Rumblings about IPTV support the Xbox 360 have been heard before. New rumors about a service codenamed Orapa have now surfaced which suggest that such functionality will be out by the end of the year.
Coming on the heels of the discovery of a new music/video service from Microsoft codenamed Ventura, Orapa is described by ZDNet as “a combination of Xbox Live and Microsoft’s Mediaroom IPTV.” Mediaroom is Microsoft’s IPTV platform that delivers on-demand and live television programming. AT&T Uverse customers can currently watch TV and DVR recordings on an Xbox 360.
Orapa would be a “mash-up” of Mediaroom, social aspects of Xbox Live (like Avatars), Kinect, and Ventura. Similar to how Netflix currently works with Kinect, “users would be able to use Kinect’s gesture and voice controls to control their TV watching.”
