Paul Thurrott writes:
Purchasing an Xbox and UltimateTV device today would cost consumers $500 to $600; presumably a combination device would cost much less.
For some reason, people confuse devices such as UltimateTV with products such as TiVo. Although the two appear to be doing a similar thing (record a TV broadcast program on a hard disk for later viewing and other tricks), they are differ technically, and even more so in market positioning.
UltimateTV is an all-digital device. It can record only digital broadcasts. Specifically, it receives only DirecTV satellite broadcasts, which means you can't use it if you use any other TV service. The reason is simple: digital TV signals are encrypted to prevent theft of service, and different broadcasters use different encryption mechanisms.
TiVo, on the other hand, is an analog/digital hybrid. It sits between your STB and your TV, thus getting an analog video signal. A special chipset in the device does A2D conversion and compression before storing the program on your hard disk. Because TiVo sits after your STB, it works with both satellite providers (DirecTV and DISH), as well as all CATV systems.
The crucial point is this: if you want to create a device that can record any TV signal, regardless of who your service provider is, your device must be able to accept the only signal that all providers ultimately generate: NTSC. Otherwise, you must sign contracts which each provider, because each provider has total control of who can decrypt the signal (not to mention that the actual decryption algorithm is also a carefully guarded secret by so-called CA companies).
As a result, if Microsoft wants Freon to work regardless of service provider, it must make it an analog/digital hybrid. While this is not too difficult to do, UltimateTV is not that device.
|