Comcast, a leader in cable TV and entertainment distribution is facing a challenge. Competition from companies like TiVo and Google TV based products is pushing Comcast to create a unique, engaging and contend driven TV, movie, DVR and online entertainment experience. This brings us to the Comcast X1 a new set-top cable box that has many in the tech world buzzing about.
The Comcast X1 is a full digital entertainment hub with access to thousands of TV shows and Movies from live TV and Xfinity On-Demand. The box sports a faster processor and new intuitive menu guide that is blazing fast to navigate through. It includes universal search across all content portals, provides live weather updates, sports scores and even Traffic alerts. The new UI is fluid and in HD. You get all the information you need in each menu without the clutter and the focus stays on the content that is playing.
The new software supports apps which they give you a few to start of with like Pandora and Facebook and more will be coming down the way as Comcast develops and releases them. Speaking of apps there will also be a X1 Remote app for the iPhone available.
For storage you have 500 GB which should be enough to store your content and your recordings from the six TV tuners that are in the X1 box. There is also Skype support for an extra fee and equipment. As of now the X1 is available in select markets with Boston being one of the first and its only available to new Comcast Triple Play customers and the X1 has to be professionally installed.
On the back of the box you’ll see your typical connections with coaxial ports, HDMI, Component, RCA, eSata and USB. Not sure what port will be live or dead when installed.
From what I can see here it looks like Comcast may have a winner. Personally I never liked the previous DVR boxes from them and switched to a TiVo because it performed better but now what I see from the Comcast X1 it looks like it will be the next set-top box I will upgrade to. Stay tuned for our full review when we get our review unit installed in.
About Warren Bowman
