Comcast Offers Trial Of Microsoft TV Software

Anonymous Howard writes "Designtechnica has a news article about Comcast and Microsoft announcing an agreement to test digital TV services using the "Microsoft TV Interactive Program Guide (IPG)". The trial is scheduled to start this fall using Motorola DCT2000 set-top boxes. The software is designed to help network operators get more value from on-demand and other digital TV services." There are some more details in an article over at CNET News.

Hmm

And here I thought that VCRs would only generate Blue Screens before and after a movie started ... This brings them a whole new potential career - displaying blue screens in the middle of movies!

Re:Hmm

As an owner of a DishPlayer 7200, which ran this software - I can affirm - while it doesn't BSOD, up until about a year ago, this software was rife with serious, serious, issues. Every update they put out kept making the problems worse and worse. But finally, it seems they got it right. It's a slow box, but it's reasonably stable now.

The thing is, it was the WebTV client that caused most of the havoc, but I didn't even subscribe to WebTV - I was in it for the PVR functionality.
Supposedly the OS is a stripped-down FreeBSD. But that's just hearsay from DBSForums.

i see butterflies

oh wait it is just my TV.... where is my channel changer

Mommy! Why's the TV screen all blue?

And what's a fatal kernel error?

Re:Mommy! Why's the TV screen all blue?

Ofcourse this will happen only in the beggining.
As people get used to MS quality products it will be more like :

Mommy the TV crashed again? Shall i reboot?

Re:Mommy! Why's the TV screen all blue?

A fatal kernel error is either popcorn that didn't pop, or death by heart attack from eating to much Kentucky Fried Chicken (TM).

Clippy

"I see you are trying to watch Jerry Springer, would you like some help?"

Re:Clippy

Even more dreadful:

"I see you are trying to watch some porn, would you like some help?"

I will now have nightmares...

Will it mean...

Will it mean that instead of having only the current half-hour's programming shown in the interactive guide alongside ads, there will no longer be ads, leaving room for an hour and a half's worth of programming information? If not, it's no better than the worthless crap they're serving us in the DCT boxes now. Everyone I know that has digital cable from Comcast doesn't want to see ads, they want to see an interactive version of the TV Guide Channel.

Re:Will it mean...

Well, I suppose you have me on that point. But we'd (all the Comcast customers I know) would rather see the left-side ads gone and replaced with more programming information. Faster response times on the button pressing would be nice too.

The feature I would really like to see is the ability to customize the size of the text on all the "interactive" stuff. While I feel the text is too big and bold-faced, my parents would like to see it bigger. Also, being able to customize the colors for the guide would be nice; my parents have difficulty reading the white text on green background for the sports shows, and I'd prefer to see anything and everything on the PPV channels in purple like our old TV Guide channel had. The best thing, however, would be the option to turn off the display of programming information for non-PPV channels that are not in the package you're currently subscribed to. It's frustrating and difficult to remember the 45 channels I don't have because I pay $60/month for the service instead of $90.

But that's just me...

The reason this is a bad idea

Quite frankly, the news media should be ashamed for not picking up on some of the sub-clauses of the Comcast/Microsoft agreement.

I mean, come on. The television *must* start up to Channel 447 - "Gates Gone Wild, Doggie Style."

It's just another ridiculous Microsoft ploy.

And to whip the dead horse faster...

"The program 'American Chopper' has performed an illegal action. Continue?"

Anyone else parse that as,

"Comcast Offers 'Trial Of Microsoft' TV, Software"?

Ugh... This crap again.

I'm assuming the Microsoft version will have soo many more channels than Apple's, but Apple's channels will be of higher quality.

Whatever.

Microsoft TV

I see you're trying to watch CNN.
Would you like help getting to MSNBC?

Seriously, though, is this where X-Box was supposed to go? Or how does this eventually integrate with the Media PC (I think that's what it's called.)

Hmmm, wonder what kind of privacy anomalies this introduces in the future. Think of all the tv viewing data it could phone home with!

