last100 » XBox 360

XBox 360 to support Twitter and Facebook. Who’s the biggest social network on TV now?

Steve O'Hear — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:56:12 +0000

Facebook on XBox 360

For a long time now, Microsoft has made the rather lofty claim that the company’s XBox 360 was the biggest social network on TV. For the most part that was in reference to XBox Live – the games console’s online service – and its integration with Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft’s cross platform Instant Messaging service (Windows, Mac and mobile). Yesterday, however, Microsoft announced at E3 that the XBox 360 will soon be adding support for two competing social networks – Twitter and Facebook – making the XBox 360 undoubtedly the most socially networked set-top box, but not necessarily a Microsoft-owned social network the biggest one on the television. I’m not sure how Windows Live Messenger user numbers and Facebook’s compare in terms of cross-over with XBox Live membership but it’s nonetheless significant that Microsoft has chosen to embrace two competitors.

Interestingly, the Facebook integration won’t be one way. Not only will XBox 360 users be able to access a Facebook application providing the usual functionality (status updates, view friends’ news feeds, photos etc), but XBox Live will also incorporate Facebook Connect so that various activities can be posted back to Facebook e.g. in-game screen shots and footage. The User Interface for the Facebook app could do with some improvement, reports Gizmodo, which isn’t surprising considering that the social network’s feature set is fairly extensive and is rooted firmly in the PC, making designing the perfect “ten foot” UI challenging.

In comparison, Twitter’s minimum core functionality looks much better suited to the TV (see screen shot) and, accompanied by the XBox 360 gamepad’s thum-board QWERTY add-on, could work quite well. Both services to be supported through a software update “this fall”.

Twitter on XBox 360

Other XBox 360 announcements yesterday of interest to last100 readers included improved Netflix functionality with full on-screen access to the service’s movie and TV show catolog, support for music streaming service Last.fm, and 1080p High Def content (download and streaming) through XBox Live’s newly branded video store now called “Zune”.

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Rupert Murdoch’s Sky bringing interactive TV to XBox 360

Steve O'Hear — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:08:41 +0000

Image credit: CNet UK

Microsoft has long talked up its Internet TV prowess (they’ve been in the space for a very, very long time), with a combination of its consumer led set-top box a.k.a. the XBox 360 and its telco IPTV solution dubbed Mediaroom.

One of the advantages of the company’s connected vision was supposed to be the advent of interactive television based on what the Internet could bring to the table. Think: live instant messaging through the TV with friends while watching the same channel or accessing additional information pulled in from the web, for example. With yesterday’s announcement that satellite broadcaster BSkyB’s broadband TV service ‘Sky Player’ is coming to XBox 360 users in the UK and Ireland, that vision is now a lot more tangible.

From the press release:

In offering Sky Player, participating Xbox owners in the UK and Ireland will also be able to access a wide variety of pay TV content as well as a range of interactive services uniquely delivered by the Xbox LIVE platform. For Sky Sports, for example, this will mean that live coverage will be supported by range of interactive applications to enhance the viewing experience. As well as fans being able to communicate with one another in real time via their broadband connections, they will also be able to check news and access fixtures, league tables and other on-demand information. Interactive applications will also be developed across other programmes genres.

In addition to live pay TV channels, Sky Player on XBox 360 will offer an “on-demand library of thousands of programmes spanning entertainment, movies, documentaries, kids, culture, news and sport.”

Nate Lanxon over at CNet UK got an early hands-on of the service and is positive about the UI and image quality. “The interface is lush, painted with buckets of blue of various shades, and it navigates exactly like the rest of Xbox Live. And in our demo, image quality of streamed video was excellent considering the service’s largest caveat: all content is in standard definition.”

Sky Player on XBox 360 will be free to existing ‘multi-room’ Sky satellite subscribers or a separate paid-for monthly subscription for others. The service should be available this autumn.

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The numbers say it all: why Netflix went exclusive with XBox 360

Steve O'Hear — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:11:33 +0000

In a joint announcement, Microsoft and Netflix have put out some numbers on the success of Netflix’s ‘Watch Instantly’ Internet TV service on Microsoft’s XBox 360 games console. 1.5 billion minutes of Netflix content has been streamed, with a total of one million Xbox Live Gold Members activating Netflix on their accounts. Considering that Netflix on XBox only went live three months or so ago, that’s pretty impressive by anybody’s measure.

