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Gadgets Xbox 360 May Also Gain DivX Support
Marcus Yam (Blog) - November 15, 2007 8:09 AM
Print E-mail del.icio.us 43 comment(s) - last by afkrotch.. on Nov 17 at 7:32 AM
DivX would like to support the Xbox 360, should Microsoft permit

DivX Inc. announced yesterday that its video technology will be soon introduced to the PlayStation 3. While Microsoft has previously said that it “wasn’t a priority” integrating DivX support into the Xbox 360,attitudes in Redmond may be changing in order to compete with Sony’s system.

At a recent earnings call for DivX, CEO Kevin Hell revealed that the company is working with Microsoft in getting DivX support for the Xbox 360. According to a transcript of the conference call recorded by SeekingAlpha, JP Morgan analyst Paul Coster posed the question: “Just a minor point here, but there was a recent Microsoft conference where I believe their media extender now incorporates the DivX codec on it, is that correct? Can you confirm that and does that mean we’re soon going to see Xboxes with DivX on them?”

Hell then replied, “Yes! that, uh, we’re in discussions with Microsoft on that at this point in time, so I can’t go into any great detail on that. Um that is not a certified, that is not a certified or licensed product at this time.”

It appears that the folks at DivX would like to have its technology in the Xbox 360, but due to Microsoft’s restrictions and requirements surrounding anything that runs on its console, and Sony’s comparatively more lax policies, support for the codec will likely hit the PlayStation 3 first.

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Transcode
By OrSin on 11/15/2007 8:31:14 AM , Rating: 2
Right now Transcoding works fine, but getting to skip some of the steps in playback would be nice. I do give it to sony for opening up thier system alot more MS.




RE: Transcode
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 11/15/07, Rating: 0
RE: Transcode
By BMFPitt on 11/15/2007 8:39:17 AM , Rating: 5
quote:
Microsoft would rather foster adoption of its own product, and truthfully Divx isn't a huge improvement over WMV.
The vast majority of videos people have on their PCs won't play natively on the 360. This, to me, is a big problem. Transcoding is a hassle, and hasn't worked for me at all.


RE: Transcode
By probedb on 11/15/2007 9:25:55 AM , Rating: 2
Yep same here. I don't use WMV for anything I encode myself and I don't know anyone else that does either.


RE: Transcode
By GreenyMP on 11/15/07, Rating: 0
RE: Transcode
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 11/15/2007 11:47:56 AM , Rating: 2
I think the flaw in your argument here is that the BDJava is also proprietary. It's based on Java, but it's not the same Java we have been using on computers.


RE: Transcode
By GreenyMP on 11/15/2007 12:09:12 PM , Rating: 2
Well the java part of it is Java SE. The same Java SE that you use for applets, desktop applications, web applications, etc. But it does have extras layered on top that allow you to do other things. But because all of the players are required to support Java SE, you are not forced to use the BDJ extras. You can use regular open source java. If you want the picture in picture stuff you will have to use the BDJ extras.

So yes, but no.


RE: Transcode
By afkrotch on 11/17/2007 7:26:41 AM , Rating: 2
Kind of missed the biggest flaw out of his whole arguement. I'll bold and uppercase it for you.

DIVX IS PROPRIETARY!!!


RE: Transcode
By MGSsancho on 11/15/2007 5:09:11 PM , Rating: 1
download windows media encoder (its stable now), and you can encode to their HD format or VC1.

with sony.... i dunno GP already mentioned it. It would be awesome if there was h264 support... at least they are almost industry standards. like in HD-DVD and BluRay. apple has a h264 encoder...

but back on top, the top brass in most companies are pricks forcing closed formats upon us.


RE: Transcode
By mfed3 on 11/16/2007 2:52:12 AM , Rating: 3
yea this is false, microsoft's hdi is meant to be open and is based on xml in direct opposition to sony and bdj. the authoring tools are freely available to anyone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDi_Interactive_Forma...

you guys forget microsoft is not the same as they used to be, they are very open these days and try to promote standards.

