F%$!*ing XBox One - How Does it Work?

I guess I'm an Xbox fanboy.  I didn't set out to be, but it happened that over the course of the original and the 360, I began gaming 60% xbox, 20% pc and maybe 10% ps3 with the remainder being gobbled up by 3DS and Vita.  Wii is completely out of my rotation and has been for 2 years.  I can't even justify to myself the need for a Wii-U, which is odd, since I'm a sucker for gadgetry and have owned every Ninty console till now (yes, even Virtual Boy).  Of late, PC has been a higher percentage, but that mixture is about right for a 2 year window.  I guess the real reason I became so dependent on the Xbox was because of the controller.  Sure, the Duke sucked, but the Controller S was magnificent, and the 360 controller was an improvement (albeit, with a shitty D-pad).  I thought about it, back to the PS1, PS2 and even with the PS3 - I just don't like the dual shock controller, or whatever it was called in the PS1 days before they added the second thumbstick.  It's light and feels flimsy.  The thumb positioning feels unnatural to me.  Sure, most of the games I have on 360 are also available on PS3, but they just don't feel right.  So, that said, I don't know if I'm really an Xbox fanboy, or if I just have a system preference.

Yesterday, we got our first look at the Xbox One.  I get that yesterday's reveal was more about the entertainment aspect, with the original vision of the Xbox - for Microsoft to take over the living room was taking another step.  I'm fine with the fact that we're not going to see much on the games until E3.  I was left neither excited, nor down about the reveal.  What I don't get is how this device will control my entertainment center.  They showed how you can be completely ADD and go from game to movie to music to tv back to music, then over to game.  That was somewhat interesting.  But..HOW does it interface to these devices and WHAT devices can it interface with?  At first, I thought that the One would take over as the receiver - which would mean it would need to have good audio processing capability, allow for HDMI passthrough and probably support HDMI 1.4 for 3D passthrough as well.  Then, I got a look at the back of the unit - gigabit ethernet, what looks like "IR Out", Kinect, 2 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI In (assuming 1.4 spec), S/PIDF out and HDMI out (again, assuming 1.4).  I am thinking there's an HDMI to component or composite adapter for those connections?  Finally, there's the power input.

Now, obviously, the One is not a home entertainment receiver.  If it were, I would hope to see 5 HDMI in (at least 3).  I am concerned that the One may aim to control the other devices via IR.  This is not good.  It reminds me of the first and second generation TiVO.  Sure, that was a kickass device - 15 years ago.  I just don't see how it all fits together.  I am with AT&T U-Verse (great a few years ago, now showing it's age, but not allowing competition for cable providers is a good thing?).  I suppose Microsoft could have a partnership with them where a simple ethernet cable would supply the  television content, with a software emulator to handle the guide (that leaves the question about DVR - am I expected to now use my 500GB Xbox drive as my television DVR - that dog don't hunt).  Then there's music.  This is easier.  I have all my music and digital movies on a NAS.  I would imagine the Xbox just connects to this and it's off to the races.  What about the stuff that's Apple though?  Will the One play that?  What if I want to switch between dashboard and Apple TV?

All of this leads me to believe the content switching capabilities are bullshit.  I think in order for it to work as shown, you need to have all of your music in a certain format, movies must be zune marketplace and tv must be with a supported provider who has a deal set up with Microsoft.  They did specifically mention Comcast in the presentation, and there is a UVerse plug in for the 360 that AT&T charges extra for and requires a tech to come out and install.  If Microsoft is expecting all of this fast switching to be contained within it's own ecosystem, that's okay - and in reality, that's the only scenario I can get my head around.  However, the reveal seemed to intimate that the One can aggregate your shit and then unify the access and presentation - now that would be quite interesting.  Did I let my mind go off on a tangent when watching the reveal and am I expecting too much?

When cruising some forums after the reveal, someone on some board had an interesting observation.  If this really switches shit that easy, our tech support calls from our parents could be a thing of the past.  Now that's something I could easily see myself investing $400 in an Xbox One for my parents this Christmas.  I bet we have our fair share here at 2o2p who get the "the tv screen is black" calls where a parent fat fingered the remote and changed the input to HDMI2.

I'm anxious to see what happens here.  Hopefully, I'm worrying over nothing and there is a simple explanation of connectivity out there - I just haven't seen it yet.  

I guess I could go on about the used game FUD, but I'm reserving judgement until more is known.  In the end, I can't see Microsoft willfully putting itself at a competitive disadvantage to Sony with a group as fickle as hardcore gamers - ie, the future early adopters.