News & Rumors: Xbox One (codename Durango)

[Silent_Buddha]

Maybe that's because most people PCs already stream anything they want round the house. Not really sure being able to record something on TV and then stream it is that big of a deal to be honest. I've already got a Tivo.

There is also the potential to stream live content with real time transcoding. Allowing you to view your TV feed on any device in the house while it is being broadcast. That would be pretty significant, IMO.

Need to use the toilet REALLY badly in the middle of a show? No problem, just grab your smartphone/tablet and watch the live stream while doing your business.

Not saying that's necessarily going to be part of Durango, but it would be pretty compelling.

Regards,
SB

 

[McHuj]

importance of DVR - People seem to be really discounting the importance of a whole house streaming DVR. Currently in the US, it would cost around $200/yr or more from the cable company to accomplish this in just 3 rooms.

With a potential Durango DVR, it will still cost $200/yr plus a Live subscription, neither MS nor any cable company will give up revenue. If anything it will be treated like a premium DVR with a premium to pay. I'm not holding out any hope that Durango will save me money on cable bills.

 

[ramr]

With a potential Durango DVR, it will still cost $200/yr plus a Live subscription, neither MS nor any cable company will give up revenue. If anything it will be treated like a premium DVR with a premium to pay. I'm not holding out any hope that Durango will save me money on cable bills.

If the number of boxes are reduced then obviously the cost is reduced. The cable company would only get a cut if they subsidize/provide the box. Right now, those boxes have to be in use a couple of years to start to show a profit.

 

[trainplane]

If they were really going for a high and low system setup, it seems like they should have shot higher for the high. But I'm not 100% on the leaks anyway. I mean, how is it that the Xbox 3 leaks can be so detailed well before it has even been announced and we still don't really know what is actually in the Wii U months after it is out in store shelves? Is MS and Sony that much more leaky than Nintendo? Did Nintendo just send dev kits to developers and say, figure it out yourself?

 

[gurgi]

If they were really going for a high and low system setup, it seems like they should have shot higher for the high. But I'm not 100% on the leaks anyway. I mean, how is it that the Xbox 3 leaks can be so detailed well before it has even been announced and we still don't really know what is actually in the Wii U months after it is out in store shelves? Is MS and Sony that much more leaky than Nintendo? Did Nintendo just send dev kits to developers and say, figure it out yourself?

I think the interest in the Wii, and Wii:U platforms is more software based. I think it's pretty much accepted by most that Nintendo isn't interested in cutting edge technology that isn't focused on the user interface.

 

[(((interference)))]

Siri like voice recognition confirmed:
http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/7/3958546/new-xbox-speech-recognition-like-siri

5
inShare

Microsoft will greatly improve its speech recognition technology inside the next Xbox, The Verge has learned. Sources familiar with Microsoft's Xbox plans have revealed that Durango, the codename for the next Xbox, will support wake on voice, natural language controls, and speech-to-text. The improved capabilities mean that Xbox users will be able to walk into a room and simply say "Xbox on" to wake up the new Xbox.

This might be one of the reasons 3GB of RAM is reserved, for the voice recognition databases.

 

[AlphaWolf]

I'd hope it's better than siri, which is pretty damned awful.

 

[(((interference)))]

Really? What's the "audio block" then, chopped liver? Man, you graphics oriented guys are so picky. Play through a AAA game without sound sometime and see how much less involving it is. *humph*

:smile:

Maybe in addition to Siri like voice controls, it also does directional audio as the CVG rumour suggested?
http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/directional-audio.htm

 

[anexanhume]

I'd hope it's better than siri, which is pretty damned awful.

Siri's just the buzzword. Kinect was demonstrating voice control before Siri ever debuted.

 

[expletive]

And Microsoft TellMe was doing it on Windows Phones and Ford Sync even before that..

My thoughts exactly, the MS voice recognition stuff on my WinMo 6 HTC phone would still be impressive today, and that was 2005. I'm sure they've made strides since then.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Wake on voice would be pretty awesome, and it would also be pretty awesome if you could bring up the guide and navigate os features with voice commands while playing a game. Also, it would be awesome if Rocksmith 2 used voice and Kinect control, if that game gets made. So annoying to hold a guitar and have to keep picking up your controller to navigate menus and answer messages.

 

[LightHeaven]

It would be really cool if they had a feature like windows 8' contracts, that allowed for apps to integrate with the voice recognition system, so for example, even during a game you could say: "Xbox, upload the last 30 seconds of gameplay to youtube and publish it on facebook"

And of course, more contextualized searches than just look for media, like searching for games your friends are playing, etc.

 

[Acert93]

Siri like voice recognition confirmed:
http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/7/3958546/new-xbox-speech-recognition-like-siri

This might be one of the reasons 3GB of RAM is reserved, for the voice recognition databases.

I cannot find the slide right now, but much of Durango falls inline with the Yukon leak. That being the case there is a huge laundry list of features MS is aiming for:

•Gaming
•Next Gen TV (full XTV support)
•Physical Media (Blu-ray, CD, DVD)
•Online experiences

•Whole Home DVR:
•Record in the background andserve up to any device in thehousehold

•Remoting Server:
•Stream and play your AAA gamesremotely to any device ****Like Onlive with the Xbox 720 acting like the cloud...sound familiar?

•Designed for your living room:
•Sophisticated, silent, always on, green device

If they hit 120W and the BOM in the $230 range they mention, with all the above features, it would put them in a position to target TV users of all sorts--with a good implimentation of Kinect 2 with voice controls and "voice activated" and no lag user interface it could be a big seller for media consumers.

