Only a few more days before the the fall update for the Xbox 360 Dashboard. One of the highlights that the update offers is support for Mpeg-4 formats, but wasn't really discussed in detail. But now more info has been released about the new video playback capabilities of the Xbox 360; find out more in the full article.

TVersity pioneered delivering Internet and home media to televisions, mobile devices, and the Xbox 360. The team's TVersity Media Center allows the Xbox 360 to access audio files in formats not natively supported by the Xbox 360 (like Vorbis and FLAC), play Internet radio stations, and access podcasts and photo feeds from photo sharing sites (like Flickr). All those can be done with the Xbox 360 via TVersity Media Server without a Media Center PC.

Now the the TVersity team has released a preview version of their patch for the on-the-fly transcoding feature of WMV files for the Xbox 360 console. Directions for installing the patch:

• Stop TVersity Media Server
  
• Extract the content of the patch zip file into the installation folder of TVersity (by default it is Program FilesTVersityMedia Server)
• Start TVersity, go to the 360 and browse your computer for videos. You should now see all the videos shared via TVersity plus all the online video URLs; and assuming your directshow has the filters needed to decode these videos they should all play on the 360.

The TVersity team has also released the following notes for the preview patch:

• Videos may take from 10 seconds to a minute to start. It depends on the bitrate of the video. The 360 requires 2 MB of data to be provided before it starts playback. For low bitrate content (like the stuff coming from the Net) it can take a minute to get to 2 Mbyte. For hi-def content it happens very fast.
• Transcoding in real time of high resolution material requires a very fast computer.
• The quality of the result of the transcoding, can be controlled via the TVersity GUI. Increasing the resolution will improve the quality but will require a faster machine. You can also experiment with the compression ratios and bitrates, these all affect the WMV transcoding just like they affect the MPEG transcoding that TVersity has been traditionally doing.
• You can even upconvert videos to HD if you wish and if you have a fast machine by tweaking the minVideoInfo in config.xml.
• If your computer is not fast enough, you can decrease the resolution and then try again or wait till the transcoding is done and then play it.
• Transcoded videos cannot be FF/Rewind during the transcoding (this is a 360 limitation) however after transcoding is done if you play some other video and then go back to the transcoded one, you will be able to seek in the file.
• It is highly recommended to upgrade to Windows Media Player 11 as it includes more recent and more stable encoders.

Download: [TVersity Xbox360 WMV Transcoding Patch]

Okay, remember how we told you guys that with tomorrow's XBL dashboard update you'll now be able to stream WMV videos to your 360's? Well, they've just released the final Windows Media Player 11 so if you're planning on making full use of the dashboard update, we recommend that you get WMP 11 so you can stream videos to your 360's.

Also, WMP 11 will have the new media sharing feature which will let you stream not only videos, but the other data on your media library as well, to networked devices like DMRs (Digital Media Receiver), your Xbox 360 (of course), etc. Oh, and you might also want to read up on the Windows Media Encoder, because it will help you convert most other video formats into WMV, thus enabling you to view them on your 360s.

Anyhoo, most of the other stuff you'll need to know (like the technical whatnots and the other cool features that come with WMP 11) is discussed in detail at the MS site, so if you want more info on the media sharing feature and other stuff, simply click on the link below and you're all set. Alright, so just download the .exe file for WMP 11 below and you'll be up to speed just in time for when the update is released. Enjoy!


Download: [Windows Media Player 11]

 

PG4 decided he'd use his Xbox 360 for more than Oblivion, Saints Row, Dead Rising, Condemned, Ghost Recon, and Kameo (which, incidentally, are or will be his favorite games on the platform). He's written XB Stream (release v1.0), a program that will pull your favorite RSS/XML feeds and push them to a 360 for viewing. It will do both text feeds and audio podcasts/blogcasts, through the Media section of the Dashboard. Plug in a CNN feed, and your parents just may find that gamebox useful to them after all. Presuming you're not too busy playing games with it or feeding our site onto it, that is.

The program requires the following specs on the PC:

• Vista or any of the XP OS
• A broadband internet connection
• All Microsoft Windows Updates installed
• 700 MHz processor
• 256 MB of installed RAM on the computer
• 10 GB of hard disk space on the computer
• User account on the computer with Administrator privileges (during installation only)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 (or higher) installed/configured on the computer
• Microsoft Core XML Services 3 (or higher) installed on the computer
• One of the following:
  • Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 (or higher) installed/configured on the computer
  • Microsoft Windows Media Connect installed/configured on the computer

You may have seen this quote flying around news sites: "If you have a home network (wired or wireless), you can use Windows Media Player 11 to stream the contents of your library to networked devices. For example, if you have an Xbox 360 or other digital media receiver (DMR), you can use Windows Media Player to stream music, pictures, and videos from your computer to that device."

This has been looking like a great fix for the Xbox's limited video streaming options, because for a long time, we've needed to turn to hacks and workarounds just to get video to and from the 360 to the PC.

Well, not to burst your bubble but according to the good folks at arstechnica, this isn't exactly as good as it sounds. The good news is that you can use Windows Media Player to stream to an Xbox. The bad news is that while WMP does support Windows Media Connect for pictures and music, video is not supported.

Sigh. Oh well, back to the hacks I guess.

If we are to believe Microsoft spokesmen, then the Bill Gates camp has no plans of competing with the highly popular Apple baby -- the iPod -- for now. Recently, MS reps denied recent rumors alleging that it has partnered with a number of Japanese consumer electronics companies to develop a device to compete in Japan with the iPod.

According to the grapevine, MS was said to be engaged in a partnership with eight other companies to create a thingamajig that will try to steal the thunder from the iPod.

This was denied by a MS rep by saying that "the announcement that came out of Japan this week was simply about the Japanese launch of Windows Media Player 11...Due to translation issues, the announcement was misconstrued to sound like Microsoft was developing a rival to the iPod; that's just not the case."

The wrongly-translated Japanese press release also said that the companies listed in there are those that Microsoft has partnered with in Japan to ensure a good user experience. These companies have all agreed to support Windows Digital Rights Management 10 for portable devices.

The list consists of device partners (iRiver Japan, NTT DoCoMo, CreativeMedia, Toshiba, and Victor JVC) and service partners (The Language Channel, OCN Music Store, and Napster which will be available in Japan in the fall of 2006).

When asked by the media if MS has no plans whatsoever to compete with the iPod, Microsoft reps refused to comment. In addition, they also did not want to confirm recent backfence talks with regards to a portable gaming device dubbed as the "xplayer".