Microsoft's vision for Xbox One was for so much more than a game machine. It wants to be the center of your home entertainment experience, from games and blu-ray disks to TV viewing. For consumers the potential upside is huge: trade a thousand remotes for a single device that you can command by voice or gesture. I think the device can, ultimately, live up to its potential (with software upgrades), but at launch it may actually complicate your entertainment system, not make it easier.
If you have a conventional living-room configuration setting up the Xbox One is pretty simple. Instead of plugging the cable box directly into the TV you attach it to the HDMI-in port of the Xbox One, which in turn plugs into the HDMI-in port on your TV. When you power-up the Xbox One for the first time it will ask you for the name of the cable company you use and either attempt to detect the model of the cable box or ask you to supply the model. If all works as planned you can then watch TV via the Xbox One as simply as saying 'Xbox watch TV'.
In my case life wasn't so simple: First, even though my cable box is one of the standard ones used by TimeWarner Cable in New York City, Microsoft didn't have it in its database. Even when I typed in the exact model number, it couldn't find an exact match. The closest model it could find could change the channels, but not turn the cable box on and off. I assume that over time the database will expand to include most available cable boxes.
A bigger problem for some users will result from Microsoft's decision not to sell an extension cable for the Kinect. Although an extender was sold by Microsoft for the original Kinect, I was told the latest version pushes so much data through the cable that extenders introduced lag and loss of signal. For those with a built in systems, or where the cable is not near the Xbox, or if you want to run the Xbox through a receiver on the other side of the room, you're going to have to resort to some trial and error and re-cabling to find a working solution.
However, before you invest in lots of new cables, understand the limitations of the Xbox One as a remote control, at least as it stands at launch. You may decide to forgo the (really cool, but not quite 'finished') Kinect-as-remote functionality.
How It Works
If all you want to do is watch TV, just say 'Xbox watch TV'. The Kinect will hear you an now your TV will operate just like normal. You can even use your original remote. But, then you'd be missing on the science-fiction-in-your-living-room features of the device. Saying 'Xbox OneGuide' brings up a TV listing guide, similar, but not the same, as the one from the cable box. You can change channels just by saying 'Xbox' followed by the name (but not the channel number) of the station. You can navigate the grid with an Xbox controller, and even with gesture control in a dimly lit room.
Let's talk about gesture control first. Captain blu might have been able to 'engage' with just the point of a finger, but controlling your TV with your arm is about as usable in its current form as throwing a shoe at the television. I had great problems controlling the cursor, and even a harder time 'clicking'. Maybe in time I'll get better or the Xbox will get smarter, but I might dislocate a shoulder first.
Talking to the Xbox works much better. Even in a fairly noisy room (with the radio playing in the background, no less) Xbox was able to hear my commands; most of the time the first time I said it, certainly on the second try. I noticed in the Microsoft demonstrations of the Kinect that the operators spoke in a somewhat 'commanding' tone, and while they said that wasn't necessary, I found that talking directly at the Kinect in a firm, slightly elevated voice worked best. Amazingly, the Xbox can hear you even over the sound of a TV or game that it is playing.
As incredible as the voice recognition system is, it is not without faults. For instance, you can cut all sound off by simply saying 'xbox mute', but turning down the volume requires repeated commands: 'Xbox volume down, Xbox volume down, Xbox volume down, Xbox volume down' You can't say 'lower fifty percent'. By the end of a weekend of testing my wife was ready to kill me. 'Why don't you just use the remote?', she jeered. Some people just don't get 'The Future'.
When changing channels, Xbox won't understand you if you say 'Channel 2'. You have to know the name of the channel. In talking to Mi
Further, the Kinect doesn't have all of the on-demand functions of my cable box. There didn't seem to be any way to engage, so to speak, the 'start over' review capability on my box.
I can imagine most of these functions be refined over time by the programmers at Microsoft. But at present it means watching TV can mean more remotes, not less. You'll have the Kinect, the game controller, plus your old Remote.
Another thing to consider is how you are going to turn on your TV. In my current setup the TV controlled a smart surge protector that turned off all my peripherals when it shut off and, vice-versa, turned everything on when it was powered up. In the new system the Xbox One is always in stand-by mode listening. It would be great if it had the smarts to turn on my TV, but it doesn't. I suppose I could have the TV turn the Xbox on, but I would still need a remote control to turn on the set.
By the way, these limitations come up in other media watching contexts. For instance, when watching a DVD you can speak some commands (e.g. fast forward or skip), but on the main menu of a disk you can't use voice or gesture control. You have to use one of the Xbox One's game controllers. For, my technologically challenged spouse knowing 'what' controller to use 'when' was daunting. Instead of making our lives easier, she felt it made things more complex.
Finally, consider this: You're used to pushing a button and having the TV come on, no questions asked. Xbox One doesn't seem to get that, adopting a more computer like model: You can use me when I say I'm ready to be used. Let's say, for instance, that the final episode of Breaking Bad is coming on at just the same moment Microsoft decides you need an upgrade. Rather than letting you watch TV while it works in the background, you'll have to wait for that 350 megabyte upload to install. This just about had me me pulling out my hair.
Conclusion
It all becomes a bit maddening, because Xbox One seems so close to delivering on a new way of watching media; but, it stumbles in execution. Xbox One is one of the best remotes you can get for your TV, the only stand alone unit I know that can work with just voice control. However, limitations on launch keep it from being the all-in-one nexus it aims to be. To those who see Xbox One as a game machine, this may not be an issue. But Xbox One aimed higher. One of the selling points that it uses to justify its higher price is the Kinect entertainment room experience. To become a ubiquitous technology it will have to work with more versatility than it does at launch.
You can use some of your remotes some of the time, but you can't use none of your remotes all of the time. At least not yet.
