xbox_one_media_player

Xbox One's new media player is perfect for watching torrents. DLNA and MKV support included. Microsoft announced its plans to bring a standalone media player to Xbox One earlier this week, and now the company is previewing some of its new features. A dashboard update for Xbox One preview users is rolling out in preparation for the media player app beta, with some of the new social and TV features. While the media player isn’t available just yet, Microsoft is demonstrating how it works in a preview video. The media player, a highly requested feature, supports local files from USB and network media players through DLNA. Both of these features will allow Xbox One owners to download content like movies, TV shows, or music and stream them directly to the console or play them from a USB stick. Microsoft is improving its support of essential video and audio codecs with the Xbox One, allowing owners to watch DivX, Xvids, MKVs, and even animated GIFs. It’s perfect for those with network-attached storage (NAS) full of MKVs that might have been acquired from BitTorrent sites. Via: Major Nelson Source: Xbox (YouTube) Next Up In Gaming. Now Trending. Command Line. Command Line delivers daily updates from the near-future. How to Play Video and Music Files on Your Xbox One. The Xbox One has integrated TV features and support for streaming media apps like Netflix and Hulu, but that isn’t where it ends. You can play video and music files you’ve ripped or downloaded by plugging in a USB drive or streaming them over your local network. This is made possible by the Xbox Media Player app, which Microsoft released about nine months after the Xbox One was released. Sony also added a similar PS4 Media Player app to its console, so both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 offer this feature. Supported File Types. The Xbox One Media Player app supports a wide variety of audio and video codecs, container formats, and image file types. It even supports album art images stored in music folders. Here’s a list of what the app supports, straight from Microsoft: Music, Video, and Container Formats : 3GP audio, 3GP video, 3GP2, AAC, ADTS, .asf, AVI DivX, DV AVI, AVI uncompressed, AVI Xvid, H.264 AVCHD, M-JPEG, .mkv, .mov, MP3, MPEG-PS, MPEG-2, MPEG-2 HD, MPEG-2 TS, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, MPEG-4 SP, WAV, WMA, WMA Lossless, WMA Pro, WMA Voice, WMV, WMV HD Picture Formats : Animated GIF, BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF. In practice, almost anything you want to play or view should work fine. You’ll see an error message if you try to play something that isn’t supported. Install the Xbox Media Player App. This app isn’t installed by default, so you’ll need to install it yourself from the Xbox Store. To launch the Xbox Store, head to My Games & Apps > Apps > Find more in the Xbox Store. Search for “media player” and install the Media Player app. How to Play Videos and Music From a USB Drive. If you have a USB flash drive or external drive, you can use it to play videos on the Xbox One. The Xbox One supports USB 1, USB 2, and USB 3 drives. The drive must be formatted in FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, or NTFS. If you have a Windows PC, your USB drive will work on your Xbox One as long as your Windows PC can read it. If you have a Mac, be sure to format the drive as exFAT and not with a Mac-only file system like HFS+. Connect the drive to your computer and copy your video, music, or picture files onto it. Eject it from your computer and connect it to one of the USB ports on your Xbox One. There Xbox One has three USB ports you can use: Two on the back of the console, and one on the side. Open the Media Player app and you’ll see your connected drive as an option. Select the drive and you can browse all the media files on it and play them, controlling the playback with your Xbox controller. How to Stream Media Files From Your Computer. Alternatively, you can skip the USB drive entirely and stream a video from your computer to your Xbox One using DLNA. You could also use a network attached storage (NAS) device as a DLNA media server if you have one. To do this, you’ll need to set up a DLNA server on your PC or Mac first. Microsoft recommends–and officially supports–Windows Media Player as a DLNA server. This feature was introduced in Windows 7, and it still works on Windows 8, 8.1, and 10. If you use a Mac, you’ll need to find a third-party DLNA server like Plex. To activate the DLNA server included with Windows, open the Control Panel, search for “media,” and click the “Media streaming options” link under Network & Sharing Center. Click the “Turn on media streaming” button here. This makes the files available in your Music, Pictures, and Videos libraries available for streaming. (So if your video file isn’t in your Videos folder already, you’ll want to put it there now.) Once you have a DLNA server set up, it will appear in your Xbox One’s Media Player app as an option alongside any connected USB drives, allowing you to browse and stream media files stored in your media libraries. How to Stream Media Files With “Play To” or “Cast to Device” You can also use the “Play To” feature to play music from your computer to your Xbox One. This feature is now called “Cast to Device” on Windows 10, but it’s still called “Play To” on the Xbox One. It also relies on DLNA in the background. However, you don’t have to set up a DLNA server. You just browse to the media files on your computer and tell Windows to play them on your Xbox One. This feature was introduced in Windows 7, and it still works on Windows 8, 8.1, and 10. To do this, ensure the appropriate option is enabled on your Xbox One. Head to Settings > All Settings > Preferences > Game DVR & Streaming and ensure the “Allow Play To Streaming” option is enabled. To play music or video files on your Xbox One, just