Digital Home Thoughts: DirecTV Blade to Bring HD TV and Flicks to Xbox 360 Dashboard?

"We heard of DirecTV's philandering with Microsoft at CES when they announced they had plans for Windows Media integration and were going to "Extend the DirecTV experience to the Xbox 360 system." Well it looks like they might not just be hooking up a DirecTV box to the 360 and calling it good, but might in fact be adding a whole new blade to the Xbox 360 Dashboard that would allow for HD movie and TV downloads along with "standard-definition streaming DVR (i.e., TiVo) functions." This is according to the Official Xbox Magazine, who marks the story as a rumor, but if it is true that means the Xbox 360 might just be giving the PS3 a run for its money in the media department after all."



Official commentary from DirecTV and Microsoft has been non-existent regarding the implementation of the partnership announced at CES. That being said, I've followed Official Xbox Magazine for a couple years now, and almost all of the "rumors" they have commented on have seen the light of day. A DirecTV blade would be a significant enhancement to the Xbox 360 user experience, and would be enough to entice me to switch to DirecTV and get the Tivo service that comes with it. Device integration is becoming a central theme in the digital entertainment industry, and it was one of the hallmarks of Bill Gates' CES Keynote speech. With this capability, it would be possible to have just one DirecTV box, one subscription fee, and be able to stream feeds from that box to every TV in the house using Xbox 360s as extenders. An incredible idea, and one I personally hope becomes reality very soon.