Rumor: Leaked screens show IPTV and Fall update [update 2]

by Dustin Burg { Oct 26th 2007 at 8:00PM }

Update 2: Microsoft has responded to our screenshots saying that this isolated IPTV incident is not part of the Fall update and was accidentally exposed during repair. Learn more here.

Update: We just learned that Aaron just got his 360 back from Microsoft repair this week. We also know that his dash version isn't any different than the one that is already out (2.0.5787.0) leading us to believe that his 360 doesn't have the Fall update. But the new options are definitely related to the IPTV service as more options were discovered in his 360's settings. Need proof? Check out the two new screenshots we just added.

If the sweet, juicy, rumor friendly screenshots that we just received via our tipster inbox hold any water, then everyone can look forward to IPTV being part of the Fall update. Though, remember kids, this is all filed under the "rumor" tag ...

The ~~two~~ four screenshots you see in the gallery below were sent to us by tipster Aaron, who says that he turned on his Xbox 360 today and noticed a new TV icon with four text squares in his media blade and was wondering if we knew what it was all about. We investigated and noticed that this new TV icon option wasn't normal and replaced the "Video Marketplace" option that we see on our dash. The second thing we noticed was that, when hovered over, the description for the mysterious TV icon option reads:

Use television services.

Live & recorded TV
On-demand movies
Chat while watching TV

Sounds like IPTV options to us. Once clicked, an error message pops up stating that it was "unable to start" and to contact support at www.microsoft.com/tv. That URL will take you to Microsoft's Mediaroom website ... also interesting. So, if everything is legit in these pictures and Aaron doesn't end up being a Photoshop God, we're going speculate that this random occurrence is related somehow to the Fall update. The square text boxes, error message and overall un-ready status of the dashboard option all smell of a Fall update that isn't yet ready for the masses. Maybe Aaron was online at the right moment when an Xbox Live engineer tripped over a cord sending Fall update goodness to his 360. Who knows. We'll try to get more information about this odd occurrence and ultimately find out if these screens are real and relate to IPTV or the Fall update. Until then, file everything into the rumor section of your brain and give the screenshots a look over.

Gallery: Rumored IPTV

[Thanks, Aaron]

Tags: dashboard-update, fall-update, iptv, xbox-360

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

spartan_agr @ Oct 26th 2007 8:15PM

that would be sweet.

Dr. Klaw @ Oct 26th 2007 8:18PM

What are the odds MSFT/Verizon will pull the ol' Supervillain Team-Up and offer 360 IPTV on FiOS?

:crosses fingers:

Michael Paul @ Oct 26th 2007 8:24PM

I don't WANT to dual-boot Vista just to get IPTV to work, but them's the breaks...

Chris @ Oct 26th 2007 8:26PM

Something else really minor; the icon beside "Halo 3" is different.

DeadPlasmaCell @ Oct 26th 2007 8:34PM

This is a real n00b question.. but is this IPTV stuff free?

counterfact @ Oct 26th 2007 8:35PM

@Chris

He has an HD-DVD hooked up to his 360, thats why the disc icon is 'split'

Chris @ Oct 26th 2007 8:37PM

@counterfact

Ohh, okay. I never knew that.

Doug @ Oct 26th 2007 8:49PM

when you go to the microsoft.com/tv there is the video you can watch in the demo. About 3/4 of the way through there is a section on xbox 360 where you can see Gears of War in the background with the GUI for the IPTV in front showing channel info. Then you see a friend message pop up as well. IPTV is inevitable on the 360.

tommyd1984 @ Oct 26th 2007 8:59PM

I wish I knew this was news, I could've broke it a month ago when that thing started showing up on my console.

Mauricio @ Oct 26th 2007 9:30PM

interesting.

i guess i am gonna need that 120gb Hard drive.

Phil @ Oct 26th 2007 9:34PM

Aaron you little hack you. lol :D

clavian @ Oct 26th 2007 9:36PM

DeadPlasmaCell:

"Free" isn't in the M$ vocabulary.

rockeranimefreak @ Oct 26th 2007 9:42PM

lol@clavian! nice one! and so true! but some tv shows are free... can't say I've seen a new music video yet only "making of"s nowadays.

