Codecs supported by 360

One of the things I like the least about the 360 is the lack of DivX and XVID support. I understand why they don't currently support them but I really think they need to add them if they really want people to upgrade to Media Center and use the 360 as an extender. One of the MCE dev team posted this on the forums today which I found interesting:

We (Microsoft's Media Center Extender team) are aware of the collective desire for xvid, divx, real, h.264, etc. As much as our development team wanted to support these (and other) codecs, it was not possible to do that and still provide a high quality experience in the time we had available. Supporting these varied and often changing codecs would have required a significant development effort. Additionally, there is significant legal and business work required to run 3rd party codecs on Xbox 360.

We are listening and we are aware that support of these codecs is a compelling feature for some users and are constantly evaluating features for future versions of our products.

With luck it's not just smoke and mirrors to stop people from whining and they will eventually consider adding additional codec support.

I also noticed this comment regarding audio formats, though I haven't tried the suggestion to see if it actually works:

It should actually be possible to add support for additional audio codecs on Media Center Extender if people in the community wanted to make it happen. Check here: "Audio formats: Other formats for which a DirectShow decoder is installed and registered on the PC" So, if the proper DirectShow decoder is installed & you can get the file to appear in the WMP music library, you shold be able to get this to work. This works by decoding the audio on the PC to a raw PCM format, which is then streamed to the Extender (Xbox 360 in this case) Info on DirectShow for anyone so inclined.

Additional Video codecs cannot be added in this way.

I'm Alive!

Yeah I know, whats the point of this blog shit if you don't bother to actually type stuff for it.

I'll give an update. I bought a Sony KDFE42A10 rear projection LCD monitor. Supports 720p, 1080i. I went with RPLCD because I found the picture quality to be a lot brighter. So far I'm pretty happy with it. I went with the KDFE model as opposed to the KFE model (which is available in Australia, Canada and other countries outside of the USA). I skipped the cheaper KFE model as it wasn't obvious if the VGA connector was still available on the KFE model and I am banking on the the hopes that Canada will eventually get some OTA HD-TV broadcasts which the KDFE model will be able to pick up.

I also managed to get my XBOX360 as well, though only by the skin of my teeth.

my launch day story:
1) store calls me the night before at 8pm, wants to know if i'm still coming in to pick it up
2) tell store employee on the phone that to make sure set aside premium, CoD2, Kameo, extra controller, play and charge kit
3) store employee says no problem, employee seems to give impression that should be no problem, doesn't expect much of a turnout
4) I go to bed thinking i'm all set, everything is kosher, don't have to get up at 8am to make sure i get one
5) my kid wakes me up at 6am so I figure I'll just go to the store at 8am anyway since I'm up now, took the day off work so time is no problem
6) get to the store at 8:03, notice looks like a fucking shanty-town outside store, inside store is PURE CHAOS, must have been 200 people
7) get in line, back of the line, everyone is frothing at the mouth
8) finally get to the cashier to pick up 360, guy in front of me has been chatting and says tons of people slept overnight outside
9) cashier brings out my package, all my accessories and games and CORE system
10) start bitching saying premium system was confirmed, cashier says preorder receipt says core only, receipt just says preorder, no core no premium
11) cashier goes back and grabs me premium system (at the same time the guy in front of me also goes back to grab premium since he too got CORE initially)
12) guy in front of me's cashier says I got last premium, guy in front of me is PISSED, 25+ people behind me are PISSED, I fear for my life
13) guy in front of me askes his cashier when he can get premium, is told maybe in January, guy is super pissed now. I'm waiting for a knife in my eye at this point.
14) pay for my goods, wait to get magnetic security items removed, guy behind me offers me $100 to trade his core for my premium, I say no
15) quickly head to my car, watching out for muggers

anyway, pure chaos, I have never seen anything like it. for the first time ever I was glad my kid woke me up at 6am on a day off.

So far I love the 360. It's a bit of a stretch for an old schooler like me who is used to using their computer to play games. Hell I haven't owned a console since the mid 80s and the Intellivision.