I was lucky this week, my Xbox One TV dongle turned up just before I set off for work yesterday and so far I am really happy with it.
After I ordered it I had a few questions in my head, but it looks like MS have done their homework on the Xbox One and Smartglass apps so all my questions were answered within a few minutes of plugging in.
So lets start.
I took it out of the box :smile:
Inside is a dongle with a USB cable attached, plugged this into the Xbox and then found a Co-Ax cable and plugged that into the dongle, switched on the Xbox and it recognised the TV tuner straight away, answered a few simple set up questions and was good to go.
In the settings I now see Oneguide with two sections one for HDMI and one for USB where you can choose your provider so in my case it's Virgin Media for cable and UK Freeview for USB
When you launch Oneguide on the Xbox One if you scroll past the end of Virgin it just goes to the Freeview section and so on, when you set favourites they stay in their own section so not all mixed up. When you change from a cable to TV channel there is a slight delay as the Xbox has to change what it is doing but not long enough to be a pain.
I haven't tried voice commands yet.
On to Smartglass, superb, I can just scroll from cable to the dongle channels, OK seeing as I effectively have duplicate channels it's a bit pointless but I bought this as a test bed for when I get the wife an Xbox One and the dongle will be the only TV option, but it also future proofs us if we move and don't go the cable/broadband option.
Now for the fun bit, I am listening to music on the Xbox One, I launch Smartglass on my laptop or Surface or even my wife's laptop or Surface 2 and go Oneguide, pick a Freeview (Dongle) program choose stream and it streams with the Xbox One carrying on playing music and the only thing you see on the Xbox is a small notice for a few seconds saying X person started streaming TV. If you stream to a device whilst watching TV on the Xbox I would reckon there is about a one second delay compared to the feed on the Xbox, but if you then stream to a second device those two devices are in sync (Both a second behind the Xbox).
OK I have a bit more testing to do, but if you own an Xbox One in Europe I can happily recommend the dongle, well worth the pennies.
I will add some more when I have had a non work interrupted chance to play with it a bit more.
Bob
PS To the person in New Zealand who asked me to get him one:
If you can get it any other way I would really appreciate it as I do shift work and never get a chance to get to a post office and most times I miss deliveries and spend hours trying to get things re-delivered, I was lucky this time but it could end up being a full days work to sort this for you.
After I ordered it I had a few questions in my head, but it looks like MS have done their homework on the Xbox One and Smartglass apps so all my questions were answered within a few minutes of plugging in.
So lets start.
I took it out of the box :smile:
Inside is a dongle with a USB cable attached, plugged this into the Xbox and then found a Co-Ax cable and plugged that into the dongle, switched on the Xbox and it recognised the TV tuner straight away, answered a few simple set up questions and was good to go.
In the settings I now see Oneguide with two sections one for HDMI and one for USB where you can choose your provider so in my case it's Virgin Media for cable and UK Freeview for USB
When you launch Oneguide on the Xbox One if you scroll past the end of Virgin it just goes to the Freeview section and so on, when you set favourites they stay in their own section so not all mixed up. When you change from a cable to TV channel there is a slight delay as the Xbox has to change what it is doing but not long enough to be a pain.
I haven't tried voice commands yet.
On to Smartglass, superb, I can just scroll from cable to the dongle channels, OK seeing as I effectively have duplicate channels it's a bit pointless but I bought this as a test bed for when I get the wife an Xbox One and the dongle will be the only TV option, but it also future proofs us if we move and don't go the cable/broadband option.
Now for the fun bit, I am listening to music on the Xbox One, I launch Smartglass on my laptop or Surface or even my wife's laptop or Surface 2 and go Oneguide, pick a Freeview (Dongle) program choose stream and it streams with the Xbox One carrying on playing music and the only thing you see on the Xbox is a small notice for a few seconds saying X person started streaming TV. If you stream to a device whilst watching TV on the Xbox I would reckon there is about a one second delay compared to the feed on the Xbox, but if you then stream to a second device those two devices are in sync (Both a second behind the Xbox).
OK I have a bit more testing to do, but if you own an Xbox One in Europe I can happily recommend the dongle, well worth the pennies.
I will add some more when I have had a non work interrupted chance to play with it a bit more.
Bob
PS To the person in New Zealand who asked me to get him one:
If you can get it any other way I would really appreciate it as I do shift work and never get a chance to get to a post office and most times I miss deliveries and spend hours trying to get things re-delivered, I was lucky this time but it could end up being a full days work to sort this for you.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram