Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Chris Lanier Weighs in on Xbox 360 Media Playback
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 01:00 PM
"Unlike standalone Extenders we have now that use dedicated processors to decode the media, the Xbox 360 will have more then enough power to do full software decode. Your going to need to use the Xbox Live Marketplace to allow people to purchase software decoders for third party formats. This will solve the problem of licensing it and included it in the shipping Xbox (which raises the price). Let the third parties develop the codec’s and sell them at there set prices."
That's Chris' solution for the Xbox 360 only playing WMV content - and I think it's a great idea. What's interesting though is that all this speculation about what media it will support is just that - speculation. Microsoft hasn't come out and said what it would support, but if you look at their digital media platform strategy in general, they support MP3 because they have to, and WMA/WMV because they want to. I'm suspecting that the Xbox 360 will be no different out of the box - but because it's more of a connected platform than the original Xbox was, there's much more opportunity to allow third parties to expand it. I wonder if there are any technical or political hurdles that would stand in the way of an Xbox 360 playing DivX files?
That's Chris' solution for the Xbox 360 only playing WMV content - and I think it's a great idea. What's interesting though is that all this speculation about what media it will support is just that - speculation. Microsoft hasn't come out and said what it would support, but if you look at their digital media platform strategy in general, they support MP3 because they have to, and WMA/WMV because they want to. I'm suspecting that the Xbox 360 will be no different out of the box - but because it's more of a connected platform than the original Xbox was, there's much more opportunity to allow third parties to expand it. I wonder if there are any technical or political hurdles that would stand in the way of an Xbox 360 playing DivX files?
