Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"Are we gazing onto the cusp of a new horizon, one where our Xbox 360 storage needs aren't shackled to overpriced proprietary hard drives? Probably not quite. Our best friends at Joystiq have managed to obtain documents (corroborated with multiple sources) showing that the folks in Redmond are mulling over an option to enable USB mass storage support for its game machine."

It appears that the next update for the Xbox 360 will enable you use USB Storage with your Xbox 360. Do I hear cries of joy from the gaming community at the thought of being able to plug in a 500Gb USB drive for storing their games and downloads? Well this is where you will be disappointed. Microsoft in their infinite wisdom have set a max limit of 16Gb on the USB device you use. From what I can see, this is intended to replace the memory cards rather than allow you to use your own disk drives. Hopefully Microsoft will get wise and change this at some point, but for now it looks like we still have to pay for the usual overpriced proprietary ones instead.

"There is no argument that the Xbox 360 is a sound game system, and it isn't uncommon for a company struggling with its primary product to broaden their product portfolio and look to other areas for growth. The problem is that the opportunity cost is generally greater than the benefit, and that is the case here. As PRJ points out, PC gaming isn't what it should be, but that was a cost of doing the Xbox 360, so Microsoft effectively sacrificed a product that generates billions to assure the success of a product that makes millions."

I have to think that this is one of those articles that Rob Enderle writes to be controversial and get page hits - because it boggles the mind that he believes someone buying an Xbox 360 would have instead happily bought a computer running Windows instead. Enderle's basic point is that the Xbox 360 captured profits that should have gone to Windows, which he pegs at $200 million to $600 million per month. The stunning lack of logic in this line of thinking is almost hard to describe.

When the first Xbox came out (2001), a capable gaming PC was probably in the $1500 range (at the low end), easily 3x more than what the Xbox would have cost back then. So if you had $500 to spend and you wanted to play games on your TV, what were you going to buy? An Xbox or a gaming PC? Enderle talks about things Microsoft could have done to improve gaming on a Windows PC - virtual machines, etc. - but ignores the single most important factor in playing games: graphics processing. There's absolutely, positively nothing that Microsoft could do with software to magically enable fast hardware 3D acceleration. What do you think of Enderle's arguments?

"Hearing about using an Xbox 360 as set top box for IPTV providers like AT&T's U-Verse is one thing, but seeing it in action is another. As you can see from the video after the jump, the experience is very fluid and isn't what we'd describe as laggy even in the slightest bit."

One of the announcements made at CES 2010 was that AT&T's IPTV product, U-Verse, would be available on the Xbox 360 allowing you to use the Xbox 360 as a set-top box instead. At the time there was no demo of the Xbox playing U-Verse content, just an announcement that it would be available later in the year. Engadget have managed to get a demonstration of U-Verse on the Xbox 360 via Mediaroom, and have published a short video of it in action. It looks quite smooth and there doesn't seem to be any lag, but I would expect that of a demonstration. For those that don't know about Microsoft Mediaroom, it is a software platform that Microsoft licences to TV and video service providers so they can deliver TV and video services along with other content to TVs, PCs and mobile devices anywhere. With other providers such as the BBC and Sky in the UK pushing their content via the Xbox and the Wii, then wecan expect to see consoles becoming more of an all-round entertainment device than just a gaming console.

"The topic du jour was all about TV, but this morning at NewTeeVee Live - an industry conference that explores the future of television - Xbox LIVE general manager Marc Whitten confirmed the next wave of social entertainment is coming to Xbox LIVE on November 17. Starting next week, Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm and instant on HD video from Zune will be available on Xbox 360 consoles, transforming Xbox LIVE into the largest social network connected to the TV with exclusive features custom-designed for the living room."

November 17th is the big day when Zune comes to the Xbox 360! Engadget has some great videos that they've disabled embedding on, so you'll have to go over to their site to see them. One of the interesting features is the ability to watch a movie in a shared virtual environment - meaning you can have a "movie party" and have several online friends watch the same movie at the same time, and you can emote certain things - and talk - while the movie is going on. I don't know how often I'd want to do that - probably never - but it's a neat use of technology to bridge distances between friends. The videos in the Zune video marketplace are 1080p, and support "instant on" streaming. Myself, I'm most curious to see what will happen to the selection of movies - it's always been pretty poor in Canada, and we've never had TV shows for download. If you want to get great online video in Canada, iTunes is pretty much the only game. I hope this Xbox update changes that!

Product Category: Wireless Headsets / Headphones

Manufacturer: Turtle Beach

Where to Buy: Amazon [Affiliate]

Price: $149 USD

System Requirements: Compatible with the Xbox 360 and home theater systems.

Specifications: 50mm diameter speakers, 270g, >20 hours battery life with 2 AAA batteries.

Pros:

• Very lightweight and comfortable for long periods of use;
• High build quality, good industrial design to match the Xbox 360;
• Microphone works seamlessly with the headphones;
• Excellent recreation of Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.

