Announced by Microsoft this Monday, we now know that their subscription-free Xbox One OTA TV DVR service will initially be limited to those in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Although not in the initial 2106 rollout, those in other countries shouldn’t fret as additional over-the-air TV support for other regions will be announced “at a later date” according to a Microsoft representative at Gamescom. It was also stressed that the DVR functionality will not negatively impact the overall technical performance of the Xbox One.
All Xbox One users are currently able to watch live TV, but they must use their existing cable or DVR boxes if they want to record selected programming. With this update, all Xbox One owners with an external hard drive will be able to do so. The feature also extends to Windows devices via streaming which includes tablets and PCs using the Windows 10 Xbox app and Smartglass.
Xbox One users can currently watch over-the-air TV by plugging an antenna directly into the TV and then into the system, but they are missing many features such as 30 second pause and Snap functionality. An official Microsoft video below explains what you need to get these additional features and how it all works.
Microsoft recently announced an official partnership with Seagate for an official 2 terabyte external hard drive for the Xbox One and Xbox 360.