M. Dizzy @ Oct 26th 2007 9:56PM

We already know that Microsoft will be making it possible to access IPTV in England using the 360 through their partnership with British Telecom. It's only inevitably that they would do the same in the states (currently the IPTV partner is AT&T and their U-Verse offering). They use Fiber to almost the home with a short run of copper that allows them to sustain ungodly speeds (you can record 4 channels at once with your DVR.)

I'd bet money that this is coming soon...the question is just when.

Jason @ Oct 26th 2007 10:07PM

A *short* video demo of the TV feature is available at http://www.microsoftmediaroom.com/#/games/.

todd @ Oct 26th 2007 10:19PM

Had Uverse for a free month. Haven't had cable for 10 years, it was nothing too special that I would drop money on it. If they offered a package for a reasonable price, if you had a 360 then I would bother. HD content was $10/mo extra and maybe 5-8 real channels beyond the Star, HBO, etc... local HD off the air is free and looks great, so again, nothing too special unless they can make it a good deal. BTW tell them to pick up the damn boxes.

Richard @ Oct 26th 2007 10:23PM

looks like we're gettin more info here than from Major Nelson who's keeping pretty quiet about the fall update at the mo. Gonna change to BT in nov ready for iptv!

Eddy @ Oct 26th 2007 10:41PM

BUNGIE IS GIVING NEW ARMOR (RECON) FOR STUPID SUNTS RECOGNIZED BY THEM!!! IT LOOKS PRETY SICK!!! X3F YOU SHOULD POST THIS UP!

http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=12901

Matt @ Oct 26th 2007 11:06PM

My understanding is that the IPTV provider has to be running the MS IPTV software for it to work. If your IPTV provider does not (to my knowledge, looks like AT&T is the only one in the US so far) then you probably wont be able to use this.

todd @ Oct 26th 2007 11:44PM

Ya you need the a provider that does MS IPTV... ATT is trying to get Uverse national so in the next few years it's going to be across the US, or most if it anyhow.

DVictor @ Oct 27th 2007 12:25AM

they should just have verizon do it, since verizon and microsoft are both money hungry companies, plus i already have FIOS, so the should make it easier for me

Platinum_Skeet @ Oct 27th 2007 12:39AM

If this is true I have to drop cash on an Elite...

kfresh97 @ Oct 27th 2007 5:12AM

Talk about a scoop. Nice work X3F!

Pity I live in Australia and will get shafted again. Oh well.

h0mi @ Oct 27th 2007 5:42AM

So Ive been considering buying either an arcade unit or an elite since I'm wanting HDMI. The down side to the elite is that the 120 gb hard drive is really unnecessary- I've got 7gb free on the 20. IPTV would change things dramatically.

Nathan @ Oct 27th 2007 7:38AM

Looks like in the current version of the dashboard everyone has the same code but it's disabled for obvious reasons. I bet when they flashed the system, part of the software didn't copy over correctly causing all options to be exposed, LMAO. But that means MS wants this done, possibly for the Fall update. Also means the 120GB HDD will become valuable... and I still have a good old 20GB, over 5GB free and if I delete demos, I will have over 8 or 9 free.

Raycer @ Oct 27th 2007 7:41AM

so basically, It'll make my 360 an HD DVR box which I already have, (ok a few more minor features too). Not to mention I live in a place where only Time Warner provides cable access so I guess it'll mean nothing to me.

MDJ2010 @ Oct 27th 2007 8:04AM

Ive gotta say that at the moment I can see no great benefit in this. It will see 90% of 360 owners need to upgrade there HDD and also streaming media from the internet is the way to go because it can all be done solely through your PC. I honestly think that if you personally genuinely wanted this kind of feature you would have already have found its availability elsewhere, I want my 360 for playing games because thats what its soooo damn good at!

ssuk @ Oct 27th 2007 8:19AM

If there has been no update to the console, it may be that something's glitched in the normal, current dashboard update. Which means that MS could have wanted IPTV to be present last big update, however never came to be.
The 'box' you see is when the 360 is calling apon letters which the font doesn't recognise. As a result, instead of crashing it uses its 'catch all' character and displays a square. This is probably a result of the corruption of that part of the Dashboard. If I were Aaron, I would watch himself because a corruption on the internal system memory could ultimatly lead to a RRoD.

