360 keyboard confirmed and more codec's supported

kaisersose77

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2007/0408-im.htm?WText.camp=TS1-InstantMessaging&WText.campSrc=Home


* 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.

Xvid support possibly? but that would help them kill off their video marketplace, well for some ppl anyways

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=118403&page=5&highlight=xbox

There was a poll in the above thread with xvid/divx etc and someone posted

"It's official. We get all we have asked for: mpeg-4 part 2 and part 10, multithreaded decoding, switchable DARs,..."

Ciaran500

Great! Hopefully we'll finally start to see H.264 content become more popular with TV shows.

RE*AC*TOR

xvid / divx are advanced simple profile. so no support based on that.

GrumPy

Then what does this mean? how is it beneficial at all.

RE*AC*TOR

Its beneficial in as much as the 360 is supporting more codecs, but for everyone who wants it to play the most popular format online (divx) then you'll just have to wait.

Ciaran500

Because we get h.264 and MP4 support. MP4 is quiet popular for blogcasts and itunes videos and h.264 can give you a very high quality image if its encoded right.

kaisersose77

Someone from Ms posted here lasy yr:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=118403&highlight=xbox

and one of his posts was

"I have a question regarding the Xvid/Divx playback: would supporting MPEG4 Part 2 Simple Profile (or Advanced Simple Profile) be enough?

Is AVI the most common container for Xvid/Divx media?

How important is the HD support (resolutions above 720x576)?
"

Maybe they'll support mpeg4-asp down the line or maybe we could be in for a suprise in May, but seeing as this is MS...............very unlikely

8T8

Yes at long last having been waiting for this myself :cool:

MPEG-4 ASP support is unlikely and they intentionally limited it to MPEG-4 SP because all the bittorrent TV shows are MPEG-4 ASP in AVI containers.

(Apple does the same thing with it's AppleTV MP4-SP only)

Anyway the inclusion of H.264 support is very nice with proper high profile support & chapters!! wohoo.

Hopefully they wont leave out MKV container support either & not just leave it at MP4 for H.264 video.

(On an interesting note as the Xbox 360 is doing the decoding does this mean MS has written it's own MPEG-4 SP/AVC decoders or licensed them from a third party and I wonder would WMP get an update to natively play H.264 material ??)

unklerosco

Wonder when the update for the HD-DVD is out..... gotta fix that sound.

McDermotX

Well,
they could probably fix the Dynamic Noise issues with the DD output when using the HD-DVD, with the Dash update next month.....but chances are it'll be a separate fix, if insider info is accurate..
DTS downmix output option may be along later in the year, but don't expect any miracles when it comes to sound output with the 360 HD-DVD combo.......there's only so much you can do with optical connection..

Dman001

Is it only protected MP4 files it plays? Will it play Wippit movies? If so I might start using Wippit.

8T8

Dman001 wrote:

Is it only protected MP4 files it plays? Will it play Wippit movies? If so I might start using Wippit.

No it is the other way round it only plays MP4 video files without DRM.

It does now also support streaming DRM WMV video from your PC if that's your thing.


Update - veffremov a Microsoft engineer has posted in the Doom 9 thread;

Finally I gan give more details without getting into trouble.

Good news: h.264 is the same decoder used for HD-DVD. VC-1 is also multi threaded so higher bitrates should now work.

Bad news: h.264 profile support is 4.1 for HD and 5.0 and 5.1 for SD (720x576) content (we run out of memory for HD 5.0+ content). MPEG4 is SP only no ASP seatures are supported (B-Frame, QPEL etc.). Also no subtitle support.
Bad news: container support is MPEG4 and ASF, audio is WMA or AAC LC 2ch only.
Bad news: This updated functionality is for the dash video player only. MCX is a separate product and is completely unrelated to the dash.

So that means MP4 container for SP/AVC video with AAC-LC 2 channel audio only & the Media Centre extender does not gain this extra functionality only the built in dashboard UI can play the files.

Dman001

Okay, thanks 8T8. Can you only stream MP4 by your computer or can you stream MP4 by a USB device?

8T8

You can do both from a PC over a network link or from local storage like a USB flash drive.

calex71

RE*AC*TOR wrote:

Its beneficial in as much as the 360 is supporting more codecs, but for everyone who wants it to play the most popular format online (divx) then you'll just have to wait.

i would have thought xvid was most popoular? since every illegit tv episode and movie is encoded with it, probalby due to the fact it remained open source after the split form the divx project in 2001

Scruff

i suppose it was a bit much to expect M$ to support divx\xvid but i'm still really pissed that they dont. :mad: