XBOX 360 to support Video Streaming from UPNP server
October 30, 2006
This fall 2006 Dashboard upgrade will bring a much needed feature to the XBOX 360 console. Video streaming from UPNP server!
What does this mean? You will no longer need to own a Microsoft Media Center 2005 OS to stream video to the xbox 360 extender. The support video format appears quite limited (wmv) but coupled with the right UPNP server it might turn to be what most users might want.
Why? If the UPNP server can transcode incompatible content to one that the 360 can play it will then be possible to watch transcoded xvid/divx/rm/etc on the 360 as WMV.
Look here for a complete list of improvements to the XBOX 360
Apple’s iTV to be based on Intel viiv
October 30, 2006
It appears very likely that Apple is preparing a little surprise for Microsoft at MacWorld which happens at the same time as the Consumer Electronics Show in January. While Microsoft and partners will be talking about Vista in advance of the launch of that product at CES, Apple, along with Intel, will be launching Apple’s version of the Media Center with iTV and Leopard. That’s right — Leopard. It looks like this puppy is nearly ready if I’m reading the signs right — and Apple is clearly setting up for something big.
Now Intel’s part goes beyond the chip and appears to contain elements of Viiv, if not all of that platform. Viiv is actually kind of cool, it’s just that Intel has not been able to explain effectively what it is and, as a result, the market hasn’t been particularly excited about it on Windows. However, Apple knows how to sell and with a problem where the technology is good but the marketing’s not, Apple has the skills to make a huge contribution.
Recall how Apple took the MP3 player market by storm by simply looking at what was out there and figuring out how to do it right. Microsoft’s Media Center isn’t fully cooked, even with Vista, something that Intel actually created Viiv to fix. Now, it appears, the two of them are collaborating to do the Media Center right, and if they hit the target as well as they did with the iPod, which is likely, they could actually have a second massive success on their hands.
Source: http://www.technewsworld.com
XBOX 360 Dashboard up on Oct 31st 2006
October 30, 2006
It has been reported by Famitsu Japan that the fall Dashboard update for the XBOX 360 console will be made available on October 31st 2006.
Notable new features are:
- Ability to play WMV files stored on flash and DVD disk
- 1080p output
- HD-DVD support
- Various GUI changes for Xbox Live Marketplace
- Improved account and storage management
Now, what exactly does WMV file playback from flash mean? Does it mean we can also playback WMV from external USB HD? Maybe… Will it allow playback from UPNP Network Server? I don’t know but it does not look good.
Online translation of the original post can be found here.
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PS3 to officially play XVID/DIVX
October 27, 2006
Sony is clearly intent on making the PS3 the all-in-one hub for your home entertainment. A new list of media formats supported by the system right out of the box includes a variety of hard and digital formats, and should satisfy the needs of just about everyone.
The hard media has been known for some time, but here’s the full list.
- BD-ROM
- BD-R
- BD-RE
- DVD-ROM
- DVD-R
- DVD-RW
- DVD+R
- DVD+RW
- CD-ROM
- CD-R
- CD-RW
- Super Audio CD
The PS3 will also allow you to access a variety of media file formats from the video, music and photo menus of the Cross Media Bar. We’re assuming these files can be stored anywhere, including the hard disk and memory cards.
VIDEO
- MPEG-1
- MPEG-2 (PS,TS)
- H.264/MEPG-4 AVC
- MPEG-4 SP
MUSIC
- ATRAC (.oma .msa .aa3)
- AAC (.3gp .mp4)
- MP3 (.mp3)
- WAV (.wav)
IMAGES
- JPEG
- GIF
- PNG
- TIFF
- BMP
For those who wonder where is XVID/DIVX in the list, MPEG-4 SP (Simple Profile) is the MPEG-4 part 2 codec: http://en.wikipedia.org
What is not clear is if the reference to MPEG-4 SP mean that the PS3 will only decode MPEG-4 Simple Profile (low resolution and low bitrate) or if it will also decode ASP (high resolution and high bandwidth) content. If if does not then Sony intentionally cripled decoding of XVID to limit it to decode PSP video content only. This would be dumb… unless the PS3 CPU can’t handle the higher bitrate profile of MPEG-4 part 2 ;-) Just Kidding!
An interesting read on the subject can be found here: http://www.us.design-reuse.com
Source: IGN
Vista 5840 and Transcode 360 = Streaming of xvid/divx to xbox 360
October 26, 2006
A member of runtime360.com just posted the following:
"
Great news..!!!! Transcode appears to be working again….There was just one hickup during installation with a BLUESCREEN though.
1, installed VISTA, Setup office etc… with no problems.
2, Installed .net 1.1 and SP1, Rebooted, no problems.
