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Microsoft finally supports DivX in new Media Center Extenders, Xbox 360 next?  photo

Microsoft's Media Center Extender idea wasn't the most well-received. The extender devices (mostly from third parties like D-Link and Cisco) were supposed to connect to Windows PCs to pipe the Windows Media experience to your home entertainment system, but they never got past the clunky stage, and they really didn't sell that well.

Well, there was one Media Center Extender that sold rather well. You know it as the Xbox 360, and much like these other devices, Microsoft's console could be used to stream videos and music. The only problem is that the types of media that can be streamed are somewhat limited, which really limited usage.

There's now a glimmer of hope for those who use Extender devices, as Microsoft announces a sort of relaunch of the technology, now calling it Extenders for Windows Media Center. A new range of devices launching soon will support this new technology, which is said to support the DivX and XviD codecs, as well as streaming high-definition video. Exciting news, isn't it?

Well, don't get too excited yet. While these third-party devices are launching soon, no announcement has been made for the Xbox 360. Also, these new features require a Windows Vista PC in your home network.

Don't get too discouraged, though. Our bet is that this will be coming to the Xbox 360. There's about 10 million Xbox 360s out there, which would probably make that the largest group of Extender users, so Microsoft would be crazy not to work that function in. Our guess? Look for this to be one of the new features to be added in the fall update.

Until then, you'll have to continue transcoding.

[Via engadget

 








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Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools. Meet the rest of the team



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25 comments | showing # 1 to 25
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AngelsDontBurn's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 11:42
AngelsDontBurn
Yay for streaming Divx! :D
bhive01's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 11:43
bhive01
PS3 support? Anyone? Bueller?
AngelicLiver's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 11:48
AngelicLiver
I don't know what I'd do without XBMC, best £30 I ever spent getting that Xbox. :3
DeusPayne's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 11:50
DeusPayne
What be tis DIVX you speak of. Is that that thing that's been used by non-industry folk for YEARS. Welcome to the 90s.
Joe Burling's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 11:59
Joe Burling
This is great great great news. DivX and MP4 FTW!
bhive01's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 12:00
bhive01
No AgentMOO. That's the disappointment. I really don't want to have to reencode my movie collection to some format that the PS3 supports either. And, I'd rather not use a streaming solution like TVersity either. It should play these damn movie files off of a USB HDD, CD, DVD, network, whatever I throw at it. Yet it doesn't.
kaz's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 12:01
kaz
Wasn't that in the (rumored/unofficial/total bs) list of stuff for the fall update that popped up a couple weeks ago, DivX and/or Xvid support?
Catalyst's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 12:02
Catalyst
Has anyone used TVersity? Obviously, if MS supports DivX it would be awesome, but I heard some good things about TVersity.
Maurice Tan's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 12:04
Maurice Tan
Great. Now do x264 support so I can watch Heroes S2 hd rips! TVersity works, but it's slow as hell. Unless you are a patient man that is.
Jester's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 12:08
Jester
Ohhhh, I need Vista? Fuck that.
Justice's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 12:19
Justice
LOL @ Jester
Trev's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 12:26
Trev
AgentMoo: Out of the box? I'm not sure. After a firmware update it connects to almost any streaming media server, but I don't know what version they come out of the box with now.

bhive01: To be fair, both ps3 and 360 have limited format support currently (though this might fix that). The PS3 will play media off any connected device if it's in the right format.
Zero Iscariot's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 12:28
Zero Iscariot
The new initiative supports 802.11n, whereas the 360 wireless adapter "only" supports a/b/g. "a" is more than capable of streaming double ended wireless HD content.
The divx/xvid support would be a welcome addition though.
vexed alex's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 12:30
vexed alex
@agentMOO

Um, you don't need Media Center Edition, guy. All you need is the latest Windows Media player or the Zune program. Just have it installed and there. You don't ever have to turn WMP ever again. Simple, guy.

So, yeah. Guy.

Anywho. On to the thing. Uh, good idea. I have a few videos that I'd not like to waste hours on trying to encode. This would be nice. I'm suprised they don't support AVI either. I have a few videos in that format too (I don't know why). Why don't they just search every format and do it in one update? Instead of trickling that shit down like they're doing now. If you're going to do Divx and Xvid, why not?
pierrerodriguez's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 12:47
pierrerodriguez
I use riverpast video cleaner. It usually converts a standard 1-1/2 hour divx movie to .wmv in about 45 minutes. way better than vista.
lostalaska's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 12:53
lostalaska
I wound up running a 50 foot VGA cable and audio under my house from my office to the TV room and got an ATI all-in-wonder Remote (RF) it works great. Before I broke down and went the low tech route of running cables under my house I tried using TVersity (never got it to work properly) and then tried ORB. ORB worked right off the bat and will stream to a Wii or PS3 via their web browsers as well. It was a little to jumpy for my liking, but reading the boards on the ORB site it seemed to be an issue with the latest release (and that was about 5 months ago) probably been new releases since I tried. Divx & Xvid on the xbox would be a welcome addition as it wouldn't tie up my computer if all the heavy lifting was done by the 360.

@vexed alex. I'm gonna sound like a total A/V douche, but AVI is only a wrapper and in no way indicates the type of video codec it uses. If you want to know what codec the AVI file is encoded as try using Gspot it will tell you what the codec is and if your computer has the files to play it. It's a great program when you wind up with a video that doesn't want to play and your trying to figure out if it was just a bad download or some weird video format that is only used during leap years in the Ukrane.
Namelessted's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 13:16
Namelessted
I swear that they already announced that they were adding DIVX support with the upcoming fall update. I am too lazy to look it up but I read about it months ago. But the question is, they may support divx, but will XVID work as well?
Cowboy TTop's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 13:43
Cowboy TTop
A nice option. I feel its late in the day though. I can bag a Div X dvd player for next to nothing, without any streaming crap. If this was available actually on the 360 as an update, then I'd invest in it.
wonky360's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 13:52
wonky360
I am sure there will be a catch. Fingers crossed though.
EvilSmeevil's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 14:07
EvilSmeevil
@Catalyst:
I use TVersity to stream to my 360 downstairs and it does work well. It took a bit of fiddling to set it up right, and it is still beta, so does crash every so often which is a bit of an arse, but overall it's pretty awesome.
DJDuffy 's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 14:08
DJDuffy
transcoding FTW! it is slightly annoying but still gets the job done. I wonder if it will come with an interface update like seen on the IPTV features for the 360?
TehBoognish's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 18:51
TehBoognish
I see another weaksauce attempt to use something else to sell the turd that is vista.

I really wish I could stream to the xbox w/o a recode session and w/o buying vista.

Keep trying to create that need to *cough* upgrade MS
Red TheHaze Veron's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/06/2007 22:45
Red TheHaze Veron
Find a guy who can softmod your xbox. The original XBox can last longer than your 360 without them red rings.
DeusPayne's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/07/2007 09:15
DeusPayne
Heh, yeah, I have a few friends that have had their original modded xbox as media centers for years now. They work like a charm, and a significantly cheaper than a 360 these days.
PetiePal's Avatar - Comment posted on 09/09/2007 19:17
PetiePal
Way to support new stuff Micro!
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