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Xbox Spring Update To Offer Codecs, MSN Messenger
adachan writes "It seems that Microsoft has decided to add Xvid playback into the upcoming Spring Xbox 360 dashboard update. Xbox.com has a list of all the upcoming enhancements to the dash. The playback of video using H.264 and mpeg4 codecs seems to be the biggest news for those using the system as a media extender. If this is indeed true, my Xbox Media Center will be used less and less." Update: 04/09 17:29 GMT by Z : MSN Messenger is kinda interesting as well. Several sites are reporting that instant messenging is being added to the Xbox Live experience, with a USB keyboard controller attachment to be offered sometime in the near future.
The real question is whether I can play vidoes from an external drive, such as an iPod. Survey says...no. :(
Perhaps I'm stating the obvious, but this seems like a move for Microsoft to compete with AppleTV, considering the main reason xvid exists is for the online distribution of movies. Perhaps we'll start seeing Microsoft offering for sale downloads of movies in xvid format?
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As a PS3 owner, I hope this lays down the gauntlet to Sony. Currently the PS3 is pretty pathetic as a media hub despite having oodles of grunt available.
I'm genuinely please for the 360 owners out there and hope this is the real deal, and not one of those bastardized "supported" claims that are largely useless, only working with the entry level of the format (the PS3 also claims to have xvid support).
Sure you can, it works fine with my Zune. The Zune supports Xbox 360 playback of music, photo's and video...
And it works great.
I didn't see xvid or h.264 mentioned anywhere in the link, but even if they did support xvid and h.264 playback, that doesn't mean supporting these formats in streaming. Note that Xbox 360 supports only WMV and Mpeg2 streaming (The later, only through Media Center).
Without the support for streaming, the only other option for someone trying to turn an Xbox 360 into a media center will be to use an external hard drive via USB. That's not an ideal solution because (a) the hard drive will need to be Fat32 - What do you do about your high-def files that are 4GB+? (b) The front-end for an external hard-drive based videos is no where as good as that of a Media Center or Myth TV.
Still no sign that the update will enable fast forward and rewind in audio tracks.
What year is this?
There was already free transcode software out there, but that requires going into a submenu on the 360 and requesting the transcode, instead of just having it play. It also offloads the transcode to the PC, making it work as well as making the 360 decode and play it.
This is obviously much better, but doesn't actually make anything possible that wasn't before.
There's other updates that interest me, as well, though.
Windows Live Messenger: Why the fsck didn't they do this from the start? It just makes too much sense.
"A richer Achievement notification pop-up will showcase the name of the unlocked Achievement and the gamerscore value without needing to leave the game to check the Achievements list." Nice. I almost always went to check out what it was I'd done.
Should be a nice update.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
If Microsoft doesn't want the 360 heavily modded as the original Xbox has been, they just have to let us do what we want to do. Playing downloaded movies is definitely high on that list, and is one of the main reasons I modded my original Xbox; giving us these codecs is definitely a step in the right direction for Microsoft. It really seems like the Xbox team is doing a lot of things right, despite the recent failures MS has been fouling the market with (i.e., Vista). Removing all DRM would be a giant leap forward, though highly unlikely. I don't really know anything about XNA and its limitations, but it seems like another tool that may prove useful. The IM stuff I could really care less about.
But what is up with that controller? Looks like an April Fool's day mockup. My hands hurt already.
.. because that was pretty much my reaction to using it. After streaming movies from my PC to my 360 for a bit I came to the conclusion that I'd better off actually sticking the films on a 2.5 USB powered drive and plugging them into straight into the 360. Which can, as of a few updates ago, play WMV - and presumably after this, other codecs - straight from an external drive. Why? Because I didn't feel particularly good about having my energy hogging PC and 360 on at the same time. True, I could go upstairs and turn my PC on manually but then again I might as well just go to my DVD shelf and get a DVD off and put it in the drive.
