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Xbox One Will Play Media from USB Devices, DLNA Servers
New submitter Mauro sends word that Microsoft has announced upcoming Xbox One support for streaming media both from attached USB devices, such as flash drives, and DLNA media servers. Compatibility with a broad list of media formats will be added by the end of the year, including .MKV files. They also followed up last week's announcement of a digital TV tuner with an interesting twist: it will be able to stream broadcasts over a local network to devices running the Smartglass app, which is available on Windows, Android, and iOS.
OMG! Computers that can do arbitrary things!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Pirate media support: Why i bought an XB:OG in the first place, why I meh'd out on 360/PS3, and why I might just grab an XBO. Now just let me run linux on it!!!!!
PS3 had this support, but it was dropped in PS4. I hope this move will prompt Sony to re-add support.
That's a nice idea, but even tv's that cost less than 200£ can play mkv's and mp3's from a USB stick. My Samsung tv can stream straight from any PC in the same LAN [As long as a certain samsung app is installed in that pc].
Can my hospital detect DLNA in my blood to identify my blood?
Even my Windows ME box can do these things. No joke.
Will the XB1 support Cinavia, or not? This is likely to be a make-or-break thing - if Microsoft puts in a Cinavia detection algorithm, and there's no way to bypass it, I can see a great many people who might otherwise spring for an XB1 instead moving off to find another platform (homebrew running XBMC, most likely.)
I'm tipping that they won't make any explicit references to Cinavia, and just hope it flies under the radar - until somebody tries it and finds out, one way or the other. But even more fun: even if they don't have it at release, doesn't mean it won't be added in a subsequent firmware revision...
Once there are enough complaints from the entertainment companies they will lock it down.
Would it hurt the assholes at microsoft to actually support open source audio format such as Ogg Vorbis? Sheesh.
Are you telling me that Microsoft shipped the XBone without the ability to read USB drives?
That they're announcing support for 10+ year old media and we're supposed to be impressed? Something you can buy next to bubble gum in the express checkout at the Wal Mart? Wow, that's some innovating there.
The XBox 360 had memory cards, and it's not like Microsoft doesn't have access to the technology to do this trivially. As in so blindingly trivial they'd have had to take steps to not support it.
I view this announcement with the same incredulity as if Ford had just announced they were adding a horn to this year's car -- because I find it unbelievable that they didn't build this in right away.
Yeah, I'm sure glad I've got my XBox 360, the XBone continues to look like a turd. I'm really gonna have to buy a spare 360, my wife likes some of the Kinect games, and every single time Microsoft tells me about this thing, I want it less than before.
Way to go Microsoft, you implemented accessing an FAT file system over USB.
Except for the USB part, using Microsoft's own documentation I wrote code to directly read from a FAT filesystem 20 years ago.
Un-frickin-believable. What idiots were in charge of this product again?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
That you've been dreaming of for the last ten years. I personally want my console to play games very well, not do lots of media stuff OK. I have a PC for a reason.
Just because you don't have use for these features doesn't mean they're not useful to a lot of people. My PC is in my office, with a normal monitor, while my television and consoles are in a larger room with couches, suitable for family viewing. Playing a digital collection to this screen either requires me to hook up a laptop every time or have some device that can do the job. If a console (or the TV itself) can do it without me having to go out and buy or build a special purpose streaming device, all the better. I'm sure this scenario describes a lot of people.
Seriously, what is the major malfunction of device makers that basic, guest share Samba support is never put into these devices? Everyone has it, everyone comprehends it. Just let us access a damn SMB share as a list of files and play things.
No one anywhere, ever, cares about the clusterfuck that is DLNA.
I'm surprised actually. DNLA is old, and being replaced by Google direct and similar systems that can stream direct from one Wifi device to another and render anything directly on the TV. So you don't expect a company to announce this as if its new, you sort of expect it to be supported.
Incidentally does it work? Because none of my DNLA renderers will play media from Windows 7, which supposedly has a DNLA server in it, yet all of them play perfectly from every Android tablet, and every phone and from my NAS which supports DNLA.
So I just don't trust MS to work nicely with other devices.
and this is better than a PirateBox?
I have a no-smart-tv (LG) and it can read any USB drive (including HD)
Ceci n'est pas une Signature !
So, am I actually to understand that, in 2014, the Xbox One is not currently capable of playing standard media formats such as MKV and that to this point, a console owner has been unable to play media off a flash drive or DLNA?
Well done, MS. Keep fuckin' that chicken, guys.
Will it play GAMES?
I own a PS3. Its supposed to play files via DLNA. I have a DLNA server on computer and also on a NAS box. Either will spool DLNA files to an LG media box. Any kind of file. The PS3 I have is a giant PITA though. This file isn't compatible, that file isn't compatible. Sometimes its just the extension of the file. Sometimes a file type that worked previously now no longer works. Its a crapshoot. The LG box plays anything. Its ok though. I'm not buying SONY anymore: after the GEOHOT incident, SONY gets no more of my money.
DLNA is better as it is less bandwidth and power hungry and does not require as much hardware at each end. I use the Windows 7 DLNA from my pc to my Samsung TV and my networked home theatre all the time just fine. It just won't play MKV through it. The Windows 8 one on the other hand sucks as they have yanked a bunch of the compatibility. Miracast does solve a problem of sending your actual screen contents but the two are not really the same thing, they can be used as the same thing but really one is for passing out media files where you can still use the device, the other is casting the screen to a bigger screen which can be handy but in many cases just means you should have been using a different device to start with.
You can play most media formats over DLNA, you just need to push the file to the Xbox One that acts as a DMR, there is no pull interface on the device which is stupid. It can't play MKV, just like Windows Media player.
