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[golem]

http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,8654

The Xbox 360 will, in some countries, come with a "shorty" remote - it controls the DVD playback, navigation of the blades, and it can be used to turn the Xbox off and on (perfect for those of us using the Xbox as a media box). There will be a "tall" remote that contains more buttons and will be sold at retail.

The Xbox 360 was playing a high-definition WMV file off an MCE computer located elsewhere on the Microsoft campus, and I was impressed - the video started quickly, was responsive to commands from the Xbox wireless controller (yes, you can control your media with the remote).

The Xbox 360 will also have the ability to play photos and videos (WMV only I think) from external devices, so you can hook up your Zen Micro and play music off of it, and someone mentioned you could connect a USB thumb drive with videos and it would work.

The one thing the Media Center Extender interface doesn't do is visualizations for music - which kind of sucks given the Xbox is going to be connected to the big-screen TV in most homes.

my "no visualizations" comment was strictly for the Xbox functioning as a Media Center Extender, meaning when you're connected remotely to your MCE 2005 machine and listen to music, you won't be able to use the visualizations off the MCE 2005 machine...which isn't a loss because they're really lame anyway. The Xbox itself has some wicked visualizations - a helpful person pointed me to this article. Can you imagine seeing this on your big screen TV? The real question is, if you're listening to music from the extender UI, is there a way to flip over to the local Xbox visualizations? Or will you only be able to use the killer Xbox visualizations for local music on the hard drive or a USB-connected player?

 

[TheJollyCorner]

so I can do more with X360 than just play games? What the fuck kinda world...

give me Microsoft Tax Helper '06 packed in and this sumbitch is mine on launch.

 

[Mupepe]

Can't wait

 

[Ghost]

and it can be used to turn the Xbox off and on (perfect for those of us using the Xbox as a media box).

That is the single best feature of the Xbox 360.

 

[fugimax]

Ah, I can't believe they went with the shorty remote for the bundle...I was hoping brighter minds would prevail, but it appears they have not.

I was planning on using the 360 in conjunction with a MCE box to watch TV...but now I have to buy a remote that will probably be $29? grr..

 

[Juice]

That is the single best feature of the Xbox 360.

I completely agree. Anyone who thinks otherwise is plainly incorrect.

 

[Krowley]

they should support divx and mpeg movies as well. i have a phillips dvd player that does and it's incredibly cool. i wonder why most company's don't make boxes with this feature? it seems like a natural fit for the 360. wmv movies suck balls.

 

[DopeyFish]

they should support divx and mpeg movies as well. i have a phillips dvd player that does and it's incredibly cool. i wonder why most company's don't make boxes with this feature? it seems like a natural fit for the 360. wmv movies suck balls.

it will with media center (using ffdshow or something) but video without media center will most likely be restriced to specific formats.

 

[Pudding Tame]

so I can do more with X360 than just play games? What the fuck kinda world...

give me Microsoft Tax Helper '06 packed in and this sumbitch is mine on launch.

Honestly, if a console maker made a console with internet support, a word processor function and printer or usb data key support. Their wouldn't be a poor-ass college kid who wouldn't buy it.

 

[PizzaFarmer]

i wonder why most company's don't make boxes with this feature? it seems like a natural fit for the 360. wmv movies suck balls.

It's because DivX isn't free. It's a commercial codec that requires paying licensing fees.

How many companies, especially those like Apple or Microsoft with competing video codecs, are willing to add more cost to their consumer electronics devices just to support a codec that would arguably not improve sales in a substantial way?

When they make it as easy (or easier) to use a competing format, they are losing an opportunity to promote their own codecs.

On the other hand, if customers begrudgingly convert their video out of DivX format into the device manufacturer's format of choice, the device manufacturer wins.

 

[Krowley]

It's because DivX isn't free. It's a commercial codec that requires paying licensing fees.

How many companies, especially those like Apple or Microsoft with competing video codecs, are willing to add more cost to their consumer electronics devices just to support a codec that would arguably not improve sales in a substantial way?

When they make it as easy (or easier) to use a competing format, they are losing an opportunity to promote their own codecs.

On the other hand, if customers begrudgingly convert their video out of DivX format into the device manufacturer's format of choice, the device manufacturer wins.

yeah, i figured it was something like that... i will say that the increase in sales would slightly better than you would probably think. this dvd player that i bought (and it plays just about any kind of file you can imagine) was very hard to find at the time because it was sold out all over the place.. the increase might not be significant enough to justify the cost of licensing in a video game system though, but anyway my dvd player was only 60 dollars. i know that for people who mod their xboxes one of the biggest perks is the expansion in media playback capabilities.

I think supporting as many formats as possible would be a good policy if your trying to create a center of the living room all encompassing media box.

 

[SKOPE]

That is the single best feature of the Xbox 360.

Agreed. I bought a PS2 DVD Remote just so I could turn my new, slim PlayStation 2 on and off without getting up.