* hd photo was just accepted as the new jpeg standard successor to jpg
* microsoft office open xml ooxml is an open xml implementaion instead of the proprietary .doc
* vc-1 made a fraction of the cost of mpeg2/4 for licensing on hd dvd / blu ray media
* .net source code released to public

give them a chance, they are a new microsoft that is making great products and supporting their customers very well


RE: Transcode
By FITCamaro on 11/15/2007 10:19:51 AM , Rating: 2
I installed TVersity a few days ago to use with my 360. It will transcode my video in realtime but it maxes out my video servers CPU (X2 3800+). It would be nice if it didn't have to do the transcoding. The biggest problem with TVersity I've seen is that when you stop playing a video, it continues to transcode it until its done.

What I'm not sure on yet is if I stop one and want to start another, does it stop transcoding the first and start doing the second? Even if it does, it sucks to have my CPU going full tilt after I've already stopped watching something.


RE: Transcode
By bdewong on 11/15/2007 1:17:29 PM , Rating: 2
I use TVersity myself and found that I, instead, like to encode the videos using Windows Media Encoder so I can FF, REW, stop, and resume.

It seems that if you do stop one movie and start another, TVersity will stop transcoding, remove the file, then start transcoding the next file. Also, I was unable to get the transcoding in realtime on my computer (Core 2 Duo 4400), but that may be to certain settings.

All that said, I would love to have the 360 handle all of the decoding itself. That way I wouldn't have to worry about the bugs of other software like Windows Media Encoder and TVersity.


RE: Transcode
By FITCamaro on 11/15/2007 6:14:44 PM , Rating: 2
Can you not fast forward or rewind when transcoding a divx file? I know I can pause and resume. Stop and resume, no.


RE: Transcode
By bdewong on 11/15/2007 8:47:54 PM , Rating: 2
Nope, can't fast forward or rewind. Supposedly because when transcoding live, it doesn't add in time stamps.


RE: Transcode
By npoe1 on 11/16/2007 3:11:27 PM , Rating: 2
You can fast forward and rewind after the video has been completely encoded and played once.

I can not encode in real time :( and for some reason it doesn’t encode with resolutions higher than 8xx*4xx or something like that. No 720p for me :(


RE: Transcode
By 8steve8 on 11/15/2007 8:39:48 AM , Rating: 3
divx may not be much better than wmv, but it is far more popular...

divx on xbox360 will make it useful as a media extender (for me).

as-is i havnt found a single video in my collection of hundreds that it will play.


RE: Transcode
By Zurtex on 11/15/2007 10:27:51 AM , Rating: 5
Honestly divx is not nearly as popular as it used to be, xvid is far more popular these days. Also divx is really a step back from vc-1 (the wmv-hd profile)

There would be a certain amount of irony if Microsoft allowed divx to run on the 360, given that divx originally came from a hacked version of a Microsoft Mpeg-4 codec.


RE: Transcode
By FITCamaro on 11/15/2007 12:27:54 PM , Rating: 2
From what I read (since I care because all my video is reencoded with xvid after its ripped off a DVD), divx and xvid are the same. So by adding divx support we'll be able to play our xvid videos. Is this not correct?


RE: Transcode
By Alexvrb on 11/15/2007 9:40:38 PM , Rating: 2
Mostly. The encoders are different, but the format they encode to should be essentially the same (MPEG-4 ASP). The main difference is where and how they allocate bits. However, there may be some advanced features of one or the other that are not 100% compatible. Especially since Xvid is open source, some builds of Xvid I've seen floating around are not super fantastic.

What I'm trying to say is that Divx support should allow other MPEG-4 ASP codecs like Xvid to work as well, as long as they don't do things not supported. Oh, and they would have to be in one of the file containers supported (meaning probably no .mkv or .ogm yet).

BTW, why are you still using an MPEG-4 ASP codec? x264 is a free open source H.264 codec (MPEG-4 AVC), and H.264+AAC in an .mp4 container is 1) superior to Divx/Xvid, and 2) natively supported on 360 and PS3. Using something like Staxrip makes encoding a ripped DVD to H.264 simple, and the results are undeniable. I streamed Anchorman (700MB) to my roommate's 360 downstairs, and they thought I'd inserted the actual DVD until the movie was over and I pulled Guitar Hero II out of the tray.


RE: Transcode
By Zurtex on 11/16/2007 12:05:10 PM , Rating: 2
H.264 is fully supported by 360? My understand was that it was partially supported by the 360 (something about basic / advanced profiles, its been some time since I read up about it).

And to be honest, most people are crap at telling good visual quality from medium visual quality. It takes most people a while to spot whether something is being upscaled or not. I honestly don't know how well mpeg2 translates to lower bitrate h.264 at standard definition, but I assume if you encoded it very well it would be hard to tell the difference. Mpeg2 only really starts to show its faults at either low bitrates or high definition .


RE: Transcode
By mfed3 on 11/16/2007 3:06:53 AM , Rating: 3
yea i dont get it, why do we care about divx, does anyone even use it anymore?

xvid would be far more useful as more and more people are distributing their :) legal videos with this format.

divx is even more proprietary and niche than wmv; at least every windows pc can play it out of the box.

xvid is just basically an open source mpeg4 implementation cloning divx. if u dont use windows xvid is the way to go, its compression ratios are insane. i just dont know if it is even feasible for ms to acknowlege let alone implement a codec for it on their console.

i like wmv because it was designed for very low computational processing power to decode it. portable media devices will get better battery life, and poor performance / dropped frames will be literally nonexistant. also plays nice with my 360. :) windows media encoder is a very easy to use tool with great film profiles built in.

when you boil it all down, theyre all pretty much the same thing, niche in their own little way. i just prefer wmv since its built into all windows computers. give us xvid so i dont have to re-encode, otherwise i dont care about divx. anyone agree?


RE: Transcode
By Zurtex on 11/15/2007 10:30:06 AM , Rating: 2
Transcoding uses up my computers CPU power and reduces the quality of the image. If you have a keen eye for HD quality and actually want your computer doing other stuff, it's nothing but a pain in the ass.


RE: Transcode
By MGSsancho on 11/15/2007 5:13:50 PM , Rating: 2
I agree 100%


RE: Transcode
By sxr7171 on 11/16/2007 12:12:45 AM , Rating: 2
Agree about transcoding - it is BS, however watching DIVX rips is not high quality either.


Behind the times already
By mlau on 11/15/2007 9:08:46 AM , Rating: 4
While it's a nice idea to catch up with the past,
the (internet movie scene) world has moved on to x264.




RE: Behind the times already
By Mitch101 on 11/15/2007 9:24:45 AM , Rating: 2
True but Divx is a start.

Now if they would just support the following.
Divx-HD
Matroska
VC-1
XVID


RE: Behind the times already
By Zurtex on 11/15/2007 10:32:21 AM , Rating: 2
I don't actually use Microsoft Media Extender, but given VC-1 is a version of the Microsoft WMV profile, I imagine they completely support this. If you have it under an MKV container, you'll probably just need to demux it to WMV.


RE: Behind the times already
By EricMartello on 11/15/2007 9:28:38 AM , Rating: 2
Really, x264...why is most of the porn I download still in divx then?

On that topic, DivX support + they should add a "snap in" to the interface to enable downloading from ThePirateBay. That way we can play games for free... :D


RE: Behind the times already
By Samus on 11/15/2007 10:13:18 AM , Rating: 2
Pretty much all the hi-def stuff is MKV anyway, so DivX support is all fine and great if you care about your five year old movie collection.


