Xbox 360 Spring Update Expands Video Codec Support

[Jeremy Charette]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2007/0408-im.htm?WText.camp=TS1-InstantMessaging&WText.campSrc=Home' target='_blank'>http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2007/0408-im.htm?WText.camp=TS1-InstantMessaging&WText.campSrc=Home</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Some of the other features in this upgrade include...Switchable aspect ratio now available during video playback (Auto to Letterbox, Zoom, Stretch, Native). Support for streaming WM-DRM protected content from a PC. Folder view for video content on connected devices. H.264 video support: Up to 15 Mbps, Baseline, Main, and High (up to level 4.1) Profiles with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles. Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 8 Mbps, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles. Show folder hierarchy for video content played from all devices. Bookmarks are stored for each video that the user plays remembering the users last location in the file as well as the aspect ratio that the user choose for that file. Video trick modes (fast forward, rewind, chapter skip) can now be used while downloading Video Marketplace content. Skip forward and backward functionality has been improved to skip to the next or previous chapter. Each video is divided into 10 “chapters” allowing you to quickly skip around video content."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/ilmAchievementNotificatio.jpg" /> <br /><br />Looks like the spring update isn't just a bug fix/feature enhancement. There's some real meat here! MPEG-4 support, h.264 support, video chapters, streaming video while downloading...Microsoft has added some serious video playback upgrades to the 360. They're really positioning the 360 to be the "do it all" device in the living room. Can't wait!

[Tim Williamson]

Does the 360 support DivX/Xvid off the shelf, or does it still require a workaround (I don't recall if a previous update added this feature)?

[Jeremy Charette]

Still requires a workaround.

[RichL]

H.264 support is fantastic news. :D

[Felix Torres]

Yup!
Serves two very important video sources:
Digicams and cellphones.
A lot of consumer-level video is being generated on these so supporting them without insisting on transcoding is important.

Word on the wrapper side of things is less pleasing to the downloaded-video crowd; no support for any of the wrappers commonly associated with online video posts. (.TS, .MKS, whatever...) Its strictly MP4.

Not that re-wrapping applets will be long in coming, of course.

[Jason Dunn]

The h.264 and MPEG4 is the biggest news here IMO - it's the first time since Microsoft licensed the MP3 codec (in, what, 2001?) that Microsoft has admitted the Windows Media codec isn't the only one on the planet. The fact that they're licensing it is simply stunning, and it bodes well for the future.

Now h.264 support on the Zune, THAT would be cool! And I can see it happening now after seeing this announcement...