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[gggie]

I've read a little about this and want to see if I have this straight: my current Xbox with Xbmc (a totally free program) will play a wide variety of different movie formats that can be streamed from computers running many different operating systems (including all versions of Win XP).  The Xbox 360, on the other hand, will play only a few limited formats (and not the popular ones like divx), which can only be streamed from a PC if it is running an obscure variant of Windows that few people use (the Media Center version).

W.    T.    F.

[puppydg68]

QUOTE(gggie @ Nov 19 2005, 10:40 PM)

I've read a little about this and want to see if I have this straight: my current Xbox with Xbmc (a totally free program) will play a wide variety of different movie formats that can be streamed from computers running many different operating systems (including all versions of Win XP).  The Xbox 360, on the other hand, will play only a few limited formats (and not the popular ones like divx), which can only be streamed from a PC if it is running an obscure variant of Windows that few people use (the Media Center version).

W.    T.    F.

You are correct..  If you don't have media center edition, you can ONLY stream MP3 and pictures.  

If you have MCE - you can stream Video, Music and Pictures, log into msn messenger.  But Video is only MPEG1/2 WMV - NO DIVX/XVID
AND it's SLLLOOOOW!!!!

get your PC downloads at http://www.xbox.com/pcsetup

Right now, keeping your old Xbox is the only way.   Unfortunately it looks like we're going to need some hacks in order to make the media centre even remotely usable, it's got a long way to go before it even rivals our beloved XBMC

[Keva]

hopefully someone will come out with a media center subsitute that we can use on any operating systems

[gonkle]

my say.
if there is no hack in the next half year i would love to see the xbmc team go semi commercial, charge us some 5$ fof the signed xbox360 version

[Zipp425]

yeah, I agree..  the whole xbox360 media center thing is pretty crap...

Im sure they know about XBMC, they should at least try to compete with the mods on their past system.
I use my xbox because its my media center, not for games....

Anyway, i cant wait for 360 hacks. at least this time around we have a good modding base...

[jizmo]

Agreed. They should've made the whole streaming and playing from PC easier to compete fully with PS3 and its Blu-ray possibilities.

They've shot theirselves in the leg by the way they've made harder for consumers to play every kind of media and basically crippled many good things that could've been there.

I'm not going to slave my work-dedicated PC for MCE when XBMC does more just by itself. The only decent reason would be playing off HDTV videos, which Xbox isn't capable of, but well .. you know how good the selection there is atm

[xxnnxx]

its just said that xbox 360 and pc doesnt support divx and xvid that just plain sux.

[Zipp425]

QUOTE(xxnnxx @ Nov 20 2005, 07:29 PM)

its just said that xbox 360 and pc doesnt support divx and xvid that just plain sux.

Ya good luck getting HD quality out of something other than divx or xvid....

Im sure we will find a way to use these types of media... and in time how to view videos off the 360 not the pc.... cuz streaming is slow as heck

[incognegro]

wow.......okay let me explain something to some people, i dont think you get it. Xbox360 is NOT a media center! it was never advertised to be one; It was said that it has media center extender built in which basically means its an extension of a media center pc. Those with windows media center extender for the xbox will know what im talking about. So dont look so suprised that it cant play video

QUOTE

Ya good luck getting HD quality out of something other than divx or xvid....

Its called wmvhd.....

[the0ry]

QUOTE(incognegro @ Nov 21 2005, 09:32 PM)

wow.......okay let me explain something to some people, i dont think you get it. Xbox360 is NOT a media center! it was never advertised to be one; It was said that it has media center extender built in which basically means its an extension of a media center pc. Those with windows media center extender for the xbox will know what im talking about. So dont look so suprised that it cant play video
Its called wmvhd.....

The original xbox was not meant/made to be a media center either...I don't know about the rest of you but that's the purpose of mine.  

It's called xbmc...  So, lets hope that great group of people at xbmc have big plans for the 360.

