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. Before we get to the fun part, though, it's worth noting that the whole Dashboard experience felt a lot snappier; if you ask us, they made some worthwhile performance tweaks. Since we don't use MSN all that much 'round these parts we couldn't delve too far into the new Messenger contact list capabilities, so we'll get to the good stuff: you want to know about the video. Well, we're happy to say it works as advertised. 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. Expanded test results after the break; check out the hands-on / walkthrough of the update in the gallery.
Update: Microsoft posted an extremely useful
video playback FAQ. Check it out.
Xbox 360 MPEG-4 / H.264 video test results. Here's what Microsoft said should work, followed by we tested worked and that didn't:
Microsoft added
- H.264 video support: Up to 10Mbps peak, Baseline, Main, and High profiles with 2 channel AAC LC.
- Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 5Mbps peak, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC.
- PlaysForSure (did not test)
Tested, worked
- H.264 / 720p, MPEG-4 container, AAC stereo 48kHz, ~1.1MBps
- H.264 / 1080p, MPEG-4 container, AAC stereo 48kHz, ~5.5MBps
- MPEG-4 / 720p, AAC stereo 48kHz, ~1.1MBps
- MPEG-4 / EDTV, AAC stereo 44.1kHz, ~1.5MBps
Tested, didn't work
- MPEG-4 / 720p, QuickTime container (.mov), AAC 5.1 48kHz, ~6MBps
- H.264 / 1080p, QuickTime container (.mov), AAC 5.1 48kHz, ~9.8MBps
posted May 9th 2007 9:31AM
HAHA! Extinction, Jesus. I think you are doing this just to be funny!
""Jesus, Extinction. You are the most MISinformed person EVER."
You're the moron who I caught lying about PS3s specs a while back, and disagreed with the specs Microsoft posted on their own website."
HA! I never denied the Xbox's specs, you dumbass! I denied that the PS3's specs could be obtained in real life because they were THEORETICAL! The Xbox 360's theoretical numbers are A LOT closer to the real world performance. You never caught me lying about shit! I had all the proof in the world, and all you could do is copy and paste fake numbers and make up abilities that the PS3 doesn't have.
You are a total dumbass, because everything I have stated is FACT. They have all been confirmed by many, MANY sources.
The Xbox 360 is MORE powerful IN MOST CASES than the PS3 IN THE REAL WORLD. Again, this is FACT that has been proven over and over again. Just go back to that old thread and look. All the proof is there, all you have to do is OPEN YOUR EYES, and GET A GRIP.
"That made no sense. The functionality came built into the console, and was not added by those programs. Those programs added the ability for your PC to stream to PS3."
Jesus, this is like arguing with a 10 year old... If the functionality came built into the console, then you wouldn't need any third party programs. Idiot.
"360 also has you rip audio cds if you want the mp3s stored on it.
PS3 does stream."
Why would we need to store the music on the hard drive when we can just use the streaming capabilities? That's why we don't need the hard drive space that you do with your PS3.
"Who cares that the difference between the way they handle video streaming is 360 uses UPnP and PS3 uses HTTP? Only idiots care. The fact of the matter is, PS3 does those tasks, how it does it is irrelevant."
PS3 doesn't do those tasks that you claim it does, and it's a POS compared to the power of the 360. My statements on this are not fanboyism, it's from personal experience with computers, knowledge of computers, and the fact that I know that the PS3 can't produce the numbers Sony claims they do. It's fact, and I'm just about done arguing with you. Evan was right. Arguing with you is pointless, because you are a thick fanboy. I don't care if you think the PS3 is more powerful (it isn't), and I don't care if you think the PS3 can do everything you say it can (which it can't, and definitely not without third party support), but when you try to spread around total bullshit propaganda that Sony puts off with it's off the wall theoretical numbers (nobody but Sony knows how they got them), and under frivolous testing from IBM, they- the people that have created the Cell processor, claim that it isn't as powerful as Sony say it is.
One last thing. I want to know what GPU the PS3 has. I forgot, is it the G70 or the NV47?
LOL,
LOVE IT.
Extinction is here tooting the PS3 horn in yet another article (sounds like one of those clown horns by the way).
Just leave dude.... You have nothing to contribute here, and were spanked already, just quit it.... Nobody here wants to hear about the Piss3. This has NOTHING TO DO with the PS3....