Cons:

• Fairly expensive;
• Chat connector still wired to controller;
• Muddy bass during loud scenes with deep bass;
• Line of sight required for IR transmitter;
• No low battery indicator, microphone volume suffers with low battery before speaker sound loses definition.

Summary: The Turtle Beach Ear Force X4 Wireless Xbox 360 Gaming Headset is a well thought out product that caters to Xbox 360 gamers, while still allowing home theater enthusiasts an outlet to listen to music or movies wirelessly and without disturbing others in their homes. It provides excellent Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and its integrated microphone and chat features allow for complete immersion during online chatting or competitive multiplayer games. While it could use some improvements, it remains a piece of hardware that I continue to enjoy using in my home theater. Read more...

"The team released a system update (aka Dash update) to all Xbox Live members. Over the next few hours - or the next time you sign into Xbox LIVE after that - you’ll receive a prompt to accept this mandatory update. If you participated in our Preview Program, you already have the update and will not be prompted. Hit Xbox.com for a list of what the update includes. A couple of things to point out: While you can browse and purchase Avatar items and full Xbox 360 games in the console with this update, the ability to add these items your Xbox 360 download queue from Xbox.com will be available this Thursday. Xbox LIVE integration with Twitter, Facebook and Last.FM will be available later this year. Zune Video Marketplace will also ship later this fall when it will replace the current Video Marketplace. This update will be rolled out to all Xbox LIVE members around the world over the space of a few hours, so you may not get prompted for the update immediately. Thanks for your patience and have fun."

I have not loaded this up yet, but I'm betting many of you have. So, share your thoughts on what you think in the comments.

"You knew something was up when Microsoft kicked off (as opposed to wrapping up) with two of the most celebrated musicians in rock history. The message? "Hey, it's The Beatles!" The subtext? "Hey Sony and Nintendo, we ain't messin' around." Classy, and not a little intimidating. Next? A battery of trailers and actual game demonstrations, including pretty tasty announcements for stuff like Epic's first Xbox Live Arcade game, Shadow Complex, Valve's zombie-blender sequel, Left 4 Dead 2, and a brand new standalone Halo game, Halo: Reach."

While we don't cover games here on Digital Home Thoughts, Microsoft's doing some interesting things in the home entertainment space with the Xbox 360 that are worth paying attention to - check out the PC World article for the scoop.

There were some rumblings about this last week, but today at E3 Microsoft has confirmed the details: Xbox owners will be able to access all the video content on the Zune Marketplace. Playback is enhanced by what Microsoft is calling "Smooth Streaming" - video playback starts very quickly at a low bit-rate, then ramps up in bit-rate for maximum quality. This means that, assuming you have a decently fast Internet connection, there shouldn't be much in the way of "Please Wait: Buffering" messages. The video pushed down the pipe are glorious 1080p, and will have 5.1 surround sound. I haven't ordered many movies off the Xbox Marketplace, but aren't they all in 720p? If so, this is a big jump in quality - nice! There's also going to be enhanced search functionality to make finding things easier - that's a good thing, because the Xbox Marketplace was a very manual affair, and now that the Zune Marketplace is going to be offering scads more content, being able to find it easily is important. Read more...

"The number was reached after what MS is calling "the biggest year" in Xbox history - 2008 - which saw console growth swell up 28 percent. The Xbox Live community has grown to more than 20 million active members, it says, making it "the world's largest global entertainment network", putting the online service in more homes than "any satellite television provider". Before the end of the year, the number of Xbox Live members will surpass the number of subscribers to the largest cable provider, the company says."

There's no doubting that the Xbox 360 is one of Microsoft's most successful products in a market that was previously thought of as being "un-crackable" because the PS/2 had it all locked up. Then along came Microsoft, and Nintendo, and the market turned into a three-way death match. It's all good for consumers, giving us the choice of whichever technology suits us best. I'm still rocking my original Xbox 360 from November 2005 (man, that seems old!), with nary a red ring of death in sight. I sometimes wish it would die so I could get one of the newer, quieter, HDMI-based units - but it keeps on kicking.

"Netflix subscribers, if you've got an Xbox 360 and a Windows Vista PC, you don't have to shell out $99 for Roku's Netflix Player box to get your Watch Instantly library on your TV screen—you already have everything you need. Using the free Windows Media Center plug-in, vmcNetflix, you can turn your Xbox 360 into a Netflix Watch Instantly box. Here's how."



So a couple weeks ago we posted a link to a review of the $100 Roku Netflix Player, but this week we bring you a way to stream Netflix movies for free on your Xbox 360+Windows Vista PC! Lifehacker has posted detailed instructions for setting up the vmcNetFlix plugin on Vista and how to get going in a few minutes. Keep in mind this is beta software, so it may be a little buggy, plus there's a very good chance it violates the Netflix terms of use (since it downloads the video to your PC), but if you're feeling like a daredevil, willing to take a risk, try it out and let us know how it works!