Windows XP Media Center Edition Development – XBox 360, Media Center Extender and Media Center PC FAQ
This FAQ explains how the 360 can work as an extender for Media Center. This makes it worth while getting a 360 for me so that I can have all my recorded shows on my bedroom TV.
It appears to have several limitations such as not being able to play non MPEG1, MPEG2, DVR-MS and WMV video files.
I wonder how intensive it would be to convert a single CD DivX into one of those formats?
on December 19th, 2005 at 9:18 pm
I had tried doing some converting before…have a few programs at home that might do the trick.
A plain old XBOX can play mpg/avi files to your tv streaming off your computer…I use mine to watch Prison Break, Lost, 24, whatever…but get a 360
on December 19th, 2005 at 10:19 pm
This was my only concern
Q: Does XBMC and Xbox support HDTV (High Definition TV) resolutions?, and HDTV media?
A: Yes and no, but the answer is a little more complicated than that, you see: Xbox/XBMC can output 480p/720p/1080i (if you have a High Definition AV Pack/component cable) and upscale all low-resolution videos (like retail DVD-Video/Movies) to 720p (1280×720 pixel progressive) or 1080i (1920×1080 pixel interlaced) in hardware (linear upscale/upconvert). So XBMC have no problems with upscaling example DVD-video (720×480 NTSC/720×756 PAL) movies to HDTV 480p/720p/1080i. XBMC is even capable of playing native HD video (video/movies with native resolutions higher than 720×576) like 720p (1280×720) and 1080i (1920×1080), however there is here a big snag/limitation and that is that a standard Xbox only has a 733Mhz Intel Pentium-III CPU (processor) and that does not have the processing power to decode those native HD video resolutions, and that means you would only get maybe 10fps (frames per seconds) displayed which would appear so jerky because of all dropped frames that it will be un-viewable. The only solution if you want to play videos with native HD resolutions on Xbox is to buy or upgrade to a non-standard Xbox with a much faster CPU (processor), (like example the DreamX-1400 from FriendTech which has a 1480Mhz Pentium-III that is at least capable of decoding native HD videos that are have up to 720p in native HDTV video resolution. FriendTech do offers trade-in). Note! XBMC does not yet have DVD-menu support so note you only get video on DVD-Videos. Note! You must enable/setup your HDTV settings in Microsoft dashboard, (on NTSC Xboxes).
To make this even clearer XBMC capability on a standard Xbox (with Intel 733Mhz PIII CPU):
– 720×480 pixel video output to 480p HDTV (720×480 progressive) = OK! (eg not upscaled).
– 720×480 pixel video output to 720p HDTV (1280×720 progressive) = OK! (eg upscaled).
– 720×480 pixel video output to 1080i HDTV (1920×1080 interlaced) = OK! (eg upscaled).
– 1280×720 pixel progressive video output to 720p HDTV (native 1280×720 progressive) = FAIL!
– 1920×1080 interlaced video output to 1080i HDTV (native 1920×1080 interlaced) = FAIL!
Note! All above that state FAIL don’t actually fail to play, it’s just that the Xbox CPU is to slow to decode/render the high resolution so it will drop so may frames that is will be un-viewable.
PS! There are not many standalone DVD-players out there that can even upscale normal DVD-movies to 720p or 1080i and those that can are much more expensive than a modded Xbox ;-P
FYI; Microsoft® & DivX® recommend 2.4 Ghz PC + 384MB RAM for 720p MPEG-4 playback!