right-click them in File Explorer or Windows Explorer and use the “Cast to Device” or “Play To” menu to select your Xbox One. A small Windows Media Player window will appear, and you can use to to manage your playlist and control playback from your computer. You can also control playback on the console itself with your Xbox One controller. If you haven’t yet installed the Movies & TV app on your Xbox One, you’ll be prompted to do so. The page for the app on the Xbox Store will open–just select “Install” to install it. You’ll have to install the app before the “Play To” or “Cast to Device” streaming will work. Chris Hoffman is a technology writer and all-around computer geek. He's as at home using the Linux terminal as he is digging into the Windows registry. Connect with him on Twitter. Did You Know. Playing Iron Man proved to be quite lucrative for Robert Downey Jr.; for his role in Iron Man he was paid $500,000, when reprising it in the sequel he was paid $10,000,000, and when he appeared as Iron Man in The Avengers he was paid $50,000,000. Best of How-To Geek. Get the HTG Newsletter. Join 100,000 other subscribers. Follow How-To Geek. More Articles You Might Like. Enter your email address to get our daily newsletter. Join the How-To Geek Club! (It's Free) ✕ Get exclusive articles before everybody else. Get downloadable ebooks for free! Get geeky trivia, fun facts, and much more. xboxone. 4 706 пользователей находятся здесь. МОДЕРАТОРЫ. Arowin Arowin MikeyJayRaymond Simple Rlight #teamchief _deffer_ deffer delicious_cheese DeliciousCheeze tobiasvl tobiasvl - #teamchief ClassyTurkey Enter Gamertag XboxCountdown XbotOne AutoModerator . и ещё 5 » Welcome to Reddit, the front page of the internet. and subscribe to one of thousands of communities. Это архивированный пост. Вы не можете голосовать или комментировать. Want to add to the discussion? помощь правила сайта центр поддержки вики реддикет mod guidelines связаться с нами. приложенияи инструменты Reddit for iPhone Reddit for Android mobile website кнопки. Использование данного сайта означает, что вы принимаете пользовательского соглашения и Политика конфиденциальности. © 2018 reddit инкорпорейтед. Все права защищены. REDDIT and the ALIEN Logo are registered trademarks of reddit inc. π Rendered by PID 33679 on app-575 at 2018-02-01 01:15:07.452234+00:00 running b5f602d country code: RU. Plex for Xbox One. All your movie, TV show, music, and photo collections, beautifully organized and streamed to your big screen through your Xbox One. (Re)discover your media. Forget scrolling through your entire media collection trying to decide what to play next. Plex remembers where you left off on your favorite TV series, gives you effortless search options, and reminds you about artists you haven’t listened to in ages, all while giving you trailers, extras, and music videos. What's included. Our Xbox One app gives you a sleek and beautiful way to enjoy all of the great features Plex has to offer. Support for all file types (well, virtually all), including hi-fi music and video formats. Stream all of your media to all your devices, anytime, anywhere, with the same beautiful experience on all of them. (iOS, Android, and Windows apps require a one-time unlock fee for full playback if you do not have a Plex Pass.) Organize all of your media–videos, photos, and music–and make it beautiful with artwork and info like plot summaries, bios, and more. Enjoy your media while away from home, knowing your connection is securely encrypted. Effortlessly share libraries among friends to all discover and enjoy even more content together. Enjoy beautifully organized libraries that help you find and re-discover great gems in your collection. Get online content from various sources, like TED Talks, NPR, Spike, Comedy Central, and Soundcloud, right in Plex. Use the Plex app on your phone or tablet to control any Plex player. Start content on one device and fling it to another app to continue enjoying it. Create optimized versions of your media for seamless streaming on whichever device you choose. Save online videos to watch later or recommend videos to a friend. Plex Cloud with Google Drive, Dropbox or Microsoft OneDrive is the simplest way to run Plex, without the need for an always-on PC or network-attached storage device (NAS). Record your favorite free HDTV digital broadcast channels right to your Plex Media Server—-including local news and sports—-then watch anywhere in the world! DVR recordings can be watched on any Plex-enabled device. Sync content from your library to supported cloud storage providers to enjoy even if your server is offline. See timed lyrics to your favorite songs when available. Find tracks in your collection based on mood to help you wake up, wind down, and everything in between. Kick off playback of similar tracks from your collection at any time — it’s like your own personal radio station. Enjoy lyrics, automatic Plex Mix and Mood Mix playlists based on mood or similar tracks, and premium metadata matching for high quality art, album reviews, artist bios and more! Create customized, managed accounts, and make user switching fast and easy with Plex Home. Enable parental controls to keep the kids away from inappropriate content. Automatically see high quality movie trailers, cast interviews, and other extras for movies in your library. Any Format. Plex will optimize playback of nearly any type of media file, either by transcoding (geek talk for making it work on your device) in real time or playing natively on supported platforms. Available Anywhere. Stream all of your media to all your devices, anytime, anywhere, with the same beautiful experience on all of them. (iOS, Android, and Windows apps require a one-time unlock fee for full playback if you do not have a Plex Pass.) Library Organization. Organize all of your media–videos, photos, and music–and make it beautiful with artwork and