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Comcast Offers Trial Of Microsoft TV Software
Anonymous Howard writes "Designtechnica has a news article about Comcast and Microsoft announcing an agreement to test digital TV services using the "Microsoft TV Interactive Program Guide (IPG)". The trial is scheduled to start this fall using Motorola DCT2000 set-top boxes. The software is designed to help network operators get more value from on-demand and other digital TV services." There are some more details in an article over at CNET News.
And here I thought that VCRs would only generate Blue Screens before and after a movie started ... This brings them a whole new potential career - displaying blue screens in the middle of movies!
oh wait it is just my TV.... where is my channel changer
Consensus is good, but informed dictatorship is better
And what's a fatal kernel error?
You are not the customer.
"I see you are trying to watch Jerry Springer, would you like some help?"
Will it mean that instead of having only the current half-hour's programming shown in the interactive guide alongside ads, there will no longer be ads, leaving room for an hour and a half's worth of programming information? If not, it's no better than the worthless crap they're serving us in the DCT boxes now. Everyone I know that has digital cable from Comcast doesn't want to see ads, they want to see an interactive version of the TV Guide Channel.
I mean, come on. The television *must* start up to Channel 447 - "Gates Gone Wild, Doggie Style."
It's just another ridiculous Microsoft ploy.
The next comment I write will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
"The program 'American Chopper' has performed an illegal action. Continue?"
Windows XP SP2 told me to install third-party software that prevents viruses and protects stability... I chose Ubuntu
Ofcourse this will happen only in the beggining. :
As people get used to MS quality products it will be more like
Mommy the TV crashed again? Shall i reboot?
Slashdot Sig. version 0.1alpha. Use at your own risk.
"Comcast Offers 'Trial Of Microsoft' TV, Software"?
"Don't mind me cutting myself on Occam's Razor"
Whatever.
The next comment I write will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
I see you're trying to watch CNN.
Would you like help getting to MSNBC?
Seriously, though, is this where X-Box was supposed to go? Or how does this eventually integrate with the Media PC (I think that's what it's called.)
Hmmm, wonder what kind of privacy anomalies this introduces in the future. Think of all the tv viewing data it could phone home with!
If anyone out there really thinks there will be no ads then they are in complete denial. As long as humans inherit this earth and view tv in all it's various forms then there will be advertising. It might be passed off as programming but it's still an ad.
You aren't free to do anything, until you've lost everything.
more info
Guess AOL and MS are all buddy-buddy now that the whole Netscape "misunderstanding" is behind them.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
The software is designed to help network operators get more value from on-demand and other digital TV services.
Is there any benefit to cable customers? Is this basic program guide any different from the basic program guide that's built in to all digital cable boxes?
It's hard to imagine the TWC cable boxes getting any worse. I had their digital package/receivers for about 3 years, and the damn things locked up and rebooted on their own all the time. That's of course, when the entire network or onscreen guides weren't down all weekend.
At least now I'd get a BSOD to go along with the fun.
they'll reboot before a show, "for good lucK"
after the show, they'll reboot again, as a "thank you" to the gods (for letting them watch the show with only 3 crashed)
i wont be able to watch the simpsons anymore cause ill get the blue screen of death on tv. like the computer wasn't enough.
Like in 2000?
For Microsoft, It's "Inactive TV" (businessweek)
And 2002?
Microsoft likely to miss key test on interactive TV(and they did)(zdnet)
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
At least Microsoft couldn't possibly make an EPG more unstable than Sky TV in the UK.
Right?
The current DCT software sucks. Every time you hit a button on the remote, you have to wait for the lousy software to (slowly) execute the command and refresh the screen before pressing another button. The vaunted EPG (electronic program guide) is a joke. It only shows half an hours worth of programs. They waste big chunks of screen space on ads. For a box that supposedly costs $750, they could have hired some real programmers to write the code.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Rumour has it that there are plans to turn MS Bob into a pay per view Chipendale.
I can't find the CTRL-ALT-DEL keys on my TV...
