Xbox360 Video Playback Options

[oxygenuk]

Hi i know you'll be able to play music from your mp3 player/usb sticks and view digi cam pictures from your digital camera.

my question is if you'll be able to transfer video to the x360 hdd and play them?

(eg. download the mtv show off the net, put it on a usb stick, then transfer it onto the x360 hdd and watch it) i know this cane be done through xp, but im not really looking into networking the two at the moment.

ps: if u say no to the above question i imagine modders will bring out a hack so you can play video aswell right?


thanks in adv, kev.

[whet1134]

Good Question. Noone really knows but I'm assuming the answer is yes. That is a major part of the Media Extender feature set so I cannot imagine there wouldn't be some kind of video playback. At the very least, some kind of streaming would be implemented.

[JMan8108]

will you be able to link the 360 and ur PC for video and music stream through a USB or an ethernet cable? I use a wireless router just to share internet but a network is not setup.

[whet1134]

will you be able to link the 360 and ur PC for video and music stream through a USB or an ethernet cable? I use a wireless router just to share internet but a network is not setup.

I imagine some kind of ad hoc network is possible if you have more than 1 NIC. I used to have my Xbox run into my PC, then my PC into the cable modem, with internet sharing on before I bought my router. Seemed to work ok.

[JMan8108]

yea I just wanna be able to play all my music through it when im playin and maybe watch sum chappelle when i aint playin

[bullitt464]

the 360 will upconvert dvd's to 720p/1080i right?

[twistedsymphony]

the 360 will upconvert dvd's to 720p/1080i right?

No unfortunetly... it will (at least) be progressive scan.

hopefully once we get it hacked someone will make a DVD player that will up-convert.

[Carlo210]

Actually, if you read that 'Definition of the future' article on ign, MS says that the games will support 720p AND 1080i.

[twistedsymphony]

Actually, if you read that 'Definition of the future' article on ign, MS says that the games will support 720p AND 1080i.

Hey welcome to the conversation... how are things over there in left field?

We're talking about DVD video playback NOT games.

We all know the games are capable of HD resolutions but it's a rare and expensive DVD player that will perform up-conversion. If you're not familiar what what up-conversion is it's taking 480i/p signal from a DVD movie and "converting" it into a 720p or 1080i HD signal... something that the 360 will NOT do and MS has outright stated.

With that said it's definitely not hardware constraint seeing as XBMC on the current gen Xbox can do up-conversion (though it's buggy and incomplete).

[thax]

Actually, if you read that 'Definition of the future' article on ign, MS says that the games will support 720p AND 1080i.

More accurately all games must support 480i/480p/720p and can optionally support 1080i.

[twistedsymphony]

More accurately all games must support 480i/480p/720p and can optionally support 1080i.

No he was right the first time... all games MUST support 1080i as well... (originally it was just 720p but they upped the requirements just before E3)

[thax]

No he was right the first time... all games MUST support 1080i as well... (originally it was just 720p but they upped the requirements just before E3)

Arg! I am wrong again, I just read the specs and it is true, full support for 1080i. I am really surprised on this one as it will make development challenging. Won't it be difficult to drive 1920x1080 at decent frame rates? This means that 720p will probably be very smooth, but as a result we may see less quality in order to properly support the higher resolution mode.

[twistedsymphony]

well interlaced video modes only support a max of 30FPS while progressive scan display up to 60FPS...

from what I've gathered most games will support a minimum of 30FPS with a few companies setting their bar at 60.

It's interesting because in one of the interviews with Rare they were talking about the limitations of the Alpha Dev kits and PD0 and had kind of off handedly said something to the effect of "...we have frame rate issues with the Alpha kits but when we get the new hardware we'll have no problem making the 30FPS requirement." Which makes one wonder if MS has set a 30FPS requirement or if it was a requirement that they set for themselves.

I know that Full Auto and some other titles will be running at a full 60FPS.

As long as you're at or over 30FPS it should look good. Most Xbox games only do 30FPS... and if you're not using a progressive scan or HDTV You can't argue that it will look better because most interlaced TVs are physically incapable of displaying more than 30FPS.

I have faith in the developers in that we wont be seeing any frame rate issues... especially if MS has infact set a 30FPS requirement.

This post has been edited by twistedsymphony: Jun 20 2005, 08:07 PM

[Carlo210]

We're talking about DVD video playback NOT games.

Oops.

Anyways, I've never foudn any problems with frame rates. We've been watching interlaced tv for ages. Things like image clarity and higher resolutions are a must for me, but I honestly haven't found a nudge of me wanting to see Sienfeld running at 60fps.
I'm just saying I haven't noticed any slow framerates on my crt tv, even though it is 30fps, it still looks fine. I think that is the most unnoticable thing about hd-tvs which aren't crts. Also, like I mentioned before, the crts don't need the higher fps due to the already instant response times. Lcds and other panel displays need the higher fps because of the flat panel nature. If it ran at 30fps, the frames would mesh together (fade from frame to frame) to display the 30fps, unlike 60fps which makes the meshing together more unnoticable because instead of making a transition from frame 1 to frame 2, it displays frame after frame with minimal meshing.
Now of course my termsare incorrect, but I hope what I am saying makes sense.

[thax]

well interlaced video modes only support a max of 30FPS while progressive scan display up to 60FPS...

from what I've gathered most games will support a minimum of 30FPS with a few companies setting their bar at 60.

I surely hope they don't sacrifice game quality to support 1080i. For example in 720p mode a drop from 60fps to 40fps during peak action sequences would be entirely acceptable, but a drop from 30fps to 20fps in 1080i would not. This would mean that the some graphical fidelity would need to be sacrificed in order to properly support 1080i.

Really it depends on how the 1080i mode is rendered.

If they render the full 1920x1080 frame at once, then send the entire frame over the two fields then there will be framerate problems.

If they render in "swished" 1920x540 fields, then frame rates won't be a problem but anti-aliasing won't look as good and there will be more problems with screen artifacts.