doing a little digging around the Microsoft Web Site I found the following…
The interesting thing on the MSTV web page is…
The Microsoft TV Tools Suite is based on industry leading Microsoft Visual Studio® .NET developer tools. It includes sample templates for content authoring, sample code for managed applications like games, and an easy-to-use debugging environment with an emulator to mimic the behavior on a real set-top box. The Tools Suite includes a designer tool for creating managed content and a plug-in for Visual Studio .NET for creating managed applications. Millions of developers are familiar with the Visual Studio development system.
– Mike