The Xbox One has always been marketed as a catch-all media device, the idea being that it would be the ‘one’ and only media device you needed hooked up to your television. But in Australia, without any kind of Live TV functionality that promise has been left un-fulfilled. Until now.
As of today the Xbox One OneGuide is now available on preview, meaning that you can check what’s scheduled on terrestrial TV and have that integrated with all of Microsoft’s other media options (YouTube apps, TV apps, etc).
But you won’t be able to watch those channels direct from the OneGuide. Not yet at least.
Microsoft’s solution to that issue, however, is incoming. In March 2015 Microsoft will release the Xbox One Digital HD Tuner, a $39.95 device that will allow you to view TV content on the Xbox One and stream that content to other mobile devices using the Smartglass app.
That sounds fairly helpful, and I imagine I will experiment with this at some point, but part of me wonders if it really will work as an alternative to simply pressing the AV button on my Plasma and switching to TV that way. I can’t help but feel that Microsoft is attempting to solve a problem that literally does not exist. I don’t know anyone actually inconvenienced by terrestrial TV and the need to switch inputs. It’s easy to switch inputs. It’s literally done at the push of a button. With this, players have to mess around with different apps and put it all together. And pay $39.95 to add another device to their Xbox One. Not sure many people will sign up for that.
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28 responses to “OneGuide For The Xbox One Is Finally Here In Australia”
Sounds like the Australia Tax in full effect. Why do we have to pay $40 when the US doesn’t? Remote Play coming soon with Windows 10 is the future, so your girlfriend can watch the Batchelor while you stream your Xbone games to your lappy/tablet.
Because my understanding is that it’s going to be a physical tuner device similar to the PlayTV on PS3. Not sure what the solution is in the US – perhaps their cable boxes tend to have PVR capabilities built in, and the Xbone can control them directly via the HDMI port?
In the US everyone has a cable box which runs on a pass through on the xbone. Because our tuners are integrated into the TV, we can’t do this (no hdmi out).
It’s one of the fundamental problems with the xbone design which makes it incredibly America-centric. I’ve been wondering how they’d address this issue ever since the console reveal. Looks like a real afterthought!
At least it shows they actually do think of us from time to time.
Can’t the IR blaster of the one just run a macro which switches the input and picks the channel?
Though I guess the real reason for the tuner is so that you can run tv with the xbone overlay.
Seems annoyingly complex, makes the wii u look elegant, even with the dead tvii functionality staring at you every time you boot it up…
If I watched TV I’d be excited.
Will it also function as a PVR?
As a PS3 gamer I use play TV because of it’s PVR ability and I think it has the best EPG going around.
The EPG on the PlayTV is OK, but it’s pretty bad at doing anything other than recording single shows. Series recording is terrible, and good luck if the thing you’re recording runs late.
There is a reason for that. To record series, information needs to be in the EPG so the device can plan for the episodes.
Such details are in the US and UK guides but when I last looked (I ditched PlayTV for a TVHeadEnd box way back) the required info was never in the AU EPG thus the only thing the PlayTV had to work with were episode times and REGEX comparisons on the name.
In terms of late running shows, that was a peeve of mine as well as the PlayTV expected the EPG to always be correct. Which sadly was not the case.
Though oddly enough I once had a recording run twice as long as needed as it somehow failed to detect the show I wanted had ended and it started recording the next one as well.
It doesn’t even bother with regex comparisons on the name. It just records the same time period every day/week. Which screws up even when there’s a planned delay due to a “very special episode of Big Brother” or some such, or when the series has simply ended.
I’m using a Fetch TV now (which was free on an Optus recontract) and it seems to do a pretty decent job of series recording thanks to its Internet augmentation.
Great! So it’s even worse now!
Then again, the reason why I eventually got off the PlayTV was I just got tired of the device being limited because the region was set to Australia.
Now I have an old junker with a few tuner cards that does the same thing and more. It even lets me stream TV over the network to other computers so I have no complaints.
incase you didnt realise, its been available for a few months in the uk.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Official-Xbox-One-Digital-Tuner/dp/B00E97HVJI
Advantages of running the TV through XBOne:
*Can pause/rewind live TV (dunno to what extent though) – handy for those without PVR or Foxtel IQ.
*Can use Snap (so have show on beside playing games)
*Control using voice or Smartglass app
…But most importantly, you can stream live TV to any device running Smartglass (most phones, tablets, possibly even PCs?)!! Combined with Win-10’s game-streaming, that’ll mean you’ll be able to watch TV or play games whilst the significant other uses the main TV.
This is a good feature as far as I’m concerned
So for $40 you will be able to watch live TV on your iPad while you poop?
Well if that was the case then you could just set up a webpage to stream all live tv. So licensing problems incoming.
Ok so what’s “available on preview” actual mean? and how does this work with using the US region hub?
Call me when it handles Foxtel and the DVR functions too.
How do I get onto the preview?
@d4rk took the words out of my mouth… this already exists in the UK.
What im wondering is would this work now if you just imported the adaptor from the UK???
It should – Xbox accessories are (mostly) region-free.
Whirlpool reports in the past were that it worked if you set the console to UK (and did a manual scan for TV channels) – kind of like how you could work around to get Kinect Voice for the 360 before it went live here.
I have imported one from the UK.
It didn’t work.
It had to do with the software being rolled out to Aus.
They’ve now rolled out the software for OneGuide… but it still doesn’t support the actual viewing.
Also, from what I can see, it doesn’t use the HD tuner in your TV.
You need a set top box.
I long for the days when a games console was simply that.
OH MY GOD PAW PATROL
(I hate kids shows but the puppies in Paw PatrolPatrol are kinda cute.)
I have foxtel so this is of limited use for me (tho it might help with GEM and the other FTA channels I can’t get with satellite foxtel), but I hooked foxtel up with the xbox purely so i wouldn’t have to switch inputs. It may be a very minor inconvenience to push a button on a remote but it’s still an inconvenience i’d rather not have.
Plus with the one guide it’ll be easier for people to check what is on before having to switch inputs and then switch back again when they realise nothing is on. It’ll also help people who just cant handle input switching, as easy as it is for us, it still confuses alot of people.
So I think people will sign up for it, even at 40 bucks, not everyone, but enough to make it worthwhile for MS.
PREORDER NOW YO.
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msaus/en_AU/pdp/Xbox-One-Digital-TV-Tuner/productID.309514900
Just to clarify – OneGuide works now for those on preview & supports any Freeview Set Top Box (i.e. Topsfield, Humax, etc). It will enable control over that device with voice or controller via IR Blasting.
TV Tuner is intended for those that have with no dedicated set top box (or internal TV Tuner), enables full Freeview digital TV channel listing & provides additional features such as sling & Live TV pause.
PlayTV is still my go-to for telly. I bought an LCD screen back in the day which purely took an input – PlayTV (and by extension, PS3) handled everything I needed media-wise and you know what?
It still does.
I get the feeling the One Digital HD Tuner will be the HD DVD Player all over again; completely redundant in the end.