[Geoff @ Jan 9th 2007 9:03AM]

Does anyone here honestly think that the content owners are going to partner with Microsoft, to distribute their content via a gaming console - a toy, of all things, unless said content is copy protected?

Time for a reality check guys. 360 IPTV is NOT going to be distributed over component. Just because that's how it's done via cable providers at the moment doesn't mean Microsoft is going to enjoy the same privilege. Furthermore, if copy protection weren't imperative now, then Microsoft wouldn't have integrated it so fundamentally into Vista. They could easily have left it for the first Service Pack.

But, whatever. Believe what you like. Don't be surprised, however, when everything I've said turns-out to be right, and you finally have to admit you were wrong.

[Lonnie McClure @ Jan 9th 2007 11:16AM]

Geoff:

"Just because that's how it's done via cable providers at the moment doesn't mean Microsoft is going to enjoy the same privilege."

But it does put forth a very strong precedent. The only precedent you have put forth is Vista, which had to meet requirements for secure playback of HD-DVD and Blueray, not streaming IPTV.

Frankly, given that the 360 already plays HD-DVDs and HD download content over component, serves as further evidence that their IPTV service will NOT work only over HDMI.

If you do some more reading on the IPTV service, you'll see Microsoft will not be providing the actual service, but instead, it will be teaming with 3rd parties such as AT&T. Microsoft's "in" is saving these companies the cost of an IPTV settop box for 360 owners, and giving them a lower barrier to market entry.

Do you really think Microsoft will kiss off the 10 million or so 360's already sold as a potential part of this market? Let's not forget that once the new HDMI-equipped 360 is 100% official, that doesn't mean it is going to ship tomorrow, next week, or even next month.

[Ryan @ Jan 9th 2007 1:49PM]

Not to turn this into a pissing content over 360 vs. PS3, but 360 has already proven that it is more than a Toy. The device has been out over a year, and the best "hack" anyone has done so far involved rewriting the firmware for the DVD drive. Security wise, the 360 has so far demonstrated an amazing resistance to attacks. The PS3 on the other hand, with its ability to run Linux practically OOB, demonstrates the weakness in having an open system like that. How long did it take for someone to start riping Blu-Ray movies on their PS3s creating ISO images? If you were a content provider other than Sony, and PS3 had a similar IPTV capability, which horse would you back?
The 360 has already proven its worth as an HD capable and secure device, in fact the only attack vector still available would be to capture the HD content over the component outputs. That said, I don't believe there is a CE device yet that can capture and record straight from component.