Ads, Ads, Ads

If anyone out there really thinks there will be no ads then they are in complete denial. As long as humans inherit this earth and view tv in all it's various forms then there will be advertising. It might be passed off as programming but it's still an ad.

TimeWarner is apparently giving it a go too ...

more info [yahoo.com]

Guess AOL and MS are all buddy-buddy now that the whole Netscape "misunderstanding" is behind them.

"Value"

The software is designed to help network operators get more value from on-demand and other digital TV services.

Is there any benefit to cable customers? Is this basic program guide any different from the basic program guide that's built in to all digital cable boxes?

Like the TWC boxes didn't already suck

It's hard to imagine the TWC cable boxes getting any worse. I had their digital package/receivers for about 3 years, and the damn things locked up and rebooted on their own all the time. That's of course, when the entire network or onscreen guides weren't down all weekend.

At least now I'd get a BSOD to go along with the fun.

o great...

i wont be able to watch the simpsons anymore cause ill get the blue screen of death on tv. like the computer wasn't enough.

Microsoft always delivers!

Like in 2000?

For Microsoft, It's "Inactive TV" [businessweek.com] (businessweek)

And 2002?

[zdnet.co.uk]
Microsoft likely to miss key test on interactive TV(and they did)(zdnet)

Well...

At least Microsoft couldn't possibly make an EPG more unstable than Sky TV in the UK.

Right?

DCT Software

The current DCT software sucks. Every time you hit a button on the remote, you have to wait for the lousy software to (slowly) execute the command and refresh the screen before pressing another button. The vaunted EPG (electronic program guide) is a joke. It only shows half an hours worth of programs. They waste big chunks of screen space on ads. For a box that supposedly costs $750, they could have hired some real programmers to write the code.

It won't display..

I can't find the CTRL-ALT-DEL keys on my TV...

I can see it now...

After you get the software update for your cable box, you'll have to dial an 800 number, read off a 700 digit code and they'll give you an activation sequence. Then, once you decide to replace your television, you'll have to pay for all of the movies you watched on the previous one all over again.

Or no, better yet. Someone will write a virus that takes advantage of a security hole in the software resulting in your cable box being a participant in a DDoS attack... All this while my Tivo hums along unaffected because it's running Linux :-).

Welcome to the new Microsoft Bob Network! Did you forget your parental block password? Here, have a new one!

Sorry guys, I had to get it all out.

great...and still no TiVo from Comcast...

This takes the cake. Comcast is a shareholder in TiVo yet they won't release a digital set-top box with TiVo built in. But they will "test" the Microsoft software. Perhaps they have some contract with M$ that they have to at least deploy it in a test market before wholly rejecting it. Hopefully, Comcast will still get its $400 per set top box like the early Best Buy/MSN sign up rebate in California...that was funny...everyone got $400 in store to use and they could cancel right when they got home...

I KNEW IT

Finally I have the chance to spit out my MS-Comcast and the XBOX taking over the console market theory. Comcast is the country's largest cable provider, and 3rd in ISPs I believe. Comcast + Microsoft = loss leader XBOX/set top box, which means soon MS(soon) owns the console market and has a new media distribution platform in the living room, and it's all on a controlled piece of hardware so they can DRM all they want. Brilliant!

Now I will go actually read what this article says...

Just what I've always wanted!

Now, instead of paying money to have my intelligence insulted by some noisy box in the living room, I can pay even more for the priviledge--but now I'll have a Microsoft-blessed user interface! Sweet! I can't wait to see the new season of Who Wants to Breed With a Mongoloid? now that I know I'll be able to click through a EULA first!

My favorite quote from the article: "Comcast's selection of Microsoft TV demonstrates the industry's desire for cost-effective, scalable software platforms that help it get the most value from its hardware and infrastructure investments."

That's just too funny, all by itself. I really can't add anything to it.

Again.

Though I already expected to see this many blue-screen "jokes" and anti-MS zealotry, I have to admit that while Microsoft's security is questionable, so far they've done a damned decent job of creating stable operating systems. This computer has, as of this writing, been up for 27 days without a reboot (XP Professional) and I never had a problem on my old iPaq either before I sold it. Windows Server 2003 is very much a step in the right direction too, ousting much legacy code responsible for instabilities in the past.