Go away.
Zues, you always let him get to you huh??... lol
I have yet to even play with any of this, and the forza demo comes out tonight, so i'll probably be fiddlin with that, so i have yet to see what's up w/ the streaming and such....
chuckles at extinction one last time....
Ignore extinction please, he'll go away.
""Why the hell would you want a device with such limited hard drive space to be a "server?""
Well unlike 360, you can plug any harddrive into it."
Too bad the 360 can take advantage of external hard drives.
""Yes, the 360 can be used to view and listen to media on those two PCs. That is a feature that the PS3 is sorely lacking"
No it's not."
Yes, it is sorely lacking. You can't just connect your PS3 to your network and just stream video and music. No, you need third party programs.
Yeah, shmiggy, he's still claiming that the false numbers from Sony (obviously his God) are fact and nothing is more powerful. Not even the full blown, non-watered down PC version of the GPU.
Still cracks me up that the Mac users are having the easiest time of getting all their content to the 360. The Nullriver update to the Connect360 software should complete that picture again with mp4 video support.
Sorry, I mean to reply to John's earlier comments where he was defending the 360.
@Extinction, Your such a fanboy. Go fold@home. You've contributed nothing valuable to the comments. I came here to gather more information about streaming to my hdtv /w my 360 and you provided what to this conversation....well... a more difficult experience finding that information.
forza 2 demo comes out tonight?????????????? ^^^^^^^^
well, it was supposed to dammit. 2 a.m. just like last night's update, here it is, almost 3 a.m. and i see NO FORZA demo on there.
I bet it'll be there in the morn, oh wait, just saw this posted, nite nite,
The wait has been longer than expected, much longer than expected, but the Forza 2 demo will be available in a few hours. Over on the official Forza 2 forums, community VIP chespace has confirmed that the Forza 2 demo will be available for download off the XBLM today at 2:00AM pacific (5:00AM eastern). And yes your math is correct, that's less than three hours from this posting. So racing fans, it's time to pull an all nighter. Grab your force feedback steering wheel, get real comfortable, and pop open a few cans of your favorite caffeinated soda. It's a countdown to Forza 2 guys ... get excited!
fuggit, i'm goin to bed, 5 a.m. my ass,,,, I'll check it in the morning
No h264 mkv support or divx/xvid which is too bad. Luckily there are ppl doing BLU-RAY/HDDVD encodes in WMVHD 720p/1080p with 5.1 sound. I just wish this update would support NTFS USB drives because most HD movies weigh in 5 to 7gb. For now they stream thru vista media center and look awesome! Just watched a BLU_RAY exclusive 'Casino Royale'in HD the other night. Who says you can only watch blu-ray on a PS3!!
i also got my 360 when i was 17 and now 18 and cant use the new msn im thing and it is very upsetting to me that u cant change from a child acount to an adult one i think microsoft should change that in some way.
@Chris:
I heard that Microsoft is releasing another update in the next few days to fix that problem. It may just be a rumor so don't get your hopes up, but, that's what I heard.
For those who are still having problems streaming .mp4 from WMP11, you have to make sure you have the proper registry key for .mp4 and WMP11 (It doesn't add it by itself). Posted here:
http://forums.xbox.com/12332184/ShowPost.aspx
the thing that i liked the most about this was the msn messenger but when i tryed to sign up for it i couldnt use my email!!!!!!, because i am under the age of 19 i had to use my parents information and the email is "PERMANENT" cant change it so i cant use msn messenger which is *************************************************
is anyone else having this problem??
I just called Tech support about the age problem. They said they expect it to be fixed within 24 hours!! Horray!
After the update, WMV videos (which have been transcoded from AVI's) now don't play full screen on my LCD. They play in 16:9 with large black borders on all sides, turning my 40" LCD into a 20" LCD. The XBOX is set to 1080p and then TV is set to 16:9. I have tried to tweak all the settings (TV/XBOX) with no luck. The videos are in HD and have been coverted to WMV - anyone else had this problem?
TVersity allows you to transcode just about every format there is. They are on top of their software with an update a day or two after the spring update made poo out of their media server. It allows you to stream most of anything to your 360, phone, other computers, and more. So I have been streaming h.264 before the spring update but now that transcoding isn't needed that allows for better frame rates. Good job Microsoft now lets see you add the codec for xvid\divx video.