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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.
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].
I use Plex server (free) on my laptop which then is discoverable as a DLNA server on my Panasonic smart tv. Works great even with mkv files! The only downside is that non-HD files don't render as cleanly as when viewing on PC.
It doesn't have to be a Samsung app (Which, by the way, is kinda awful). DLNA means it can be any DLNA server, like Serviio (for instance) that also happens to have the wonderful feature that it will auto-transcode into a suitable format if your TV/Console/Whatever doesn't support it. Which means the PS3 and X360 (Also supported by Serviio) can also get in on this party.
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 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.
Yes, it would. People using Vorbis aren't using WMA. Microsoft has patents on WMA, and makes money from every device supporting it. So it's in their best interests not to promote Vorbis: It may not cost them directly, but it cuts into their profits from WMA.
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.
Gotta ask for a source for "only 8.3 filenames" - nothing in the specs I've read states this, and I've never seen any DLNA software with such a limitation in the last decade.
And yes, there is a defined lower end for media support, but nothing keeps anyone from supporting additional formats. I've played 1080p h.264 video with surround-sound DTS in an MKV container using DLNA software, just as I've played .ogg files and various others ....
Anyways, why DLNA? Because it is nice and simple and does what people want? Well, perhaps not what YOU want, but you also seem to think it only supports 8.3 filenames for some quite-strange reason.
Sigh, what a pathetically ignorant post.
It's not as straightforward as just implementing the ability to read FAT, it's about making sure people can't just copy downloaded games onto a USB drive and make multiple copies and pirate games that trivially whilst making sure they can use USB storage for games if they want to take them to their friends. It's about making sure you can't trivially manipulate a game copied to a USB device to cheat and so on and so forth.
Like it not, the reason there is so much more investment in console games by publishers is because it gives them access to a platform that is much freer from piracy and cheating (yes it exists, but most people don't chip their consoles because it often prevents online access and gets your online profile banned etc. meaning it's far more costly for cheaters/pirates to engage in that meaning there's less of it overall - though that is changing with Steam taking over most of the PC gaming world).
Microsoft has to protect that, else it loses everything that separates the console world from the PC world. Whether you agree with DRM or you're an open source everything hippy it matters not, the point is fundamentally that there's far more that Microsoft has to consider than just implementing the ability to read/write from a USB drive so to just say "Oh all they need to do is implement support for FAT" is completely wrong and shows a painful lack of understanding about the console market.
You seem entirely oblivious to the fact the 360 was in the exact same situation - worse, the 360 even had it's own bespoke memory cards originally. Support for USB devices came far later on on the 360. They haven't removed anything because the X1 is a completely new system with a completely new architecture requiring completely new software, it's not a simple in-place upgrade of the 360.
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?
Right, so it's not a technology issue, and never was.
I'm so tired of technology being crippled in the name of copyright and DRM it's not funny -- the copyright lobby has more or less decided we can't do anything without their permission.
I'm aware of that, and again, I've always assumed it was because of corporate greed.
At the end of the day, the Xbone is a very anti-consumer piece of technology, and I simply will not buy one.
I will buy a spare for my beloved 360 before that ever happens.
Microsoft can shove their DRM, copyright protection, and POS system up their collective asses.
Will they care even a little that I'm doing this? Absolutely not. Do I expect others likely are making the same choice? Definitely.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.