Comcast Will Soon Launch Smart TVs Under Its New XClass TV Brand (protocol.com) 44
Comcast is gearing up to launch its own smart TVs: The company has struck a partnership with Chinese TV manufacturer Hisense to sell two smart TV models under the XClass TV brand, Protocol reported Tuesday. From the report: A number of clues left online suggests that a launch is imminent. XClass TVs run a version of Comcast's X1 operating system, which also powers the company's set-top boxes as well as its Xfinity Flex streaming box. However, unlike those devices, XClass TVs will be available to anyone, regardless of whether they subscribe to the company's cable services. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this summer that Comcast had struck a partnership with Walmart to sell its smart TVs; Protocol was first to report about Comcast's plans to enter the smart TV platform business a year ago. While under development for some time, Comcast's smart TV efforts have picked up steam in recent months: The company registered a trademark for "X Class TV" in February. The official XClasstv.com website remains inaccessible, but the company inadvertently left a temporary staging site accessible to the public that reveals many details about the initiative.
"XClass TV is a smart TV that brings all your favorite apps, live channels, and On Demand movies and shows together in one place," that site explains in a FAQ. " XClass TV ... gives you thousands of free movies, shows, music, and more. And to find what you love faster, XClass TV comes with a voice remote that lets you control your TV and search across apps with just your voice." Among the tidbits leaked through this staging site: Hisense is making two 4K TV models, with screen sizes of 43 and 50 inches, respectively, for Comcast.
"XClass TV is a smart TV that brings all your favorite apps, live channels, and On Demand movies and shows together in one place," that site explains in a FAQ. " XClass TV ... gives you thousands of free movies, shows, music, and more. And to find what you love faster, XClass TV comes with a voice remote that lets you control your TV and search across apps with just your voice." Among the tidbits leaked through this staging site: Hisense is making two 4K TV models, with screen sizes of 43 and 50 inches, respectively, for Comcast.
Oh boy (Score:5, Funny)
I haven't been this excited since they started selling TVs with VCR/DVD players built-in! /s
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comcast + smart == military + intelligence
I for one (Score:4, Insightful)
Do not welcome this new dark overlord.
As a cable customer with poor options, Id love to see them just go away. Flowers grow over graves.
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Comcast is more than a cable tv company, in-fact cable tv makes up a small piece of the empire. It's not going anywhere :-)
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"As a cable customer with poor options, Id love to see them just go away."
Exactly! People only use them because of no other choice, but nobody will buy a TV from them, because everybody hopes they will go bankrupt and be replaced RSN!
Um... no (Score:2, Insightful)
Lets see... voice remote. That means it is most likely on 24/7 and listening in, likely real time streaming. It is a smart TV, perhaps more real time spying^Wtelemetry data sent back.
Sorry... no on potentially ad-infested, perhaps privacy-trespassing smart TVs... and with (IMHO) what I think of Comcast, I wouldn't by anything under their label either.
Re: Um... no (Score:2)
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Why would anyone believe the device is not listening 24/7? Follow the money.
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Don't worry. It's Comcast! 9 out of 10 times it won't work and if you complain, it's gonna take an hour until it finally tells you it works as designed and you should just wait it out.
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Yep, it's just another way to leverage their X1 platform to scrape more data from customers (and apparently any ol' shmoe who buys the very cheap TV's they'll be dumping into the marketplace). As they gradually lose TV market share to cable cutters this is one of the ways they'll try to keep up with Google, Apple, and Roku to gather and sell YOUR data.
Every key press on the X1 boxes goes back to home base. There is only enough smarts in that cable box to excrete a signal to your TV. One would think they'
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Not to mention their "partner" in this endeavor is a state-owned Chinese company. Buddy of mine has one of their TVs, even after "turning off" the Google Assistant, it still occasionally will activate from hearing phrases coming from the program they're watching that sound nothing like, "Okay Google" or "Hey Google." Really screams confidence to me!
No Cable Box (Score:2)
Does this mean that I can finally buy something that will let me subscribe to cable without renting a cable box? What are the odds that Comcast will still charge a $10/month fee for using one of these anyway? If there's no fee, the TVs could pay for themselves in a few years.
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Nope, probably same as flex.
Comcast cant sell video access to customers residing outside of their footprint, various legal reasons / agreements etc.
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We will be lucky if the TV doesn't brick itself when you try to cancel.
Why would you want your TV to work with another Internet provider? :-D
Small Screens (Score:2)
43" and 50" screens? What sort of market are they looking for? The sweet spot for new TVs seems to be 55" now, with 65" and even 75" being quite popular. Maybe they're targeting the secondary TVs in multi-TV households?
rent your tv for only $40-$50/mo (min tv sub neede (Score:1)
rent your tv for only $40-$50/mo (min tv sub needed) 1st tv's each an added tv has an extra $5-$15/mo outlet fee
Non return fee $1500
20 hour Cloud DVR is an $10/mo addon. yes you can buy more speed if needed.
Prediction: (Score:5, Insightful)
These devices will eventually be caught spying on users, arbitrarily restricting content, stealing electricity to mine bitcoins, selling personal details to organized crime, and providing both wired and wireless backdoors into consumers' home LANs. Comcast is completely evil and they literally can't help it.
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Oh good (Score:3)
As if Comcast service and support isn't shitty enough with their cable and Internet service, now you want to add a TV too? Just... no. Hard pass. Though I suppose it makes a degree of sense for them. Now they can sell people the whole package. TV, cable, phone (mobile and VoIP), and Internet, so they can charge people a $20 "TV rental fee" every month on top of everything else, knowing that a lot of people keep TVs for 5-10 years, or until they break. Since they're cheap POS Hisense sets that probably they're probably buying for around $200/ea, they'll likely be laughing all the way to the bank after the executives literally swim around in piles of money. Not to mention now Comcast will have even MORE personal data about you to sell, and no doubt they're still sharing that info with Hisense in exchange for a break on the per unit price.
You lost me (Score:2, Funny)
At Comcast.
I'm sure it will be (Score:3)
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Like when Issac reacted to Jamie Tartt's recorded insults! Nice!!!
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I can only imagine how customer hostile the TV will be.
Customer: Comcast TV, play "2001: A Space Odyssey"
Comcast TV: I'm sorry, I can't do that
They run out of business ideas (Score:3)
A cable company smart tv dvr is worse than a carrier branded smartphone.
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A cable company smart tv dvr is worse than a carrier branded smartphone.
Comcast is also a mobile provider: Xfinity Mobile [xfinity.com] ...
Please don't ... (Score:3)
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Well, I sure can't use "smart" and "their customer" in the same sentence...
XClass TV (Score:2)
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From rent to own... (Score:4, Interesting)
Oh hell no! (Score:5, Insightful)
Legacy (Score:2)
If these devices are in any way inspired by their set-top box ancestors they will run very hot, have extremely high power consumption, no manuals or configuration, and be generally flaky.
All this from the company with arguably the worst customer support on Earth. I. Can't. Wait. :/
Great News! (Score:2)
Great news for all of us who love Comcast!
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Great news for both of us who love Comcast!
FTFY.
Smart TVs are bad enough (Score:2)
Garbage for garbage (Score:2)
Garbage TV to go with Comcast's garbage support. Perfectly matched!
Makes sense (Score:2)
When I was a Comcast customer and visited the local Comcast store, I noticed how the store (and the AT&T store next door) emulates the Apple Store aesthetic: Huge space, lots of room, sofas and tables. There are already giant TVs showing content available on Comcast channels. Actually selling the TVs themselves is no big step.