info like plot summaries, bios, and more. Slice and dice by genre, director, record label, and more to quickly find what you’re looking for. Privacy and Security. What you have in your library is your business. Enjoy it all without anyone snooping, and, while away from home, rest assured that your connection is secure. Effortlessly share media among friends, so you can all discover and enjoy even more content together. Bring everyone together by exchanging precious memories with distant family members by sharing your vacation photos and home videos. Recommendations and Discovery. Not sure what to watch? Search by actor, year, genre, and more to find and re-discover great gems in your collection. See recently added or released films, or continue watching something you started earlier. Online Channels. Get online content from various sources, like TED Talks, NPR, Spike, Comedy Central, Soundcloud, and lots more, streamable to any of your Plex-enabled devices. Remote Control. Control your big screen with your phone or tablet. Pause an episode when the phone rings, skip a track you’ve heard too many times or just find out more about what you’re watching with the world’s best remote control. Start content on one device and fling it to another app to continue enjoying it. Media Optimizer. Create optimized versions of your media for seamless streaming on whichever device you choose, whether it’s your phone or your big screen. Watch Later. Use our Plex It bookmarklet to easily save online videos from your favorite sites for watching later—even on the big screen—or share the experience by recommending videos to a friend. Plex Cloud. Plex Cloud with Google Drive, Dropbox or Microsoft OneDrive is the simplest way to run Plex, without the need for an always-on PC or network-attached storage device (NAS). Record your favorite free HDTV digital broadcast channels onto your Plex Media Server—-including local news and sports—-then stream to any device and watch anywhere in the world! DVR recordings can be watched on any Plex-enabled device. DVR scheduling is only available on specific platforms. Cloud Sync. Cloud Sync allows you to sync content from your library to a cloud storage provider so that it is available for you to stream even if your Plex Media Server is not accessible. See timed lyrics to your favorite songs when available. Find tracks in your collection based on mood to help you wake up, wind down, and everything in between. Kick off playback of similar tracks from your collection at any time — it’s like your own personal radio station. Premium Music. Enjoy lyrics, automatic Plex Mix and Mood Mix playlists based on mood or similar tracks, and premium metadata matching for high quality art, album reviews, artist bios and more! Multiple Users. Have several people under the same roof? Give them each a managed account—no more losing where you were in that episode when someone else decides to watch a show without you. Parental Controls. Manage user accounts and keep the kids away from inappropriate content, or create separate accounts for your childish roommates. Trailers and Extras. Enjoy all the usual movie extras—cast interviews, director commentaries, deleted scenes, and more—for all the films in your collection. You can also set up theatrical trailers to play before, either from other movies in your library or from new and upcoming releases. Ready to start streaming? Sign up & download. Sign up for your free account and download the Plex Media Server software, the central brain that organizes all of your media. Add your media. Plex recognizes just about. any kind of video, music, or photo format and displays all of your content in an easy-to-navigate interface. Stream to your favorite devices. Install Plex apps on any of your devices so you can enjoy your beautifully organized media wherever you are. October 19, 2017. Plexbox One X: The Emplexening. When the Xbox One debuted (almost four years ago!) it brought a few really innovative ideas to the home media world: lovely little clusters of. Oh yeah, a great update for the Xbox One app! OK, we have some great news today. Finally, FINALLY, we have a massive Xbox One update for you. Seriously, who knew that getting an update. Get Plex for Xbox One. You already have a shiny Plex Pass, we you! Plex Pass gives you exclusive access to awesome new features and apps. Record TV for free over the air, sync your media for offline enjoyment, rest easy with parental controls, and enjoy enhanced music, photo and video features—all of this and much more when you upgrade. Starting Today, New Media Player App, New SmartGlass Features, and More Included in Xbox One Update. Updated at 10 a.m. PDT, Aug. 29 to include new video below offering a closer look at multiple GameDVR deletes. Today, we will begin rolling out new features and updates to Xbox One for fans all over the world. These updates include new ways to bring your personal media to your Xbox, updates to the party system, more ways to interact with your Xbox, and new social features for Xbox SmartGlass. Party on in the new and improved Party App: Be the leader of your party with the new party leader setting. As the party leader, you can change whether the party requires invitations and you can remove others from the party. The updated app also lets you see what activities everyone in your party is doing and who is playing in the same game with you in addition to being able to quickly perform common actions like muting, joining, or sending game invites. New features for SmartGlass: You can now post status messages from the Activity Feed and comments, or share items from both your Activity Feed and Game Clips. Along with the new comment and share features, a personalized Activity Feed has been added to your profile and messages have been updated to a new layout supporting a full conversation view. Additionally, we are adding the ability to record game