Microsoft announced at the E3 conference that they would be bringing live TV to the Xbox this fall. This will further elevate the Xbox to be the center of media experiences in the home. It also offers a better value than its competitors like the apple TV and Google TV. Currently, I have an Xbox set up as as media extender. It is connected to a HTPC running Windows Media Center so that I can watch live over the air TV that comes in via SiliconDust HD HomeRun dual network tuner.
I will be more than ecstatic if the “Live TV†will mean that the Xbox will be able to be configured with network tuners like SiliconDust or USB tuners in such a way that users do not require a PC to obtain over the air channels. Not only that, I get the benefit of DVR capabilities and I hope that this will also retain the auto archive feature for recorded shows via Windows Home Server. Just as an icing on the cake, I hope Microsoft will provide an SDK so that third parties can create apps for the system, or at least make it easy for Web only video channels like Revision3 and Twit.tv to be easily added to the program lineup. With that, I believe I can finally cut the Cable cord and just use Netflix streaming, Hulu Plus, supplemented by the over the air channels.
Video source Winrumors