 

[Ghost]

Do you think it'll be possible for the freeware Media center programs (like GB-PVR) to interact with 360? I know MS wont want them to, but would it be possible in theory (I have no idea how MCE works)?



I just cant be assed with MCE.

 

[Oracle Dragon]

they should support divx and mpeg movies as well. i have a phillips dvd player that does and it's incredibly cool. i wonder why most company's don't make boxes with this feature? it seems like a natural fit for the 360. wmv movies suck balls.

No, WMV moves are awesome. Having no choice EXCEPT WMV, well, now that sucks balls.

 

[heavy liquid]

The Xbox 360 was playing a high-definition WMV file off an MCE computer located elsewhere on the Microsoft campus, and I was impressed - the video started quickly, was responsive to commands from the Xbox wireless controller (yes, you can control your media with the remote).

Man, that sounds really promising. With this kind of stuff, I can see them actually getting people to integrate the 360 into their home theatre setups. I know I will.

 

[Suikoguy]

Hear that sony? Open Office, PS3 2006

DO IT

 

[Blimblim]

Man, that sounds really promising. With this kind of stuff, I can see them actually getting people to integrate the 360 into their home theatre setups. I know I will.

It's also possible (but I don't know for sure) that the 360 would be able to play HDTV mpeg2 streams. Being able to get the .ts files (convert them to .mpg if necessary) and play them directly via the network on 360 would simply rock. MS, make it happen!

 

[Jesiatha]

How many companies, especially those like Apple or Microsoft with competing video codecs, are willing to add more cost to their consumer electronics devices just to support a codec that would arguably not improve sales in a substantial way?

When they make it as easy (or easier) to use a competing format, they are losing an opportunity to promote their own codecs.

Time to cut iPod support.

I'm actually rather curious about what percentage of videos out on the internet are in which format - DivX seems decently common to me.

 

[bill0527]

This is one of the main reasons I'm not holding off on purchasing an Xbox360. I was going to put a Tivo on my Christmas list this year, but I dont need to do it now because I can use the X360 to access the PVR fuctions of my Windows XP MCE 2005 PC. I'm glad to hear the bugs have been worked out from the extender they released for Xbox. That thing was worthless and I only used it a few times.

 

[Ponn]

I'm still interested in hearing what you can and can't specifically stream from a non-Media Center Edition computer. The no visualizations for music is a huge bummer too especially for us with RP - LCD/DLP TV's. Would have been awesome at parties. Christ, I think the Saturn still has the best music visualizer with the spaceship and that came out how many years ago?

 

[Guy LeDouche]

the video feature is cool (despite being WMV only), but does any actually plan to use their X360 to display slideshows of photos or stream music outside of custom playlists during gameplay? Can you stream video wirelessly? I guess that would be cool, but you have to have a XP MCE computer, right?

Kutaragi said PS3 will have these features as well. I just don't get it. Unless its tivo level video playback (and recording), I really don't care. It's all nice, but nothing at all I would call decision-making features in terms of "Should I buy and X360 or a PS3? Well, X360 can display photo slideshows with background music but PS3 can't... SOLD"

 

[thorns]

I'm still interested in hearing what you can and can't specifically stream from a non-Media Center Edition computer. The no visualizations for music is a huge bummer too especially for us with RP - LCD/DLP TV's. Would have been awesome at parties. Christ, I think the Saturn still has the best music visualizer with the spaceship and that came out how many years ago?

actually you can use xbox 360's built in visualisations, just not windows media centers.. coincidentally the xbox 360's music visualizer is built by the same guy who did the atari jaguar's..

 

[Blimblim]

AFAIK (but I'm definitely 100% sure), a standard PC with WMP10 and a special plugin will be able to stream music, videos and images via the network (wire or wireless of course). For TV and other advanced stuff a media center 2005 computer will certainly be required. That is until someone manages to emulate this via another program.
It should be interesting to see if someone manages to reverse engineer the MC protocol and create a Videolan like program that would convert a video (like a divx) on the fly to something the Xbox 360 could display (hopefully it will be able to stream MPEG2 videos too). Unless there is some very strong encryption I'm quite sure it could happen.

 

[Pudding Tame]

Question: How does streaming usually occur?

I ask this because I'm wondering will the file being streamed to the 360 be decoded by the 360 or will PC decode it and send the output to the 360?

 

[Tiktaalik]

wait for the modded xbox360 with Xbox Media Centre

 

[Beer Monkey]

I can buy a $250 DVD player with an ethernet port that can play 720p and 1080i from XviD, DivX, and even giant MPEG-2 .TS files, and also stream them from my PC.

Microsoft wants me to buy MCE just so that I can have my 360 play WMV only?

Bite me. Somebody mod this bitch ASAP.

 

[Blimblim]

Question: How does streaming usually occur?