clips directly from the Now Playing bar. Finally, for users who upgrade the app directly, we have introduced a What’s New page highlighting the features of each release. “Xbox On” capabilities in Australia, Canada (French), Italy, Spain and Mexico : New regions will have the ability to use the “Xbox On” Kinect voice command to power on their consoles when they’re in connected standby (Instant On) mode. Please continue to share your feedback on our dedicated Xbox Feedback site and you might see your suggestions become a reality in future system updates. Look out for new features lighting up consoles in our preview program in the coming weeks. Stream media using Groove, Movies & TV, or Windows Media Player with Xbox 360. You can stream music, pictures, and video to your Xbox 360 console from your computer by using Windows Media Player, Groove, or Movies & TV. Note For more information about using Windows Media Center to stream content from your computer to your console, see Xbox 360 Windows Media Center support. Step 1: Connect your console to your network (if you haven't already) If you've already connected your console to your network, you can go to "Step 2: Set up Windows Media Player," below. If not, connect your console to your home network using a wired or wireless connection. Then, test to make sure that your Xbox console connects successfully. Here’s how: From Xbox home, go to settings , and then select System Settings . Select Network Settings . Select Wired Network or Wireless network . Select Test Xbox Live Connection . If the network status shows as Connected, go to Step 2, below. Otherwise, select More Info on your console and follow the suggestions. Step 2: Set up Windows Media Player. Which version do you want to use? Windows Media Player 12 (Windows 7) In Windows Media Player, select Turn on media streaming from the Stream menu. On the page that appears, select Turn on media streaming . Name your media library, and then select OK . Windows Media Player 11 (Windows Vista) In Windows Media Player, right-click Library , and then select Media Sharing . Select Share my media , and then select OK . In Sharing Settings , locate the Xbox 360 device. Select Xbox 360 , Allow , and then OK . If you want to apply more options, select Settings . When you're done, select OK . Step 3: Play or view music or videos. From Xbox home, go to music , and then select Groove Music . Select the playlist of songs you want to play. From Xbox home, go to movies & tv , and then select Microsoft Movies &TV . Select the video you want to play. Using the Groove app and the Movies & TV app. For more information about using the Groove app, see Groove app on Xbox 360. To learn more about the Movies & TV app, see Movies & TV. Часто задаваемые вопросы о видео, фото и аудио в проигрывателе Xbox Media Player на консоли Xbox One. Здесь можно найти ответы на часто задаваемые вопросы о видео-, фото- и аудиоконтенте на проигрывателе мультимедиа Xbox. Вопросы по Xbox Media Player. Проигрыватель Media Player поддерживает следующие типы файлов. Xbox One поддерживает большой набор кодеков и типов мультимедиа, но если вы пытаетесь воспроизвести файл, который содержит неподдерживаемый контент, проигрыватель Media Player уведомит об этой проблеме. Да, Media Player отображает эскизы для фотографий, аудио- и видеофайлов, если они доступны. Воспроизводить мультимедиа можно со сменного диска USB 1.0, 2.0 или 3.0. Накопители USB 1.0 и 2.0 автоматически рассматриваются как диски носителя. Группа разработчиков Xbox One провела обширное тестирование, чтобы гарантировать, что Xbox будет хорошо работать с проигрывателем Windows Media Player. Если вы пользуетесь сторонним ПО, обращайтесь за поддержкой к его изготовителю. Для воспроизведения контента с компьютера Mac необходимо пользоваться сторонним ПО для потоковой передачи. Поскольку Microsoft не поддерживает стороннее ПО для потоковой передачи, при необходимости обращайтесь за поддержкой к производителю этого ПО. В настоящее время Xbox One не поддерживает такую возможность. Сведения о настройке общего доступа на консоли Xbox 360 см. в разделе Поддержка ПК в Windows Media Center. К сожалению, в iPhone и iPod Touch используется другой механизм хранения данных, отличный от традиционных USB-накопителей. Поэтому в настоящее время Media Player непригоден для воспроизведения контента с этих устройств. Попробуйте настроить параметры питания внешнего запоминающего устройства. Перейдите на страницу Настройки . Выберите Включение и запуск . Снимите флажок Отключать внешний диск при отключении Xbox . К сожалению, в настоящее время проигрыватель мультимедиа не поддерживает субтитры в фильмах. Kodi media player arrives on the Xbox One. Welcome back XBMP. Kodi media center. Kodi, the perfectly legal yet notorious media player, is now available to download on your Xbox One. Initial reports suggest availability is restricted by region with Europeans getting first dibs. So be patient if you don't see it yet. Kodi is a very capable player that’s highly expandable thanks to third-party add-ons like live TV and DVR services — something Microsoft isn’t going to provide. But Kodi is perhaps best known as the go to app for piracy due to a wide variety of plugins that let you illegally stream television shows, professional sports, and films from the comfort of your living room. This has led to a cottage industry of so-called "Kodi boxes," often built around cheap HDMI dongles like Amazon's Fire TV sticks. While the XBMC Foundation has attempted to distance itself from the illegal third-party plugins, it's also benefited from the exposure. In a blog post, Kodi warns that the Xbox One download isn’t finished and may contain missing features and bugs. Here are a few known limitations as of today: There’s limited access to only part of your Video and Music folders. Network support is limited to NFS:// shares. There’s no access to attached storage or