Microsoft Xbox One Technical Problems: No CableCard Input, Xbox 360 Games Useless

After its launch yesterday, Microsoft Xbox One technical problems are starting to surface. As it was touted as the only peripheral your TV will ever need, but as one writer puts it – it can’t work without your cable box. Aside from this, there’s another dilemma for many previous Xbox customers: the new Xbox One console has no backwards compatibility whatsoever with Xbox 360 games.

As Sean Hollister’s The Verge said, Xbox 360 owners who were hoping to play their vast collection of Xbox 360 games on Microsoft’s latest creation will be frustrated.

The vice president of Microsoft Xbox Live said, "The system is based on a different core architecture, so back-compat doesn't really work from that perspective."

This means that Xbox 360 discs won’t work in the new Xbox One and anything else designed for the Xbox 360, like the Xbox Live Arcade. From the looks of it, Microsoft doesn’t seem to have a plan to rebuild anything originally for Xbox 360 to be compatible with the Xbox One.

Another issue with the new game console by the Redmond tech giant is the lack of a co-axial cable input or card slot at the box’s backside. John Pullen of CNN Money noted that, despite Xbox One being billed as an “all-in-one home entertainment system,” the upcoming console from Microsoft not only appears to leave crucial television integration on the shelf, it also binds users to their cable or satellite boxes. This makes the new Xbox much more than one peripheral for your TV needs – because it will actually require users to have two.

In order to also enjoy some of Xbox One’s most integral features, like its program guide or the Skyping capability while watching TV, the user needs to be ready to pay extra every month. "Supported television tuner or cable/satellite set-top box with HDMI output and HDMI cable required (all sold separately),” is noted in the unit’s manual.

The lack of a CableCard slot was also a perplexing move on Microsoft’s part when they created Xbox One. CableCards plug into PCMCIA slots, which give third-party devices access to cable and satellite networks. There are more than 600,000 deployed in the U.S.

A CableCard enables consumers in the United States to view and record digital cable television channels on digital video recorders, personal computers and television sets without the use of other equipment such as a set top box (STB) provided by a cable television company. The lack of a CableCard slot in the game console further forces its owners to rely on their service providers for cable access and DVR capabilities.

If Xbox One users want television DVR capabilities, they will have to pay television providers more (and get a third box), which would further undercut the game console’s all-in-one value proposition.

Although the Xbox One has a 500 gigabyte hard drive and slick game DVR functionality, television recording capabilities were not covered in yesterday’s announcement.