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Today the Xbox 360 Dashboard update started rolling out and the new Metro style UI looks really nice and for Windows Media Center there is the nice addition of native WTV support. WTV is the format Windows Media Center uses for recorded TV and you can now use the Xbox video play to playback the files (including HD shows).

This means that you don’t have to go in to the Windows Media Center extender mode to watch recorded TV so you can watch content from multiple Media Center servers. A Windows Media Center extender can only be paired with one Media Center machine at any one time but the video player app doesn’t have that limitation so you can easily switch between servers. I know its only a minor change but could come in handy, especial if the extender features where to go away in the future.

 

9 thoughts on “New Xbox 360 Dashboard adds native WTV Playback”
  1. Are you using Win7 / WMP12 ?

    I am trying to use WMP11 on my WHS V1 I added the recorded TV folder in to the WMP11 library but I cannot see any Recorded TV in the WMP11 library or via the dashboard.

    I forget, but I am assuming this is because WMP11 can’t play WTV files ?

    Also anyone got MKV files playing on the new dashboard? Apparently you can do this now but I can’t get that working either.

    http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1031

    http://shark007.net/forum/Thread-Can-install-on-WHS-V1

  2. The only problem is that with the new update, reference levels for videos are incorrect (0-255 instead of 16-235 as it should be), making video a washed out mess. Also, if you play a 1080p resolution test pattern from the dashboard, the new dashboard’s video player is clearly downscaling it to below 1080p resolution (whereas the previous dashboard passed 1080p resolution tests for video – pictures have always been downscaled to 720p regardless of what resolution you’re using). From WMC, the 1080p resolution test passes for the most part (in that you can see single pixel lines), but with serious banding and moire that suggests that Microsoft’s new video renderer is doing some sort of filtering.

    Basically, with the new dashboard, your 360 is nigh useless if you care about video quality.

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