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
After you get the software update for your cable box, you'll have to dial an 800 number, read off a 700 digit code and they'll give you an activation sequence. Then, once you decide to replace your television, you'll have to pay for all of the movies you watched on the previous one all over again.
:-).
Or no, better yet. Someone will write a virus that takes advantage of a security hole in the software resulting in your cable box being a participant in a DDoS attack... All this while my Tivo hums along unaffected because it's running Linux
Welcome to the new Microsoft Bob Network! Did you forget your parental block password? Here, have a new one!
Sorry guys, I had to get it all out.
"God is dead!" - Nietzsche
"Nietzsche is dead!" - God
This takes the cake. Comcast is a shareholder in TiVo yet they won't release a digital set-top box with TiVo built in. But they will "test" the Microsoft software. Perhaps they have some contract with M$ that they have to at least deploy it in a test market before wholly rejecting it. Hopefully, Comcast will still get its $400 per set top box like the early Best Buy/MSN sign up rebate in California...that was funny...everyone got $400 in store to use and they could cancel right when they got home...
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
Finally I have the chance to spit out my MS-Comcast and the XBOX taking over the console market theory. Comcast is the country's largest cable provider, and 3rd in ISPs I believe. Comcast + Microsoft = loss leader XBOX/set top box, which means soon MS(soon) owns the console market and has a new media distribution platform in the living room, and it's all on a controlled piece of hardware so they can DRM all they want. Brilliant!
Now I will go actually read what this article says...
"Windows Me offers tremendous reliability and stability improvements..." -- Paul Thurott
Now, instead of paying money to have my intelligence insulted by some noisy box in the living room, I can pay even more for the priviledge--but now I'll have a Microsoft-blessed user interface! Sweet! I can't wait to see the new season of Who Wants to Breed With a Mongoloid? now that I know I'll be able to click through a EULA first!
My favorite quote from the article: "Comcast's selection of Microsoft TV demonstrates the industry's desire for cost-effective, scalable software platforms that help it get the most value from its hardware and infrastructure investments."
That's just too funny, all by itself. I really can't add anything to it.
Ph-nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.
The Microsoft/Comcast business model will be like the NBC "Must See TV" model:
"It's Must See TV. I must must see. I MUST!"
or perhaps it will be use SCO's model:
"If you don't like your programming, then we won't give you any channels exception 1 24-hour channel featuring Matthew Lesko"
Why did I suddenly have visions of a Chipendale screaming "Developers" at the top of his lungs?
Comcast and Microsoft... two great companies. What a great combination - sign me up!
Though I already expected to see this many blue-screen "jokes" and anti-MS zealotry, I have to admit that while Microsoft's security is questionable, so far they've done a damned decent job of creating stable operating systems. This computer has, as of this writing, been up for 27 days without a reboot (XP Professional) and I never had a problem on my old iPaq either before I sold it. Windows Server 2003 is very much a step in the right direction too, ousting much legacy code responsible for instabilities in the past.
While I hate to further Microsoft's aims, as a matter of principle, if it does the job better and cheaper than other competing software for digital cable boxes, why not use it? If there is a cost savings, it will certainly trickle down to you as the consumer of said service.
The cable set-top box I have (AT&T digital cable) is really awful.
Although I'm not generally a big fan of Microsoft software, in this case I'd put my bets on Microsoft's software being better.
Amit
Anyone who has Comcast knows that channel switching and doing stuff on that box is damn slow.
You'd think that for as much as one pays for digital cable, they could have ad-free channel browsing -- but no.
A fatal kernel error is either popcorn that didn't pop, or death by heart attack from eating to much Kentucky Fried Chicken (TM).
Wonder how worse it will be compared to Pioneer 1100 Digtal boxes that Time Warner provides. The damn thing totaly lokcs up at least once a month and I have to call the cable company and they have to fix the problem. Even exchanged the box 3 times all of them do the same damn thing. If there was a to get directv or dishnetwork in my area I would be there in a second sigh...
sarcasm
/grin
Everyone should have atleast one Microsoft product or two around them at all times. Be it a PocketPC, Win 9x, Win2k or Win2003 or an Xbox or something else.
end sarcasm
I mean look at them, they have been working hard for so many years, begging borrowing stealing and flourishing
(not that all their code is like that, but I havn't seen it... have you??? so don't tell me I'm trolling...)
