A lot of fanfare has been award to the upcoming Xbox One DRV functionality. Announced at this year’s Gamescom, head of Xbox, Phil Spencer revealed that the next-gen console would be receiving an update later this fall that would enable the console to record over-the-air TV programming. However, just like the Backward Compatibility functionality that received applause during E3 this year, DVR functionality comes with some fine print.
Project Lead Richard Irving took the stage at Gamescom to fully explain how the new DVR functionality would work. According to Irving, DVR records are not saved to the console’s internal hard drive. More explicitly, “You need an external hard-drive specifically for DVR because we want to keep the paths optimized between playing games and watching TV. We don’t want them to interact with each other,” explained Irving. Fortunately, Microsoft recently partnered with Seagate to offer an exclusive Xbox One designed 2TB external hard drive for such an occasion.
As part of the Windows 10 overhaul to the Xbox One, users will be introduced to a new ‘Xbox One Experience’. With the update, users will now be able to not only search through the Xbox One channel guide but now users can schedule recordings of shows for later viewing. Xbox One users can also look forward to scheduling their records from almost anywhere by remotely engaging with the console through cross-platform SmartGlass apps or the Xbox app on Windows 10 devices.
According to an interview given to GameStop, the DVR recordings will be captured in 1080i being the highest theatrical resolution widely used. Lastly, as part of the Windows 10 platform update, Xbox One users will be able to transfer show captures onto a tablet or other PC device on the same home network. Users will be able to have shows directly record to a specified device for use offline later. The transferred recording option is a Windows 10 exclusive and will not work in conjunction with Android or iOS devices right now.