To put things into context, however, Streaming Media’s Dan Rayburn has done some interesting back of the envelope math:

Based on Netflix’s own published technical details, Rayburn says that its Content Delivery Network (CDN) partners Limelight Networks and Level 3 combined have delivered nearly 25 million GB of data.
While 1.5 billion minutes of streaming content is “a huge number”, it still pales into insignificance compared to traditional DVD rentals. “If we use the numbers Netflix has on their website, they ship around 730 million DVDs a year. If we use an average of 120 minutes per DVD, Netflix ships roughly 88 billion minutes of video in the mail”, writes Rayburn.
And in terms of 1 million XBox Live Netflix activations, Rayburn offers up a caveat. “Keep in mind that does not mean one million unique consoles since every Xbox Live account can contain multiple profiles or members.”

Nonetheless, these numbers demonstrate that the XBox 360 is by the far the most important set-top box or other Internet-connected device for Netflix’s Internet TV strategy (aside from the humble laptop, perhaps).

“That really comes as no surprise considering that to date, Microsoft has sold nearly 14 million XBOX 360 consoles in the U.S., which is far more than the Roku, TiVo, Blu-ray players and broadband enabled TVs combined”, says Rayburn.

It also explains why ‘Watch Instantly’ on XBox 360 remains a games console exclusive for Microsoft. So don’t expect Netflix to team up with Sony’s PlayStation 3 or Ninendo’s Wii anytime soon.

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New XBox 360 games carry Netflix streaming promotion

Steve O'Hear — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 20:00:43 +0000

More Netflix news…

Netflix is promoting trials of its ‘Watch Instantly’ streaming video service with select Xbox 360 games, reports Streaming Media’s Dan Rayburn.

In a joint marketing effort with partner Microsoft, a 48 hour ‘Gold’ pass to XBox Live that includes the Netflix promotion, can be found in the box of US retail copies of the newly released James Bond game, although access to Netflix on XBox 360 won’t be available until later this month when the previously announced Dashboard update is rolled out. Rayburn says this is the “the beginning of what is expected to be some massive marketing efforts by both Netflix and Microsoft for the new service.”

When the two companies first announced a partnership, in which XBox 360 users who are also subscribers to Netflix will able to access the latter’s video-on-demand service through their consoles, I wondered what kick back, if any, Microsoft would be getting. Aside from potentially shifting more XBoxes or signing up more of its users to the paid-for version of XBox Live (needed for Netflix access), would Microsoft get a share of revenue generated from Netflix subscriptions? While I thought that was unlikely, the fact that trials to Netflix are being advertised inside of select XBox 360 titles opens up the real possibility that Microsoft may be receiving a commission for new Netflix sign-ups generated through the joint promotion.

Rayburn also speculates that Netflix will eventually offer a streaming only subscription tariff that doesn’t include DVD rentals – “I would not be surprised to see Netflix offer a package for those users who only want to get movies via the XBOX 360, Roku, TiVo or some other device” – although he does concede that this may not happen for up to two years.

Image credit: Dan Rayburn

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Not exclusive to XBox, Netflix HD streaming coming to Roku too

Steve O'Hear — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:47:22 +0000

Last week Engadget reported that the XBox 360’s support for Netflix streaming would include a limited amount of HD content too – initially around 300 titles – prompting many to ask if High Def content would also make its way onto Roku’s Netflix set-top box.

Dan Rayburn quickly followed up to confirm that, despite the lack of an official company announcement, Roku’s hardware was at least technically capable of streaming Netflix in HD, leading to speculation that Netflix HD streaming could be a Microsoft exclusive, for the time being anyway.

Not so.

Hacking Netflix points to a reply posted in Roku’s official support forum from a company employee confirming that Netflix HD support will arrive on Roku’s set-top box by “end of year”. The posting includes a few additional details:

Roku will be using Advanced Profile encodes which will deliver HD at substantially lower bit-rates than what Xbox is offering
The number of titles is up to Netflix but the library will be the same as or larger than the Xbox library
The UI will be updated to run in 720p and more covers will be visible on the screen at a time
And the release will include another major new feature that you’ll have to wait a bit longer to learn about

What that “major new feature” is, nobody knows for sure. My guess would be support for a second online video service, possibly Hulu, which unlike Netflix doesn’t require a paid-for subscription. Were that to happen then Roku’s set-top box would suddenly be a lot more attractive to consumers, widening its potential market way beyond current or future Netflix subscribers.