To me this is proof of how badly microsoft cripples their systems. It's newsworthy when their console does something every other pc can do. I own 2 original xboxes and an xbox 360 but I decided to not buy an xbox one because it's too locked down. My plan instead is to build a htpc probably based on the intel NUC that dual boots linux and windows and trial using logitech wireless gaming controllers for a more open platform that will allow me to play games (using steamos or big picture mode), play music, watch movies, stream tv (netflix etc...), buy or rent movies (itunes, google play), browse the net (with a mini bluetooth keyboard and trackpad) and do whatever I like without having to mod things. I think this is the future of consoles.
Actually the PS3 did one better, and not only support DLNA, but supported DTCP-IP (essentially DLNA with DRM), which is required in order to play back some DRM protected content, especially in the US cable market. And while I would prefer that the content provides reduce the restrictions, the next best thing would be that the PS4 (and the XBO) will implement not only DLNA, but DTCP-IP.
Why DLNA, in this day and age? It's garbage, with a "lowest common denominator" approach to media files, with only 8.3 filenames and very few supported formats. It's like the companies got together to grudgingly agree a simple standard that would mean they didn't have to do any real work with each other, just a bare minimum that would just about allow interoperability and a minimum of effort to implement.
Supporting MKVs is great, but it better bloody support DTS within said MKV files.
For the more technically inclined user, it's pretty easy to set up a Raspberry PI with the NOOBS software and install either OpenELEC or RaspBMC. What you get it a tiny box that can play almost anything you throw at it without transcoding (straight BluRay rips are a bit hit-or-miss though if your TV doesn't support audio pass-through), talks to your file server via almost any protocol imaginable (SMB, NFS, DLNA) and works with your TV remote over HDMI (CEC). The UI looks great even in the default configuration, too. Be sure to buy a good, stable power adapter.
We're going backwards, how is it possible that the 2 biggest living room power houses (xbox and PS4) cant even play media from a USB...
capitalism, jeeeeej
Fellow AC, how dare you mention ME in our presence! You deserve to be smacked just because you run that shite!
Will we actually see support for NTFS and filesystems other than FAT32?
Even the 360 and PS3 are more than capable of playing high quality HD media from external drives but the filesize limits of FAT32 make it unusable for all but short half hour clips, it's an unfunny joke really.
On video game consoles, it is the custom not to "allow general computation". The console maker uses cryptographic means to block the execution of unapproved computer programs for two reasons: to ensure to console buyers a baseline level quality across all software published on the platform, and to ensure a royalty to the console maker. A lot of people are willing to pay for the convenience of being able to choose software without having to worry about extremely low quality.
That's because the HTPC we've been dreaming about is just that: a PC. Just find a small, quiet PC, plug its video out into your television's video in, and put a wireless keyboard and trackpad on your lap or smartphone-based remote control in your hand. Now that integrated graphics have surpassed the GPUs of the previous console generation (since roughly Ivy Bridge), you can even game on it if you put a keyboard and mouse on a TV tray or you play games listed on the first of several Google Search results for pc couch multiplayer. Hairyfeet, can you chime in?
Like I have been able to do in my Linux boxes for a decade or so.
These are nice little offerings, but let's face it. it's not these kind of little things that people really want or care about, these are not the things that are holding people back from getting a console this generation. We have Roku, ChromeCast, AppleTV, Etc... that all handle streaming and media and do so at a fraction of the power consumption, and cost.
The biggest thing holding people back in my opinion from an X1 or PS4 is backwards compatibility. Give the people a way to bring their existing investments in their existing game library to the new console and people will migrate. If X1 could play X360 games I'd have 2 X1's already, but right now I have no "new" console because I don't want a last gen and current gen console sitting there taking up space, and ports. Heck charge an extra $75.00 for a backwards compatible edition of the X1 and I'd still buy it up, and even buy some new games and accessories to go with the new console, seems like a fair deal to me.
DNLA sucks. I can run a DNLA server (plex or windows media, doesn't matter) on a pretty awesome box and it will still suck. Transcode beforehand to h264 aac MP4 and you can play it on lots more devices, and you don't run into problems on the server side with multiple clients like you do with DNLA... but you do have to set up a webserver of some kind (although NAS often comes with a simple http server nowadays, and my router can do it too)
As much as we all hate to admit it, home computers are STILL not really up to transcoding on the fly for multiple clients (or sometimes even single clients).
Plus if you just go ahead and transcode beforehand, you can play the file in a browser, (including xbone), ipad, android, Roku, an ancient PC or whatever.
about 10 years ago I was looking forward to a time when I didn't have to pre-transcode... and I assumed it was 10 years off... now I would guess we are about 10 years off from that point.
Why don't USB flash drives bigger than 32 GB just use the Universal Disk Format? Linux can read and write it, OS X can read and write it, Windows Vista and newer can read and write it, and it doesn't appear to have the same patent issues as exFAT.
Is innovative !
Empire Four Kingdoms hack tool
Rather than a traditional PC, it's probably a small box running Android. Some of the newer ones are pretty spiffy, and support apps for XBMC, Netflix, Hulu, and all the other goodies.
The biggest thing that seems to be missing from Android devices: disc-based playback. I've yet to see one that will play any optical discs, let alone Blu-Ray. This doesn't make much sense to me as many blu-ray players already come with Netflix apps etc on some proprietary crappy/buggy UI (I need to pull the plug on mine periodically when Netflix stops working). It would sure be nice to have everything in one box.
There are some devices which purport to have "full blu-ray menu support" using Android, but when I investigated further they only support rips and lack an optical drive :-(
My first guess about the lack of Android app support in any Blu-ray Disc players is Oracle v. Google. BD-J menus use Oracle Java ME, while Android uses Dalvik.