Xbox team opens up its platform (HDTV next?)

by on August 14, 2006

There are a few things I learned at Microsoft that required me to really bite my lip cause of my NDA. This is one of them. And, yes, Fred, I totally agree that this is a game changer.

But the thing I’m keeping my eye on is the fact that my Xbox brings me new videos every few hours.

Now THAT has the potential to change everything from ABC news on down to YouTube.

Why?

Did I mention that Comcast in Half Moon Bay (only a handful of miles from Silicon Valley) does NOT have HDTV yet on its cable lineup? Isn’t that lame?

But Comcast DOES bring Internet access to my Xbox 360. I smell a route-around here. Media Center and BitTorrent, here I come!

Oh, speaking of HDTV. We bought a couple of Sony HVRZ1U’s. They cost about $4,000 over on B&H. But I wasn’t prepared for how stunning an image they produce when hooked up to my 60-inch Sony TV. Wow. Almost as good as the Discovery Channel (most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference unless two images were put side-by-side).

I SSSSOOOOO want to show you the videos we did in Yellowstone. But all the video services like Google Video, Youtube, and Blip.TV compress the video all to heck to make it economical to distribute.

I wish the big video distribution networks would make HD capable by using something like RedSwoosh.

In the meantime, I gotta put my videos on Blip.TV.

  • Robert,
    I think it's important to note as well that XNA Game Studio Express allows for the creation of PC Games as well, I don't own a game console myself, but I can see myself having a shot on XNA Game Studio Express to create games for the PC if it's actually as easy to use as MS makes out....and I've already got a great idea for an Asteroids clone where instead of shooting Aliens, you get to shot Web 2.0 companies....only kidding :-)
  • That's a long slow handful of miles, though probably a little better now that they opened highway 1 back up.
  • Kudos to Microsoft for encouraging user-created game content. Will Wright says that's where it's at.
  • LayZ
    Scoble, you'd do well to listen to someone that understands this industry much better than you ever will

    ttp://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000207073794/
  • LayZ: if everyone listened to Mark Cuban then Ze Frank would never put up any funny shit for us to listen to. http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/ is funny. Well, for a guy who never blinks anyway.
  • Christopher Coulter
    Gotta agree with Mark and LayZ, not for awhile, not 5 or 10 years. If ever...

    Just focus on the content. Crap content in HD, will still be crap, just looks better, maybe. But then better can be worse -- overwhite and too vivid, I'd rather warm film tone.

    Hats off to the niched internet freakizods, but that's hardly your salvation. Not is your 360, given the weak marketshare, PS2 still outselling it, even now, not comparable on price and such, but in terms of raw numbers, ouch. And self-made homebrew content in the era of EA, Ubisoft and Halo 3, bestofluckyoulaffytaffykiddies.
  • Christopher: HD changes crap content into good content. For instance, there is NO WAY I'd watch the Sunrise Channel on normal TV. But I watch it a lot on my HDTV. Why? Cause it changes the usage pattern.

    And my son watching tons of Internet video tells me that the usage pattern is changing. You might say it's not, but you'll end up looking like that Digital CEO who said the world doesn't need a personal computer.

    Oh, and Xbox is still selling, what, 15,000 per day? If that's "weak marketshare" I'll take it. Not to mention that they are all in an important demographic: people rich enough to buy a $400 video game console.
  • p2pboy
    Looks like Cuban actually is on the same page as Scoble. . .

    HDNet (owned by Cuban) is distributing content utilizing Red Swoosh

    http://www.blogola.com/archives/177
  • Miles Archer
    Half Moon Bay - a handful of miles from Silicon Valley. You're stretching it here, bub.

    My map says it's over 20 miles from Palo Alto, which I would consider the northern edge. And it's over a sparsely populated mountain range.

    You expect HDTV when they just finished fixing the road? Where's your priorities?

    You're lucky that they've discovered flush toilets and running water. ;-)
  • LayZ
    Robert, I gotta wonder if you even read Cubans post, or more to the point, were able to comprehend it. play. Re-read Cubans post and tell me where he says no one will even post crap on the internet to download. IMHO, the internet would be better off not being polluted by crap from the likes of ZeFrank. But hey, like they say, there's market for eveything. You failed to address any of the points Cuban made. I know...it's hard when what he says blows holes in your business model.

    Kids rich enough to by a $400 game console? yea but you weren't one of them, were you? You again fail to see Coulter's point.

    p2pboy, Cuban's investment in RedSwoosh does nothing to disprove the points he was making. He readily acknowledged the lots of people are us HDNet for content. I don't think, however, that that will be one of Scoble's outlets. Unless he can dramatically improve the quality of the content.
  • A
    Robert,

    How big are the videos you made in Yellowstone that you'd like to show, were they not compressed "all to heck?"
  • Christopher Coulter
    HD changes crap content into good content.

    So then HD can change Uwe Boll into Stanley Kubrick or Orson Welles? And can turn BloodRayne into Citizen Kane or Lawrence of Arabia? HD is good, but HD alone, is well, just HD. After awhile, the golly-gee-whiz look-at-the-pretty-pictures and goofy-Internet-weirdos fascination levels, or "usage patterns" drop off. The only usage patterns that matter (and remain) are called 'ratings'.

    Better resolution just makes it better looking, even then I have my doubts, as I am a 24P film-tone type. Making crap content into good content, starts and ends with the WRITING. [Insert Brooke's voluminous blog posts on such here].

    There be a certain basic professional level to which you must meet, ie no dark shaky cams and no bad audio, but getting hung up on the tech, is no substitute for the content. That's like saying a website is all about the design...

    Not sure I understand your obsession with HD. Even Cuban who is all about HD in productional cycles, is still kicking it the normal producer-styled method, and his 'not-taking-his-own-advice' Bubble experiment was a grand failure.

    But better video codecs and better distributional methods are always needed...
  • Christopher Coulter
    I SSSSOOOOO want to show you the videos we did in Yellowstone.

    Cut a DVD, push up to DL if needed. Duping is cheap nowadays...or get a duping machine. Sell or give away...teaser clips on website. Small market, sure, but a market at least. Heck, way smaller market, Wedding, Bar Mitzvah and other Event DVDs paying my rent...
  • LayZ
    So, Chris, is Robert saying all will be forgiven once "Gigli" or "Ishtar" come our on HD? I had no idea it was so easy as to simply re-release your movie in HD to turn it into an Academy Award nominee :-)
  • LayZ: well, seeing as NONE of the content coming over my Comcast box is HD right now even Gigli would get my viewing behavior, assuming it'd be the only thing watchable on HD.

    Christopher: ahh, writing. Yes, I've heard of that somewhere. :-)
  • Why not choose satellite for HD? I receive my Internet service through Cox, but TV via DirecTV.
  • Blip.tv is ok for my personal videos.
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