HD 50hz reply from Microsoft

[nickwil]

I can't believe it. I actually received a reply from Microsoft in regards to the lack of HD 50hz through the Xbox media centre. Here it is.

Nick,

We are aware that 50 Hz support at HD resolutions is something many of our users in Australia and Europe would like to see. We are currently evaluating our options and have not publicly announced plans regarding this, so I cannot comment on a specific timeframe for when this might be enabled.

Regards,

Todd_____________

Todd Bowra

Lead Program Manager

Media Centre Devices

Microsoft Corp.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Nick and Jannine Wilson [mailto:]
Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2007 10:41 PM
To: Media Center Beta Administration
Subject: Vista Media Center

To whom it may concern,

I have a very valid question on behalf of all the Xbox360 users in Australia. When will there be an update to allow 50Hz in high definition whilst using the Media Centre through the 360? There are tens of thousands of very disappointed people here in Australia and deserve an answer. An urgent update is required for our region. Once an update has been developed then maybe the Xbox360 could be pushed as a media centre extender here in Australia.

Regards

Nick Wilson

Not that happy about the reply. Time to start firing off some more e-mails. I hope everyone who cares about this subject does the same.

Oh, BTW here is the e-mail address I sent this to is mcebeta@microsoft.com
Cheers

Nick

Edit (Arkay): Nick, removed your email address from the quoted post. Figured you wouldn't want tons of spam delivered to your inbox from spiders grabbing that address from a public site

[nickwil]

Todd,

Thank you for the reply.

One reason I'm angry about the lack of HD50hz support is the fact that I bought a second 360 being the Elite version with HDMI support. You can imagine my horror when playing back TV through the Xbox360 using HDMI. The image was horrible. I had to revert back to component where the effects are not as bad. Yes, buying a second extender was a complete waste of time and money.

The sad thing is I suspect that an update to correct this problem may not be possible. Otherwise this would have been rectified some time ago. Can you please advise me if this problem can be rectified as I may have to resort to another type of extender once available on the market. I don't want to wait indefinitely for some update that may never eventuate.

I hope sincerely that you push this issue up through your chain of command. This problem should be a priority as not including 50hz HD for our region was a major oversight from Microsoft.

Regards

Nick

[Mysteron]

Well done Nick, I'll send then an email as well and hope that others here follow suit.
Cheers

[nickwil]

Another reply from Microsoft.

Nick,



Until there are specific announced plans I cannot comment any further on if/when this might be enabled. On a personal level, I am very much aware of the value of this functionality to folks in native 50 Hz countries and would like to see this enabled.



Regards,

Todd

[jvesey]

When playing back a divx avi thru my xbox recently it automatically changed the resolution to 1920 * 1080 50Hz.

Seems like a step in the right direction. The behaviour was exactly like playing back a DVD where the resolution changes to 576i @ 50Hz.

Hopefully this is a pointer that the Extender @ 50Hz isn't too far away.

[philzgr8]

Not coincidentally this is similar to the problem suffered by Nvidia owners on their MCE boxes under Vista. The problem being that the Nvidia driver does not recognise 1080p@50Hz to be a true HDTV format and therefore does not provide support for scaling in that mode. Certainly it ceases to be a problem on a 1080p display which provides support for 1:1 pixel mapping but to those with 1366x768 panels this is a pain in the backside!

[jgriffin]

What i don't get is, didn't MS stuff this up last time? I seem to recall the original Xbox was initially shipped in Oz with a HD pack that didn't work cause it assumed US 60hz standards (http://www.dtvforum.info/lofiversion...php/t1002.html) . Obviously memories are short