Microsoft announced a huge new update to the Xbox One on Tuesday and it included a full-scale video player capable of supporting just about any kind of file you can think of, including including .avi, .jpg, .gif, .mov, .mp3, .mpeg, .wma and .wmv files. Ars Technica’s Peter Bright was particularly struck by one codec mentioned that he says could be of great use to people who like watching pirated movies and TV shows: MKV containers.
FROM EARLIER: Microsoft continues to outpace Sony with another huge Xbox One update.
“While MKV is a rarity in the world of explicitly authorized video, it’s quite abundant in the murky world of pirated TV shows,” he writes. “Native MKV support will make watching this content substantially easier on the Xbox One.”
Couple this with the fact that the Xbox One will gain support for DLNA streaming through home network devices — which will let the Xbox stream content from devices being played on Windows PCs and other devices — and you’ve got a pretty sweet new media player that both gamers and movie pirates should absolutely love.
We don’t think that Microsoft will be promoting its console as a piracy box, of course, but we can’t imagine the company would complain if these new features helped it boost sales among the torrent-watching crowd.