to the Blu-ray drive. There might be problems with some add-ons. Kodi began life as XBMC (Xbox Media Center), or XBMP (Xbox Media Player) if you want to track back to the original incarnation that ran on hacked first-generation Xbox consoles — a capable PC with high-end graphics that Microsoft sold at a loss in order to gain an industry foothold back in the early noughts. So really, it's only fitting that Kodi should return to the roost. Update Dec 29th, 6:36 AM: Article updated with known limitations. Next Up In Gaming. Now Trending. Command Line. Command Line delivers daily updates from the near-future. Which is the better media player? PlayStation 4 and Xbox One revisited. Digital Foundry re-assesses multimedia functionality and performance. Ten months ago, we tested the media playback functions of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 extensively, using the feature-set and the quality of the veteran PS3 as the standard. Our verdict? PlayStation 4 passed muster, albeit with a few serious issues on specific applications, while Xbox One was close to an abject failure owing to fundamental deficiencies across the whole media offering. But in truth, neither of the new consoles could supplant the PlayStation 3 as the media centre of choice. Ten months on, has anything changed? A quick heads-up before we continue: a lot of this article is going to centre on the Xbox One experience, as it's fair to say that Microsoft has rolled out an impressive range of significant upgrades in the intervening months. The console was designed from the ground-up as a gaming multimedia centre, which made its poor performance in our last test all the more disappointing. However, things have changed. The plain and simple fact is that those upgrades have paid off - Xbox One still has some minor issues, but in the here and now there is no competition: the Microsoft media offering works and the OS integration is impressive, if a little inconsistent. Perhaps the real question now is just how relevant that is in an era where media playback apps proliferate across a multitude of devices. But let's begin by addressing the major gripes we had with Xbox One back in February: Netflix was virtually unwatchable owing to hideous skipping, BBC iPlayer was conspicuous by its absence, while Xbox 360 upgraders might have been dismayed to find that the new console lacked the Sky Go functionality of its older counterpart. On top of that, Blu-ray 24fps playback didn't work properly and 3D functionality was absent. Meanwhile, TV integration in European territories was ruined by the console steadfastly sticking to a 60Hz output, producing horrible judder owing to a lack of support for our native 50Hz content. And let's not forget that the OneGuide didn't work at all outside of the USA, while those of us who don't want to give Rupert Murdoch or Richard Branson a monthly ransom for TV services were left with no TV integration at all - unless we went out and bought a set-top box for terrestrial digital transmission. How things have changed: Netflix works fine now, BBC iPlayer has arrived (with excellent voice support by the way), and while Sky Go still isn't available, at least there's the sister service - Now TV. Things have improved radically elsewhere: the Blu-ray player supports 24fps, 25fps, 30fps and 3D content, seamlessly switching between display modes for judder-free playback. Xbox One also treats 50Hz content effectively - on live TV and Blu-rays at any rate - with the console switching between display refresh rates automatically, just as it should. The lingering disappointment concerns DVD playback - upscaling is still as blurry as ever and that in itself may be a dealbreaker for those with extensive DVD libraries. More positively, in the UK at least, the OneGuide now works effectively, and Microsoft has even released a Ј25 USB digital tuner for those of us in Europe without set-top boxes - and it's excellent. Simply plug it in to the Xbox One, attach your antenna, and after a short set-up period where the console scans for available channels, you're good to go. Standard def and HD channels are supported, as is surround sound. Smart Glass integration is pretty decent too, with the ability to stream live TV to your tablet or phone - the quality is pretty poor, but it's serviceable enough. All of the normal TV functionality works just fine with the dongle, including Snap-based picture-in-picture. It's interesting to note that while gaming is the major focus, Xbox One retains a 60Hz output, causing some judder on the smaller TV picture-in-picture feed - a necessary evil and not unduly intrusive. As soon as you maximise the TV image, the console once again switches to 50Hz. At this point we should point out that picture quality is excellent, with standard definition sources upscaled very effectively. Picture quality actually seemed better than the results of the internal scaler on our HDTV. There are some minor annoyances though. BBC iPlayer is based on 25fps content, but the app resolutely sticks to a 60Hz output. In this respect it is much like its other iterations for various devices (including PS4), but this is Xbox One and the opportunity was there to do better based on what the surrounding technology is already delivering. The fact that voice support works so well demonstrates that a good degree of effort was already put into the app - 25fps/50Hz support would be the icing on the cake and similar auto-refresh switching would be welcome on all other media streaming services too. Plex is a simply brilliant app for those with home media servers, and the Xbox One version doesn't disappoint. Except in one regard: you need to Plex Pass subscription to use it, and it's not exactly cheap. But the Xbox One media enhancements don't end there. In our previous article we bemoaned the lack of local media playback - the implication of its absence being that Microsoft (and indeed Sony) would prefer us to subscribe to content providers (like them, perhaps) rather than allowing us to use our own media. That's a clear functionality downgrade from the last-gen machines. Well, Xbox One's new media player app attempts to sort that out, offering a surprising amount of playback functionality - including the ability to run MKV files. In our tests, this actually turned out to be somewhat disappointing - high-bitrate 1080p h.264 files stutter horribly, while audio support is limited to AAC and Dolby Digital, with DTS and DTS-HD off the table. Our own in-house 1080p60 MP4s and MKVs - the files we upload to YouTube - drop frames on playback, which isn't ideal. The media player app is probably only good for low bitrate pirate MKVs, and that's somewhat bizarre considering that Xbox One has a hardware h.264 decoder onboard. The startling reality is that the Ј25 Raspberry Pi offers superior local media decoding than the mighty Xbox One. However, the Microsoft console does have an ace in the hole: Plex. For those out there with media servers, Plex is the app of choice for organising your collection, with artwork, synopses and even title music downloaded and streamed across from the server to the client. Transcoding is also supported, so while the Xbox One's local media player may not run Blu-ray rips, the Plex server can and does transcode into an acceptable format. Plex is superb (there's voice and gesture control) but at launch, using it required a hefty subscription of $4.99 a month, $39.99 a year, or $149.99 for lifetime access. By the time you read this, that requirement should have been lifted. [ UPDATE 20/12/14 1:53pm: Plex is now available for both PS3 and PS4.] Due to the proliferation of media playback options, disc-based support is now a key advantage for both of the current-gen consoles. 1080p Blu-ray playback is identical across both machines, with each system outputting a pure image without any unwanted tampering. Due to the proliferation of media playback options, disc-based support is now a key advantage for both of the current-gen consoles. 1080p Blu-ray playback is identical across both machines, with each system outputting a pure image without any unwanted tampering. Due to the proliferation of media playback options, disc-based support is now a key advantage for both of the current-gen consoles. 1080p Blu-ray playback is identical across both machines, with each system outputting a pure image without any unwanted tampering. Due to the proliferation of media playback options, disc-based support is now a key advantage for both of the current-gen consoles. 1080p Blu-ray playback is identical across both machines, with each system outputting a pure image without any unwanted tampering. Blu-rays in the 25p progressive format encoded at 1080i50 are incorrectly de-interlaced by the PS4, resulting in a minor loss of detail (seen here on the grass to the left), with information being vertically shifted by one pixel, with very subtle blending from one frame into the next. Xbox One correctly handles this material without introducing unwanted artefacts. Overall, it's fair to say that the Xbox One media experience has undergone revelatory improvements since we first looked at it in February. However, it remains some way off the revolutionary product it should be, with a variety of minor annoyances that take the sheen off the experience. For example, the inconsistency of support for voice control across apps is disappointing - the core feature-set for the media experience should work everywhere, and it is definitely missed when it doesn't work. The removal of Kinect as mandatory pack-in will almost inevitably result in even less support going forward. All of which means that Smart Glass, or more likely the standard Xbox One controller, becomes the default interface - both do the job but they are not really as comfortable as a standard remote. That's a Ј16 optional extra on Xbox One (though there are many third party substitutes) but it remains somewhat surprising that there is still no equivalent for the PlayStation 4. The best you can do there is use the Dual Shock 4, or else hope that your TV supports HDMI-CEC, meaning that your TV remote will work (though we had no luck using Viera-Link on a Panasonic VT20, which works just fine on a Raspberry Pi). To be honest, it's a bit puzzling why the standard PS3 Bluetooth remote remains unsupported - it's out there, it's a good product, why not support it on PS4? Revisiting the PS4 side of the equation, there's definitely a feeling of a lack of momentum but this is almost certainly by design - Sony has never outright prioritised media in the same way that Microsoft has. That said, Xbox One system software upgrades come thick and fast (perhaps too frequently if you're a member of the preview programme) but core functionality upgrades to the PS4's media player are few and far between. We've seen improvements to the DVD player in firmware 1.61, addressing some of our DVD deinterlacing concerns, while 1.75 introduced stereoscopic 3D Blu-ray support. In short, Sony has a very different approach to Microsoft - it covers off the essentials with competence, reliability and quality but obviously it is not attempting to redefine the media experience. We note that our major issue with PS4 media playback - a horrible LoveFilm (now Amazon Instant Video) performance issue - wasn't a problem during our most recent testing. On top of that, surround sound is now definitely supported from both apps on both consoles. Curiously, it seems that PS4 (and indeed PS3) now enjoy Sky Go and NowTV, which may appeal greatly to subscribers. When it comes to DVD playback, there's no competition. PlayStation 4 upscales standard definition quality rather well, while the image remains very blurry on Xbox One - just as it did in our previous test back in February. When it comes to DVD playback, there's