary. What's the betting that it will cost £400 at launch and they will say the cost is justified because of features like this?

    I wouldn't want my Sky box or Blu-ray player to play games, so why do they think I want a games console to watch and record TV?

  • frunk #23 5 months ago

    What patent bollox...

    PlayTV was released in September 2008... after being unveiled to the public in 2007:
    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/gc-playtv-unveiled-for-ps3

    Or how about 2003 folks:
    "PSX (also known as PlayStation X) was a Sony digital video recorder with fully integrated PlayStation and PlayStation 2 video game consoles"

    It even used the XMB - to "fully integrate" the console with DVR functionality.

    As for recording the game being played on them... better outlaw PCs too!

    It all sounds too similar... how the US system grants patents I have NO idea... but this "prior art" probably made it not worth the paper it is written on!

  • Baihu1983 #24 5 months ago

    Not something i would use and would ratehr they focus more on first party games but it does look like MS wants the xbox barnd to be the no.1 entertainment system around

  • AdbulAbay #25 5 months ago

    New Xbox "Loop" support Realtime Raytracing and "real" 3D



    ;-)

  • alcides #26 5 months ago

    Post deleted at 13:41:15 04-01-2012

  • Toothball #27 5 months ago

    @frunk

    Oh good point, I had nearly forgotten about the PSX.

  • FogHeart #28 5 months ago

    Given the amazing hard disk speed and capacity requirements as outlined recently by Digital Foundry (timely article!) how feasible is it to record gameplay when the same game is running off data stored on that very same hard disk?

    The rest of it, as rightly pointed out, isn't new technology.

  • Skooch #29 5 months ago

    I'm no patent expert but I believe you can only patent a physical piece of kit for a defined function. If a competitor can find a different way of doing the same thing then fine, that is allowed.

    For example, I can patent a new design of cardboard coffee cup holder to keep my drink warm, but if another company wants to use a foam cup holder to do the same thing then that is fine.

    Also, patents are way more complicated than it is possible to get across in a quick sentence or two. There has to be huge amounts of technical and design information supplied so in reality this patent is probably quite limited and not the broad 'console that can record TV' that it seems to be.

  • mossychops001 #30 5 months ago

    Post deleted at 11:49:27 04-05-2012

  • vizzini #31 5 months ago

    After racking my brains a little more, I think Quake 3 (on PC and probably earlier Id/Epic games) provide the definitive 10-15year old prior art to get this patent dismissed, should Microsoft attempt to litigate with it.

    In Quake 3 the open intro with Sarge is an AVI file(iirc) that was produced from AVI files that the engine produced by streaming/encoding directly to the game's install folder, while it was capturing live/replay gameplay; which is exactly the type of functionality this patent will be suggesting makes it unique.

    However, I guess this does add some meat to the rumour about a second less powerful GPU in the new Xbox design.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #32 5 months ago

    Personally I'd quite like it if I could use my xbox as a digital cable receiver and ditch the one I have from my cable company. I don't have a recorder either - don't need one, but I might use it if I had it.

  • bikmate #33 5 months ago

    All fine, but which codec will they use for encoding? I'm expecting shitty quality.

  • altitude2k #34 5 months ago

    @arcam

    Don't be such a Damn pedant. You know when they say "turned off" they mean "on standby".

  • threemoh #35 5 months ago

    TBH, I'd be happy with a feature that makes the Sky reminder banner pop up while I'm xBoxing, so I know to pause and switch over.

  • Daddy-Doom-Bar #36 5 months ago

    So long as the next xbox plays games I'll be happy...

    ...it will, won't it guys? ...guys?

  • UnblestCarpet #37 5 months ago

    How can this be patented? It's obvious. A games console/Media hub that can record tv..... yup we were all thinking something like this would probably get added at some point.

  • Subdominator #38 5 months ago

    I don't see why this is newsworthy. The patent is obviously from a time where Microsoft was still planning to release a TV addon for the 360. That's been around in rumours until late 2008. But in the end they chose to take the streaming route and that's where they'll stay. Streaming content is the future, it would be crazy to take one step back and let the competition get closer.