JP @ Oct 27th 2007 10:19AM

I saw a ms demonstration early last year of the microsoft home.

They where demonstrating an early vista beta, xbox 360 and there future iptv set top box, you could message your buddys, watch tv with friends or do split screen, draw on each others screens, create your own channel to share with friends with home videos, pictures and music.

Very cool stuff.

JP @ Oct 30th 2007 9:56AM

oh I'm in the UK btw.

vince @ Oct 27th 2007 11:01AM

didnt they announce iptv for the uk already? this could just be in the code for the 360 but still only get started in the uk

Squishy @ Oct 27th 2007 11:24AM

I'm willing to bet it shows up as four squares because the 360 doesn't have the East Asia language pack installed, so it shows up like that because they're Japanese characters.

Jack the Ripper @ Oct 27th 2007 11:37AM

If this potentially replaces my current cable company, I will be sooooo happy.

Keyth.Halloween @ Oct 27th 2007 11:55AM

Neat idea, but I'd rather not rely on having my XBox 360 on to watch TV...

I'll stick with DirecTV and all the nice HD channels we've been getting lately.

Grendel Pr1me @ Oct 27th 2007 12:12PM

This could explain the extremely vague remarks made about the XBL Video Marketplace coming to other markets in the fall as announced back at E3. Offering IPTV in those regions may meet the local region content requirements, while still allowing MS to offer the same movies the United States has had all along.

Jonah Falcon @ Oct 27th 2007 12:12PM

I thought it was a Pokeball :p

Trashman @ Oct 27th 2007 12:37PM

I just want the fall update to come out. I dont really care for this. All I care is being able to change the email my live account is linked to and make it so I can use live messenger on my system and also see ads

Godfa7h3r @ Oct 27th 2007 1:29PM

This is basically confirmed. If you go to http://www.microsoftmediaroom.com/#/games/ it has a video of it working on a 360 and also says "Microsoft Mediaroom will soon be available on the hottest gaming console in the market today - the Xbox 360"

ccc @ Oct 27th 2007 2:34PM

After recieving the red ring of death and getting a refurbished 360 back, I am having loads of problems with my live arcade games. I had 34 registered to the old 360. Ofcoarse now I cannot play any of my games offline, sometimes while I am playing them online it cuts off and claims to be the trial version. Sometimes they just wont load or everytime I attempt to play one it has to update first. The very first thing I did when I powered up this new 360 was redownload all my games and dlc from the marketplace but that didn't help at all. I called Microsoft and they told me that this is a problem that MS acknowledges and that they are working on a solution and that the issue should be resolved with the Fall update. Is there any set date as to when the update will take place and has anyone else been told this by MS?

Hoober @ Oct 27th 2007 3:01PM

Well for now there's always http://www.freetube.us.tc

Also who's to say that's IPTV..lol it could just as well be WEBTV lol (revival of the horrendous internet attempt taken by microsoft).

OTAM @ Oct 27th 2007 4:20PM

How about you give the users what we want (Divx support) and not what you "think" we want (IPTV and marketplace).

PerPixel @ Oct 27th 2007 5:29PM

http://forums.xbox.com/14992792/ShowPost.aspx

Had this a retail XBOX my father bought in may. I did go to repair or anything. Out of the box like that. Its not something on the HDD. Removing the HDD and swapping it with an other one doesnt remove the option. If you use the uninstall option and enter your serial number, the XBOX reboot and the button is replaced by the video market place button like it should.

Bob @ Oct 28th 2007 2:03PM

quote off of http://www.microsoftmediaroom.com/#/games/
"Get the best in TV plus the best in gaming, together. Microsoft Mediaroom will soon be available through the hottest gaming console in the market today—the Xbox 360™. Play the latest video games or watch TV while chatting with your Xbox buddies. And Xbox Live enables a whole new way to connect with friends and entertainment—all over your television.
"