Xbox 360 gets DivX December 4th

[Ronin-7]

Microsoft have posted the details on the forthcoming update to the Xbox dashboard and XviD/DivX in .avi & .divx containers are now supported.

http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/ - huge update too much to post here but will cherry pick some of the entries.

**1.What exactly does the Xbox 360 support for AVI?

Xbox 360 supports the following for AVI:

· File Extensions: .avi, .divx

· Containers: AVI

· Video Profiles: MPEG-4 Part 2, Simple & Advanced Simple Profile

· Video Bitrate: 5 Mbps with resolutions of 1280 x 720 at 30fps. See question number 11 for more information.

· Audio Profiles: Dolby® Digital 2 channel and 5.1 channel, MP3

· Audio Max Bitrate: No restrictions. See question number 11 for more information.

**8.What specific features of Mpeg-4 Advanced Simple Profile does the Xbox 360 support?

The Xbox 360 supports Bidirectional Frames (BVOPs), Interlaced Frames, Quarter Pixel Motion Compensation, Global Motion Compensation, and MPEG Quantization.


H.264 decoder has gotten worked on too
· Improved playback performance for h264 720p .MOV files

· Improved playback performance with 1920x1080 MP4 files

· Improved playback performance with 5Mb h264 encoded video files

· Improved playback performance with 60fps 720x480 MP4 content

· Improved playback performance with h264 files in .m4v containers

· Improved quality for upscaled user videos when played back full screen

· Improved quality of MP4 decoder: Global Motion Compensation and VMX optimizations

· Improved quality of MP4 decoder: improved Interlaced Support

· Improved quality of MP4 decoder: Out of order frame output, bidirectional motion vector handling, etc.

· Improved quality with non-square pixel video files

One thing that is odd though is media centre is given the cold shoulder no DivX/H.264 love for the MCX team it seems. But they also have worked on the dash UI to make it more usable for videos if you take a look at this preview video (http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/16421) so at least thats something. The changelog is also littered with references to sorting tv shows/movies categories something the video doesn't show and reading chapters from videos too.

[toytown]

Shame that they still dont allow 5.1 sound on H264/AVC though. Pathetic really :(

[Ronin-7]

Yeah I agree they seemed to focus on playing XviD AVI videos with MP3/AC3 audio which is pretty neat (thanks MS :cool:) but hopefully next year they will round out the MP4 audio support with AAC 5.1

[jubilex]

Great news.

I don't really mind the Media Center being essentially dropped by the dev team, though I wish the dash player would support .ts (the MC currently plays mpeg-2 .ts files with 5.1 AC3 sound).

I hope they also improved the FF/RW functionality of the dash player. Right now it's pretty awful, even with WMVs which you would think would work well. Skip jumps 15-20 minutes depending on the length of the movie, FF is way too slow (max of 8x), and RW doesn't seem to work at all half the time. For some reason it ignores chapter marks also.

edit: Just saw that those issues have been addressed. Sweeeeeet.

[veffremov]

Yeah I agree they seemed to focus on playing XviD AVI videos with MP3/AC3 audio which is pretty neat (thanks MS :cool:) but hopefully next year they will round out the MP4 audio support with AAC 5.1

Multichannel AAC costs an arm and a leg in terms of licensing fees. I would not hold my breath.

[veffremov]

I don't really mind the Media Center being essentially dropped by the dev team, though I wish the dash player would support .ts (the MC currently plays mpeg-2 .ts files with 5.1 AC3 sound).


Clarification: the media center extender is developed by a completely separate team (on a totally different schedule) - this is the reason for the differences in the supported formats.

It has not been dropped by any means.

[jubilex]

I knew the MC was a different team, and I haven't really been following it since I only use it for .ts files (which it has done perfectly fine since the beginning), but have there been any updates to it since the 360 launch?

I don't miss 5.1 AAC, I would just like support for any container that allows me to use h264 video with some form of multi-channel audio.

[toytown]

Multichannel AAC costs an arm and a leg in terms of licensing fees. I would not hold my breath

Then perhaps charge people to use it via a marketplace download. The current system is a just a pain in the ass to use.

If i want to play back my encoded movies, i have to encode them back to divx/wmv first.

