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Gates Shows Off Xbox Media Center, Discusses Consoles
Thanks to Reuters for its story reporting on Bill Gates' announcement of an Xbox Media Center Extender kit at the CES show in Las Vegas, discussing the add-on "that will extend the functions of its Windows XP Media Center Edition to the console, turning it into a set-top box that allows the playback of live and recorded video, music and photos." 1UP has a couple more details, noting the add-on "will combine an Xbox DVD title with a dedicated remote control [and] currently carries no release date or price point", and the Reuters interview with Gates has him noting of the Xbox: "We are pushing the boundaries in terms of expanding what people think of as what the device can do." He's also confident but secretive about the next generation of consoles, suggesting: "In terms of the next round, hey, it's a new game. We're not showing our hand and I don't think Sony's showing their hand. We're doing some very cool work, but that's really all we say at this point."
Yeah and he's also secured deals to put WinCE into many tv's for some home media center.
Frankly I'm pissed becuase the last thing I want to do is have to buy antivirus for my Tv.
This stunt is quite probably done to reduce the value consumers get from modding the xbox; soon similar stuff can be done with an un-modded xbox.
Quite probably MSFT will be referring to this as an "innovation", like all the other obvious things they do.
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
This feels like a knee-jerk reaction to the psx being released. Of course Gates again lost the race, this time for a media center / console hybrid. At least the difference is far less than the last release wars.
It's interesting to note that it's touted as a media center extension -- will it not function without a media center pc already in the household? Along those same lines -- I can't really figure out what the offering is here, besides playing video over a network. This is a very vague announcement indeed.
Ugh. Microsoft everywhere. MSNBC.....America inevitably allows them to control every medium
Have you ever watched MSNBC? Hardly anyone does. It's pretty much a failure. It's not even a real "Cable news channel", as they fill so much of their schedule with recycled fluff such as multi-hour celebrity profiles drawn from old "Today" show material. That net is in the fish-flops of death right now.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Although you are correct that the majority of people mod their XBoxes to play pirate movies and games, it's interesting to note the OP's point about giving people what they want.
The current DVD distribution method for example is completely consumer unfriendly. I have to wait until a TV series / movieis released in the UK before I can buy the DVD. That's not what I want. I want to be able to choose. I want to be able to choose between the American / European / Asian release of a DVD because they frequently have different content. I want to be able to take the film I've paid for and convert it to and AVI so I can watch it on my Pocket PC
Playing games from my XBox's hard drive is much more convenient than from the DVD I purchased it from. Much tidier too.
Yes I have a modded XBox and yes I still purchase games and DVD's. Friends with modded XBox's also still purchase games. Gaming is our hobby and stealing is not the way to get good games still made.
I recognise that we probably not representative of the majority of people. I just wanted to make the point that Modded XBox != warez.
The Romans didn't find algebra very challenging, because X was always 10
PS 3 will have all the bells and whistles everyone wants. On top of that they'll have a ton of games and developer support. I'm sure PS 3 will be DVR capable too.
Honestly, if XBox and PS 3 came out at the same time and have similar features which would you buy?
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One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
Microsoft is giving a lot of their customers what they want. The customers they find valuable at least.
.wmv format.
If you are looking for DivX, XviD, RealPlayer, Quicktime, OGG/Vorbis, AAC, OGM, Matroska, SRT/VobSub subtitles etc etc etc, are you really one of their valued customers- or did you maybe just buy some of their stuff and mod it?
In a way that many people here might find stomach churning, I'm a Microsoft customers. I own an Xbox, and about 30 legitimate games. 2 Windows computers, with XP/Office (one Media Center edition). I use SQL Server at work...etc, etc, blah blah blah.
I also don't give a flying fuck about a single media format you mentioned, other than Quicktime. I've got my music on Windows Media Player, my videos (movies) are all stored on their original DVDs- my home movies are stored in a
I don't mind at all if their products don't support those other format- because I don't use them. I would guess that the average person who stores their media in an OGG/Vorbis format does NOT purchase Microsoft products, and therefore, Microsoft would be wasting their time trying to support those people. (I don't think there would be a big rush to buy the products if they were available either)
This was not meant to be a rant- I just think that Microsoft IS supporting their customers here. They make my life easier by making all this crap work together as easily as possible. Most of us don't need it to support everything under the sun- just what WE use.
No reason to lie.
With programs like MythTV it looks like the linux community will be forever beating Microsoft to the punch as far as hardware usability goes.
the thing is that this is a feature why the thing should have been more open from day 1, up until now(and still!) you MUST mod your xbox to take advantage of it as a common media player(also to have more enjoyable playing from hd).
This is a feature that is addable to xbox at NO COST AT ALL, without a need for an extra dvd title you switch in(like on the ps2 equivalent of this thing).
though, the same thing happens on lots of other devices by other manufacturers as well, on gba's it's handy to have just one big cart you dump your games on(which is of course something that nintendo wouldn't advise you on doing), with n-gage as well to properly enjoy it you have to find cracks to the games so that you can just dump them on one big mmc(along with other stuff) so that you don't need to change the mmc ever. I guess it's the same with few dvd players just as well and with pc games you need to find cracks so that you don't need to be switching the damn cd in the drive all the time.
and oh, as for Microsoft support. I got a ms sidewinder force feedback pro joystick that is an excellent stick, but one that microsoft dropped official support when moving to xp/2k(it's possible to get it working with the forces though, but you need to fiddle around way too much, have some other game with a force feedback menu usually to enable it - because ms is just a dick when it comes to supporting even their own hardware).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Adding this capability does cost money-
Support
If they added these features on day 1- they would make the Xbox more complex, and more difficult to support. If there were problems, they would have opened themselves up to a huge shitstorm of negative reviews.