no competition. PlayStation 4 upscales standard definition quality rather well, while the image remains very blurry on Xbox One - just as it did in our previous test back in February. When it comes to DVD playback, there's no competition. PlayStation 4 upscales standard definition quality rather well, while the image remains very blurry on Xbox One - just as it did in our previous test back in February. When it comes to DVD playback, there's no competition. PlayStation 4 upscales standard definition quality rather well, while the image remains very blurry on Xbox One - just as it did in our previous test back in February. Revisiting console media: big improvements but how relevant are they? Microsoft will pull Logan Paul-themed game published on Xbox store. Here's February's PlayStation Plus games line-up. Rime! Knack! More! Gawp at PlayStation 4's new Steel Black and Midnight Blue controllers. Flawed in places, but enormously improved with some really cute functionality, Xbox One is now a completely viable media proposition as a result of the vast improvements made over the last ten months. Our major issue now concerns the quality of DVD upscaling, which remains very, very poor. Bearing in mind that the major advantages of the consoles over streaming boxes is the support for disc media, this remains a surprising oversight. For its part, PlayStation 4 hasn't changed too much but there have been some improvements to functionality. It does what it needs to with the minimum of fuss and a workman-like competence - PS4 makes no pretence about being a media powerhouse. Its core focus is, after all, "#4ThePlayers". And therein perhaps lies the crux of the matter. Microsoft designed Xbox One in an era where consoles were being used just as much for media playback - if not more - than they were for gaming. Placing so much emphasis on this proved to be a costly error both in terms of initial marketing and hardware design, but the logic at the time was sound. However, the reality is that media playback is now ubiquitous across virtually all devices - streaming from smartphone or tablet to an HDTV is ridiculous easy, assuming your HDTV doesn't already have smart functionality onboard to begin with. Media playback boxes - like the Roku offerings and their subsidised NowTV sibling - offer a higher level of streaming app support than Xbox One, at prices starting from Ј9.99. In short, Xbox One is a premium level media device in a market now saturated by perfectly functional commodity hardware. The proliferation of media playback support outside of the console is quickly serving to make the console offerings somewhat surplus to requirements - unless you need a Blu-ray/DVD player of course, where both Xbox One and PS4 offer very similar performance overall. In conclusion, the Microsoft's radical improvement as a media centre is obviously welcome, and we enjoyed using voice and gesture controls, but the bottom line is that access to content trumps this grand vision of the living room of the future. While inexpensive streaming boxes - and indeed in-built Smart TV media hubs - offer access to more TV shows, more movies and a wider variety of content providers in general, both consoles feel somewhat surplus to requirements. Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. For more information, go here. About Richard Leadbetter. Rich has been a games journalist since the days of 16-bit and specialises in technical analysis. Commonly known around Eurogamer as the Blacksmith of the Future. Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum! How to stream media from your PC to Xbox One. The Xbox One was touted by Microsoft as the only device you need in your living room for gaming, TV, videos, music and more. But how exactly do you stream your media library from you PC to your Xbox One? Universal Media Server and the Media Player app. Univseral Media Server (UMS) is a great app that works with all kinds of devices and setups and is a really useful tool when it comes to streaming to your Xbox One. In conjunction with the UMS program we can use the Xbox's Media Player app to view all the files. Setting up Universal Media Server. In order for your Xbox One to see your films, TV shows and more, we first have to set up your PC so that it acts as a media server. The simplest way of doing this is through a program called Universal Media Server (UMS), which broadcasts your files across a home network so the Xbox One can see them and play them back on your TV. You'll need to make sure you have an up-to-date version of Java installed on your PC - this is required for UMS to work. You may already have Java on your computer, but if not, go to java.com and download it before continuing. In the interests of security, you should never download Java from unknown websites. Once you have downloaded and finished installing Java, download and install Universal Media Server. Simply visit the website and click the Windows logo and the file will download. The program is free to use and works with nearly every computer or console. Once it's installed, open it and you will see the UMS main panel. Now we must tell Universal Media Server where to find your files. By default it will access all your storage, and shares pretty much everything on your PC – so instead, it's better just to add only the folders you want to share. To do this, follow these steps: Click on the Navigation/Share Settings tab at the top of the UMS main panel. Under the Shared Folders section, highlight all drives and press the red x to unselect this. Now press the Folder icon and find your media folder, then press open . That folder will now be added to the shared folders list. You can add as many different folders as you want. Once you've added some folders, UMS must be restarted to save the changes. Press the Restart Server button at the top of the UMS main panel. Your PC is now set up and accessible