Xbox 360 Spring 2007 Dashboard Update Hands-On

Engadget writes "Well, that Xbox 360 Spring 2007 Dashboard update did land at about 2:00AM PST as expected, and brought with it a few fun features we were hot to test out -- but none more than the Xbox's expanded video playback capabilities. We were able to play back 720p and even 1080p MPEG-4 and H.264 content on our Xbox 360. Technically speaking the Xbox 360 now officially beats out the Apple TV in the digital video arena, both in resolution and bitrate. (At best the ATV only does up to 720p at 5Mbps, while the Xbox does 1080p up to 10Mbps; neither supports higher than stereo audio.) In other words, if you're an Xbox owner thinking about an Apple TV for playing back video in your living room, you might want to think again."

What about DivX?

[MBraynard]

Does it have all of the codecs needed to play the DivX (.avi) stuff I have on my puter?

I really like being able to stream stuff off of my PC to my TV, but it only likes WMA pre-update.

Right...

[suv4x4]

In other words, if you're an Xbox owner thinking about an Apple TV for playing back video in your living room, you might want to think again.

Raise your hands everybody who has Xbox and was "thinking about an Apple TV for playing back video". Anyone? Anyone...?

In the same line of constructing long sentences that convey no additional information at ALL:

If you're a calculator owner who was thinking of calculating the square root of a 10 digit number with a pen and paper, you may want to think again.

If you're a car owner who has to travel 40 miles every day to work and thought walking foot, you may want to think again.

If you're a wrist watch owner and you want to stop random people asking them what's the time on the street anyway, you may want to think again. ...

Messenger on the 360

[mikazo]

My friends are annoyed enough when I don't reply to their MSN conversations while I'm playing games on my PC. Without the keyboard attachement on the 360 controller, it will take even longer to reply and will give me even more reason to ignore their messages. If I'm on the Xbox, it's to play games. If I want to have an MSN conversation, I'll go on my PC. The Windows Live Messenger addition just doesn't seem like something I'll use.

What's that? No XviD?

[MrPerfekt]

I'll stick with my AppleTV for streaming content that I actually have to my TV.

I do love the actual GAMING features of the 360 update though. Finally, "powered off" downloads, yay.

Re:Messenger on the 360

[ben0207]

Well, its something I'll use. Complaining about a free feature you may or may not use is somewhat pointless, don't you think?

Now if only...

[reanjr]

Now if only it would just read SMB shares...

Re:Right...

[furball]

Raise your hands everybody who has Xbox and was "thinking about an Apple TV for playing back video". Anyone? Anyone...?

If Xbox could play my iTunes content, sure. Unfortunately, it doesn't. So I own an ATV along my Xbox. And countless other consoles.

Here's the secret...

[MS-06FZ]

You ready for it? It's great stuff. Here you go...

The secret is, not everyone here - not even all the Linux fans around here - is a pretentious prick.

Really a wild idea, isn't it?

Re:What about DivX?

[MBraynard]

Microsoft's attempts at wringing every last bit of money out of the consumer, while sorely lacking any sort of courage to support more media types that might offend the "content producers", has completely turned me off to the 360.

I know you want to be angry about something, and MS looks like a good target for your anger, but let me assure you that this is NOT MS's choice and if they could legally give you the codec they would. Perhaps be angry at the content producers. Note that MS is in the business of making money - and no one is making money doing what you mention - XBMC is a FREE program. So look to FREE PROGRAMS to solve the 360 limitations - and it looks like it's been done.