BT among those handling Xbox 360 IPTV

By Tom Bramwell Published 8 January, 2007

More on Gates' CES speech, inc. Halo 2 Vista clarity.

Commercial deployment of Xbox 360's IPTV service is being trialed with groups including BT and Deutsche Telekom - suggesting we won't be left behind as we were with Video Marketplace - while UNO will be among the games that Windows Vista users can play against their Xbox 360 counterparts, but Halo 2's functionality may be more limited.

Yes, with the curtain down on Bill Gates' rousing CES keynote, further details are emerging in press bulletins and background copy.

On the Vista front, Microsoft's showreel of compatible games (you can read more about the best in our recent Eye on '07: PC feature) will be matched, it says, by compatibility in hardware and other applications, with more than 1.5 million devices and more than 2,000 products to be Certified by 30th January.

Live - or "the Live games and entertainment network" as it now seems to be - will take proper shape on Vista this summer, and among the games confirmed for cross-platform support is UNO, with Shadowrun having been confirmed for such last May.

Microsoft's media alerts aren't quite explicit enough about Halo 2 for our liking though, merely saying that it "will enable gamers on Windows Vista to connect with their friends on Xbox 360 through the Live network". Could mean gaming, but could just reflect previous comments about seeing your friends and being able to communicate. That's also what the Halo 2 Vista FAQ maintains.

Elsewhere, our correspondent in Las Vegas also saw a PC version of Geometry Wars on the showreel, although cross-compatibility there is likely to be limited to leaderboards.

IPTV, meanwhile, set to launch at Christmas, will allow you to watch TV on Xbox 360 while chatting to friends, and to play on Xbox Live while recording a TV programme in the background, among other things. Microsoft promises "instant channel zapping, a rich and responsive user interface, video on demand with branded video-on-demand storefronts, digital video recording and high-definition television".

Its press literature says that commercial and trial deployments are under way with 16 companies, "including five of the world's largest service providers in 14 countries on four continents". Those "scale commercial deployments" include ones with BT Group in the UK, Deutsche Telekom in Germany, T-Online in France and Swisscom in Switzerland. AT&T is working with Microsoft in the US.

IPTV follows on from Microsoft's attempts to make Xbox 360 the centrepiece of high-definition on-demand TV and movie services in the living room, as well as an HD-DVD player. Video Marketplace launched in the US at Thanksgiving and has been a huge success, according to Microsoft, with more than 1000 hours of premium high- and standard-definition content available. It trotted out Comedy Central as a satisfied partner, and said Lionsgate will soon add content to the US-only service, including films like The Descent, Hard Candy and Requiem for a Dream.

For more of the headline-grabbing stuff in Gates' CES address, check in with our eyes-on report.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (19) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • woodnotes #1 5 years ago

    Interesting, because BT's normal channels all work with it acting just as a Freeview box (ie it just receives the channels via your arial). The only 'IPTV' BT offer is on-demand content, which Video Marketplace will eventually offer anyway. So I don't see what BT have to bring to the table, really.
    Edited by 1 at 08/01/07 @ 09:32

  • OhWiseOne #2 5 years ago

    2nd!

    Great news on IPTV, want it soon...
    Edited by 1 at 08/01/07 @ 09:32

  • woodnotes #3 5 years ago

    Well, the point I made above is that it might NOT be great news. I mean, it's good that they're trying but it could be poorly executed and more than likely I'll just use my Freeview box instead like everyone else.

  • L42yB #4 5 years ago

    @woodnotes: I think the key difference between ur freeview box and this service will be the HD availablilty...

  • MaskedDave #5 5 years ago

    This is going to massively depend on the channels and programmes that are available. I mean, my 360 is already plugged into a TV that has freeview. I can't see why I would want to watch them on my Xbox instead.

  • woodnotes #6 5 years ago

    @L42yB - really? Surely HD streaming content will eat up a lot of bandwidth? If true though, consider me sold.

  • L42yB #7 5 years ago

    @woodnotes: Just going on what they're saying in the article, but it sounds like it... and the TV on demand service in the US provides HDTV programs and movies.

    EDIT - Oh yeh, but the biggest problem I can see with this is the lack of hard drive space on the 360... MS need to release a *much* bigger hard drive if they want this service to take off...

    EDIT2 - And a DVD writer wud be nice ;-D
    Edited by 2 at 08/01/07 @ 09:58

  • potatoes #8 5 years ago

    very good point woodnotes... the services do seem to cross over a little too much.

    perhaps its supposed to deliver the stuff that people wouldnt want to bother downloading? it does make a bit of sense that sometimes you just want to watch the news/weather/top gear without having to downoad it first; unlike a movie or something...

  • brooza #9 5 years ago

    WOW! I can now watch TV through my... TV

  • potatoes #10 5 years ago

    also, im not surprised to see MS talking about this now as apple is widely expected to talk about their so called 'iTV' set top box within a few days at the macworld expo.

    i expect MS wanted to simply confirm that they are working on something too, and get the jump on apple.

    thing is, in my judgement a console is the perfect multi-use box to have next to your TV because of its processing power and connectivity - in comparison to an average set top box its much better suited to the task at hand (once compatibility with various services are added); only problem is that i really dont trust MS to be able to engineer the software to make the experience as simple as it should be. this is what apple specialises in, and i fully expect the so called 'iTV' to much better to use than the xbox at IPTV, BUT with the unfortunate side effect of needing to have yet another box under the telly, a 360 to play games and a set top box to watch tv - even though the xbox can do it all.

  • MaxStein #11 5 years ago

    Like woodnotes said - I worry about bandwidth usage, IPTV would burn through my 30GB in no time, however it might not be too bad if it can be scheduled to download only at specific time (such as overnight when downloads don't effect usage on many ISPs)

  • king_skins #12 5 years ago

    Requiem for a Dream is one of the best films ever

  • The-Bodybuilder #13 5 years ago

    Good change of tactic. It seemed initially that MS wanted the PC to be the centre of the house, and the 360 just an extension. Now the 360 is the focus instead, making it easier for us.

    I definately like the sound of IPTV too.

  • septimus #14 5 years ago

    Makes sense as BT Total Broadband supports IPTV QoS requirements down to the home router level (which comes with the package and required for BT Vision).

    Should be good, but you will use all 8mbits of your connection.

  • oceanmotion #15 5 years ago

    Video showing early version of IPTV on the 360

    Looks pretty cool and rather responsive which is nice.

  • Zero Beat #16 5 years ago

    I've had my 360 on downloading stuff whilst watching the tv and the fan noise alone was a significant irritation so unless Microsoft want to replace my console (again) I don't believe I'll be using it for this purpose.

  • Xerx3s #17 5 years ago

    Well, the point I made above is that it might NOT be great news. I mean, it's good that they're trying but it could be poorly executed and more than likely I'll just use my Freeview box instead like everyone else.

    Just as poorly executed as live? Oh.

  • DrunKao #18 5 years ago

    Requiem for a Dream is a good movie.

  • davisorle #19 5 years ago

    This is prety cool. I don't have Freeview box support so I guess this will do for me nicely! Digital content also means HD so that is good too. I'm glad that they are adding up to the xbox 360 more functianlities and I wonder why you guys see it as if there is something wrong with it. It doesn't mean that all of the capabilities have to be usefull for everyone. I'm just glad that the 400 euros I gave for it are well worth. :)