[g3m1nii]

I don't understand why people feel the need to bash on the 360 for functionality that only a modded xbox could have.  That would be like saying that a factory direct (insert your favorite vehicle here) is crap because it doesn't come with a fiberglass aftermarket bodykit with xenon headlights...Just doesn't make sense to me...

I agree that we need to give credit where credit is due...The guys that made XBMC did an amazing job!  As did all the ones before us who were able to hack the box in the first place...  

But like previously mentioned...360 was never advertised as an all-in-wonder Home Theatre replacement machine...That is what all of us modders have done using the original Xbox...Some of us, myself included, have even put ours in a true HTpc or comparable case...the 360 is a gaming console First and foremost, not a PC, not a DVD player, not a jukebox and not a toaster over...

If MS sold XP Professional with marketing slogans that the included MS Paint program can do everything that Photoshop CS does, then I agree with you - Slam it as much as you want!  But slamming a system (which we all either own or will own at some point, why else are we even posting on the 360 forum) for not doing things that a hacked none standard system can do is comparing apples and oranges...

[Big Al]

Perhaps MS didn't say that the Xbox 360 would be an all-in-wonder home theatre replacement, but they stopped just short of saying that.   Here's a few quotes I picked up on the web and I'm sure I could find a lot more if I looked also.

"MS continues to advance its vision of digital entertainment anywhere," said Will Poole, senior vice president at MS. "By seamlessly integrating MS's premium entertainment devices, we are greatly enhancing the ways in which our customers will experience entertainment in and around their homes."

Some guy named Allard also had this to say when comparing himself to Sony:

"Our hardware's the same. We got to kick ass on that and service--it just got better. Our media support is really, really good and we got the design right. If I'm [Sony Computer Entertainment president] Mr. [Ken] Kutaragi, I've got a lot of work to do between now and spring, but hopefully attending the worldwide launch thing is another thing I'd be thinking about."

Yeah, really impressive media experience.   I've got a 4 year old Apex DVD player that can play mp3 and does the picture format, which is about all the 360 does as far as media is concerned.

Ok, so it can do a little more, but it's certainly not anything ground breaking.   Hopefully they'll release some improvements when either the PS3 puts some pressure on them (although I doubt if Sony will give any better media experience) or when they get caught up on their backlog of orders and need to give this thing another boost.    Until then, I'll be sticking with my XBMC.

[gggie]

I think the limit on video streaming to Windows Media Center PCs is particularly insulting.

Every version of Windows XP has (or can add with a free download) Windows Media Connect, which is capable of streaming pictures, music, AND movies.  MS went to the trouble of setting up the 360 to interact with WMC, but then intentionally crippled the functionality so that only pictures and music could be accessed.  The likely reason for this is MS wanting to promote its Media Center operating system (by being able to advertise that only people with that product will get the extra benefit of video streaming with the 360).

That artificial limit on the 360’s capabilities is an absolute kick in the teeth for consumers, and I don’t understand why anyone would defend this decision based on quibbles about precisely what MS said or didn't say in its 360 advertising.

[panabax]

It just dawned on me why the media function of the 360 sucks so bad.  MS looses $126 (or some such)  per premium 360.  If it was any where near as usable as XBMC, we'd all buy them just to use as media clients.  We wouldn't even need to play games on it.  Well, that really screws with MS's marketing plans to have an installed base of consoles without 3-6 games per console.

I have a solution.  They need to offer XBOX 360 Media Center, with all the functionality of our beloved XBMC, as a downloadable dashboard replacement on XBOX Live for a fee sufficient to make it woth their while.  It is, after all, THE XBOX Killer App.  Screw Halo, the Killer app for me has always been XBMC and I would happily pay for the functionality it provides.

PanaBax

[Reaper527]

QUOTE(g3m1nii @ Nov 22 2005, 05:07 PM)

I don't understand why people feel the need to bash on the 360 for functionality that only a modded xbox could have.

i seem to recall an interview in oxm (or online somewhere) where a high MS exec (i think it might have been allard) said that they got alot of the inspiration for the 360 from the xbox modding scene (such as custom face plates/streaming/custom themes for the dashboard etc.)) so i think they let the source of their inspiration down.