KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
One thing consoles have always been a bit tighter on than PCs, is piracy. That's why I had to get a friend of a friend to modify my PS One back in the 90s so it could play pirated games (only in black and white for some reason), but it looks like the Xbox One is going to get a bit more piracy friendly soon. Not when it comes to games mind you, but movies and TV shows, as it's soon to allow anyone with a catalogue of MKV files, to play them on the console.
Microsoft also talked up its new “friends” tab
Announced at Gamescom, Microsoft said that in the near future the Xbox One would be getting an application that would allow for the playing of media files via USB and that beyond that, DLNA streaming from other compatible devices would be possible over your home network, including from your PC.
The reason this is big news for pirates however, is because of Microsoft's new list of supported codecs for video and audio. MKV is a popular container on the torrent scene for movies and TV shows, suggesting that the Xbox One will now be able to handle those monstrous movie collections that I'm sure a lot of you have. Along with MKV, the Xbox One will also support animated gifs, AVI DivX and mpeg 2 TS, giving it wider video support than the Xbox 360. For a full list of supported formats, have a look at the announcement page here.
Other upcoming One updates include the ability to boot to TV mode and the ability to stream TV to your Xbox smartglass handset.
Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.
KitGuru Says: How many of you are Xbox One owners? Is this announcement something that will see you use it more?
[Thanks Ars]
I use my xbox one everyday, it is connected to the sky tv, so streaming to other devices will be good
Not all MKV’s are pirated content. Handbrake converts DVD’s into MKV files for storage. I have MANY stored like this.
EDIT:
Hopefully Sony follow suite.
they need to make sure it supports 10bit encoding.
Most my films are in 10bit MKV and because my TV doesn’t support it, I’ve had to rig up a raspberry Pi to do the job.
the near future….
WHAT??? how hard is it to make a media player on a “media” enthusiast console. jeezzzz VLC even works on Iphones
Yeah Alistair you personal needs are the top of MS & Sony’s Firmware update list….. 10bit pffft..
wow, bitchy comment much?
A lot of downloads come in 10bit format these days.
Personally, I don’t see much difference between 10bit and 8bit encoding but if it has the higher seed count, then so be it. Most anime fansubbers use 10bit (which is how it effects me)
Honestly, there are a fair few people complaining online about the lack of 10bit support from manufacturers such as LG and Samsung.
It effects a lot of people who like to use DLNA streaming setups.