European Xbox One's Getting OTA Television

Looks like Xbox One owners that live in Europe are going to be having a lot more fun watching Television this Fall. Microsoft announced earlier this week the release of a new add-on for Xbox One consoles. The Digital TV Tuner will be working along side the Xbox One's "OneGuide" to provide over-the-air (OTA) Television broadcasts. Now, for the not so tech savy readers out there, this basically means that you're going to have support for a few more STB's on your console, without the use of the HDMI pass-through port, just one of your USB ports. OTA devices have been becoming more and more popular as the months go by, so it's no surprise that they'd make an appearance in the Console world.

The Xbox One console at the time being only supports playing TV from STB's that use an HDMI cable for outputting the video signal. With the new Digital TV Tuner, you'll be able to connect Coaxial cables directly from your antenna receiver. The device will then connect to your console, and modulate the signal from Analog to
Digital. In laymen's terms; it'll convert the coaxial signal to a digital one that the console can understand and display on your screen. According to Polygon, the device will add support for "DVB-T, DVB-T2 and DVB-C broadcast standards".

Now a lot of you are probably reading this and thinking: What's the real use of this device? Some of you may or may not know, a large number of homes in Europe do come with Antennas for use with a Television; this doesn't mean that everyone uses it, though. It's time that those who don't have access to Satellite and/or Cable television in their homes in Europe to experience their Xbox One to a better extent. Unfortunately, when Polygon reached out to Microsoft for a statement regarding if the Digital TV Tuner would be making an appearance in the United States anytime soon, they had this to say:

Over-the-air television reception varies region to region. A good experience may rely on antennas that not all households have. Consequently, it is more difficult to provide an out-of-the-box consumer solution for over-the-air TV in the U.S. compared to other markets around the world. We will continue to evaluate new technologies and future opportunities to bring over-the-air digital TV to Xbox One in other markets.

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It's perfectly understandable that it won't be in the United States for some time. Majority of homes that have Xbox One consoles in the US most likely have access to Cable or Satellite Television. Also, as stated in the quote from Microsoft, not all homes will even have an Antenna to begin with. Personally, my house has an Antenna, but the wire coming down from the Antenna has long been cut, and doesn't work whilst connected to a TV.

The Digital TV Tuner will be available for purchase this October in France, Germany, Italy and Spain for €29.99. It will also be for sale in the United Kingdom for ₤24.99. How many of you, the European members, are going to need to pick one of these bad boys up? As for the non-European members, are you guys wishing you had one of these, or do you agree with Microsoft's statement?

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