If i want to watch them on my 360, i need to stream them through tversity/media player etc, which has proven to cause enough issues with dropped frames etc etc on enough peoples system.

If i want to connect a USB device it still needs to be formatted as FAT32 i think.


How about.

- Access to samba shares.
- Access to harddrives with NTFS, its a MS filesystem
- Ability to store movies on the 360 Harddrive
- 5.1 Sound on AAC sound

I mean the top 3 there, should have been on the system from the start, its ludicrous to think that they wouldnt be. Given the amount of time the 360 has been in development and on the market, for me at least its a complete failure as a media player and instead of putting any real effort into it, they just announce micro updates every year, that dont really address the bigger issues.

[sjchmura]

I think many many people would be willing to pay 400 MS points for AVC/AAC5.1 in MP4/MOV. Hell, look a the 100k who bought a HD-DVD dying format (ducking :)

Now MKV would be too much to ask for - right? 720p AVC+AC3 or DTS mkv......

[Shakey_Jake33]

Ultimately, until they support the kind of features mentioned in the above post, video functionality on a console it going to continue to be nothing more than a mere curiosity, with anyone serious about it better investing in a mini PC.

Mind you, doesn't the PS3 support AAC already? The PS3 actually finds my files, which is more than my 360 does (even with compatible formats).

[Ronin-7]

The update is now out, just tried a bunch of XviD files I had and it is working perfectly streaming from WMP :D

Incidentally for those that want it the reg patch here (http://a8t8.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2518DD508BB713E8!156.entry) will add .MP4 support to WMP11 and you can then stream H.264 to the console it works great 32-bit & 64-bit Windows 64-bit (Haali/ffdshow or CoreAVC required).

I second the idea for codec purchases on the Xbox live marketplace now that you have the most popular codecs covered which will keep the vast majority of folks happy, for those looking you could offer more exotic codec support through pay for downloads on the marketplace, end users get what they want, MS makes a little bit of cash and doesn't have to pay for licenses win-win.

Or instead just one enhanced media support package that covers it and charge just for that, keeps things simple with only one package to sell to end users.

(I'd definitely pay for MPEG-2/AC3 5.1 in .mpg, AAC-HE/AAC-5.1/MP3 in .mp4, XviD in .mp4, flash in .flv support)

[Shakey_Jake33]

Most of my files work except, except one or two that run real choppy. They're not particularly high resolution or bitrate, so I'm not sure what's causing it. Most files work fine.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Out of interest.... How does the new firmware cope with MPEG-4.2 encodes generated with (Xvid's) 3-warp-points?

[Ronin-7]

I tried the sample perfect day video from here (http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~fhoesli/video/index.php), the only one I could find and it played fine no jerkyness.

I not sure what XviD profiles have those features enabled so I used AutoMKV's 2 pass insane quality setting on a video and it again played fine, smooth as silk however when I used the chapter skip the audio went out of sync with the video but it played with audio in sync if I didn't skip ahead.

[SeeMoreDigital]

I tried the sample perfect day video from here (http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~fhoesli/video/index.php), the only one I could find and it played fine no jerkyness.
Thanks for the confirmation...

[Bacon_67]

x264 stuff still won't play. :(

[JasonR]

I tested out Xvid with AVI container and it worked great. Picture quality was superior on the 360 compared to my PC. Probably because it automatically upconverts. It was noticably sharper. At least DVD quality and near HD looking, at 20% the original file size. It even nearly eliminated all blocking that I normally see while viewing on my PC. Plus, on my PC I usually have to enable noise to hide the blocking, so the 360 is a lot clearer. The only downside is that if I want to make the 360 my primary movie player I will have to re-encode all of my movies with the AVI container, because it won't play my Xvid/MP4 files. Changing the file extension doesn't work either.

[cyberheater]

Can anyone recommend any software that will convert hidef .TS to divx and still preserve AC3 5.1

Thanks.

[Ronin-7]

Can anyone recommend any software that will convert hidef .TS to divx and still preserve AC3 5.1

Thanks.

I'm not certain but AutoMKV (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=113811) supports .ts as an input, encoding XviD/AVI and can preserve the AC3, try the copy original setting under audio codec selection.

x264 stuff still won't play. :(

From Local storage or through network streaming or both ?

