Microsoft looking to integrate DVR into the next Xbox

Microsoft has been talking a lot recently about their intention to revolutionize TV entertainment through the Xbox platform. In addition to their streaming and cable offerings, it seems the company is planning to add more functionality.

This goes back as far as 2007, when Microsoft had already been rumoured to look into the integration of digital video recording (DVR) functionality. As of the 27th of December, 2011 however, Microsoft may be one step further with the granted Patent #8,083,593 which describes a digital video recorder (DVR) application that runs alongside a television client that allows the recording of media content on the gaming console itself.

This certainly suggests where the next Xbox is heading, and with Microsoft having already worked with companies such as Sky and AT&T Uverse resulting in their clients who’ve tuned their Xbox into a set top box-like access point for these cable services, it was only a matter of time before Microsoft took the TV entertainment to the next level.

There is a slight problem with such a function on the Xbox, and that is space. Hard drives currently provided with the slim console offer 320GB of capacity, and while this may seem like plenty, you have to keep in mind that all this space will be shared with the Xbox data from users. Microsoft will have to look into this, for the typical DVR users, 500GB may be the minimal threshold from which to start.

Although nothing is set in stone just yet, you may expect to see such a function into the future Xbox, integrating it on the current platform would prove to be quite a difficulty.

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