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MajorNelson posts

Microsoft: 'We have no plans for Blu-ray on Xbox 360'

by Thomas Ricker posted Oct 23rd 2009 at 9:03AM

A recent Gizmodo sit down with Steve Ballmer led with a headline exclaiming a Blu-ray add-on for Xbox was coming. See, when Ballmer was asked about making the Xbox a home theater companion of choice and where Blu-ray might fit in, the Windows 7 wild man said, "Well I don't know if we need to put Blu-ray in there -- you'll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories." He then added that on-demand is the future of movies, not physical media. Now our bud Major Nelson, Director of Programming for Xbox Live, has stepped up to lay the conflation to rest. The Major says that Ballmer was referring to Blu-ray accessories for the PC and reiterated Microsoft's focus of bringing instant-on 1080p streaming movies to the Xbox 360. So... that should end speculation of Blu-ray on Xbox right? Not if history serves, nope.

Xbox 360 TV Calibration app pops up on Community Games

by Richard Lawler posted Mar 31st 2009 at 3:13PM


For most of this month, one of the top 10 ranked Community Games on Major Nelson's list hasn't been a game at all, the TV Calibration app is a 200 point ($2.50) tool loaded with plenty of test patterns to make sure your video setup is configured perfectly. There's also a free trial, so we loaded it up and can say it does exactly what it says it does. Most games have at least some PQ optimization helpers, but it's unlikely you'll be able to get this detailed information about pixel mapping and test color patterns with a Gears of War disc, and hey, you gotta make sure those Netflix streams look their best on your HDTV. Other calibration tools may have a few more tests and work on more than one device, but for the price it seems to be a good value. Check out the gallery to see a few of the patterns included, or download it from the marketplace and give it a try.

Gallery: TV Calibration for Xbox 360

  • Color pattern test
  • Overscan test
  • Color bars

Xbox Experience now available to all who signed up, Netflix HD streams too

by Thomas Ricker posted Nov 18th 2008 at 4:10AM Breaking News


Microsoft's new Xbox Experience dashboard doesn't officially launch until Wednesday the 19th. But if you signed up for the preview (and who didn't?) with a valid console ID then it's available now according to Major Nelson. What's more, Netflix has confirmed its Xbox 360 launch details: more than 12,000 movies and TV episodes and 300 streaming HD titles. Remember, streaming is free for Netflix members who are also Xbox Live Gold members. The HD video streams will be limited to SD audio, however -- multi-channel audio is in the works as are additional HD titles. Now get outta here kid, NXE awaits.

[Via Joystiq]

Read -- Major Nelson
Read -- Netflix

Superman Returns now on Xbox Live Video Marketplace

by Richard Lawler posted Jan 1st 2007 at 4:10PM

We were wondering how long it would take to get a high definition blockbuster movie onto Xbox Live Video Marketplace, and it looks like Microsoft and Major Nelson just got in under the wire for 2006, adding Superman Returns yesterday. Weighing in at 7 GB for the 720p HD version (2 GB in 480p SD... for the masochists out there) for the 154 minute movie, it's finally time to clear off some of the Xbox 360 demos we downloaded and see if digital distribution works better in 2007 than it did last year. We'll be back with our impressions of the service, now that they've posted something we want to watch on our HDTVs.

Xbox Live Video Marketplace downloads stalled by glitches

by Richard Lawler posted Nov 24th 2006 at 2:24PM

The two biggest questions since Microsoft announced its Xbox Live Video Marketplace have been: 1. does anyone still has enough space on their Xbox 360's 20GB hard drive for movie downloads in high definition? and 2. does anyone -- even the guys at Redmond -- have enough bandwidth to feed the HDTVs of millions of Xbox Live subscribers? Since launching two days ago those questions have been answered with a yes and resounding no, respectively. Users have complained of slow downloads that time out, receiving different files than the ones they requested and being charged twice when trying to complete timed-out rental downloads. Major Nelson has chimed in on the issue, letting us know that the company is aware of the problem and will refund Microsoft Points to all those who call 1-800-4MYXBOX for assistance. Good luck with that, though, as at least one person was told there aren't any managers available to refund customers until after the holiday weekend. So while network engineers and management sleep off yesterday's turkey and camp out for cheap plasmas, you may want to hold off trying to download Clash of the Titans in 720p 'till things get straightened out.

[Thanks, WiFiSpy]

Read - My Xbox 360 video rental nightmare
Read - Video Marketplace Status

Major Nelson: Fix on the way for Xbox 360 1080p problems

by Richard Lawler posted Nov 6th 2006 at 11:41AM

Microsoft just rolled out the much awaited update to the Xbox 360 dashboard including -- among other things -- support for 1080p over VGA and component but for some gamers and error screen was all they got. The company still hasn't said exactly what it believe is causing the issue, although some have said it may be due to either frequency supported by the VGA cable or the way it syncs with monitors, but Major Nelson confirmed on his podcast this morning that engineers are aware of the issue and are working on a fix. The TVs that suffer the problem appear to be some Sony (most notably LCD XBRs) and Samsung models that should be able to accept the 1080p input but as of yet, don't. Affected owners should hopefully have their mere 720p experience rectified soon, but will it be in time for the HD DVD player launch?

Major Nelson's podcast on the Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on

by Richard Lawler posted Aug 7th 2006 at 9:22AM

Once again, Xbox Live's Major Nelson has hosted some high definition experts from Microsoft on his weekly podcast, this time three members of the team behind the upcoming HD DVD add-on for the console. Unfortunately, there wasn't much new or interesting information about the upgrade beyond what is already available. The Toshiba-manufactured drive connects via USB 2.0 and outputs video through the Xbox 360's AV connectors, it will support the various interactive menus and iHD features, including the ability to download additional content from the internet. No price still, although they did state it would be the cheapest HD DVD player available. Whether they were referring to its price by itself, combined with an Xbox 360 Core System (>$200), or a Premium System (>$100) remains to be seen. Much like the previous podcast with Amir M., they were noticeably bolstered by the positive reviews HD DVD has received in comparison to Blu-ray and are very confident about its viability.

Given an opportunity to comment on any potential issues due to not having HDMI or DVI outputs they totally ignored potential problems with ICT and only chose to comment on the issue as pertaining to video quality. While we can certainly appreciate analog HDTV connectors as much as anyone and the budget Playstation 3 shares the same restrictions, we'd like to hear more on how this player won't be rendered useless by copyright protection before we buy.

Major Nelson asks what's best for gaming? 720p, 1080i or 1080p

by Richard Lawler posted Feb 21st 2006 at 7:17PM

1080p - the True High Definition?On this edition of Major Nelson's weekly podcast he has a special guest, Tyler the HDTV expert. Among the things they discussed were what HD means, a few of the reasons Microsoft chose HD-DVD to support, why the Olympic broadcast isn't the best it could be, and the many different formats of HD. It's a pretty long conversation that I'll try to summarize here, but I suggest you give it a listen to get all the details on why 720p may be better for gaming than 1080i or even 1080p (which the PS3 will apparently have and the Xbox 360 doesn't).

We will leave the breakdown of spatial and temporal resolution to Tyler, but there are several elements here to consider. 

Continue reading Major Nelson asks what's best for gaming? 720p, 1080i or 1080p





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