MeGUI and XviD4PSP both have x264 Xbox 360 profiles try encoding a video with one of those.

[MukiEX]

Why is it that the system seems to cut off the 2-5% margins of any video I run through it? We all know what content suffers hard from this (hard-subbed anime) but it's still extremely annoying (even on wide-screen video it does this, on a widescreen monitor!). Are there any workarounds for this that doesn't involve re-encoding the video with padding?

[cyberheater]

I'm not certain but AutoMKV (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=113811) supports .ts as an input, encoding XviD/AVI and can preserve the AC3, try the copy original setting under audio codec selection.



From Local storage or through network streaming or both ?

MeGUI and XviD4PSP both have x264 Xbox 360 profiles try encoding a video with one of those.


Thanks. I'll give it a go. Do you happen to know if it supports multiple core processors?

[buzzqw]

the build of xvid and x264 included in automkv supports multiple cpu

BHH

[cyberheater]

the build of xvid and x264 included in automkv supports multiple cpu

BHH

Thanks. I'll give it a go.

[Shakey_Jake33]

Why is it that the system seems to cut off the 2-5% margins of any video I run through it? We all know what content suffers hard from this (hard-subbed anime) but it's still extremely annoying (even on wide-screen video it does this, on a widescreen monitor!). Are there any workarounds for this that doesn't involve re-encoding the video with padding?
What kind of screen are you using? Because on TV's, HDTV's included, it's pretty common to loose 2~5% of the image, as some kind of throwback to the CRT days.

The exception is the VGA connections on HDTV's, and HDTV's with 'full scan' or 'exact' scan' mode (usually 1080p TV's).

If your using a PC monitor, ignore this post!

[Manbearpig]

does this xvid feature support any kind of subtitles, on xbox360?

[MukiEX]

What kind of screen are you using? Because on TV's, HDTV's included, it's pretty common to loose 2~5% of the image, as some kind of throwback to the CRT days.

The exception is the VGA connections on HDTV's, and HDTV's with 'full scan' or 'exact' scan' mode (usually 1080p TV's).

If your using a PC monitor, ignore this post!

Comically enough, it's a VGA/DVI monitor connected via Component Cable. Either way, it's an obscenely agrivating "feature" I wish I could turn the fek off.

[Shakey_Jake33]

The only way would be to reduce the overscan level (if your monitor has such a feature). This might be in your menu, or it might be burried in the service menu (and you'll have to ask around to find out how to get into that for your specific monitor, since your not 'supposed' to).
Most PC graphics card drivers can be tweaked to take overscan into account when using Component, but obviously this is no help on a 360.

My Sony Bravia has no ability to disable overscan on 720p/1080i input at all, though my old LG did.
You're better off using VGA if possible, because overscan is always disabled on PC-orientated inputs like VGA.

[Ronin-7]

MukiEX try getting the VGA cable for the Xbox 360 as it will switch to computer monitor resolutions in the dash instead of just 720/1080 as options.


Manbearpig - only burned in hardsubs work.

[killerhex]

im trying to to watch anime with hardcoded subs but the subs dont completely show

[Shakey_Jake33]

^Probably the same reason as posted earlier on this page.

[Ronin-7]

To veffremov or anyone else reading a small request.

So far the update has been great but there is one little thing and it is a minor quibble at best.

Is it possible to improve the transition from pressing play to the point it displays on screen perhaps through a fade in (like how the console fades out on screen when powering off).

My Xbox is on HDMI and when you press play the screen loses sync briefly, you can tell because the screen flashes the resolution up just as if you were changing AV inputs. One thing I noticed on the PS3 is it does this fade in quite nicely without the drop in screen sync.

Would it be possible to have the same on the Xbox or is there is some design issue that prevents it, thanks.

(Maybe it's just my TV though if it makes any difference the TV is a Sony KDL40D3000)

[bwana]

Can anyone recommend any software that will convert hidef .TS to divx and still preserve AC3 5.1

Thanks.
i would like to ask the same thing for evo files -> divx/xvid?
http://forum.doom9.org/images/smilies/thanks-t.gif
:thanks: