Xbox One digital TV tuner
Microsoft has announced the European availability of its Xbox One digital TV Tuner.
Although you can already feed your Virgin Media or Sky TV content services through your Xbox One with OneGuide, the console has never been compatible with Freeview or other free-to-air platforms.
Now, Microsoft has plans to change that. From October, you’ll be able to buy the Xbox One digital TV tuner for £24.99 in the UK or €29.99 in select EU countries.
This adaptor will open up access to DVB-T, DVB-T2 and DVB-C channels on your Xbox One, which means all Freeview and Freeview HD channels for those in the UK.
“Since launch, it’s been our vision to bring more entertainment features and enable live TV through Xbox One to more markets around the world,” explained Microsoft. “We know our fans in Europe have been asking for this functionality on Xbox Feedback and today, we’re pleased to announced that Xbox One users in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain will be able to experience premium live TV features on Xbox One, such as the ability to access your favourite shows and channels with the sound of your voice through the OneGuide, with the new Xbox One Digital TV tuner.”
The digital TV tuner connects to your Xbox One via USB, and then you need to attach a coaxial cable to the aerial in your home.
After you’ve done that, you’ll be able to use the Xbox One OneGuide as others could with Sky and Virgin Media services: accessing the console’s EPG via your console. You can then change channels, get programme information and other data without having to switch inputs on your TV.
You can even view TV in Snap Mode, with other apps siding up against live TV content. Plus, TV content can be paused, even though recording won’t be available initially.
For those of you with the Xbox One Kinect, you can use voice commands to change TV channel too, or even just check what’s on another channel.
“From anywhere, say ‘Xbox show guide, what’s on BBC One?’ to quickly navigate directly to that channel’s listings.”
OneGuide listings will also show you where that content can be watched on video on demand apps like Netflix, and you can also use the Xbox SmartGlass app as an additional controller.
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