Xbox 360 1080p update is now out for download

[Spineshank]

Originally posted by: Yreka
Any chance of Divx decoding ever happening on the XB360 ?

Im thinking no. Sucks too, the work around is somewhat of a PITA

Get VLC360.

 

[Eug]

DivX? Never.

You'd have more chance of H.264 AVC because it's actually an accepted standard, but I wouldn't expect to see that on the Xbox 360 either any time soon.

 

[Yreka]

Originally posted by: Gnrslash4life

Originally posted by: Yreka
Any chance of Divx decoding ever happening on the XB360 ?

Im thinking no. Sucks too, the work around is somewhat of a PITA

Get VLC360.

I can already decode and stream on my PC, that isnt the problem. What I want is decoding on the XBOX.

But yeah, probably will never happen.

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: Yreka

Originally posted by: Gnrslash4life

Originally posted by: Yreka
Any chance of Divx decoding ever happening on the XB360 ?

Im thinking no. Sucks too, the work around is somewhat of a PITA

Get VLC360.

I can already decode and stream on my PC, that isnt the problem. What I want is decoding on the XBOX.

But yeah, probably will never happen.

That would be pretty sweet if they created a plugin for Windows Media Encoder to use Xbox360s.

/me drools over the thought of an Xbox360 rendering/encoding farm

 

[Fingolfin269]

I have a 360 and love it but really do not see what the big deal is about the HD-DVD drive. I'm going to buy a standalone because my luck with console DVD players was horrible relative to the standalone players I own. I guess it's a nice feature for people with space issues but I just don't see the point in paying $200 for something that is going to limit your connection types.

With that being said, I hope MS can prove my bias against console DVD players wrong. To be fair, I'd say the 360 is a fine DVD player considering how far along the tech is now relative to PS2/Xbox. My primary fear is of the 'new' Blu-Ray/HD tech in these early gen systems.

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
I have a 360 and love it but really do not see what the big deal is about the HD-DVD drive. I'm going to buy a standalone because my luck with console DVD players was horrible relative to the standalone players I own. I guess it's a nice feature for people with space issues but I just don't see the point in paying $200 for something that is going to limit your connection types.

With that being said, I hope MS can prove my bias against console DVD players wrong. To be fair, I'd say the 360 is a fine DVD player considering how far along the tech is now relative to PS2/Xbox. My primary fear is of the 'new' Blu-Ray/HD tech in these early gen systems.

1. There is a difference between Blueray and HD-DVDs. AFAIK, only Sony uses Blueray.
2. Why would there be a problem?

 

[Fingolfin269]

Originally posted by: InlineFive

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
I have a 360 and love it but really do not see what the big deal is about the HD-DVD drive. I'm going to buy a standalone because my luck with console DVD players was horrible relative to the standalone players I own. I guess it's a nice feature for people with space issues but I just don't see the point in paying $200 for something that is going to limit your connection types.

With that being said, I hope MS can prove my bias against console DVD players wrong. To be fair, I'd say the 360 is a fine DVD player considering how far along the tech is now relative to PS2/Xbox. My primary fear is of the 'new' Blu-Ray/HD tech in these early gen systems.

1. There is a difference between Blueray and HD-DVDs. AFAIK, only Sony uses Blueray.
2. Why would there be a problem?

1) I know.
2) Did you ever try to use a first gen PS2 as a primary DVD player? Did you ever try to use a first gen Xbox as a DVD player? Compared to a standalone counterpart they were horrible and that is my concern with these HD players (BOTH Xbox and PS3)

 

[Eug]

^^^ Reviews of the Xbox 360 say that it is a stellar HD DVD player, at least as analogue HD DVD playback goes. The main problem is for some people is that it doesn't have an HDMI output for full uncompressed audio or digital HD video. Video output is analogue VGA or component only (which doesn't bother me since my TV doesn't have HDMI/DVI anyway).

Audio output via SPDIF is limited to up to 1.5 Mbps DTS or Dolby Digital Plus (or PCM stereo). While the Xbox 360 can decode Dolby TrueHD (which is lossless compression of multichannel audio), it can't output it natively. It converts it on-the-fly to Dolby Digital 5.1. Reports though are that DD+ encoded on-the-fly on the Xbox 360 sounds better than premastered DD5.1 on DVD.

 

[blurredvision]

Anyone else having problems streaming WMV videos from the PC to the 360? I'm glad this update added the ability to do this, and even though it's heavily gimped (wmv only?), it's better than having to have MCE. However, I can't get my 360 to see any videos. Others commented on the nice quality of the WMV-HD video samples they've downloaded from Microsoft's website, so I downloaded a couple. I also have quite a few short videos in the My Videos folder that should qualify for streaming as well. The 360 will see none of them. I've even copied one of the WMV-HD videos to a couple of different folders to no avail. I checked my sharing settings, and everything seems to be a go, but it's still doesn't work. Music and pictures work as fine as they always have.

Any help?

