Microsoft Set to Release New Media-Friendly Set-Top Box

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.com.com/New+Microsoft+set-top+box+ready+to+roll/2100-1041_3-5381459.html?tag=nefd.top' target='_blank'>http://news.com.com/New+Microsoft+set-top+box+ready+to+roll/2100-1041_3-5381459.html?tag=nefd.top</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Microsoft plans to start shipping a new set-top box next week, and it's not your grandmother's WebTV. Though MSN TV2 is the successor to the original WebTV devices, the new box is a vast departure from its predecessors. On the outside, it's slick, with new video-playback and photo-viewing programs, and a custom version of Internet Explorer 6 designed to make Web browsing on the television a far less painful process. On the inside, it's a Windows CE-based product with a 733MHz Celeron--slow by PC standards but downright zippy in the world of set-top boxes."</i><br /><br />Sounds interesting, although the claims that they'll support video playback over 802.11b is dubious. I wonder if they're referring to Web-based video..

[ctmagnus]

Customers will get 2GB of e-mail space for their primary account and 250MB for up to 11 additional accounts.

Related to the upcoming Hotmail storage upgrade?

[Felix Torres]

What I find interesting is that it offers the web access and net streaming features *in addition* to the standard media extender functions. So this already ups the ante a bit in the home media streaming market. Would be interesting if net-based audio and video streaming are possible from non-MSN sources.

Even more interesting is the possibility the third-party media center extenders might have similar web access capabilities...

Undetermined at this point are whether the quoted price is subsidized or not and whether the box supports HDTVs.

That the specs match the XBOX cpu suggests the XBOX will be a useful media extender in its own right. And since the XBOX already supports HDTV, the question then becomes "can the XBOX with media center extender kit go beyond the home network?"

Me, I was planning to seriously look at the XBOX extender kit but I may now have to also look into the MSN TV2...
Not making it easy on me...

[David Horn]

Don't know about you, but I can stream DVD quality video (Xvid) over my 802.11b connection without the slightest problem. No buffering, it just works.

[Jason Dunn]

Don't know about you, but I can stream DVD quality video (Xvid) over my 802.11b connection without the slightest problem. No buffering, it just works.

Sure, but I can promise you that the video isn't at 4000 kbps - it's probably 1000 kbps or even a bit less. MPEG2 is an older style compression and certainly not terribly efficient compared to newer compression solutions....