Slashdot Mirror
Will The X-Box Be A TiVO Rival?
Utah-Saint writes: "The Xbox is reportedly going to be ramped up to 128 meg unified ram (up from 64) and will incorporate a chip allowing it to be used as a digital vcr (similar to tivo and replay tv) whilst using a 40gig hard-drive supplied by maxtor. http://www.xbox365.com are running the story as an exclusive 'leaked' report ..."
"Reportedly" is right -- but trust me, this is either a) happening already, b) not happening at all, or c) going to happen because some bright exec at Microsoft realizes that stumbling in front of the hype machine means being crushed beneath its wheels. Grains of salt are available in the front lobby.
Rumorous or not, this certainly doesn't sound that implausible -- if the X-Box ever arrives, most of the hardware (memory, hard drive, fast processor) would already be in place. And the equally unavailable-but-promised-rsn Indrema machines are alleged to be built with digital VCR capabilities in mind as well, at least in its second generation. (Mind you, with no first compare to just yet.) 12 months from now, digital VCR capabilities could be in every self-respecting video game system.
and something goes wrong, you get the blue screen of death instead of your show???
Imagine the Nielsen ratings on THAT!
Microsoft's ratigns would compete with "Survivor"s...
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Learning to fly, Pink Floyd.
This reminds me of a song a very wise boss taught me years ago.
It goes like this:
Feature Creep!
Feature Creep!
Feature feature feature feature
Feature Creep!
Best sung standing on your desk with your arms in front of you, palms forward, waving in a circular motion.
I shouldn't have to spend a lot of time explaining this one. Who here honestly believes that Micros~1 would put out a digital VCR that would allow you to share recorded shows with your friends?
A digital VCR -- or, more generally, a digital media center -- is a wonderful idea. It would allow you to record, mix, match, edit, transform, and otherwise manipulate the half-dozen or so media sources already streaming into your home (broadcast TV, cable TV, AM/FM radio, Internet). Using a single well-designed system, you could, for example:
Now, which is the more probable: That Micros~1 will create the afore-described flexible, open system that gives ordinary people the power to use media in new ways; or will they create a box that will copy-protect the fsck out of everything -- all the worst features of Macrovision and CSS -- preventing you from even copying the recordings to your own PC, and will fink on you if you try?
Pay very close attention to this one, people...
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
I know console makers often sell their boxes at a loss and make it up on the games. But lets face it. MS has a track record of generally shitty games, they really expect to make up for developing the console on games like that?
They key here is installed base !
BillG will eat the cost (somewhat) in order to get one of these in evey home in the world. "It's got games for the kids, and can record hours of TV for the parents!" Then you have an installed base. Do not forget that is how M$ has made their money - their installed base. This is their plan. I guarantee. Once you have an installed base you can (almost) do anything. You rule the customer AND the companies providing games/services/etc for the installed product.
Don't underestimate M$, they know how to make money. Not much else, but making money - they got that down...