All they need to do is add Office to it and we're back to having a PC...
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde
Worried about what? The AppleTV has poor video quality, limited content and a no sign of HD content on the way. Live Marketplace already has more a decent amount of real HD (downloads available in 720p and 480p are the norm) content with more on the way. Combine that with the best gaming solution in the console space and an optional HD-DVD add on and it is clear that Apple has an uphill battle at best.
Cool, but I'm still waiting for them to bring back Xbox Live connectivity in MSN/Windows Messenger... I used to use the MSN "Alerts" feature to see when my buddies would pop online on Xbox Live, without having to leave my Xbox running 24/7.
At the same time, that controller with the built in keyboard is kind of obscene... holy crap! Cue all the second generation of "huge xbox controller" jokes... wow... !
I've been using TVersity to steam videos from my compuater (like a media center but much better). I can play divx xdiv and rmvb. The only drawback is that it cannot rewind.
What I get for not previewing - link works but looks like ass unless you remove that last trailing slash. Sorry about that! Looks like they support the Wii and PS3 too....
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
Click it and see TinyURL filter his crap! (lol)
Build it, Drive it, Improve it! Hybridz.org
Well it looks like there might be a chance that our PC's and consoles will have interchangeable controllers! How nice would it be to not have that extra $200 investment in controllers and such! Surely the next generation of consoles will all but abandoned the d-pad controller types for the far superior keyboard/mouse type set-ups.
Then again, it is still only hope... they will find another way to make that money.
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Am I missing something or does the headline say their adding features to the XBox360 and then at the end say because of that he's using his XBox360 less and less?
I wonder when they will just release the XBox 360 as a full PC unit.
:)
Then they will have something really good going. Back to PC gaming.
Yep. Nothing like running a full-fledged 3D app on the side to chat while I work.
ClutterMe.com - easiest site creation on the Net. Just click and type.
Not sure which world you live in. In my world my coworkers, friends, and family all use standard IM clients. In fact I don't know a single person that uses IMVU or Second Life. Most of us prefer to be productive (or actively goofing off doing something else) while we chat.
The linked site does not include the Xvid info - does anyone know if this is true or not?
The feature we just need for the 360 is multiple voice chats. I'm sick of having two buddies online and all three of us wanting to chat and we can't. It would be easy to make a "chat room" even if it means one person dedicates their xbox.
Other than that it sounds good, though I want to see divx support whether or not this gives us it is up in the air.
Divx and Xvid require MPEG4-ASP (Advanced Simple Profile). This update only includes Mpeg4-SP (Simple profile). Therefore this dash update does not add Divx/Xvid compatiblity.
There is a possibility that Microsoft cannot claim "MPEG4-ASP" because they do not support GMC and QPEL however nobody cares about those features of ASP and 99.9% of the divx/xvid videos dont use them. This leaves open the possiblity that Microsoft may still support Xvid and Divx, just not the full suite of MPEG4-ASP features. Im not holding my breath.
he might be referring to all the hacks for the Apple TV. They put their own codecs on it a while back, namely xvid. (little off topic but they have it running full OSX already even). I might not have to install linux on it after all to play my tv shows/movies.. depending on what kind of lame way it connects to other pcs..
s/©//g
You work on a game console? That's pretty cool.
Don't mind him, those kind of people have no idea how to do something else while goofing off. The fine art of multitasking is lost on the younger generation (and I'm only 25!).
Now that it is possible to boot unsigned code (linux for now) on the 360, Microsoft is acting very quickly to stop the scene before it has a chance to pick up any momentum, specifically with regard to a possible port of XBMC to the 360. Whenever you boot a new title (I believe after February 2007) or update over live, your Xbox 360 firmware is automatically updated. The new firmware fixes a vulnerability and no longer allows you to boot your unsigned code, for now at least. Microsoft is offering H264 / Xvid as bait to get everyone to upgrade their live version (and with it their xbox 360 firmware) pronto. This is a very smart move by Microsoft. However, XBMC is and will always blow away the 360 Media Center functionality. Too bad my modded box can't handle the 720/1080 :(
You're close, except the truth is subtly different: Apple tells the user what they want (6 buttons on my remote? WTF?) and the fans agree wholeheartedly, lambasting anyone who dares to differ.