    Maybe a reminder from the original Xbox helps: Microsoft chose to get rid of the HDD in the 360 because the hard disk was too expensive (yes, HDDs are pretty cheap nowadays in terms of GB/€ but a 50 € HDD is still a 50 € HDD. With streaming you can use much smaller HDDs because people don't store the movies, TV series or else on their console.

    Also being able to record TV while playing is totally stupid without additional hardware. You'd have to reserve a considerable amount of hardware power in every game for the few cases where people actually use the record feature. So no, DVR features will most certainly not be a part of Loop, why offer your customers the choice to record stuff for free when you can sell them the same content on-demand?

  • Subdominator #39 5 months ago

    @Daddy-Doom-Bar No, they wouldn't be sued, they would pay the required fees to buy a license and that's it. Just like Sony gets some cents off each Xbox 360 for DVD playback and some company gets a few cents for rumble from Sony and Microsoft ... Patents are sort of a currency, everybody has some, everybody pays.

    What I don't understand is why we actually bother? Why do we care what companies patent? It's not like it hurts us.

  • w2000ad #40 5 months ago

    makes sense they're trying to become more integrated into the living room if it can receive freeview or something as well could easily replace set top boxes in a few years if the reports about their being two different models are true one for hardcore gaming the other for the store/kinect.

  • altitude2k #41 5 months ago

    @Subdominator unless you're Apple, in which case you just sue. Pretty isecure, those chaps.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #42 5 months ago

    I would love a PVR on my Xbox. But if it's not got a Freeview HD tuner in it, frankly I'm not interested. There's no point releasing a device such as this nowadays unless it's all Freeview Plus'd to the nines.

  • NotSoSlim #43 5 months ago

    Anyone else think that if all these rumours are true that the console will cost more than anticipated? Seriously seems like now MS have established themselves in gaming industry they may push the limit on price and see what happens.

    Gaming video capture sounds great tho

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #44 5 months ago

    If there's a cheap (<£150) console that just plays games, then a pricer (<£300) model with all bells and whistles, I think all sectors of the market will be happy.
    Edited by Britesparc at 04/01/12 @ 17:17

  • altitude2k #45 5 months ago

    @NotSoSlim I suspect that if they do release two models (a small, set top box-style media device with the ability to play arcade and indie games, alongside a bigger premium device) then the premium device will indeed be expensive.

    Wonder if we'll be asked to get a second job to afford it?

  • NotSoSlim #46 5 months ago

    Just think every company needs a humbling cycle. Sony are having theres and Nintendo had theres, I just hope next gen MS dont push it too far price wise just because they can.

  • Spong #47 5 months ago

    All these feckin' rumours. How about some talk about the gaming possibilities of the next-gen Xbox? I don't want to hear all this shit about what it might do beyond gaming, all that's secondary.

  • super_monty #48 5 months ago

    Nice try Microsoft but I am afraid this is not being innovative.

  • septimus #49 5 months ago

    PlayTV was great when I used it (for over a year before finagling moving somewhere with cable). This has prior art stamped all over it so can't see this getting through.

  • wez_316 #50 5 months ago

    This patent should not have been passed because it spells remote as reomote. Failure by both Microsoft and the US patent office.

  • oupe #51 5 months ago

    Won't work in the Netherlands, everything is digital and encrypted.

  • altitude2k #52 5 months ago

    Imagine if the new Xbox was introduced with coax inputs and a card slot for decrypting Sky TV, or even Virgin Media, with the ability to record as well as playing games. Sky could then offer it as an alternative box (at additional cost) instead of the Sky+HD boxes.

    The more I think about it, the better the business move that would be. MS would absolutely clean up.

  • HAL9000 #53 5 months ago

    As usual Microsoft isn't happy to give consumers a game console...they want to control your whole fucking digital life, an all in one box that does everything...until it breaks down, and knowing Microsoft it will - the day after your warranty runs out!

  • Okamiwolf #54 5 months ago

    I play games specifically because I hate most of what's on TV. Microsoft doesn't seem to understand that.

  • LittleRiver #55 5 months ago

    Just sounds like the price of the console went up to me...

  • fisherpot #56 5 months ago

    It's all good that they want to push things this way but why do it with a gaming console! All I want is to play games!!! I love my console gaming but I must say that I'm starting to be pushed into pc gaming but were see what happens in the next couple of years!