They would have spent money making sure everything worked- possibly delaying the Xbox launch.
Consoles are supposed to 'just work'- and the only way to really make that happen, is to have a tightly controlled environment. (yes, I know there are occasional crashes...)
No reason to lie.
Big question just popped in my head. We all know Microsoft loses money for every XBox unit sold. The more they sell, the more MS loses. Now they just dumped more R&D into the unit and has this add-on. When do they plan on making money on this or are they still trying to simply saturate the market and gain market share and then increase prices and/or subscription fees? I know it's a reaction to PSX and to Apple's Digital Hub (in a roundabout way), but adding it to a loss-leader doesn't seem to make sense to me.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
If it has backwards compatibility, it'd be much more useful to me :p
I doubt PS 3 will have everything though. Remember, Sony still hasn't learned to sell the console with 4 controller ports. They will make some kind of compromise in the design somewhere and it will piss of gamers...
"the thing is that this is a feature why the thing should have been more open from day 1, up until now(and still!) you MUST mod your xbox to take advantage of it as a common media player(also to have more enjoyable playing from hd)."
So long as it opens the possibility for the machine to play 'pirated' games, then there's no 'should' about it. Don't get me wrong, I agree with you, but the reason game companies don't like you modding is that they don't want you burning ISOs and playing them. Remember, it's a game machine first.
"This is a feature that is addable to xbox at NO COST AT ALL,"
Not true. Microsoft loses money on every console. They make it up again with games. In theory, this 'feature' could make for a lot of XBOXes to be sold without plans to buy games for them. Microsoft risks losing serious money on something like that. Yeah, I know none of you care, but it does take the wind out of the whole "Microsoft's just being dumb" argument.
I'm not saying I agree with Microsoft. I think they're being overly protective of the system. It doesn't help, though, that everybody expressly hates Microsoft and would do anything they can to try to 'punish' them.
"Derp de derp."
ah well, if you count the 'lost' money that way.
well, what I would have liked them doing is that they would have added at least divx/xvid/wmp playback to the thing from day 1.
but now they're going to do it anyways...
well it's just this thing that I absolutely hate to buy hardware that is intentionally limited by some piss poor choices by some piss poor ceo(software features being very cheap anyways, they could easily add this media player functionality as an update to the xbox like the updates that come on game discs modify the box). well I'm not going to buy a xbox anytime soon anyways..
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Microsoft didn't get in to the cosole business just to lose a but load of money in a market larger than movies.
The WHOLE point of the Xbox, isn't to provide a games platform, but to be the box that runs everyone's TV. It was Windows 1.0. With the way Sony treats North America, he might even be able to swing it.
From the outset, everyone knew where the Xboxes were going to end up. He's not copying anyone, but rather moving on to a less mysterious Phase II.
I'm a gamer too, which means if there is at least one outstanding game for a console then I have to buy it. For me, Steel Battalion was enough for me to spend $200 on a console plus another $200 for the game (plus $39 for a desk big enough to hold the controller ;)).
Bill can talk until he is blue in the face but, as long as they get exclusive content I need, I guess I'm still his bitch. ;)
Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
Microsoft and Sony duke it out over the next 5 years for the number one home media center. One becomes the clear dominate. Nintendo continues development of video gaming techologies, ignoring the home media center race. Nintendo takes number one spot in dedicated game console race.
the cosmos in 20 words or less: thumbuki.com
So Microsoft FINALLY got a clue. They actually realized that an important fraction of their user base WANTS to use the XBox as something else than just for games and DVD movies. So instead of modding their XBox, people might actually buy that WinXP.
However, one wonders if this WinXP Media Center will allow for more than just MP3s, photos and video files. That's not much, considering what a properly modded XBox can do.
The XBox will be a PC. Except like with Apple, all proprietary hardware/OS.
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
Re-read this article. It sounds to me like the xboxen will need to talk to a "XP Media PC" as a mother ship. As in it will not know how to even talk to lunix.
Well if that's the case, I'm sure someone will easily sniff the interface and create linux software to emulate an XP Media PC.
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
Anyone who says to be considered a real media console it needs divx, mp3 et all support is more than likely just wants to play rips they downloaded from the net. I think we all just need to 'fess up and shut-up about insisting that companies support our illegal activities.
I've experiments to run, there is research to be done on the people who are still alive.
it's fine you own an xbox, whatever, its a console. Windows blows because it is full of security holes, etc. We all know this, you probably do as well, but seem to be too closed-minded to do a bit of research or admit that you might have made some bad purchases.
Surely you realize that wmv and wma look and sound terrible, and that they're the most difficult form of media to work with. To keep your movies on the original DVDs is the reverse of what we talk about here, the ability to be able to back up your own movies, should the disc get damaged over years of use. (and it will)
I don't know how you can claim they make "all this crap" work together. If you want to see an example of integration, check out iLife, by Apple. They're doing things that are truly integrated, and don't treat their customers like criminals the way MS does.
Should I go on? Nah.. the people who consider MS to be giving them 'good' solutions and products will eventually see the truth.. even if it takes a while.
So the beef is with DVD region encoding & how governments let companies mistreat consumers by dividing markets. This is what should be addressed. If you demand a feature that you might be using for legal purposes but that 95% of the population will use for warez you are not going to get it, and perhaps rightfully so.
Myself I'm planning on buying a dual-layer DVD writer to re-encode what I buy from overseas.
I've experiments to run, there is research to be done on the people who are still alive.