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In Redmond, Washington J Allard is pressing his fingers together repeatedly saying . . . "Excellent."
Godless heathen.
Your co-workers will likely never IM you on an X-Box, so lets discount them for a moment. That leaves your friends and family. Since it's an X-box we're talking about, I have to picture them sitting in front of a TV with a keyboard in their lap to IM you. Seem unlikely? Yeah, I thought so, too.
But if they're going to IM you from a game console it will increasingly be from a 3D app. And your PC-IMing friends and family will find their way to current or future 3D apps, too.
Ah, I think I ignored a key part of his comment. You can multitask while using a 3D app. I always have a browser, text editor and Photoshop handy while chatting in Second Life, and the TV is mounted right over the computer monitor.
I find hard to believe they are adding Xvid, since Xvid is GPLed.
It is more likely they are adding DivX which, although generally serves the same purpose, is another different best.
morcego
But I guess you are just being sarcastic.
My other OS is the MCP!
This should really be a no brainer. Just add a driver and/or pairing interface so we can use Bluetooth keyboards!
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
I failed to address your multi-tasking comment...
You can multitask while using a 3D app. I always have at least a browser, text editor and Photoshop handy while chatting in Second Life, and the TV is mounted right over the computer monitor. I can do my work in Illustrator/Photoshop/Visual Studio while a 3D chat app is running. Chat doesn't get my full attention while working, but, well, I'm working.
Fans of the Second Life "platform" may bristle at the suggestion that it's a chat program, but it was clear to me from the first day I used it that that's what people are using it for.
You mean the wifi that lets someone play a song three times or keep it for 3 days, whichever comes first, and does nothing else? No live streaming, no wireless syncing, no unlimited copying of un-DRM'ed files? Open your eyes. Right now, wifi on the zune is useless, and I'll believe the promises of future functionality when Microsoft has an official announcement.
I am currently ripping my DVD collection to VOB, converting VOBs to a single straight MPEG-2 file with 5.1 (using VideoRedo http://www.videoredo.com/ not free, but very easy) and streaming from WinXP MCE server (with the My Movies extension installed - http://www.mymovies.name/) to my Xbox 360. This setup works flawlessly and quality is at least DVD quality video with 5.1 surround. However, 4-6GB per movie is eating up my 1.5 TB storage faster than I would like.
H.264/MPEG-4 support could mean significant storage savings in the long run for me. As others have already mentioned, it's not really Xvid, and it would mean lots of transcoding with some quality lost, but I will be experimenting with it when I get my update to see if I can still get decent quality with some storage savings.
[wandering off topic/troll] Although my setup requires more setup and nerd-skills than the Apple TV option, the audio and video quality is significantly better AND I can stream. The lack of streaming of the Apple TV for video is what killed the Apple TV option for me (that and it looked terrifyingly horrendous in the Apple Store - even on the streamed "HD" trailers). For those that are unaware, the Apple TV only allows you to synch selected video content to the measly 40GB drive. You can stream audio from iTunes and some trailers from the Introweb, but you can't stream video from iTunes. With MCE/Xbox 360 I can hang whatever storage I want off my MCE server and stream 'til the cows come home.
I wouldn't recommend the MCE/Xbox 360 combo for everyone, but it was the choice for me because it streams DVD quality video and 5.1 surround AND I was able to convince my fiance to go with it, which also got me a decent gaming console. That and she LOVES Feeding Frenzy HD, which is strangely addicting yet simple.
I still love (and own) Apple/Mac and I would bet Apple TV v2.0 or 3.0 will overcome some of the current shortcomings.