Look at those products, a bug a day keeps the unemployment away.
They keep millions of Windows "Administrators", programmers and IT support happily employed through these bad times, through weekly patches and serious consequences of losing your system if you dont.... throw in a few T-shirts, send them to MCSE trainings, certifications, "boot camps" and what not....
grin Unlike BSD & Linux -- a bunch of crack smoking hippies who refuse to put in bugs into their system to secure employment of fellow Open Source hackers... these guys (MS) are EMPLOYING millions of ppl. directly or through hundreds of man years of debugging , fixing , patching and just running their software...
-- everyones not everybody and neither is everybody like everyone.
I mean honestly, many of Microsoft's products are sub-par at best (Even though I hate it, I will give them credit for both Windows and the x-Box) yet we are constantly forced to use it either because there is no other way, or more likely cause its cheaper, and or because other companies force us to (how often are we forced to use IE cause it wont load properly any other way!)
I mean yeah maybe Im a bitter Apple guy who cant leave the past alone, but even if I wasn't I think I would still be worried about a company who's had more anti-trust suit levied on it than sharks have teeth getting even more access to what I see and hear on TV.
We joked about it in another thread here, but think about it, what if when going to CNN a pop up screen said, "I see your going to CNN would you like to go to MSNBC instead." I mean thats an extreme case but there is nothing stopping them, the government has done a poor job at best, CHRIST even their computers are full of Microsoft's software.
OK I will stop ranting now!
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
50 Trolls 2 Decent responses 8 Responses with possible trolling
-]Phreak Out[-
Too bad the NetTopBox is a dead project.
As a consumer I want the cable co to expose an open set of services that lets 3rd parties compete to add value for me.
Now it will make it easier to descramble porn channels.
I don't allow M$ products in my home.
So sorry comcast, no sale today...
Yes, yes...but does it integrate well with the iLoo?
If you've seen the screenshots from the Windows Home Media version, the interface could for this could be pretty slick. I've had an AT&T/Comcast box for three years now. As every other poster has pointed out, it's horrendous. Only 30 minute previews, obtrusive ads, slow response. If you press 551 on the remote and then hit guide, it takes you to channel 002. Lame. One of the nice things about owning a Tivo is it give a respectable ui to navigate the channels.
But I digress...
ANY alternative would be acceptable to the garbage you have to deal with now...even if it is from Microsoft. I'm ignoring the blue screen jokes, because we all know that probably won't happen (but they're still funny). Hopefully they'll give us a better ui for a more enjoyable experience of watching tv.
You have it backwards. It's more like Dad yelling "Son! What the hell is an IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error?!?!"
set-up, the guide is horribly slow, it takes almost 2 full seconds to actually change a channel, and I get black screen during the interim, not to mention the pixelization that shows up because the cheap bastards just utilized the added space to jam 3 more signals in...
COMCAST just PLAIN BLOWS. I often resort to watching the baseball games on my rabbit-ears from the local station and I get better reception. The higher resolution the program is in the worse it looks on their system. I won't even begin to talk about NOVA in HDTV or Monday Night football.....
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
A sound mind, a healthy body. . . pick one
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Internet
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Server Editions (or enterprise etc)
Microsoft Hardware (mouse etc)
Microsoft Games
Microsoft Console
Microsoft XBox
Microsoft Windows Media
Microsoft Cinema
Microsoft TV
Microsoft Media PC (ms tivo might be better)
No, mr judge we're defineately not using our influence in some market to expand in other markets, as that would be against the law. (v0.9b had a problem but they patched it)
what's up next ?
That might be a bit off-topic. Maybe. Yup...it is.
for those too lazy to figure it out, here's the first link from the parent all fixed up and linkified
Interesting look at the situation, albeit in the situation 3 years ago.
The DCT2000 box would be nice to control with more than just their IR remote - it's got digital/analog cable RFin, TV RFout, probably an RF ADC/DAC, probably a RISC, RAM, serial, and other IO, probably MPEG2 HW, etc - and they go for less than $50 at eBay etc. The DCT2000 is also at the heart of the DCP501 home theater system - a nice pile of A/V gear to hack around. But I can't even find any tech specs published. Could the MS IPG SW be a starting point for hacking these cheap embedded video processors to some open source OS, like Linux, QNX or *BSD? Or is there already a solution for opening these devices to SW development, where the OSS community can compete with the MS offering thru innovation?
--
make install -not war
"Microsoft TV - we know what you're watching today"
Stop the Slashdot Effect! Don't read the articles!
I first thought comcast was going to be offering some channel similar to Court TV dedicated to showing Microsoft trials.
"Comcast Offers 'Trial Of Microsoft' TV, Software"?
In Soviet Russia. Microsoft TV Software tries you.*
*new catagory:hostileware.
You know every time Microsoft comes out with something (Like the X Box) I'm hoping it has bugs.
The X Box couldn't have survived unless it was good. Your first entrence into a market is going to key your future in that market.
The entertainment industry is very nasty about quality control. You don't "make due" with a sucky TV show. You switch channels or turn the TV off. It's something you CAN live with out and if it sucks well.. you will.
So if the X Box had Microsofts typical "Crash and burn" style... We wouldn't have our favoret little Linux console now would we?
The funny part is the only defect we found so far is the one that let's us install Linux.
I don't feel fear about this. It's that whole irrational hate of all things Microsoft that comes when people make webpages for IE7 instead of for web browsers.
When I get e-mail in Microsoft word instead of PDF or better yet TEXT.
Or any other occasion when someone says "Well just use Windows."
Makes me just want to start kicking the person in the groin and say "Well just get a sex change".
But you do realise it's not actualy Microsoft but some irrational idiots who do this.
Note that Microsofties say "Just use Windows" not "try" or "Give it a chance" but "How dare you NOT use Windows.." and it's even more blasphamy to use Linux. You'll get a while speal about how "Linux will never be useful as a desktop" for saying "I use" not "Please try"
Linuz Zellots however are "Try Linux it MIGHT work for you." and GIVE you a CD.
I've seen Linux zellots compaired to Amiga fanatics and Mac zellots by Microsofties and it really bugs me how much they forget of the Amiga and Mac counterparts.
Amiga: Anytime someone comes up with some new technology "Amiga did it first".. While true it's still quite an acomplishment to bring those Amiga features to other platforms.
Mac: Woah be it to anyone who mentions the Mac was designed to be user friendly.
People early on took this to mean the Mac isn't powerful but it has proven itself quite powerful.
Still today Mac users will lynch anyone who mentions the downsides of the GUI. (Any GUI)
I'd say Linux Zellots are quite mild.
But that dosen't mean slamming everything Microsoft puts out is exactly ummmm....
Is it even right to call them Linux Zellots when they'd support APPLE, BeOS, OS/2 or Palm over Microsoft?
Anyway just becouse Microsoft puts it out dosen't mean it's going suck.
Just the irrtaional little Anti-Micro side of me hopes it will.
I don't actually exist.
http://www.microsoft.com/tv/ and don't forget to check out their ridiculous promo videos.
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
"Oh yeah thats with a REALLY cool reciever box, ALL digital channels, and no advertising on the program guide. I'm sure DirecTV has very similar pricing plans, as I know that nobody is nearly as expensive as Comcast."
And with a nifty smartcard programmer. The service is an even better deal.
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
Oh... wait a minute...
It was just the punk neighbor kid in the bushes
The only thing that ever came from that groundbreaking deal was of provoking the biggest players in the cable industry to form their own development alliance. These boxes were to use java and offer all kinds of gee-whiz features that would make cable tv so compelling everyone was going to throw away their (windows) peecees and mild bill would never again be so foolish as to try breaking into the cable hardware industry.
You see now how far it all got... on both sides of the aisle.
This is evil. MS gave Comcast a few billion dollars a few years ago.... gave ATT Broadband a few billion also. Now ATT Comcast Broadband Microsoft will use their monopoly to screw you. Count on it.