While I hate to further Microsoft's aims, as a matter of principle, if it does the job better and cheaper than other competing software for digital cable boxes, why not use it? If there is a cost savings, it will certainly trickle down to you as the consumer of said service.

Microsoft software vs. cable set-top box software

The cable set-top box I have (AT&T digital cable) is really awful.

• It misses keypresses -- the receiver light blinks, so the hardware received the keypress, but the software just ignores it.
• It's really slow -- you can see the text being drawn on the screen
• It's buggy -- the wrong show sometimes gets described, which is really amusing/annoying when I'm watching Discovery Channel and the program guide shows the description of an adult movie.
• It's ugly -- but maybe I've been spoiled by the less harsh colors and more readable text used by TiVo.

Although I'm not generally a big fan of Microsoft software, in this case I'd put my bets on Microsoft's software being better.

Amit [stanford.edu]

It's about time they do something

Anyone who has Comcast knows that channel switching and doing stuff on that box is damn slow.

You'd think that for as much as one pays for digital cable, they could have ad-free channel browsing -- but no.

another digital box eh?

Wonder how worse it will be compared to Pioneer 1100 Digtal boxes that Time Warner provides. The damn thing totaly lokcs up at least once a month and I have to call the cable company and they have to fix the problem. Even exchanged the box 3 times all of them do the same damn thing. If there was a to get directv or dishnetwork in my area I would be there in a second sigh...

For one I am glad

sarcasm
Everyone should have atleast one Microsoft product or two around them at all times. Be it a PocketPC, Win 9x, Win2k or Win2003 or an Xbox or something else.
end sarcasm

I mean look at them, they have been working hard for so many years, begging borrowing stealing and flourishing
(not that all their code is like that, but I havn't seen it... have you??? so don't tell me I'm trolling...)

Look at those products, a bug a day keeps the unemployment away.

They keep millions of Windows "Administrators", programmers and IT support happily employed through these bad times, through weekly patches and serious consequences of losing your system if you dont.... throw in a few T-shirts, send them to MCSE trainings, certifications, "boot camps" and what not....

grin Unlike BSD & Linux -- a bunch of crack smoking hippies who refuse to put in bugs into their system to secure employment of fellow Open Source hackers... these guys (MS) are EMPLOYING millions of ppl. directly or through hundreds of man years of debugging , fixing , patching and just running their software... /grin

Is it only me

But does anyone else see this as becoming increasingly dangerous. Microsoft has managed to delve out into just about every marketplace imaginable, with many of their efforts (.net, MS TV or whatever they are calling that set top browser now) failing and only surviving by getting more and more money shoved into advertising or other peoples pockets to force their way into the marketplace.

I mean honestly, many of Microsoft's products are sub-par at best (Even though I hate it, I will give them credit for both Windows and the x-Box) yet we are constantly forced to use it either because there is no other way, or more likely cause its cheaper, and or because other companies force us to (how often are we forced to use IE cause it wont load properly any other way!)

I mean yeah maybe Im a bitter Apple guy who cant leave the past alone, but even if I wasn't I think I would still be worried about a company who's had more anti-trust suit levied on it than sharks have teeth getting even more access to what I see and hear on TV.

We joked about it in another thread here, but think about it, what if when going to CNN a pop up screen said, "I see your going to CNN would you like to go to MSNBC instead." I mean thats an extreme case but there is nothing stopping them, the government has done a poor job at best, CHRIST even their computers are full of Microsoft's software.

OK I will stop ranting now!

Another Heavily Trolled Topic

50 Trolls 2 Decent responses 8 Responses with possible trolling

open program guide

Too bad the NetTopBox [invisible.net] is a dead project.

As a consumer I want the cable co to expose an open set of services that lets 3rd parties compete to add value for me.

I can see a good benifit of this

Now it will make it easier to descramble porn channels.

too bad

I don't allow M$ products in my home.
So sorry comcast, no sale today...

