Did you run your cable box thru your Xbox One?

[dmw16]

I picked up an Xbox One yesterday (I had told myself I wouldn't go out of my way for one, but target had them on the shelf so what the heck ) and after a long second half of the day at work and a crap commute thanks to Northern Virginia drivers not being able to navigate rain (or perhaps unicorn tears judging by how they react) I get it home and start setting it up.

Initially I ran the cable box thru the console and it works surprisingly well. The guide loads properly, the pause is quick and smooth, and it transitions smoothly. But it seems a little cumbersome to need to have my Xbox one whenever I (or more importantly my wife) wants to watch TV.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems like I need to have my Harmony remote and my Xbox controller to get TV going. And that seems kinda silly.

So am I missing something? Are you guys running your cable box thru your console? Are there real benefits?

 

[boomhower]

Interested in results as well. Undecided if I'm going to run my satellite through it. Kinda seems like a waste of power and an added point of confusion for the rest of the family. I have everything fine tuned with the harmony and kinda hate to screw with it.

 

[dmw16]

Interested in results as well. Undecided if I'm going to run my satellite through it. Kinda seems like a waste of power and an added point of confusion for the rest of the family. I have everything fine tuned with the harmony and kinda hate to screw with it.

That's exactly why I skipped it. My wife just wants the thing to work when she hits "watch TV" on the remote. I don't see a lot of added value to running thru the Xbox.

What's the point? So I can play video games and watch TV at the same time?

 

[purbeast0]

i haven't done it nor do i really plan on doing it.

 

[EightySix Four]

I love it and so does my girlfriend. She was used to the voice commands after 1-2 days and we use a harmony to supplement the other options as well (which I feel like it needs, using the controller/voice sometimes just aren't what you want). She enjoys being able to snap apps to the side (skype) as well as being able to just ask for Netflix without switching through a bunch of boxes.

 

[dmw16]

I love it and so does my girlfriend. She was used to the voice commands after 1-2 days and we use a harmony to supplement the other options as well (which I feel like it needs, using the controller/voice sometimes just aren't what you want). She enjoys being able to snap apps to the side (skype) as well as being able to just ask for Netflix without switching through a bunch of boxes.

If we did a lot of skype or Netflix I could see it being useful. But we don't skype much (that might change once the baby gets here in February). I need to fart around with it some more, but for now I just don't see a lot of value in it.

Maybe once Comcast gets added to the list of RedZone providers...

 

[Aikouka]

I use a WMC-based HTPC, so I chose not to hook it up; however, I'm considering trying it out when I move a different HTPC to that TV that has an IR port built into it. Although, I wonder how annoying it would be to have to deal with the X1's automated updating when you just want to watch TV. The thing is... the X1 update process isn't that long, but sweet baby Jesus, it takes FOREVER to cold boot.

Also, I'm not sure how well it would work with WMC. WMC is really designed more around multimedia as a whole rather than just TV. Even on fancier cable boxes, I assume hitting numbers on the remote would probably start choosing a new channel, but that's not the case if you're on WMC menus. So, unless I'm already watching TV, the voice commands probably wouldn't do anything. I also don't watch much live TV and I'm not sure how useful it would be for recordings.

 

[Topweasel]

I do and it's not just about control of the TV but just in being able to easily swap tools. Snap in TV. Pause quickly when you don't have the controller in your hands. Heck just being able to say the channel name instead of remembering Espn is on 1602, Fox Sports Det is on 1777 or something like that, Its so much easier to swap between the channels you want to watch then pulling up a guide and scanning through it till you find the channel you want.

It would feel like half the reason for the flexibility for the system would be lost if I wasn't using the TV in or not having it be my Uverse box.

 

[EightySix Four]

I do and it's not just about control of the TV but just in being able to easily swap tools. Snap in TV. Pause quickly when you don't have the controller in your hands. Heck just being able to say the channel name instead of remembering Espn is on 1602, Fox Sports Det is on 1777 or something like that, Its so much easier to swap between the channels you want to watch then pulling up a guide and scanning through it till you find the channel you want.

