Mission 360 to Bring Enhanced Video CODEC Support to Xbox 360?

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.360-hq.com/article-1126-thread-1-0.html' target='_blank'>http://www.360-hq.com/article-1126-thread-1-0.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The latest news floating around the web is that XviD and Divx playback will be coming to an Xbox near you soon... It would seem Microsoft have announced at an event in Rotterdam called Mission 360 that there will be a firmware patch coming out in the next few months that will address the lack of support for these very popular video formats. Also noted was that Microsoft want to release the Xbox 360 in a variety of new colours. Which is all well and good but I feel a little to late as i'm surely not going to go out and buy a new console just for a colour change."</i><br /><br />Not much to go on other than a rumour, but if it's true, it will be a fantastic move by Microsoft and will sell a lot of Xbox 360's to people who were holding onto their mod-chipped Xbox's...

[Tim Williamson]

Good move Microsoft!

In the meantime, if you want to stream DivX/Xvid from your PC to your Media Center Extender, check out Transcode 360 (http://runtime360.com/blog/). It gets installed in the tray of your MCPC, and a new menu option appears under "More" on your MCX that will cause the video to transcode on the fly and stream to the MCX.

Tried it at my parent's house and it worked great!

[Felix Torres]

Hmm, this might be a confirmation of the rumor; there was an earlier blurb along those lines attributed to a Dashboard team developer last week. (Same source was saying Europe won't see PS3 til may at the earliest, btw.)

Among the media-related enhancements rumored to be coming in the fall 360 update are the ability to stream video using UPnP, the ability to play video off USB devices (Zune, PMC, UMS, et al), and now Mpeg4-variant video support.

I like all of these and hoping they all happen, sooner rather than later, but what I *really* want to see ASAP is:
1 - Full support for USB-attached storage for media and game saves
2 - a tie-in to Zune marketplace audio and video subscriptions
3 - failing that, a 360 link to Akimbo would be a start

[kiwi]

For those using a Mac, you can stream Music and Photos (no video) using
Connect360. works great!

http://www.nullriver.com/index/products/connect360


I have yet to install Parallels or Bootcamp to my iMac, but with that I guess you could stream with Windows to the XBOX...

[Felix Torres]

For those using a Mac, you can stream Music and Photos (no video) using
Connect360. works great!


Connect360 is a generic UPnP server for the MAC.
Once (if) the 360 starts supporting video from non-MCE sources, you should be able to stream video off a Mac, too.
Which is one reason support for the MPEG4-variant video formats is a good thing.

Oh, I forgot: the HD-DVD add-on requires support for Mpeg/Mpeg2/H.264, and that is almost certainly coming in the Dashboard update for all consoles, not just as a feature for HD-DVD equipped 360s.

[rzanology]

this is great...i have all my dvd movies coded into xvid via fairuse wizard. But i have them on a shared drive on my server...and i pull them over on my media center. i tried to get watch one on my 360 and was hurt when it wouldn't play :( this would be so nice if they can get this done.