Uh, wouldn't the chicken result in a Colonel error???
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
"...is absolutely nothing on Linux that remotely compares to what Adobe Premiere is capable of, and despite many claims to the contrary, The Gimp isn't a viable Photoshop replacement yet, and don't even get me started on games)."
"...Mandrake 9.1 box set up right next to me. It's quite reliable, I use it for mail, web browsing, instant messaging, word processing in OpenOffice, and many other tasks."
"...right now, using it as an everyday machine isn't feasible."
Let me extract your argument. Linux doesn't do _advanced_ image processing as well as a very expensive commercial program. It also doesn't do (Windows) games. It does do mail, browsing, IM, word processing (and other tasks). It does this reliably.
Even so, you can't use it as your "everyday machine".
I guess you need advanced imaged processing and games every day.
You do agree that if a user needs mail, browsing, IM, word processing primarily, and doesn't need Adobe Premiere or Windows games, that Linux would do?
Adobe Premiere is $700 USD. Of course, I assume that you _have_ a license to use it. There are Linux/Unix programs for video editing that do compare (but this is moot, why buy and relearn?).
If you have Premiere, you also have a Windows license. That means you are already $800 - $900 USD invested into your software. So use it.
Word
Ratboy
Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
Shall i reboot?
You're suggesting they'll stop to ask first?
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
...the TV watches YOU!
DNA just wants to be free...
http://www.gradware.com/ProductDetailT.asp?Product ID=5262
The Microsoft empire invested 1 billion dollars in Comcast 6 years ago.
http://news.com.com/2100-1001_3-200335.html
I expected this. Comcast has been priming its infrastructure for Micorape for a while now.
It's also possible that the collapse of @Home might have helped slow down this cable/net/PC convergence project. They probably had to wait until Comcast's self owned network was in place.
Sure, Windows PCs dominate the market. But so do cheap toupees.
I used to have the AT&T version of the software on my cable box, but the small local provider changed to MS-IPG last year.
All I can say is that the current IPG is still exactly the same experience you have already listed. So no improvement at all, just a stupid MS logo plastered around the screens every so often.
As an early forced adopter of the MS IPG (Willamette Broadband in Canby/Wilsonville, OR was one of the first testers for the 'new' system), I can say that the MS IPG looks, feels, & acts just the same as the old AT&T interactive guide, just with a new blue color scheme.
All the ad spaces are still there. The system is still extremely slow. There are channels with the same wrong programming information.
For anyone hoping that the new MS system is going to be better than what you have now, you're in for a rude awakening. I can always take some digicam screenshots of the TV if anyone's interested.
~rick
Yeah but it made you come, didn't it
So maybe MS can't do worse - hopefully they don't put a HDD in the thing though, because at least the Sky box is solid-state and recovers quickly.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
Didn't MS give AT&T 10 billion dollars in 2000 to use windows on their set up box? You just might be using MS software now.
War is necrophilia.
it could phone home to msft about how good you are at Halo and the next time you call someone a n00b clippy can show up and help you understand who the n00b really is.
We use a 53Mhz Pace DSL 4000 STBwhich is also decoding the MPEG stream in software and the responsiveness of the EPG is still instantaneous.
If an STB has an EPG that is as slow as you describe it is probably because it's using a carrousel EPG, each EPG data page is broadcast round-robin and the STB is waiting for the page to come around.
many blue-screen "jokes" and anti-MS zealotry
a damned decent job of creating stable operating systems.
up for 27 days without a reboot (XP Professional)
much legacy code responsible for instabilities in the past.
Ordinary consumers expect an STB to be as stable as their TV not a PC.
And we're going to put a happy little tree down here. Now this tree is our secret. If you tell ANYONE, I will come to your house and I will CUT YOU!
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
MSN will BC ing you soon
Looking at a digital tv rendition
Of the inevitable screen of blue
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
... of MS IPG on Willamette Broadband cable service. http://homepage.mac.com/rcarino/ms-ipg/ (1st post as a registered user!)
"Sometimes the only thing left to say is 'Oops'" -- debbers