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: Eug
^^^ Reviews of the Xbox 360 say that it is a stellar HD DVD player, at least as analogue HD DVD playback goes. The main problem is for some people is that it doesn't have an HDMI output for full uncompressed audio or digital HD video. Video output is analogue VGA or component only (which doesn't bother me since my TV doesn't have HDMI/DVI anyway).

It's REALLY analog only? That sounds crazy in the face of the dreaded tag that downrezzes if not used under HDCP. The fact that such a huge corporation as microsoft is releasing it without HDCP comforts into thinking the studios don't have the balls to actually follow through on that BS.

Audio output via SPDIF is limited to up to 1.5 Mbps DTS or Dolby Digital Plus (or PCM stereo). While the Xbox 360 can decode Dolby TrueHD (which is lossless compression of multichannel audio), it can't output it natively. It converts it on-the-fly to I believe 640 Kbps Dolby Digital Plus. Reports though are that DD+ encoded on-the-fly on the Xbox 360 sounds better than premastered DD5.1 on DVD.

It is converted in hardware via the HD-DVD drive, or in software on the 360's CPU? Can SPDIF even carry Dolby TrueHD? I've honestly never heard of TrueHD until now. Although given that most DD5.1 are only 384kbps, double the bitrate should most certainly sound better, and as long as it's encoding from a lossless signal, shouldn't have any undue losses.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: BD2003

Originally posted by: Eug
^^^ Reviews of the Xbox 360 say that it is a stellar HD DVD player, at least as analogue HD DVD playback goes. The main problem is for some people is that it doesn't have an HDMI output for full uncompressed audio or digital HD video. Video output is analogue VGA or component only (which doesn't bother me since my TV doesn't have HDMI/DVI anyway).

It's REALLY analog only? That sounds crazy in the face of the dreaded tag that downrezzes if not used under HDCP. The fact that such a huge corporation as microsoft is releasing it without HDCP comforts into thinking the studios don't have the balls to actually follow through on that BS.

Analogue video only. I don't think the studios are going to implement the ICT flag any time soon, and even if they do in 2 years, by that time HD DVD players will be cheap as borscht. In the meantime I get to use a $177 player. (It's $199.99 Canadian, including remote and King Kong).

By that time I might even have a new TV that has HDMI too.

It is converted in hardware via the HD-DVD drive, or in software on the 360's CPU? Can SPDIF even carry Dolby TrueHD? I've honestly never heard of TrueHD until now. Although given that most DD5.1 are only 384kbps, double the bitrate should most certainly sound better, and as long as it's encoding from a lossless signal, shouldn't have any undue losses.

The drive doesn't decode anything. It just streams the data to the Xbox 360 (via USB 2.0), which does all the decode work.

SPDIF does NOT have enough bandwidth to carry TrueHD. The path is as follows:

HD DVD drive --> USB 2.0 --> Xbox 360 --> CPU decode of TrueHD --> Reencode to Dolby Digital 5.1 --> Output through SPDIF.

 

[BD2003]

Analogue video only. I don't think the studios are going to implement the ICT flag any time soon, and even if they do in 2 years, by that time HD DVD players will be cheap as borscht. In the meantime I get to use a $177 player. (It's $199.99 Canadian, including remote and King Kong).

By that time I might even have a new TV that has HDMI too.

Thats still shocking to me though. I'm sure that the studios arent going to implement ICT soon either. But I dont think a company with as much clout as microsoft, who can singlehandlely boost HD-DVD sales through the roof, would release a HD-DVD drive without absolute assurance that it won't backfire on them. In fact, $199.99 is so cheap, even for just the drive, that it sounds as if it's being subsidized by MS or the HD-DVD backers.

Now that I think about it, the HD-DVD backers really need the boost of cheap HD-DVD sales to counteract having blu-ray in the PS3.

Put 2 and 2 together, and Id bet good money that the ICT flag won't get turned on for at least 4-5 years - which should be enough time for the X360 to be completely obsolete, to be replaced by the X720 or whatever, as well as there to be a much larger installed userbase of HDCP enabled televisions.

But I suppose if they were to actually come out and say it'll be 5 years before they turn that flag on, it might slow the adoption of HDCP and backfire on them. Either way, thats good news, cause I was pretty damn irritated about the fact that I only have component and supposedly wasn't going to be able to use HD-DVD or Blu-ray.

Now if only they would figure out a way to get XBMC on a X360, I might actually buy one.

SPDIF does NOT have enough bandwidth to carry TrueHD. The path is as follows:

HD DVD drive --> USB 2.0 --> Xbox 360 --> CPU decode of TrueHD --> Reencode to 640 Kbps Dolby Digital Plus --> Output through SPDIF.

If SPDIF doesnt have enough bandwidth, what does? HDMI only? Cause I can't imagine them letting you use analog for the lossless signal.

 

[KrillBee]

how hard would it be for MS to produce HDMI cables for their xbox360?

 

[BD2003]

Originally posted by: KrillBee
how hard would it be for MS to produce HDMI cables for their xbox360?

