Family Learning Center

Posts Tagged ‘Iptv’

Steve Ballmer hints at more Xbox form factors

Speaking at the University of Washington this Thursday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer dropped a tidbit that may point towards more Xbox form factors in the future.

As Gearlog reports, Ballmer made  the following response when asked about the company’s approach to collaboration with hardware partners (hardware diversity versus variety):

In the case of the TV we’ve got both strategies. We actually have a TV implementation in some senses built into Windows. It works really well for small screen TVs that you might call a PC, but for that big screen device here’s a piece of hardware that we build, there’s no diversity. You get exactly the Xboxes that we build for you. We may have more form factors in the future that are designed for various price points and options, but we think it’s going to [be] important.

That last sentence is key — it hints that the company may be eying different implementations of the Xbox hardware.

This news isn’t exactly new. Last year, Microsoft signed a deal with British Sky Broadcasting to stream premium television content on the Xbox across Europe — making it almost like a cable box. The company has also long hinted at how the Xbox 360 could replace cable boxes in the U.S. The console isn’t quite there yet, but recent news show how the Xbox could be used to stream AT&T Uverse content, in conjunction with a traditional IPTV cable box.

Microsoft reps reported that the console’s heat and hardware reliability issues prevented it from fully replacing the cable box, and that’s something the company will definitely have to solve before it moves forward with other form factors. Sony was able to release a slimmed down version of the Playstation 3 last September, but today’s Xbox still has the same form factor as when the console launched in late 2005. There have been internal hardware changes related to the Red Ring of Death issue plaguing the console, but beyond that not much has changed.

Once it figures out the hardware issues, perhaps we will eventually see a slimmer console, along with Xbox 360 technology included within other set-top boxes.

Tags: xbox 360

Companies: microsoft

Read the whole story…

Thomson PoMMeS IPTV tablet hits the FCC

Thomson PoMMeS IPTV tablet hits the FCC originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 11:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Technabob  |  FCC  | Email this | Comments
Read the whole story…

Boxee unleashing one-click Payment Platform this summer

Free (legal) TV, minimal advertising and a slick, usable interface… too good to be true? Yes, of course. Boxee’s solving for the future with its newly announced Boxee Payment Platform, which will arrive this summer. Users will be able to buy shows, movies and channels with “one click on the remote,” with content owners having control over package types (pay-per-view, subscription) and prices. Boxee will naturally be taking a cut, but says it’s lower than the now de facto 30% cut of app stores. Boxee sees this co-existing with free, ad-supported content, authenticated stuff like TV Everywhere, and of course regular Cable, Satellite and IPTV providers. We suppose the real testament to Boxee’s success in pulling this off will be the variety, quality and price of the content it obtains — we can already get a smattering of shows and movies on iTunes, Zune and PSN, but if Boxee can get us more, make it easier, or charge us less, it’s going to be hard to complain about that funky little Boxee Box taking up valuable shelf space in our living room.

Boxee unleashing one-click Payment Platform this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 11:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Boxee  | Email this | Comments
Read the whole story…

Sungale introduces 4.3-inch Kula: the WiFi-enabled portable TV

Not so keen on coughing up a month’s worth of WoW coinage in order to pay for FLO TV services? If so, and you can somehow keep yourself surrounded by WiFi waves at all times, Sungale just might have a cheaper alternative. The outfit has just revealed what it says is its “first IPTV,” though frankly it sounds more like a WiFi-enabled PMP with a knack for finding web programming. The 4.3-inch Kula is described as an “ultra-portable WiFi-enabled IPTV that allows users to access a large number of live streaming television programs from all over the world, selectable by country, language and topic like News, Sports and Finance all without the high rates.” Aside from using WiFi, there’s no mention of any other protocol to tap into various channel “packages,” though we’re not completely shutting out that possibility until we see this bugger at CES. Other specs include 2GB of internal memory, an SD / MMC expansion slot and support for a slew of file formats. Hop on past the break for the full release, which naturally omits any semblance of a price tag in keeping with the elusive theme.

Continue reading Sungale introduces 4.3-inch Kula: the WiFi-enabled portable TV

Sungale introduces 4.3-inch Kula: the WiFi-enabled portable TV originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments
Read the whole story…

Details of 3D cable demo at Cable-Tec emerge

Our friend Mari at the official Motorola Blog just got back from checking out the 3D demo at Cable-Tec and was able to dig up a few extra details in addition to sharing her impressions. Overall she said the circular polarized and active shutter demos both “looked good” but each was driven by a different set-top-box so it was hard to do a fair a to b comparison. This also makes us continue to wonder how compatible these two 3D display technologies are — we suspect they are compatible and that this was just to prove that both IPTV and QAM worked as a delivery methods. The most interesting tidbit is the fact that thanks to new Multiview Video Encoding techniques, the 3D stream only requres about 30 percent more throughtput then the same image in 2D. This isn’t as much as Panasonic is claiming the new 3D Blu-ray spec will require, which is estimated at 50 precent. One other thing we’re left wondering is what the frame rate of the demo was, but earlier this week CableLabs did confirmed that the demo is 1080p and that the SCTE has already added 1080p at 60 fps to its encoding standards. We assume the frame rate had to be at least 30 fps per eye though, because otherwise the flicker would probably be noticably annoying.

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Details of 3D cable demo at Cable-Tec emerge originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Read the whole story…