Skip The Boring Details

The platform will scale from today's thin-client set-top boxes to future-generation devices.

Yes, yes...but does it integrate well with the iLoo [wininsider.com]?

Not necessarily a bad thing

If you've seen the screenshots from the Windows Home Media version, the interface could for this could be pretty slick. I've had an AT&T/Comcast box for three years now. As every other poster has pointed out, it's horrendous. Only 30 minute previews, obtrusive ads, slow response. If you press 551 on the remote and then hit guide, it takes you to channel 002. Lame. One of the nice things about owning a Tivo is it give a respectable ui to navigate the channels.

But I digress...

ANY alternative would be acceptable to the garbage you have to deal with now...even if it is from Microsoft. I'm ignoring the blue screen jokes, because we all know that probably won't happen (but they're still funny). Hopefully they'll give us a better ui for a more enjoyable experience of watching tv.

I hate our local digital

set-up, the guide is horribly slow, it takes almost 2 full seconds to actually change a channel, and I get black screen during the interim, not to mention the pixelization that shows up because the cheap bastards just utilized the added space to jam 3 more signals in...

COMCAST just PLAIN BLOWS. I often resort to watching the baseball games on my rabbit-ears from the local station and I get better reception. The higher resolution the program is in the worse it looks on their system. I won't even begin to talk about NOVA in HDTV or Monday Night football.....

A Few DCT Facts

hmm is my IP showing?

• The programming guide currently in use is by PreView, it gets loaded into the DCT at the local cable system (it's not built in). DCT2000s have 2mb RAM, the more channels in a system, the less room for info (or ads -ha ha)
• The boxes also seek out new firmwares upon power up. Ever plug one in, see a picture, then have it shutdown? New firmware (Welcome to DCT Update . . )
• Channel switching is quicker on later models. The 5100s are darn quick.
• I am not a big fan of of the tiny writing or ads in the guide, but at least it helped convince my family that we needed a big screen TV to read them.

Microsoft X

Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Internet
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Server Editions (or enterprise etc)
Microsoft Hardware (mouse etc)

Microsoft Games
Microsoft Console
Microsoft XBox

Microsoft Windows Media
Microsoft Cinema
Microsoft TV
Microsoft Media PC (ms tivo might be better)

No, mr judge we're defineately not using our influence in some market to expand in other markets, as that would be against the law. (v0.9b had a problem but they patched it)

what's up next ?

M$ + Comcast =? reverse-engineering platform

The DCT2000 box would be nice to control with more than just their IR remote - it's got digital/analog cable RFin, TV RFout, probably an RF ADC/DAC, probably a RISC, RAM, serial, and other IO, probably MPEG2 HW, etc - and they go for less than $50 at eBay etc. The DCT2000 is also at the heart of the DCP501 [motorola.com] home theater system - a nice pile of A/V gear to hack around. But I can't even find any tech specs published. Could the MS IPG SW be a starting point for hacking these cheap embedded video processors to some open source OS, like Linux, QNX or *BSD? Or is there already a solution for opening these devices to SW development, where the OSS community can compete with the MS offering thru innovation?

the tagline being

"Microsoft TV - we know what you're watching today"

With that headline...

I first thought comcast was going to be offering some channel similar to Court TV dedicated to showing Microsoft trials.

I hope it has defects

You know every time Microsoft comes out with something (Like the X Box) I'm hoping it has bugs.
The X Box couldn't have survived unless it was good. Your first entrence into a market is going to key your future in that market.

The entertainment industry is very nasty about quality control. You don't "make due" with a sucky TV show. You switch channels or turn the TV off. It's something you CAN live with out and if it sucks well.. you will.

So if the X Box had Microsofts typical "Crash and burn" style... We wouldn't have our favoret little Linux console now would we?
The funny part is the only defect we found so far is the one that let's us install Linux.

I don't feel fear about this. It's that whole irrational hate of all things Microsoft that comes when people make webpages for IE7 instead of for web browsers.
When I get e-mail in Microsoft word instead of PDF or better yet TEXT.
Or any other occasion when someone says "Well just use Windows."
Makes me just want to start kicking the person in the groin and say "Well just get a sex change".

