Microsoft have been constantly evolving the content on offer on their Xbox platform beyond just games for quite a while and another update just last month added another swathe of TV programming, but despite all the processing power and storage available, no attempts have been made to offer any video recording functionality.

A recent patent grant however (via Kotaku), indicates that MS likely have plans for such a thing.

Patent # 8,083,593 gets described thusly:

A digital video recorder (DVR) application running alongside a television client component allows users to record media content on the gaming console. The DVR application also integrates itself with the console menu. Once integrated, users can record media content while playing games. Alternatively, users can record content when the gaming console is turned off. The recorded content can include television programming, gaming experience (whether local or online), music, DVDs, and so on. When in the recording state, users can also switch between various other media modes, whether gaming, television, and so on.

Speculation is that the application detailed in the Patent refers to planned functionality in Microsoft's yet-to-be-announced next generation console, but it's not outside the realm of possibility that the functionality described could retrofitted to the Xbox 360 by a hardware expansion -- much like the fleeting HDDVD drive, Kinect sensor or most similarly, like Sony's PlayTV DVR attachment for the PlayStation 3.