Canada's second-largest telco, Vancouver-based Telus, is allowing subscribers to its Optik TV service use Xbox 360s as set-top boxes, an option AT&T says it will be offering U-verse subscribers by the end of the year.
Telus says Xbox 360 users can:
- Watch Optik TV's over 400 digital channels, including over 50 in HD;
- Watch shows they have recorded on their Optik HD PVR digital box;
- Use PVR Anywhere to record up to 3 live shows simultaneously from any room
- Pause a recorded program in one room and pick it up from the same spot in a different room
- Get PVR functionality from any TV when watching recorded programs --pause, replay, rewind, fast-forward.
In addition, subscribers can also use the Xbox 360 console to access digital photos and digital music libraries on the TV via their home wireless network and connected Windows PC.
The telco currently is offering a free Xbox 360 to customers who take high-speed Internet on a two-year contract. To use the Xbox 360 with Optik TV, which is a fiber-to-the-node system that launched in June, users need a Cisco Systems HD DVR from Telus as well, and installation onto the Xbox 360 requires a technician visit to the subscriber.
"We are blazing a trail as the first provider in North America to offer this innovative capability with Xbox 360 and Optik TV," Telus chief marketing officer David Fuller said in a statement. "The integration of the Optik TV service, powered by Microsoft Mediaroom, with the Xbox 360 will deliver increased flexibility and enhance our customers' entertainment experience."
Telus has 200,000 IPTV and satellite customers.
For more:
- see this release
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