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.

In your face Sony!

[Anonymous Coward]

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).

If you have a Zune it works great.

[MSFanBoi2]

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.

Re:AppleTV?

[MSFanBoi2]

Um, you got that the other way around. Microsoft was in the market with the Xbox 360 well before the AppleTV. Microsoft offered movie downloads far before Apple did with the AppleTV.

Re:In your face Sony!

[fistfullast33l]

Umm, the PS3 already does H.264 [ign.com]. It's only xvid that it doesn't do, to my knowledge.

It does need a better interface for media libraries though. At least the PSP allows you to create playlists on your memory cards (by creating boxes/folders when you load your music from your PC). The PS3 is pretty annoying in terms of music playback. Video playback isn't too bad, though. No playlist control there either, to my knowledge.

Will it stream xvid and h.264?

[namityadav]

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.

Re:Will it stream xvid and h.264?

[Aladrin]

# H.264 video support: Up to 15 Mbps, Baseline, Main, and High (up to level 4.1) Profiles with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.
# Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 8 Mbps, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.

The only mentions of streaming are for wmv protected content... The rest was already streamed, so I'm going to -assume- everything is streamable now.

Re:Will it stream xvid and h.264?

[twistedsymphony]

That's because it's not mentioned there... the summary is just assuming that MPEG-4 means support for all MPEG-4 codecs... I highly doubt we'll see Xvid. h.264 is actually mentioned specifically though. This is all the press release has to say about video:

* H.264 video support: Up to 15 Mbps, Baseline, Main, and High (up to level 4.1) Profiles with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.

* Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 8 Mbps, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.

AFAIK Xvid uses the "Advanced Simple Profile" (ASP) flavor of MPEG-4... not the "Simple Profile" (SP) that will be supported by the update. Most of the worthwhile MPEG-4 based codecs use ASP... SP is typically reserved for really tight compression scenarios like cellphones, iPods and PSPs.

TVeristy rules

[microbee]

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.

Re:In your face Sony!

[Anonymous Coward]

The PS3 H.264 support is extremely fussy. Just look at the tools that do transcoding and their forums and mailing lists. They're full of problems getting the PS3 to play H.264. Currently the best method it to use an Apple TV preset profile, but you can kiss goodbye to any surround sound, and be left with stereo only.

The PS3 is also finicky about the container, and certainly won't play any of the H.264 files you can find online, TV shows etc. You cannot simple passthrough the streams and write a new container header.

The PS3 doesn't support Baseline, Main, and High profiles. I believe it's limited to Main only.

The article doesn't mention xvid or vidx, so the 360 still offers less than the old xbox with XBMC. It's a shame the original xbox doesn't have the processing power to cope with HD, because nothing comes close to matching its functionality as a media hub compared to the newer consoles or Apple TV.

Re:Do Xbox users listen to music?

[spectecjr]

Still no sign that the update will enable fast forward and rewind in audio tracks.

What year is this?

Weird. Works fine for me. Just hold down Next Track in the guide instead of tapping it, and it'll fast forward.

Si

Re:AppleTV?

[dioscaido]

Xbox Live (for the 360) has been selling HD movies and TV shows for quite a while, in WMV format.

Divx/Xvid NOT suppported

[getnate]

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.

Re:doh

[DCstewieG]

Xvid is an implementation of MPEG4.

Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 8 Mbps, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.