3, Installed Transcode 360, Rebooted, BLUESCREEN.!!!!
4, Rebooted and everything seems to run fine now.!No messing about with admin settings etc.. Although i turn UAC off as standard.
I’ll post more extensive findings tomorrow. so far i have only watched a few minutes of video but the time counter appears to be acting the same now as it did under XP..
Mort..
"
So the ticket is to disable UAC (not that I recommend this) and install T360 with a user account that has admin rights.
Thank you MS for taking care of the bug that prevented Vista MCE and Transcode 360 to play along 
For those who did not know, it was discovered during beta testing of Vista MCE extender that Transcode 360 was no longer working properly. Microsoft brought Transcode 360 in their lab and found that they had to fixed some code surrounding how MPEG2 file duration was handled.
Microsoft reportedly delays release of RTM version of Vista
October 25, 2006
According to this source Microsoft will delay the release of the RTM (release to manufacturing) version, or build number 5824, of its Windows Vista operating system (OS) to the second week of November from the originally scheduled fourth week of October, according to sources at Taiwan PC makers who were informed by the software giant of the revised schedule.
Gspot v2.60 Beta 2 released
October 25, 2006
Beta 2 of Gspot v2.60 was quietly released on October 23rd 2006.
You can find a copy of it here: http://gspot.headbands.com
No details has been posted yet about changes since Beta 1 came out on Oct 8th 2006.
Hacker cracks Apple’s music download protection
October 25, 2006
Johansen’s technology could help rivals sell competing products that play music from iTunes and offer songs for download that work on iPods as they seek to take a bite out of Apple’s dominance of digital music.
iPod
A hacker who as a teen cracked the encryption on DVDs has found a way to unlock the code that prevents iPod users from playing songs from download music stores other than Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes, his company said on Tuesday.
Jon Lech Johansen, a 22-year-old Norway native who lives in San Francisco, cracked Apple’s FairPlay copy-protection technology, said Monique Farantzos, managing director at DoubleTwist, the company that plans to license the code to businesses.
"What he did was basically reverse-engineer FairPlay," she said. "This allows other companies to offer content for the iPod."
At the moment, Apple aims to keep music bought from its iTunes online music store only available for Apple products, while songs bought from other online stores typically do not work on iPods. But Johansen’s technology could help rivals sell competing products that play music from iTunes and offer songs for download that work on iPods as they seek to take a bite out of Apple’s dominance of digital music.
ITunes commands an 88 percent share of legal song downloads in the United States, while the iPod dominates digital music player sales with more than 60 percent of the market. Cupertino, California-based Apple, whose profits have soared in recent years on the strength of the iPod, declined to comment.
Johansen, known as DVD Jon, gained fame when at the age of 15 he wrote and distributed a program that cracked the encryption codes on DVDs. This allowed DVDs to be copied and played back on any device.
His latest feat could help companies such as Microsoft Corp., Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., which have all announced plans over the past few months formusic download services combined with new devices to challenge Apple.
Source: http://www.eitb24.com
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Microsoft to add Divx/Xvid to the 360 to Outdo the PS3?
October 24, 2006
The PS3 was said to be supperior to the 360 because:
- it had 1080p "True HD" resolution
- it had Hi Definition movie playback
- it will play Divx/Xvid (no official word yet but the Linux OS running on the console will be able to play it for sure (mplayer))
What did Microsoft recently did:
- XBOX 360 will support 1080p
- XBOX 360 will have external HD-DVD drive to play Hi Definition movie
- XBOX 360 will… well this is the last thing missing… maybe play Divx/Xvid
It only sound logical for Microsoft to add support for Divx/Xvid before the PS3 launches to remove one more reason for people to get a PS3. Will the next fall Dashboard upgrade add support for those video codecs? I sure hope so.
There has been multiple post to the effect that Divx was coming to the 360 but nothing official yet: http://www.360-hq.com
Microsoft said that they would do better than Sony… so prove it to us and add Divx/Xvid support!
MPlayer 1.0rc1 now play VC-1 / WMV3
October 24, 2006
A new version of the very successfull multiplatform media player (mplayer) has been released yesterday.
The highlights of this release are native VC-1/WMV3, On2 VP5 and VP62 (used in some Flash video files) decoding, which works even on non-Intel platforms and SSA/ASS/color subtitles.
Furthermore we can now run natively on Intel Macs (you just have to pass –disable-win32 –disable-mp3lib to configure), -endpos was finally added to MPlayer and the Windows GUI has seen a number of improvements.
Vorbis decoding has seen a big speedup, as has H.264. The optimizations to H.264 are still ongoing, but the difference should already be noticeable.
More details can be found here: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/