Well, currently it will play WMV off of external drives, and since the update will bring support for H.264 and mpeg4, which IIRC are the iPod formats, then survey says...yes.
The vast majority of consumers aren't looking for hacks and workarounds, they are looking for a store with HD content and a device to play it back. Xvid support is nice and allows some flexibility, but it is hardly a response to anything Apple has done. Of course, all Apple has to do to respond is release some HD content and that criticism is moot, but they aren't even whispering about this yet.
From what I can see MPEG-4 Simple Profile is going to be supported, not Advanced Simple Profile that xvid uses.
This update seems to be more for those who already have Mpeg4 compliant dvd players since those people encode for the lowest common denominator and don't turn on things like GMC when encoding.
That's where we disagree. I have no trouble that console gamers will prefer to use 3D apps to do their online socialization and chatting. After all, MSN and Gears of War are not very multi-taskable, so therefore it's logical to presume that Xbox, PS3, Wii, or whatever console users will be more interested in a "dedicated" chat experience.
I doubt PC-IM will ever move there though. I enjoy chatting with my friends while working, while surfing, while doing just about anything. I enjoy doing it while at the airport, on a train, or simply in a quiet corner of a conference hall during some downtime. I have zero interest in 3D apps that suck up battery, CPU, and demand my full and undivided attention and robs me of my ability to multitask. I know most of my friends, including the younger ones still in high school, enjoy chatting while surfing or listening to music. Of the PC market I see proportionally *very very* few people who actually desire 3D chat. A cool niche market perhaps, but will never be mainstream.
Hmm, I bought this 'PC' thing the other day that had a keyboard with it, and USB, and MSN Messenger, and it played games as well. Maybe it would be a reasonable alternative.
I guess the only reason to go for the Xbox is that it runs Linux.
== Jez ==
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There is no wireless/wifi, how is this competition? Who wants to hook up an ethernet cable and run it across the room/living room etc. to the computer?
Me thinks Microsoft has no vision.
Umm do realize there is a wireless adapter that you can buy for the 360 so you don't have to run an ethernet cable to it? So wireless is not a problem since the 360 already has it. I think you have no vision (literally) since you could have found that information yourself with a 1 second search on google.
Another thing you can do if you don't want to pay the ~US$100 retail price for the MS wireless adapter that you can only use with your 360 is to pick up a wireless access point and then turn it into a network bridge and then use a short ethernet cord to plug into your 360 for wireless connectivity. That is what I did and it works great although I wish the AP I had allowed bridge mode functionality with WPA instead of only WEP. Oh well, at least I am not stuck with some piece of networking hardware that can only be used with my 360.
Hey, there is only one Return and it's not of the King, it's of the Jedi.
If they really add DivX & xvid codecs that'd be very nice indeed. I'll most probably make some use of this if it allows playback from a USB drive, at least for now as I don't have a better alternative. *But*: as a media center/media center extender I think the 360 is pretty much dead in the water, because it has 2 major disadvantages that the first generation Apple TV (with all its own annoying limitations) doesn't have: it makes too much noise for a media player, and it doesn't have wireless built-in by default.
Sure, you can get used to the fan noise, just ignore it, or just turn up the volume to masquerade it. But that doesn't cut it for me. As much as I like my modded Xbox classic with XBMC, I rarely use it for watching movies for the same reason. It kind of kills the atmosphere in quiet scenes, and IMHO a media player just should be silent, period. As for the wireless: you can buy the add-on but I refuse to pay 100 euros for something that should not cost more than 30, and should be in by default.
So I guess I'll just keep looking around for some other affordable HTPC-like solution that can do all this silently. Maybe when the Apple TV is fully hacked to run Linux with full HW support and the XBMC porting efforts yield something I will pick up one of these.
I may seem a little nervy about this issue, but I mainly listen to 75 minute, or longer, dj sets, and if I turn off my Xbox at any point I can't fast forward to that point again next time.