from your Xbox One with the Media Player app! Using the Media Player app. Way back in October 2014, Microsoft added a basic media player app to the Xbox which can access all of the folders you have shared from your PC. This app comes as part of the operating system, so you don't need to install it separately. Starting from your Xbox One Start Screen, browse to your apps . Once you can see your apps, look for and open the Media Player app. Once this opens, you will see your Media Server app. Select this. You'll see any available content to stream. Browse through the folders to find a suitable song or video. Once you've found the content you're after, simply select it to begin playing. Streaming from Plex Media Server. Plex is a great service that can transform your PC and Xbox One into a powerful media center. You set up Plex Media Server on PC, then grab the Plex app on your Xbox One to enjoy a fantastic media streaming experience! Install Plex Media Server on your PC. Setting up Plex is quite easy, as once you open it, you're taken step by step through the process. First you must download Plex Media Server, so head to the Plex website and download Plex Media Server to your computer. Once the Plex Media Server has finished downloading, open the file to start setting it up. On the first box that opens, press the install button. Press Yes or Continue on the UAC prompt (if you see one). Wait a minute or two while Plex is installed. Once it finishes, press Launch to open up Plex Media Server and start setting it up. Configure Plex Media Server. Your web browser will now open to begin the Plex setup. If it doesn't open automatically, look for and click on the Plex logo in your task tray - found in the bottom corner of the screen (where the time, date, Wi-Fi and other icons are found). Press the Agree button to begin. Choose a name for your server and press next . Press Add library to begin adding content to your Plex Media Server. Choose the type of media you want to add from the choices available, then press Next . Give this library a name and press Next . Press add folder and select the folder where your chosen media is stored on your PC. Then press the add button to finish this library. Repeat these steps for each type of library you want to add (music, TV shows and so on). Once you've picked your libraries, click Next . You can then add some Plex 'Channels' like BBC iPlayer, or skip this for now by pressing Next . Your Plex setup is now complete, so press Done to finish. Using the Plex App. As of December, the Plex app is now free to use on Xbox One - you no longer have to have a Plex Pass subcription to use it. The Plex app is a great way to enjoy music and video on the Xbox One, and organises your media library so you can find what to watch quickly and easily. You can browse your TV shows and movies, and Plex will show all the information and metadata it can find about each item - episode description, release year, and so on. It will also show cover art for the shows or movies you're watching. The Plex App can be downloaded from the Store on your Xbox One, to download it open the Store, go to the Apps section and search for Plex. Once downloaded, open the app and you are asked to pair or sign in . Once you are signed in, you'll see your entire library and can access it through your Xbox. Streaming directly from your Windows PC. One easy way to stream from your Windows PC is to simply find the file you want to stream and 'push' it to the Xbox One. To do this, first make sure that your Xbox One is listed as a Device on your computer by following these steps. Click on your Start Menu and open the Control Panel . Click on the search box in the top right corner of the Control Panel, then type Devices . In the Search results, click on Devices and Printers . You will see a list of devices attached to your PC, which should include your Xbox One. If you do not see the Xbox One, click Add a device . Your PC will now search for new devices. If the Xbox One appears, add the device to your PC. If it still does not show when searching for devices, try restarting both devices and try again. Once the Xbox One appears as a device on your PC, we're ready to begin streaming to it. Windows computers have a feature called Play To , which lets the PC play a video straight to another device - in our case, the Xbox One. There are a few different ways you can use this feature, depending on your Windows version. Using Windows Explorer (Windows 10, 8 or 7) Windows Explorer is the go-to program for finding anything on your PC. You can find it by clicking on the folder icon on your taskbar, or by opening any of your main folders (My Videos, My Music, etc.). To stream content from Explorer, follow these steps. On your computer, find the file you want to play on your Xbox One. Right-click on the file, and select Play To . You'll get a list of available devices, so select your Xbox One . Your PC will now play the file on your console. On your Xbox One, you will see the Xbox Music or Xbox Video open, and the file will start to play. Using Apps (Windows 10, 8) Windows 8 and 10 include some great built-in apps for playing video and music, and there are many third-party apps which can easily stream content to your Xbox One. To stream from these apps, follow these steps. Open the App on your computer and start playing the video or song you want to stream. Open the Windows Charms Menu by swiping in from the right edge, or moving your mouse cursor along the right-hand edge. Once the Charms Menu appears, select Devices and choose the option for Play . Your Xbox One will be listed. Select it to stream to your Xbox. Your PC and Xbox One are now linked, and your videos or music will stream straight to your console. Dan Plummer. Did we help? Share your thoughts? You might also like. Need some more help? Expert Support. 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