It would feel like half the reason for the flexibility for the system would be lost if I wasn't using the TV in or not having it be my Uverse box.

The whole series of:
"Xbox OneGuide"
"What's on HBO"
"Newsroom"

Is awesome. A gamechanger IMO.

 

[American Gunner]

I ran mine through and like it. It doesn't seem that cumbersome to me since you can set it up to turn everything on when you turn your xbox on. When it clicked for me was on thanksgiving, when I was able to load forza and play it until the games started, and as soon as it was halftime I went from football to forza, and it resumed where I was. No more turning on the xbox, waiting for it to load, then loading a game and waiting for all the splash screens and load screens. I did two races with tv snapped to the side so I could see when the game came back on. As soon as it did, I finished my race and switched over to tv, and did the whole process again after the game was done.

 

[dmw16]

I think I need to do a little more study of what it's actually capable of. But odds are all mostly just use it to play games. There's something weird to me about talking to devices. My car does it too and it's just odd for some reason.

 

[American Gunner]

I rarely "talk" to my xbox. It is nice when you need to get up to do something and can just say Xbox Pause on tv or a movie and it does. But I just use my direct tv remote with it so I can access my dvr stuff, so I don't use my voice for channel changing.

 

[Aikouka]

"Xbox OneGuide"

Ah... I was wondering if there was a command to bring the guide up. I actually set my guide up because I figured that even if I wasn't going to input the TV through the X1, I could still look at the programming guide and maybe the voice would make that easier. I haven't really tried it much yet, but it was quick and easy to set up anyway.

Heck just being able to say the channel name instead of remembering Espn is on 1602, Fox Sports Det is on 1777 or something like that, Its so much easier to swap between the channels you want to watch then pulling up a guide and scanning through it till you find the channel you want.

I wonder if the reason why it's not as appealing for me is that I'm not the type that sits in front of the TV and tries to find something to watch. Normally, if I'm going to watch live TV, I probably already set it up to record, and I just go to the Recorded TV section on WMC and select the item.

In a way, it's a bummer that they removed the Windows Media Extender capability from the X1 since the 360 has it. I just upgraded to a Ceton InfiniTV6 ETH, which supports extenders natively since it's an Ethernet-based tuner.

you can set it up to turn everything on when you turn your xbox on.

I found this kind of underwhelming compared to the PS4. The biggest problem for me is that while it can turn things on, it can't do much else. For example, I was messing with my HTPC, and I wanted to go to the X1 to setup some things. So I turned my X1 on using the controller, and while the console turned on, nothing happened visually. Why? Because it seems that the X1 cannot change the input on my AVR. I did setup the receiver with my exact model, but even with that, how does the X1 know what input it's set to? That's the one huge benefit of HDMI-CEC, which is what the PS4 uses. The PS4 doesn't need to know its input. HDMI-CEC works off of assigning IDs (addresses) to inputs.

In short, I wish the X1 would use HDMI-CEC or at least a mix of HDMI-CEC and IR.

 

[blackdogdeek]

I ran our Fios box through the x1 the first night we got it but the next morning the picture started freezing for seconds at a time then catching up to live repeatedly so I removed it. It took me a lot of searching online trying figure out the issue including setting the output of the Fios box to 720p and the audio to stereo out and rebooting the x1. Nothing worked until I finally did two things (so I'm not exactly sure which one solved the problem): I hard booted the Fios box by unplugging it and I swapped out one of my hdmi cables for the ones that Microsoft provided (which were probably nicer than the really cheap ones with which I swapped). Ever since then I have had no issues with the freezing but it did leave me leery and it's still working it's way into being trusted again.

The kids like using their voices to power everything on, control volume and watch Disney but my wife hates it NOT because she can't figure out how to use it but because the girls keep fighting over using the voice commands so I'll probably have to remove it again.

sigh

 

[American Gunner]

I found this kind of underwhelming compared to the PS4.

You can run tv through your ps4?