RE: Behind the times already
By MGSsancho on 11/15/2007 5:16:27 PM , Rating: 2
that and anime fans enjoy multi track audio and subtitle support


RE: Behind the times already
By EricMartello on 11/16/2007 1:50:45 AM , Rating: 2
MKV = Matroska and it is a wrapper not a codec. It's more like a ZIP file for video, but instead of compressing it bundles subtitles along with multiple audio tracks into one file. OGM is another wrapper format that isn't quite as popular as MKV.

In either case, the video is encoded with your codec of choice, mostly DivX from what I usually watch (but x264 is better, I agree) and audio is usually MP3 format.


RE: Behind the times already
By afkrotch on 11/17/2007 7:32:18 AM , Rating: 2
Screw MKV. x264 + mp4 = ftw


Finaly
By arazok on 11/15/2007 8:33:43 AM , Rating: 2
This would be great. I could finally cancel my cable and start downloading all my TV and movies off the net. I've hesitated because everything is in DivX and streaming it from Media Center isn't easy, nor is converting formats. With this, I could finally be free from my crappy overpriced Canadian cable TV. Screw you CRTC.




RE: Finaly
By Doormat on 11/15/2007 8:56:21 AM , Rating: 3
Which is probably why big media doesn't want this to happen. And given how much MS is in bed with big media, I really don't give this a chance of happening.


RE: Finaly
By arazok on 11/15/2007 9:56:07 AM , Rating: 2
I agree, but I believe it will happen...eventually.

Microsoft (and the whole Media industry) has to realize that these DRM limits hurt sales and protect nothing. They offer short term protection, which they should be using to adjust their industry to new realities. Eventually, the market will shift weather of not they like it.

I haven't made the leap to the 360 yet mostly because I don't have time to play the games, and I don't have the HD TV to fully enjoy what it can do. DivX support would certainly push me to it. This would sell consoles, games, etc that I am presently not purchasing. Microsoft loses, and they know it.

I want to be in the IPTV/media center/home server world. DRM is preventing me from buying any of these products, and Microsoft loses. They're in bed with the wrong people.

The funny thing is that although I'm looking at this with the intent to pirate all my content, I'd GLADLY pay for it if it was convenient and affordable.


RE: Finaly
By michal1980 on 11/15/2007 10:47:55 AM , Rating: 1
Yeah right, you say you pay but you wont.

What artist released their CD on a pay what you want price scheme. 60% of the downloaders paid what amounted to 0 for the disk. And then an amount equal to the 'paying' downloaders got it off bit-torrent paying even less.

That one 'cd' release showed how hypocritical the bit-torrent world is.


RE: Finaly
By sj420 on 11/15/07, Rating: -1
Oh please make this happen!
By cbo on 11/15/2007 9:43:17 AM , Rating: 2
In addition to this MS need to integrate h.264 & divx into the streaming side of XBOX media center extender.




I'll stick with my PS3 for now...
By Pneumothorax on 11/15/07, Rating: 0
By FITCamaro on 11/15/2007 12:29:37 PM , Rating: 2
Exactly how did that relate to the topic of Divx support on the 360?


Good thing
By sibbor on 11/15/2007 9:14:29 AM , Rating: 1
quote:
Hell then replied, “Yes! that, uh, we’re in discussions with Microsoft on that at this point in time, so I can’t go into any great detail on that. Um that is not a certified, that is not a certified or licensed product at this time.”
Haha, Hell sounds a bit confused. Probably he wasn't allowed to say that - or he thought he wasn't but said it either way - but somehow had to answer..

Well, there's good that discussions are going on atleast. I think this is great news for all Xbox 360 owners. DivX playback on the PS3 was also a good thing for the end customer. Of course there's always (more or less) routes around problems like this; lack of offical support for video and audio codecs for example. But with offical support things gets a little neater and easier for the end-customer - and that's a good thing.

Microsoft is making me sick when they're always trying to force their customers into their formats and "standards". Microsoft, grow up (uhh, small guys)!




DivX CEO Needs to be Frozen
By murphyslabrat on 11/15/07, Rating: -1
By InsidiousAngel on 11/15/2007 11:30:13 AM , Rating: 2
All I can say is....wow.


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