The Xbox 360 supports DivX and XviD as of today, which may make some of you with big file collections (like us) as giddy as a kid in store with puppies made of candy. We threw our entire collection of movies, TV shows and random clips at it and found that the 360 can play back pretty much anything. Here are some notes.

You can play files off of a CD/DVD. This feature wasn't listed on the Xbox Team's website as one of the supported locations for playing back content, but this is fantastic for homes that have wireless networks (or no network at all). In fact, reading off a disc is probably the best way to ensure your movie won't cut out in the middle due to network congestion (unlikely) or someone turning off the computer accidentally (fairly likely).

It supports almost all files. It played back all TV shows we threw at it, including My Name is Earl, 30 Rock, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Battlestar Galactica, and The Venture Bros.. Most of these, and most TV downloaded TV shows, are encoded in XviD format. As for DivX, that's supported back to version 5.0, but it's unlikely that you're going to find any DivX 3 or DivX 4 online, unless you're talking about old files you've saved for a couple years.

News-Source: gizmodo

DivX followed up Tuesday night’s earnings report with a presentation at the JP Morgan SmMid cap conference. JP Morgan analyst Paul Coster coyly probed Kevin Hell about whether or not we were about to see DivX support on the Xbox 360. The question seemed to catch Hell off guard, and while his initial reaction was enthusiasm, there was something about his tone that suggested that Coster might be onto something.



Here is the exchange verbatim, but in order to appreciate the awkwardness of the exchange, you should really listen to the quote at the 24 minute mark of the presentation and make your own decision as to whether or not you hear a sense of urgency in Hell’s response.

Coster - “Just a minor point here, but there was a recent Microsoft (MSFT) 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 - “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.”

At that point DivX CFO Dan Halvorson jumped in and quickly changed the subject.

It was only a brief exchange, but after pretty much giving up all hope of seeing DivX on the Xbox, I found the news to be very encouraging.



News-Source: deeko

Media Center PC's and set-top boxes haven't quite hit mainstream yet, but are a centerpiece of every true nerds entertainment center.

This is increasingly the case among Xbox 360 owners who find that the console has a built-in extender, though getting it to play anything other then Windows Media 11 and MPEG-4 requires some tweaks.

Well that changes today as MS has introduced the new standard: "Extenders for Windows Media Center", which thankfully includes support for DivX and XviD.

Niveus, Linksys, and D-Link will be developing new devices to take advantage of the new features, including full HDTV streaming and 802.11n wireless. Nice.

No word yet on whether the new features will hit the 360 as part of the coming Fall Update.

News-Source: G4TV