U-verse Update on Xbox 360 in November With Issues However
As part of the Fall 2011 update to the Xbox 360, among many other features, the 360 will receive an ATT U-verse mediaroom update. For those using the Xbox 360 as an interface to your U-verse subscription, once you receive the update you will get new integrated search functionality, the new U-verse UI, and newly supported control via your Xbox Kinect.
The big issue? After the update you will need an xbox live subscription for each and every single Xbox in your home that you use to gain access to your U-verse content. Right now I have 4 Xbox 360’s in my home that I use as Media Center extenders for Windows 7. If I had to pay for an Xbox Live subscription for every single Xbox just to watch tv I would seriously have to reconsider my home entertainment setup.
The good news for everyone anyone using their Xbox 360 as a AT&T U-verse set-top box, is that it will be upgraded as a part of the new dashboard update coming this fall. that means support for the integrated search, new UI and control via voice or gestures with Kinect. The bad news? After the update, it will only work if you’re also a subscriber to Xbox Live Gold. No problem if you were already shelling out in order to get your Gears 3 co-op on, but not so awesome if you weren’t planning on buying the gaming package just to watch some TV. Giant Bomb has talked to Microsoft and of the new services, some, like the BBC, may be accessible without a paid-up Gold pass, but for HBO Go, Dailymotion and others you’ll need to toss some cash Redmond’s way. To ease the pain, AT&T is tossing a one-time $60 credit towards its users with the package — still no word on whether or not you’ll need to pay that installation fee for a new setup after the upgrade goes through.
While it sucks that they are
While it sucks that they are requiring Xbox Live Gold subscription at least they have the family pack option. I am sure there was some forward thinking to a situation like this when they started offering the family pack. So with the $60 credit it would only set you back $40 for the first year to have all four xbox’s with individual accounts.
IF, and I mean IF I were a
IF, and I mean IF I were a U-Verse customer I’d have to really think about it. For me the only reason I have xbox’s at every tv was to save on the cost of having Comcast HD DVR’s at every tv and avoiding regular/reoccurring fee’s.
-Josh
Assuming the Xbox is being
Assuming the Xbox is being used as a second, third, etc., box then it’s still cheaper. The charge for extra STBs is $7 or $8 per box per month from AT&T. You’re just paying Microsoft $60 instead of AT&T $84 or $96 and it’s all up front instead of each month. It still kind of defeats the purpose of shelling out the $100 to be able to even use your Xbox as a STB for Uverse.
KustomKid wrote:Assuming the
[quote=KustomKid]Assuming the Xbox is being used as a second, third, etc., box then it’s still cheaper. The charge for extra STBs is $7 or $8 per box per month from AT&T. You’re just paying Microsoft $60 instead of AT&T $84 or $96 and it’s all up front instead of each month. It still kind of defeats the purpose of shelling out the $100 to be able to even use your Xbox as a STB for Uverse.[/quote]
While I can appreciate your stance on the matter, I still think it is down right wrong for Microsoft to charge users a gold membership to access content like Netflix, Hulu, and now U-Verse on the Xbox. Microsoft isn’t providing the content, it doesn’t cost them any money to provide the service, they are just forcing users to pay just to get their cut.
Like I said before the day they charge me to use my Xbox as a Media Center Extender is the day I find an alternative solution to Media Center.
-Josh
umdivx wrote:
Like I said
[quote=umdivx]Like I said before the day they charge me to use my Xbox as a Media Center Extender is the day I find an alternative solution to Media Center.
-Josh
[/quote]
Agreed.
After Comcast’s smoke and
After Comcast’s smoke and mirrors conversion to digital many of my friends were alarmed at the hike in their cable bill. Then they looked and saw what they were paying for all their STBs. I use Media Center, two extenders, and an X-Box for TV. As far as Comcast knows all I have is one TV. I have even used that argument with them to have them asking why my cable bill is $100 for ONE TV. Which they they then cut my bill.
There is no telling how much this setup has saved me.
Well for me I was paying $10
Well for me I was paying $10 for the first HD DVR, and $15/each for the next three HD DVRs. So I was paying $55/month or $660/year. I am running 3 arcade units with HDMI, ran me $120/shipped each from Overstock.com. Ceton Tuner cost me $350 used, So in 13 months it paid for itself and then some.
But can you really put a price on convenience and a much better user experience?
-Josh
Josh, I do think it stinks
Josh, I do think it stinks that you have to have a gold membership to use Uverse, Netflix, and Hulu, and I agree that if we ever have to have a gold membership for MC extender capability I’ll be looking elsewhere.
Does anyone know the
Does anyone know the logistics of this? I’m assuming we still need to have one DVR as the tuner since it’s IPTV, or does it work like FIOS where you can still use a CableCARD tuner? And what about storing your recordings? Is that only done on the DVR, or can you use Media Center?
-Jonathan
http://www.att.com/u-verse/ex
http://www.att.com/u-verse/explore/xbox-receiver.jsp
The Xbox acts like a HDTV receive, non-DVR. You can access recorded tv shows from the U-Verse DVR from the 360. So the 360 is like an extender for your U-Verse DVR. There is a $99 fee to get it installed/activated.
-Josh
Thanks for the link! So you
Thanks for the link! So you need to buy a $99 kit for each Xbox, as well as buy hard drives for each Xbox. You can’t just use an Arcade. This option is getting pretty expensive!
Not sure about the hard drive
Not sure about the hard drive piece of it as you can’t use the 360 as a DVR according to the article. What I did at my house was bought used/refurbished arcades then added a 4gig USB thumb drive to each xbox (for updates and such). Last years fall updated enabled USB storage mode so that is what I use for the hard drive. I think the hard drive piece is just for the software update/install that is required for the U-Verse part.
-Josh
umdivx wrote:
What I did at
[quote=umdivx]What I did at my house was bought used/refurbished arcades then added a 4gig USB thumb drive to each xbox (for updates and such). Last years fall updated enabled USB storage mode so that is what I use for the hard drive. -Josh[/quote]
The use of a USB drive is interesting. What can you do with the 4GB drive? Seems strange to sell an arcade without a hard drive, but needs a USB drive just to receive needed updates?
The USB drives replace the
The USB drives replace the need for the cheap, 512mb memory cards that where used on the front of the system. You can get a 4gig USB thumb drive way cheaper than those memory cards. You can do anything you normally do with a hard drive as well. Store games, save games, system updates, ect…
-Josh
That’s a great, cheap
That’s a great, cheap alternative to the hard drives. Is 4GB the max size it supports?
I haven’t looked lately but
I haven’t looked lately but when they first allowed the USB thumb drive support you could do 16gig thumb drive, but it was broken up into four 4gig partitions. Not sure if that has changed. So instead I just bought a four cheap 4gig thumb drives. Look at it this way the new Xbox 360 slim the cheap one is just 4 gigs, for me 4gigs is all I really need for all my xbox’s, cept the one I actually play games on. The rest are just used as extenders.
-Josh