[mythtv-users] Revision numbers: trunk vs fixes

[Michael T. Dean]

On 02/02/2009 09:55 PM, Nick Rout wrote:
> Anyway I'll try the xbox again the next time my son brings it round
> (assuming I can get anywhere near it or the tv). It wasn't working
> right on the 0.21 in an un-updated mythbuntu 8.04, but I have now
> updated to the weekly mythbuntu fixes version and I'll see whether
> that works.

Since someone (who will remain nameless) made me look it up, I'll post a 
link for you.  I /highly/ recommend you read through it, first.

http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archive/2007/11/30/december-2007-video-playback-faq.aspx

Summary, you can /not/ play back any MythTV recordings without 
transcoding***.  The guy writing on that page was probably talking about 
playback of MythVideo videos in an AVI container or something.

Mike

***Though I can't exactly what H.264 container MS is expecting based on 
their lack of detail on that page, and though I can't test it myself 
because I don't have an HD-PVR, I'm relatively certain that the XBox 360 
UPnP can not even play HD-PVR recordings because it seems that the 
minimum bitrate for an HD-PVR recording is greater than the 
maximum-supported bitrate for H.264 on the XBox 360.  (Then again, even 
if the 360 could play some HD-PVR recordings, the HD-PVR isn't supported 
in -fixes.)

And, it is possible that Microsoft has added support for some new 
formats/new container formats since that post, but without some official 
announcement of that, I'd guess you won't get it working--regardless of 
what you put in Myth.  However, I guarantee you'll never see NUV support 
on it, and I'm pretty certain they won't add MPEG-2 support (as doing so 
would require them to pay a hefty license fee for every single XBox 360 
ever made or would require them to sell you/charge you for a license to 
play back MPEG-2 via UPnP--TTBOMK, they've only so far payed for the 
license for DVD playback support, which just happened to be considered 
"stunningly bad" by most reviewers).