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Review: XBox Live Video Store – where’s all the content?

Steve O'Hear — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:01:33 +0000

Although the UK version of Microsoft’s Video Store for its XBox 360 console launched last December, it wasn’t until just over a month ago that I got to try out the service for myself. Microsoft’s PR team kindly loaned me a top of the line model – the HDMI equipped 120GB “Elite” version – to hook up to my High Definition TV to download and watch a few shows and movies purchased from XBox Live. However, while the service is dead easy to use and worked as intended, for a number of reasons I came away disappointed.

Purchasing

In order to purchase and download content you need to sign up to the free component of XBox Live. Thankfully, most of the sign up process can be down online through your PC’s web browser (unlike the PlayStation Network which drove me mad entering all of my data via a PS3 controller). From then on in the XBox Live Video Store’s User Interface is very straightforward and browsing content was quick and easy. However, to pay for content you’re required to purchase a bundle of ‘Microsoft Points’, the company’s virtual currency — see Microsoft Points – what’s next for the company’s virtual currency?

It works on a pre-pay system whereby you purchase say 1000 points, which then acts as credit against any content you want to download. The problem is that the price to rent an HD (380 pts) movie means that you’re always left with change from the pre-pay bundles of points you’re able to purchase. Thus ensuring that Microsoft is always looking after some of your money.

Lack of content, especially HD

It could well be a UK thing, but I was surprised by the lack of content choices. The range of movies available seems sporadic and very random, neither focusing on back catalog classics or new releases. For example, as of publication there are less than ten movies available that were released this year, and the same goes for films made last year. Not surprisingly, HD content, which I was particularly eager to try, is even more sparse. In the end I purchased two movies, one Standard Definition (SD) and one HD. Neither of which I really wanted to see, but with very little choice, they were at least titles I hadn’t previously watched elsewhere.

Picture quality

This one really surprised me. Picture quality on SD content, albeit played on a 1080p HD television, was poor, definitely not comparable to DVD. Although HD content fared a lot better, as you’d expect.

Rental windows – 14 days and 24 hours

All movie download rental services impose some kind of rental window whereby you must begin watching a movie within a number of days, and once you press play you have a set number of hours to complete your viewing. XBox Live offers 14 days standby, and a 24 hour viewing window. The limit to 24 hours is a real pain if you don’t complete a movie in one sitting, and made me nervous navigating around my media library in case I accidentally pressed play! Unbelievably, I also got caught out by the 14 day standby limit, and one movie I purchased had expired before I got round to watching. Us bloggers lead busy lives :-)

Fan noise

It’s true what they say. The XBox 360 is a little on the noisy side, noticeably so during quiet peroids of a movie.

Verdict

The XBox 360 is a great games console (yes, I “tested” some games) but as a competitor to your cable TV’s video on-demand film library or even online services such as iTunes or Amazon UnBox/On Demand, it doesn’t really compete — although I am comparing the UK version which is certainly inferior to XBox Live Video Store U.S. Which explains why Microsoft has partnered with Netflix to incorporate the latter’s video streaming service into XBox 360. It also demonstrates how early we are in the HD wars. If you thought the range of content available on Blu-ray was bad, take a look at XBox Live’s Video Store.

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How big of an impact is Internet-delivered video making in consumer living rooms?

Daniel Langendorf — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:32:36 +0000

I’ve often wondered this, but my math skills suck. How big of an impact is Internet-delivered video really making in the consumer living room?

Dan Rayburn, the EVP of StreamingMedia.com and the blogger behind BusinessofVideo.com, crunched numbers in a post for GigaOm today and decided that the impact is not nearly as large as we think.

“While it is good to see more content options coming to consumers, adding up all of the install numbers for these devices gives a stark picture of just how small the install base really is,” Rayburn wrote. “The market is still too fragmented, with too many different devices, all limited by a lack of premium content.”

