A new Microsoft patent shows a device that would be both a game console and a digital video recorder.
I'll pause so you can make the same face I did. Tighten your lips and look off to your upper left and hold for a few seconds. There. That's it.
The patent says this device would let you record television while gaming. The DVR menus would be integrated within the gaming side, letting users get their game on while managing their daytime soaps. Of course, like your trusty grey cable box, this device would continue recording, even when off.
This hybrid thing would record television programs, of course. Microsoft also suggests that it could nab gaming footage (local or online), rip music and movies, and so on.
So, a cable box with a disc drive and controller ports? Now I'm making the face you would when you see a dog eating its poop.
Note that while just granted, this patent has some age on it, as it was filed at the end of 2007. Microsoft may have no plans to use this. Things have changed with television since then. The latest update to the Xbox 360 to make it a streaming beast is more in line with what users want and need. Let's keep going that direction.
Patents Show that the Next Xbox Might Be a DVR, Too [Kotaku]
Contest:
12:30 PM on 01.04.2012 | 
I'd plug my co-axial cable right into my 360 if I could. :)
Also, is that really the patent? Because what the hell is a "Reomote control"?
Now why you gotta go and insult people who prefer a device just for playing videogames? If game companies who makes multiple SKU for things like extra functionality vs. game only instead of just different colors and HDD sizes, we'd could all have what we wanted. Plus consoles are getting weaker the more functionality you put into them.
obviously people still do considering cable companies are still around and still make lots of money. Why do you think Microsoft added TV channels to Xbox live? to get people who watch tv to watch it on xbox instead. I really don't understand the whole "huuuuurrrr who watches TV mentality". Everybody does and there isn't anything wrong with watching it.
So I guess that's why the PC is the weaker platform right? It has tons of functionality so that must mean PC is garbage for playing games right? The PC is weaker because I can record game play footage and surf the net right? The reality is that people want more functionality and they want more for their dollar. For example the Playstation 2 was highly popular because of the added functionality of a DvD player. Did that stop people from playing games on it? No does having Netflix and other media type options on Xbox 360 and play station 3 stop people from playing games? No, so adding more functionality isn't a problem. If all you want to do is play games that's fine the system isn't hindering you in any way. If your complaining about performance then switch to PC gaming, but as we all know it has the most functionality ergo it must be weaker, right?
You're making one hell of a false equivalency.
Gamer's money is being spent on adding multimedia functionality in an attempt to make gaming consoles appeal to the whole family. All fine and good, except gaming is a wildly expensive hobby as it stands, and current gen consoles have been nearly twice as expensive as the last (PS2s were less than half the price of the PS3 at this point in the life cycle).
In short, cut all the non gaming bullshit I can already do on 3 or 4 other devices I already own, and let me pay half the price for a dedicated gaming console. I'm not saying cut all the multimedia shit out completely, I'm saying give me a goddamn choice to have a machine that does nothing but game.
I'm going to bear your children.
Think of it, Dale! You could show off your Kinectimals Corgi to the world!!
So am I Dale, so am I.
Doubtful, at least on the movie part, unless they really want to confuse the whole SOPA issue.
"The latest update to the Xbox 360 to make it a streaming beast is more in line with what users want and need."
So kittens with broken legs are beasts? Because that's how the 360 looks to me in the streaming department: Yes it streams, but it isn't doing it very well. You can't have a movie service running on your platform for 3 years or so run even more like shit then it has in the past with your newest firmware/UI upgrade, and call it a beast.
Actually fuck that... WHO NEEDS GAMEZEZ WHEN YA GOT CABLE
It's called evolution. The 360/PS3/Wii do way more than just 'play gaemz' so get the fuck over yourselves and accept that the future is and always has been in multimedia devices.
With the recent switch to PC, I've been able to record ALL of my hilarious moments in BF3, SR3, etc., so to have a similar functionality BUILT-IN would be amazing. It's a feature that's been a long time coming, what with everyone this day and age wanting to upload everything about themselves online.
I'm not sure what point your'e making. The choice to buy a bare bones gaming only machine as well as one more media oriented could only benefit consumers, especially consumers like myself who end up paying for considerable overlaps in functionality. This is not some megalomaniacal "I need to get over myself" moment, its being a half smart consumer.
If every PC on the market were to come with fairly powerful gaming hardware stuffed inside, the price of PCs would skyrocket across the board and the mainstream consumer wouldn't be so happy. If there were competition in the gaming hardware space like there is in home computing, everyone and their grandma wouldn't be trying to sell people their attempts at an all in one entertainment box.
Choice. That is what's lacking here. The functionality itself is hardly a problem, its the fact that I must pay for added functionality I have no need for in order to get to my gaming. Funny enough, its the reason why I'm moving more and more steadily to a PC only gaming setup. More options.
Link:- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Playstation-TV-TV-Tuner-PlayStation/dp/B001D67WJW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1325716590&sr=8-4
Link:- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Playstation-TV-TV-Tuner-PlayStation/dp/B001D67WJW/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1325716590&sr=8-4
"You do realize that it costs money to make these machines and it costs money for online infrastructure, manufacturing, distribution, advertising, etc."
They'd have to spend less if they just made gaming devices.
"So move over for progress and evolution ya cunts!"
I'm all for that. I'm not for gaming devices turning into media centers.
Cry some more?
Did 360 even have any exclusives besides GoW3 and Forza 4 last year?
It's what's commonly referred to as a "joke".
As for this actually being a thing, I don't think so. Media streaming has become far too popular and convenient for this decade-old functionality to be worth even a small investment of time and resources.
@gueeds: That did happen with AT&T, at least on paper. The AT&T U-Verse app for 360 pretty much went nowhere. That was a good idea, scuttled by AT&T's insistence on selling it as a $100 package including a networking adapter and media remote alongside the software. And it couldn't be used as a residence's primary TV terminal, it had to be secondary to one of their own units.
It's called PlayTV and it records TV while you're gaming and turns your PS3 on to record when it's off. The only thing it doesn't do is the whole recording game footage thing.
If this patent is from 2007, then it was probably filed around about when PlayTV was in development, no doubt to try to (perhaps even succeed in USA???) get in the way of Sony's plans.
If so it was a dick move.