MS has officially let it be known that the December 4th update will include Mpeg4 part 2 AVI container support.

For a full list of updates:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemupdates/20071204-features.htm

WOW

Wow is right, but too bad it has nothing to do with the Extender part of the Xbox 360.  Dashboard only.

Tidbits I like:

Added support for AC3 embedded audio (see video faq for full information)
Added support for 16x Fast-forward/Rewind
Added support for MP3 embedded audio (see video faq for full information)
Added support for Mpeg-4 part 2 video files in AVI containers
Added support to enumerate .divx video files
Improved deinterlacer support for video playback
Improved playback performance for h264 720p .MOV files
Improved playback performance with 1920x1080 MP4 files
Improved playback performance with 5Mb h264 encoded video files
Improved playback performance with 60fps 720x480 MP4 content
Improved playback performance with h264 files in .m4v containers


too much to list!!!!


I love the fact Xbox live had to fix comcasts cheasy "boost" feature:
Improve support for "Play Now" calculations with ISP that boost download for the first 20MB of a file

Chris - Moderator:

Wow is right, but too bad it has nothing to do with the Extender part of the Xbox 360.  Dashboard only.

I'd be surprised if the extender refuses to play back the content after the update. I would imagine the extender software is smart enough to enumerate the codec support provided by the hardware easily or microsoft releasing a windows update to implement the feature quickly.

I think thats a Xbox360 dashboard only and not Media Center update for "Added support for Mpeg-4 part 2 video files in AVI containers"

byronm:

I'd be surprised if the extender refuses to play back the content after the update. I would imagine the extender software is smart enough to enumerate the codec support provided by the hardware easily or microsoft releasing a windows update to implement the feature quickly.

You would think so, but no.  That's why the Extender doesn't already support H.264 or MPEG-4 SP.  Those were in the Spring updates from months ago.  This is  Dashboard update, it doesn't apply to the Extender functions of the Xbox 360.  Microsoft doesn't understand that all their products need to be able to play all formats.

Richard A Miller:

I think thats a Xbox360 dashboard only and not Media Center update for "Added support for Mpeg-4 part 2 video files in AVI containers"

All of them are Dashboard only.  If you have to say "Added _____ for Media Center Extender" for it to apply to the Extender.  That would also be done in a non-Dashboard update as Media Center doesn't use anything the Dashboard does to playback content.

Chris - Moderator:

Richard A Miller:

I think thats a Xbox360 dashboard only and not Media Center update for "Added support for Mpeg-4 part 2 video files in AVI containers"

All of them are Dashboard only.  If you have to say "Added _____ for Media Center Extender" for it to apply to the Extender.  That would also be done in a non-Dashboard update as Media Center doesn't use anything the Dashboard does to playback content.

Correct.

From the XBox team at http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archive/2007/11/30/december-2007-video-playback-faq.aspx

10. What are the different video codecs that are supported in all the different ways to play video content on the Xbox 360?

See table below for more information:

 

Scenario	Supported Codecs
From USB storage device to Xbox 360 Dashboard Video Player	WMV(Unprotected), Mpeg4, H.264, AVI
From Windows Media Player 11 to Xbox 360 Dashboard Video Player	WMV(Protected), WMV(Unprotected), *Mpeg4, *H.264, AVI
From Zune Software to Xbox 360 Dashboard Video Player	WMV(Unprotected), Mpeg4, H.264
From Windows Home Server to Xbox 360 Dashboard Video Player	WMV(Protected), WMV(Unprotected), AVI
From Windows Media Center to Xbox Media Center Extender	WMV(Protected), WMV(Unprotected), Mpeg2

Note no H.264 or MPEG4 for Media Center.

Frank

Extremely disappointing news, media centre gets shafted again!!

The fact that it is dashboard only is a small conciliation prize but come on Microsoft I cannot believe they don't have the resources to jump through the licensing hoops to make it happen : (

If M$ put mpeg4 in to the Xbox Media Center Extender, who would be left to buy the new V2 Extenders???

I find that hard to believe.   That would mean the Media Center Extender is not an extender at all but an actual OS running on a general purpose computing device. As far as i know the dashboard is simply an interface running on the Xbox OS and the codecs supported are being added to the Xbox OS and not merely just the dashboard itself. 

To write it off as "dashboard only" is to ignore the fact that the Xbox 360 is a full blown platform and not a general computing device that boots one way or another. The Media Center Extender environments runs on top of the Xbox OS and doesn't replace it so its entirely conceivable that Media Center Extender will inherit this new functionality

Its just like windows, when you install the codecs the support is there for any application that tries to play back the supported container and content within.

I don't see how there would be licensing hoops to jump through. 

1. It wasn't licensed before
2. It is licensed now

Voila - turn that 0 for support to a 1 and let'em rip.

byronm Microsoft spell it out themselves look at the post above or at question 10 on this link

The Xbox 360 is not an open platform and not like a computer were you install a codec and get playback support, codecs can be implemented to work in one instance and not in another inside a closed environment. The Xbox does indeed decode the videos locally when running in extender mode so the only reason the support is not there that I can think of is;

• Microsoft left it out intentionally to sell v2 extenders
• Licensing issues/internal politics of Microsoft
• Microsoft ceremonial shotgun takes aim at every product and must sabotage it in some fashion

The MPEG licensing authority deems the extender a seperate player from the xbox dashboard, just because it is licensed for one does not mean it is licensed for the other hence why there "could" be complications.

I can only pray that they see sense and add XviD/H.264 support to media centre extender in the future, the optimist in me hopes that they are just stalling until v2 extenders are on the market to enable the functionality so it's back to the waiting game again sigh....

I'm not really clear on what you are saying... although it would be logical to include this functionality in the Media Center Extender, it's been documented that it will NOT be included, see http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archive/2007/11/30/december-2007-video-playback-faq.aspx #10 for the proof.  It's not a maybe, there's no room for speculation, it's a really stupid "no."

This is the same move as when the Dashboard got mpeg4, and the Media Center Extender did not.  It's also why I can play mpeg2 in Extender, not in the Dashboard.  They should all work the same.

And it's infuriating.