But you do realise it's not actualy Microsoft but some irrational idiots who do this.

Note that Microsofties say "Just use Windows" not "try" or "Give it a chance" but "How dare you NOT use Windows.." and it's even more blasphamy to use Linux. You'll get a while speal about how "Linux will never be useful as a desktop" for saying "I use" not "Please try"
Linuz Zellots however are "Try Linux it MIGHT work for you." and GIVE you a CD.

I've seen Linux zellots compaired to Amiga fanatics and Mac zellots by Microsofties and it really bugs me how much they forget of the Amiga and Mac counterparts.

Amiga: Anytime someone comes up with some new technology "Amiga did it first".. While true it's still quite an acomplishment to bring those Amiga features to other platforms.
Mac: Woah be it to anyone who mentions the Mac was designed to be user friendly.
People early on took this to mean the Mac isn't powerful but it has proven itself quite powerful.
Still today Mac users will lynch anyone who mentions the downsides of the GUI. (Any GUI)

I'd say Linux Zellots are quite mild.
But that dosen't mean slamming everything Microsoft puts out is exactly ummmm....

Is it even right to call them Linux Zellots when they'd support APPLE, BeOS, OS/2 or Palm over Microsoft?

Anyway just becouse Microsoft puts it out dosen't mean it's going suck.
Just the irrtaional little Anti-Micro side of me hopes it will.

Microsoft TV Foundation

http://www.microsoft.com/tv/ [microsoft.com] and don't forget to check out their ridiculous promo videos.

I've been hacked!

Oh... wait a minute...
It was just the punk neighbor kid in the bushes

it won't go anywhere THIS TIME, either

This is hardly "news." MS has been trying to break into the cable STB market for years and years and years. Back during the height of the java wars they announced a parnership with another big cable operator - MS was to "give away" something like 1 Million boxes, spread out over a few deployments, in a development partnership.

The only thing that ever came from that groundbreaking deal was of provoking the biggest players in the cable industry to form their own development alliance [opencable.com]. These boxes were to use java and offer all kinds of gee-whiz features that would make cable tv so compelling everyone was going to throw away their (windows) peecees and mild bill would never again be so foolish as to try breaking into the cable hardware industry.

You see now how far it all got... on both sides of the aisle.

Short memories, should have seen it...

The Microsoft empire invested 1 billion dollars in Comcast 6 years ago.

http://news.com.com/2100-1001_3-200335.html

I expected this. Comcast has been priming its infrastructure for Micorape for a while now.

It's also possible that the collapse of @Home might have helped slow down this cable/net/PC convergence project. They probably had to wait until Comcast's self owned network was in place.

The only change is the color scheme!

As an early forced adopter of the MS IPG (Willamette Broadband in Canby/Wilsonville, OR was one of the first testers for the 'new' system), I can say that the MS IPG looks, feels, & acts just the same as the old AT&T interactive guide, just with a new blue color scheme.

All the ad spaces are still there. The system is still extremely slow. There are channels with the same wrong programming information.

For anyone hoping that the new MS system is going to be better than what you have now, you're in for a rude awakening. I can always take some digicam screenshots of the TV if anyone's interested.

~rick

Before anyone else mentions crashes...

The Sky (News Corporation's satellite service in the UK) Digibox crashes every couple of weeks - or more if you press the remote buttons too fast! A 10 second power down fixes it until the next time. It's even in the FAQ in the Sky TV guide.

So maybe MS can't do worse - hopefully they don't put a HDD in the thing though, because at least the Sky box is solid-state and recovers quickly.

Babble TV

MSN will BC ing you soon
Looking at a digital tv rendition
Of the inevitable screen of blue

Screenshots...

... of MS IPG on Willamette Broadband cable service. http://homepage.mac.com/rcarino/ms-ipg/ (1st post as a registered user!)

Re:The Life and Times of a Cum-Queen

That might be a bit off-topic. Maybe. Yup...it is.