I ask this because I'm wondering will the file being streamed to the 360 be decoded by the 360 or will PC decode it and send the output to the 360?

I'm pretty sure the Xbox 360 will do all the work.

 

[Ponn]

I'm pretty sure the Xbox 360 will do all the work.

See, this all i'm hearing from people is "i'm pretty sure" but no one does. The only stuff I do see streaming and being tested is on a MCE PC, well, a 2005 MCE at that so I still haven't seen anything on what the Xbox 360 can do with a vanilla XP PC yet and that's really a huge selling point for me. I can't see why it couldn't do audio so that's fine (btw, thanks Thorns on the visualizer update, had me worried there for a minute, and Atari Jaguar team sounds funny, I wonder if they will throw screens from A vs. P from Jaguar) but my worry is video. If the xbox 360 is doing any decoding that could be a problem with playing videos if people cannot update with current drivers or codecs, hence the need for MCE PC. This close to launch MS really needs to start getting this information out to the public.

 

[Blimblim]

See, this all i'm hearing from people is "i'm pretty sure" but no one does. The only stuff I do see streaming and being tested is on a MCE PC, well, a 2005 MCE at that so I still haven't seen anything on what the Xbox 360 can do with a vanilla XP PC yet and that's really a huge selling point for me. I can't see why it couldn't do audio so that's fine (btw, thanks Thorns on the visualizer update, had me worried there for a minute, and Atari Jaguar team sounds funny, I wonder if they will throw screens from A vs. P from Jaguar) but my worry is video. If the xbox 360 is doing any decoding that could be a problem with playing videos if people cannot update with current drivers or codecs, hence the need for MCE PC. This close to launch MS really needs to start getting this information out to the public.

You'll get your informations soon enough. We are still more than 3 months away from launch, MS still has quite a bit of time left.
As for the vizualizer :
http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/neon.php

 

[Beer Monkey]

I'm pretty sure the Xbox 360 will do all the work.

Currently, all MCE Extenders do the work on the client, not the host. If they change this for 360, it will be a 180 degree change from their current architecture.

But if they don't support open video codecs, they get a big F U from me anyway, and it's all moot.

I still haven't seen anything on what the Xbox 360 can do with a vanilla XP PC

Last I heard, if you don't have MCE you can only stream audio, not video, from your PC to the 360.

 

[rastex]

Last I heard, if you don't have MCE you can only stream audio, not video, from your PC to the 360.

Where'd you hear this? From all the interviews and stuff I've read it's that with normal XP you can stream Video, but you need a MCE to do all the fancy things like PVR and watch tv.

 

[FiRez]

MS should have recruited the XBMC guys to do this.

XBMC > Official Media application

I mean it, the current builds can pass as a retail and very proffesional software

 

[border]

So I have to spend $100+ on a new operating system, just to get the same functionality that modded system owners currently enjoy?

 

[TheGamingGuru]

Ah, I can't believe they went with the shorty remote for the bundle...I was hoping brighter minds would prevail, but it appears they have not.

I was planning on using the 360 in conjunction with a MCE box to watch TV...but now I have to buy a remote that will probably be $29? grr..

Your getting an x360 that has this bleeding edge technology and your Errr'n about having to buy a 30 dollar remote? lol Hell if i were to go out and buy a bleeding edge graphics card for my pc..i'd be dishing out 6 bills lol

 

[TheGamingGuru]

Man, that sounds really promising. With this kind of stuff, I can see them actually getting people to integrate the 360 into their home theatre setups. I know I will.

I second that..and i will be too and im a home theater nut that spends thousands on HT equipment and x360 will be right there in the middle

 

[Beer Monkey]

Where'd you hear this? From all the interviews and stuff I've read it's that with normal XP you can stream Video, but you need a MCE to do all the fancy things like PVR and watch tv.

From this podcast:

http://geekspeakradio.com/?p=42

A few things to note:

-Live Silver does NOT give you free online multiplayer during weekends. Silver will offer promotional periods for online from time to time. I believe that rumor was started from a bad translation from a leaked Danish mag prior to E3.

-Xbox Live Silver will not be supported on the current Xbox.

-Windows Media Center will be required for watching videos. XP will only support music and pictures.

-Custom soundtracks do not need to be ripped to the HDD. Will stream from external source like PC, iPod or PSP. Works with Windows XP.

-Wireless controller gives onscreen warning of low battery. Game pauses if wireless signal is lost with console.

-Not really a clear answer on the codecs supported with XP MCE. Michael Wolf stated then sort of retracted that if a codec like Divx was installed on your PC with MCE then it should work with 360. Does anyone work with MCE and have an idea how the extender functions work?

Comments stolen from Mr. James at my site.

So I have to spend $100+ on a new operating system, just to get the same functionality that modded system owners currently enjoy?

If they don't support stuff like XviD and Shoutcast, you'll actually be spending $100 to get a lot less functionality.