I personally think that the main reason Microsoft branched off into Games and the Xbox was to eventually have a home computing platform with its OWN hardware and its OWN absolutely controlled software environment. I'm pretty sure Microsoft would love to tell all the OEMs to fuck themselves (just not in so many words) and take on Apple directly with their own hardware and controlled OS.
In other words, I'm pretty sure they want to make the XBox a home PC, with games, messanging, browsing. email, Voip, a home version of office, some other home productivity crap and stuff. That way they can take on Apple directly in the market segment where Apple has an advantage, and slowly build up their own empire here.
The fact that you actually admit to playing Second Life renders your opinion useless around here.
You're spot-on! I couldn't believe it when Microsoft did the same with the XBox, and now everyone's running them in their homes and offices instead of real PCs. Jesus, Microsoft! Let a console be a console!
People who want a general purpose computer, to run specialized and industrial applications, would still be able to purchase a general purpose computer. The only people that would face significant problems with viruses would be people who insist on modding their boxes. The idea of providing a complete systems solution is distasteful to some but provides MS with opportunities for profit ands control that expands beyond what they have today.
It's not a new controller its a keyboard that fits snugly into your existing controller http://www.joystiq.com/media/2007/04/xbox360-qwert y-07-425px.jpg
even with more codecs the media center is painfully inflexible and nonrobust.
xbmc will play 98% of what you throw at it, including important containers such as matroska, ogg media, flash, quicktime, etc etc, and it will play files official players (quicktime and WMP) tell you are "broken" without a hiccup.
xbmc is not going anywhere, and this update from microsoft reminds me of those "too little too late" steps the music cartel finally took a full decade after fileswapping became popular.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
I don't see Xvid mentioned in the article???
Nice, just got my 360 for free using www.freewebs.com/freethings4u/ so new features are welcome :)
I suppose Sony have got to catch up with a console that updates itself with great features all the time. Is it possible?
OH my god, what idiot 14 yo hacker uses Xvid rather than xvid, maybe xv1d, stealing the lime light.
Its all mpeg4 based, none of it is 100% free of patents.
the FOURCC identifier doesnt make it GPLed
might as well call it a '7331' codec or something.
No one, and I mean no one has a chance and making their own custom codec, if it doesnt play EVERYWHERE, ie mpeg4 any profile, then its useless.
Even if its 10kb/frame Motion JPEG2000.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
hang on , if you can stream trailers from itunes or apples site, why cannot you trick it into thinking your local server is really
a trailer apple server, and have it play back your 2hr trailers via your custom html pages.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Maybe that wont be such a bad idea, the problem I see with PC gaming right now is that you will have to satisfy a full compliment of hardware, cards and software drivers just to play a 40+-dollar PC game. Miss any of the recommended requirements and the game just doesn't work (as advertised) and become a waste of money.
That is one of the reasons why I gave up on PC gaming and purchased an XBOX 360. The damn console just works... Now it took some time to get accustom to wireless controller to play these games, but in defense of it, if they could add a keyboard and mouse to the system and some Internet surfing software and a word processor it would replace my obsolete model PC as daily internet surfing system and allow me the joy of playing HD games on the console with a keyboard and mouse (XBOX360 looks great on my HD 37inch LCD TV)
Also, I think that will go along way to getting families without PC's to adopt PC functions and knowledge without buying a full fledge PC. *Without learning to configure, maintain and worrying about backing up their data...
Note: Commodore style gaming PC's are still loved by many including myself for years, because they were simple PC's and game machines. XBOX 360 with suggested improvements would just bring this to another level and allow people to learn basic PC funtions in their spare time.
The wireless network card costs $100 retail. (Yes, it really costs $30 less than a Nintendo DS that includes wireless!) So any guesses what will they charge for an official "Xbox 360" keyboard? My guess is $90.