Rayburn bases his analysis on market penetration rates. His point is that the best technologies don’t always win — it’s what consumers adopt. The numbers for TV-connected devices are interesting.

From Rayburn:

Xbox 360: 10.5 million units sold in the U.S.
Netflix: 8.2 million subscribers
Netflix Player by Roku: 10,000 units sold (estimate)
TiVo Series 3: 250,000 units sold (estimate); 750,000 Series 2 and Series 3 units are connected to the Internet via broadband (two-thirds are estimated to be Series 2 devices).
PlayStation 3: 4.9 million units sold in the U.S.
AppleTV: 350,000-400,000 units sold in the U.S. (estimate)
Vudu: 15,000 units sold in the U.S. (estimate)

Adding up the numbers, Rayburn estimates that 19.3 million Internet-to-TV content delivery devices have been sold. Rayburn breaks down the numbers further and concludes: “The real number of consumers capable of getting these content offerings is much smaller — so small, in fact, that they barely register.”

What Rayburn failed to supply is perspective. These numbers are rolled up since when? The Netflix Player by Roku is new. The TiVo Series 3 is relatively new. AppleTV and Vudu are about a year old. PlayStation 3 and Xbox are in the process of rolling out Internet video-to-TV services.

How long did it take other technology advances like the color TV, the fax, the telephone, cell phones, or cable TV — to name just a few — to reach critical mass? Their market penetrations and adoption rates were probably not that much better in their first years.

The fact that Microsoft, Netflix, TiVo, YouTube, Roku, Sony, Apple, and others are rushing to market all sorts of Internet-to-TV products is a sign that they believe Internet-delivered video will be making a big impact in the consumer living room — maybe not now, but soon enough.

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Video: Netflix streaming on XBox 360

Steve O'Hear — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:13:21 +0000

Now it’s official that Netflix is coming to the Xbox 360, although not until this fall, we’re as curious as the next person to see just how well it’s been implemented. Luckily, Inside XBox has published a brief – and we mean brief – video walk-through of the new feature.

Initial impressions: the UI is slick, and the integration between the XBox 360’s newly designed dashboard and Netflix.com, where you still manage your Watch Now cue, works as expected. We’re not sure what kind of Internet connection they were using, but movies start playing almost immediately. Check out the video for yourself after the jump.

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BBC iPlayer lands on Wii – who said Nintendo doesn’t do media center?

Steve O'Hear — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:45:16 +0000

Later today, a version of the BBC’s iPlayer will be made available on Nintendo’s Wii games console, announced the UK public broadcaster’s Future Media and Technology chief Erik Huggers during a keynote speech at the MipTV-Milia conference in Cannes.

Alongside download (Windows-only) and streaming versions (Windows/Mac) accessible via a computer, the BBC has already built a version of its UK-only TV catch-up service for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch devices. Today, however, marks the first time the iPlayer will be available on a games console, and perhaps surprisingly, not one designed specifically to be a media center. So much for the ‘trojan horse into the living room’ strategies of Sony’s PS3 and Microsoft’s XBox 360.

The ability to port the streaming version of iPlayer to the Wii was made possible because of Nintendo’s original decision to offer a Web browser for the console, and one that supports Flash Video (see last100’s ‘Five resources to create a Wii media center‘). The PS3 also features a full Web browser with the Flash plug-in, so perhaps we can expect that to be next on the list.

Initially, iPlayer on Wii will be accessible via the game console’s Internet channel, just like any other Website. However, signaling that this is an official partnership between the BBC and Nintendo, the latter will send out a message to all UK Wii owners whose consoles are connected to the Internet, alerting them to the iPlayer’s availability. The BBC and Nintendo intend to refine the Wii version of iPlayer throughout the rest of 2008, eventually offering the catch-up service through its own dedicated Wii channel.

On the same day as the Wii version was announced, the BBC released the latest iPlayer viewing figures, which, inevitably, was preempted by the latest ISP backlash against the service due to its high bandwidth consumption.

In March 2008, more than 17.2 million requests to download or stream BBC programmes were made via the iPlayer. This is up 25% on the previous month and means more than 42 million programmes have been accessed via the iPlayer since its Christmas 2007 launch. (BBC News)

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