 

[Bert Macklin]

Acert, you mentioned that a lot of the Durango leaks have fallen in line with the Yukon leak. There's one thing that I've been confused about in its nomenclature.

http://cdn.arstechnica.net//wp-content/uploads/2012/06/xbox720specs.png

It highlights two GPUs, a System GPU ("48ALU @ 500MHz") and an Application GPU ("64ALU @ 1GHz"). What are these ALUs, vector ALUs? I was wondering how they were defined in relation to the GCN architecture. I found a few powerpoint presentations and a whitepaper that mentioned this:

The CU front-end can decode and issue seven different types of instructions: branches, scalar ALU or memory, vector ALU, vector memory, local data share, global data share or export, and special instructions. Only issue one instruction of each type can be issued at a time per SIMD, to avoid oversubscribing the execution pipelines.

http://www.amd.com/us/Documents/GCN_Architecture_whitepaper.pdf

So in the Yukon leak, should these "48ALU" really read as 48 SIMD? This is the exact same number outlined in the VGleaks 12 CU/"SP" 48 SIMD GPU that is obviously the GCN architecture.

Is this another convergence between the recent leaks and the "outdated" Yukon leak? If this is the System GPU is there an Application GPU? I doubt that they could keep the existence of a 2nd GPU under wraps, but it seems strange how prescient the Yukon leak seems to be in relation to the recent leaks.

 

[XpiderMX]

Microsoft is not listed as HMC developer/adopter member:

http://hybridmemorycube.org/about.html

 

[AlphaWolf]

Microsoft is not listed as HMC developer/adopter member:

http://hybridmemorycube.org/about.html

When was that list updated?

The Hybrid Memory Cube Consortium, led by Micron Technology and Samsung Electronics, on Tuesday said that Microsoft Corp. has joined the consortium.

from here

Not that it indicates Hybrid Memory Cube tech will be featured in any MS product in the near future.

 

[XpiderMX]

When was that list updated?

from here

Not that it indicates Hybrid Memory Cube tech will be featured in any MS product in the near future.

Microsoft was listed last year.

 

[DopeyFish]

Microsoft was listed last year.

and less than two weeks ago. They were on there the last time I checked.

They were one of the developer members... had the logo and everything.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I really can't say.

-snip-

Apple has an amazing ability to introduce a product that other folks have already done, but do it in a way that all their customers think they invented it.

I hate you! Well, not really. I know you can't say but I had to ask anyway. Robust audio simulation and reconstruction is something that I've missed ever since it died out in PC gaming all those years ago. Damn you Creative Labs for making EAX 3.0 and up proprietary. Everything was going so well with industry adoption when you allowed it be an open standard. Then you had to go and restrict it to licensees only. Grrrr.

And yup with Apple. Steve Jobs was always a fantastic marketer. Woz was the engineering brains and Jobs was the marketing wizard (back when Apple was founded). So, I'm not terribly surprised that while Apple is still hugely successful, that they are showing signs of stumbling a bit now.

I cannot find the slide right now, but much of Durango falls inline with the Yukon leak. That being the case there is a huge laundry list of features MS is aiming for:



If they hit 120W and the BOM in the $230 range they mention, with all the above features, it would put them in a position to target TV users of all sorts--with a good implimentation of Kinect 2 with voice controls and "voice activated" and no lag user interface it could be a big seller for media consumers.

Another way to think of it. Convergence set top boxes have basically failed to find any traction in the consumer space. Apple TV, Google TV, all the various Linux based set top boxes, Windows based HTPCs, etc. And that's going anywhere from 50 USD on up with average price of Arm based set top boxes around 100 USD, I think.

Now, if you take all those set top box features that others have tried to sell, but then it's also able to play all the latest and greatest AAA, casual, and indie games suddenly, you might just have a hot potato on your hands.

100 USD too much to take a gamble on an Apple TV or Google TV device? Well, look at our Xbox gaming console it can do everything those can AND play all the best games being released in the world. At that point people might not mind ponying up 300-400 USD for that set top box experience and games. After all, I know people that bought a PS3 for Blue Ray playback only (they only bought 0-1 games the entire time they owned the machine) and I know people that bought an X360 only for Netflix (again only bought 0-1 games the entire time they owned the console).

It does make a pretty compelling argument. Throw in motion controls and natural voice controls and that potentially makes it very attractive to a very broad range of people. Have a family? On a budget? Can only get one console? All those features would make for a very compelling case of which one to get even if the kids in the family think the console is underpowered compared to its competition.

Regards,
SB

 

[Love_In_Rio]

Acert, you mentioned that a lot of the Durango leaks have fallen in line with the Yukon leak. There's one thing that I've been confused about in its nomenclature.

http://cdn.arstechnica.net//wp-content/uploads/2012/06/xbox720specs.png

It highlights two GPUs, a System GPU ("48ALU @ 500MHz") and an Application GPU ("64ALU @ 1GHz"). What are these ALUs, vector ALUs? I was wondering how they were defined in relation to the GCN architecture. I found a few powerpoint presentations and a whitepaper that mentioned this:


http://www.amd.com/us/Documents/GCN_Architecture_whitepaper.pdf

So in the Yukon leak, should these "48ALU" really read as 48 SIMD? This is the exact same number outlined in the VGleaks 12 CU/"SP" 48 SIMD GPU that is obviously the GCN architecture.

Is this another convergence between the recent leaks and the "outdated" Yukon leak? If this is the System GPU is there an Application GPU? I doubt that they could keep the existence of a 2nd GPU under wraps, but it seems strange how prescient the Yukon leak seems to be in relation to the recent leaks.

I think those 48ALUs at 500Mhz was refering to Xenos...