Microsoft to bypass High Def disc war with Mediaroom on Xbox 360

Mike Bantick
Tuesday, 08 January 2008 10:49

Your IT - Entertainment

This is why Microsoft is not overly worried about Warner Bros jumping ship from the HD DVD that they back, to Blu-Ray high definition disc format.  They know that in the long run, the physical media will be bypassed.

Touched on during the final Bill Gates keynote address at CES 2008 in Las Vegas, Microsoft have announced further details around turning their Xbox 360 gaming console into a HD Digital Set-top box, video recorder and video on demand service with IPTV and Mediaroom software.

This surely has to be the future of the high definition format, regardless whether the Sony (and PS3) backed Blu-Ray or Microsoft and Toshiba backed HD DVD high definition disc format comes out on top, with broadband penetration increasing all the time, eventually it will be video on demand services such as IPTV which will win out.

And with Sony also working on a similar concept, PlayTV for the PS3, how long before the physical disc media as we know it today is dead?

Microsoft’s IPTV is signing up deals with both TV and Movie content providers and beginning to spread the tendrils of the service [finally] around the world, with British Telelcom (BT) being confirmed today as forming a partnership to bring IPTV service content to UK Xbox 360 owners.

The service is also being trialled in Canada, Taiwan, China, Italy, South Africa and India.

In essence this is video on demand, using Mediaroom software to deliver a media convergent service of photo, music, chat, gaming, video on demand and more into the living room.

So far content deals have been signed with MGM, Disney, and ABC studios with Robbie Bach, Microsoft’s entertainment chief announcing  Xbox 360 worldwide sales of 17.7 million; “With its continued momentum in games, accessories and digital entertainment via our leading online service, and record-setting games and accessory attach rates, evidence is everywhere that Xbox 360 is thriving,” he said.

Regardless of the individual success of  Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, or for that matter any forthcoming network attached consumer product , it is pretty clear that the possibility of the High Definition disc format war might well be over before it determines a true winner is high.

Now if only the big players could get some deals struck here in Australia, everybody will be happy.