Instantly Stream 1080p Video

During this year's E3, both Microsoft and Sony gave us a glimpse at what they believe the future of gaming will look like. Microsoft's Project Natel changes the way you interact with your Xbox by removing the need for a physical controller and Sony's new motion sensing controller looks to be the middle ground between the Nintendo Wii remote and Project Natel. These two technologies took the limelight at E3 and have left most of the gaming web dissecting the information and comparing the solutions. For further details on these products I suggest you head over to Joystiq or N4G.

One new feature that was also shown at E3 from Microsoft, which I believe has been overlooked, was the capability to stream 1080p video instantly to your Xbox. This is important technology as Microsoft have been driving hard on delivering video via download as opposed to using modern optical media such as Blu-Ray. If they want this type of streaming video to succeed they need to make it more readily available for people who do not have ultra fast broadband, but also make the quality as close as possible to native 1080p video delivered by Blu-Ray.

The idea is known as "Smooth Streaming" which should allow videos to instantly start with no perceived buffering, this works by the picture quality dynamically changing according to the specific bandwidth conditions. For example, Microsoft state that if you have access to a sustained 5Mbps+ of Internet bandwidth you will receive a full 1080p video stream with 5.1 surround sound. If, however, these conditions change for the worse, the stream will dynamically downscale to a lower quality (lower bit rate), without any frame loss or jitters.

Living in the UK, I would love to see this type of technology, as depending on where you live broadband Internet speeds can change massively. This type of technology will hopefully provide scalability so that whatever your situation you will be able to use the technology efficiently.

Although the features coming to the Xbox are still in beta, it is possible to check out how it will work now by heading over to iss.net, where they have a demo of "Smooth Streaming" that can be viewed on your Windows PC or Mac. The demo uses Microsoft's Silverlight which can also be downloaded for free from iss.net or Microsoft directly.

The demo shows a 1080p video being streamed instantly as well as showing advance details such as bit rate, bandwidth available etc. These advance options allow you to test the dynamic changes in video quality and also replicate slower Internet connections.