They'd have to have the port on the box....which they dont.

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: BD2003
If SPDIF doesnt have enough bandwidth, what does? HDMI only? Cause I can't imagine them letting you use analog for the lossless signal.

Why not?

Lossless over HDMI and analogue are both supported.

I don't see how supporting lossless over analogue on the player would be a problem. Even if it were only HDMI support, anyone could just buy an HDMI receiver and output analogue from there.

 

[EngenZerO]

noooooooooooooo...

the vga cable doesn't work that well with my tv for the dashboard and games... the are overscanned way too much...

i get pretty good dvd picture using the vga cable @ 720p and 1080i on my e50a10... colors and saturation are awesome.. but again overscanned...

crap... microsoft... release HDMI CABLES!!!!

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: Eug
HD DVD drive --> USB 2.0 --> Xbox 360 --> CPU decode of TrueHD --> Reencode to 640 Kbps Dolby Digital Plus --> Output through SPDIF.

Originally posted by: Eug
^^^ Reviews of the Xbox 360 say that it is a stellar HD DVD player, at least as analogue HD DVD playback goes. The main problem is for some people is that it doesn't have an HDMI output for full uncompressed audio or digital HD video. Video output is analogue VGA or component only (which doesn't bother me since my TV doesn't have HDMI/DVI anyway).

Audio output via SPDIF is limited to up to 1.5 Mbps DTS or Dolby Digital Plus (or PCM stereo). While the Xbox 360 can decode Dolby TrueHD (which is lossless compression of multichannel audio), it can't output it natively. It converts it on-the-fly to I believe 640 Kbps Dolby Digital Plus. Reports though are that DD+ encoded on-the-fly on the Xbox 360 sounds better than premastered DD5.1 on DVD.

Oops. This is wrong. TrueHD is not reencoded to 640 Kbps Dolby Digital Plus, because most receivers can't understand that. It's 640 Kbps Dolby Digital 5.1.

 

[Queasy]

Just an FYI - the patch to the Fall Update is out according to Major Nelson.

It turns out that there is a very small number of people are having issues with the Fall update that we rolled out a couple of days ago. I just spoke to the Dashboard team, and they are aware of it and working on an update that we will rolling out in a matter of hours, not days. If you already have the update and you are connected to Xbox Live and playing games etc., then you can continue on with your day. If you are having problems, call your local Xbox Support number (get your local number from Xbox.com) and they?ll get you taken care of. I?ll update this post when the update is available, but as I said?if you are up and running now on Live?you don?t have anything to worry about and this won?t affect you.

Edit: An updated version of the Fall Update is now available on Xbox Live which has elminated issues relating to new or refurbished consoles failing after applying the Fall Update. Users who have already applied the Fall Update and are seeing an error message should call their local Xbox Support telephone number. If you already have the update, you will not be prompted for another update.

 

[SithSolo1]

*sigh*

My tv has all kinds of inputs but will only accept 1080p over HDMI. VGA only goes up to 1280x1024.

 

[Kaido]

Until they (1) come out with XBMC for the 360 and (2) start selling an HDMI cable, I'll stick with my original Xbox, thank you very much

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Kaido
Until they (1) come out with XBMC for the 360 and (2) start selling an HDMI cable, I'll stick with my original Xbox, thank you very much

Gamestop had something called a "Gamestop Xbox360 Premium HDMI cable" briefly on their website a couple of weeks back. It had a price of $79.99 and a release date of 12/1. It has been pulled however.

I'm guessing an HDMI cable is in the works. A DVI cable would be nice too.

 

[Cattlegod]

for those of you wondering about divx, you can get your 360 to play it by:

1 - having a WMC version of XP
2 - installing transcode 360
3 - play the files

it works nicely, but the audio gets disconnected by about .2 seconds on some of the divx files

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Cattlegod
for those of you wondering about divx, you can get your 360 to play it by:

1 - having a WMC version of XP
2 - installing transcode 360
3 - play the files

it works nicely, but the audio gets disconnected by about .2 seconds on some of the divx files

There's also a program called Videora the converts files from xvid/divx to mpeg2. I've been giving another program called RiverPast Video Cleaner a try. It will do a straight convert from xvid/divx to WMV. The quality is pretty good but the conversion is slow. Took almost an hour and a half to convert a 25 minute video on my AMD64 2800+ box.

 

[KrillBee]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: Kaido
Until they (1) come out with XBMC for the 360 and (2) start selling an HDMI cable, I'll stick with my original Xbox, thank you very much

Gamestop had something called a "Gamestop Xbox360 Premium HDMI cable" briefly on their website a couple of weeks back. It had a price of $79.99 and a release date of 12/1. It has been pulled however.

I'm guessing an HDMI cable is in the works. A DVI cable would be nice too.

i figured it was possible. i mean think about it, the port on the back of the 360 can probably perform many functions if its already peforming composite, component, vga, etc

 

[DanTMWTMP]

can you use mouse/keyboard on the xbox360? if you can, i'm getting one ASAP.