 

[Aikouka]

You can run tv through your ps4?

Unlike most people, I usually cut out parts of posts to which I am not responding. Keeping that in mind, you may want to reread the exact part that I quoted. :|

 

[blackdogdeek]

One thing that I will say that I need to do if I'm going to continue to run Fios through the x1 is to choose my favorites for the guide.

 

[American Gunner]

Unlike most people, I usually cut out parts of posts to which I am not responding. Keeping that in mind, you may want to reread the exact part that I quoted. :|

I said you can set it up to turn on everything, meaning the tv, xbox and receiver, which you can do. I don't see the problem. The thread is also about running your cable through your xbox, so I didn't see how I was in the wrong asking if you could do that on your ps4 since I don't have one.

 

[blackdogdeek]

I should also note that I have a very simple setup: Fios HD-DVR->x1->Sony TV

Other members with more complex setups may have more issues than I do.

 

[EightySix Four]

I wonder if the reason why it's not as appealing for me is that I'm not the type that sits in front of the TV and tries to find something to watch. Normally, if I'm going to watch live TV, I probably already set it up to record, and I just go to the Recorded TV section on WMC and select the item.

I think this is highly likely. I like to use live TV as background noise so I'm channel surfing a lot during the day.

 

[Aikouka]

I said you can set it up to turn on everything, meaning the tv, xbox and receiver, which you can do. I don't see the problem. The thread is also about running your cable through your xbox, so I didn't see how I was in the wrong asking if you could do that on your ps4 since I don't have one.

Yes, and I made a segue off that into the X1's ability to control devices in the entertainment center because I was rather disappointed by it this weekend as I mentioned. It's probably pretty safe to say that I'm most likely one of the most picky, anal people when it comes to electronics. I want them to work in a specific manner, and it bugs me when they don't.

 

[Topweasel]

I wonder if the reason why it's not as appealing for me is that I'm not the type that sits in front of the TV and tries to find something to watch. Normally, if I'm going to watch live TV, I probably already set it up to record, and I just go to the Recorded TV section on WMC and select the item.

I am not that type of person either. If I am watching live TV generally it's because of something I know is on. Like a sports game or I happen to realize the time and want to something I want live. So for example on Sundays, I can quickly swap between games by alternating between Watch Fox and watch CBS. Which has always been annoying on Uverse because unless I know the call sign or the channel you have to hope you can find the show you are watching on the list so you know what channel to turn to. It's easy to remember those for the 10 or so Broadcast channels. But then after that its a maze even if they use the network name. I don't know what Uverse calls USA network or FX. Just being able to saying "Xbox watch USA Network" beats going to 1100 then scrolling down till I find USA or doing a search for Psych.

 

[pathos]

Don't have one yet, but when I do, I don't plan to, no.

I actually don't plan on hooking up the kinect either, so would be pointless anyway.

I also own a htpc, so netflix and such, I do through the htpc, not any of my consoles. So, all that stuff they've been adding to the consoles is pointless to me (although i can see why someone else might want it)

 

[dmw16]

Don't have one yet, but when I do, I don't plan to, no.

I actually don't plan on hooking up the kinect either, so would be pointless anyway.

I also own a htpc, so netflix and such, I do through the htpc, not any of my consoles. So, all that stuff they've been adding to the consoles is pointless to me (although i can see why someone else might want it)

I think eventually HTPC's will get replaced with consoles, and in fact I think for most people the X1 would do the trick.

 

[Fulle]

I think eventually HTPC's will get replaced with consoles, and in fact I think for most people the X1 would do the trick.

You really think so? I think the Xbox One's best usage scenario, doesn't really fit the majority of users.

"Are you a console gamer, with a cable service we support? That doesn't use a DVR to record shows? And has compatible cable equipment? That doesn't mind your audio having quality stripped? That ALSO doesn't use a media server? And you like our limited number of streaming content providers? AND you ALSO love voice controls?! Well, WE have a great solution for YOU!"

I think it sucks, personally. I can make a list of devices that are better at delivering media to my living room....