Microsoft demonstrates Halo 4 streaming from the cloud

[theyarecomingforyou]

People dismissing articles like this purely based on their personal opinion of a company is ridiculous. You've got the most competent server farming platform in the world which can effeciently deploy any application and scale based on usage resources using a lot of the HyperVM technology. Its very very good stuff.

Also people need to understand latency doesn't equal distance away, latency is based on throughput and hops.

What I understand is that I have a 40Mbps internet connection and I can still have issues streaming 1080p YouTube videos and while I should have a fast enough connection for 4K I've never been able to stream it properly. What I also understand is that processing information locally has less latency than connecting to remote servers. What I understand is that Outlook.com has been more unreliable than competing email services, despite all the technology and expertise that Microsoft has.

 

I'm not critical of this purely because of my "personal opinion of a company" but because of my experience with OnLive, my knowledge of computing and an awareness that company's often wildly exaggerate their claims for marketing purposes. I honestly hope that Microsoft is able to overcome all of the issues and produce a streaming service that lives up to expectations but a test conducted under ideal circumstance is a far cry from the real world environment it needs to operate in.

[Showan]

But as you point out, a lot of the difference relates to networks which are beyond Microsoft's control. Microsoft hasn't suddenly eliminated that. Further, while Microsoft does have an advantage when it comes to cloud computing it can't simply dedicate all of that to its Xbox division?afterall, it's trying to leverage that to make money?and Sony can simply outsource its cloud computing to third parties with more experience.

 

I just don't find it plausible that Microsoft has suddenly perfected streaming technology, not at a time when people still have trouble streaming 1080p YouTube videos on connections that are theoretically more than adequate. I simply doubt that Microsoft can get real-world latency anywhere near as low as it is claiming and that it is profitable to provide such a service to gamers without additional cost.

I kinda see where you are coming from.. Microsoft test labs are beyond ideal situations where it just better work when they do things...

This has to be at the average home and tested there to see if things are working properly.

All beta test should be done at the average house with Net speeds ranging from 1.5down/up and up to 1gb fiber...

[Showan]

When gaming, Upload is more important than your download... You have 40mbos (which is probably download speeds) what about your upload?

At home I get 25down and 25up...

I think when streaming both are just as important as the other...

Speedtest Support

posted this on January 23, 2012 13:44

inShare

Here are the recommended connection speeds for many popular broadband activities. If you are doing multiple things at once online or sharing a connection with multiple computers, then these recommended speeds may not be enough.. All speeds are provided in the Speedtest.net default of mbps (megabits per second).

Skype (source: Skype Support)

For voice calls: 0.1 mbps download / 0.1 mbps upload

For video calls: 0.5 mbps download / 0.5 mbps upload

For HD video calls: 1.5 mbps download / 1.5 mbps upload

Important note: these connection speed requirements include downloading and uploading at the same time. Since Speedtest.net tests download and upload separately for accuracy, your results will need to be higher than the the numbers provided above. For example, your upload speed may be 2 mbps in the Speedtest.net result, but may go down to 1 mbps while your connection is downloading something.

Netflix (source: Netflix Help)

Basic-quality video: 1.5 mbps download

High-quality video: 3.0 mbps download

YouTube (source: YouTube Help)

Recommended: at least 0.5 mbps download

YouTube offers several quality levels for videos that you can use. The lower-numbers (360p) indicate that the video is smaller and uses less bandwidth, but also has less detailed. The more detailed the video (480p, 720p), the more bandwidth it takes to stream. Choose the highest video quality that allows you to stream without repeated stops and starts.

Hulu (source: Hulu Help)

Recommended: at least 1.0 mbps

Hulu also offers several different quality levels for different connection speeds. Using the gear icon under videos, you can tell Hulu to "Auto-select the best quality for my bandwidth (recommended)".

Online Video Games

Recommended: a low ping (less than 100ms)

For playing video games online, download and upload don't matter as much as ping, which measures how responsive your connection is. The lower ping to servers and other players, the lower the "lag" will be in your game. To lower ping, you can take steps like connecting your computer to the router using ethernet instead of Wi-Fi, and not downloading/uploading files while playing games.

Spotify (source: Spotify FAQ)

Recommended: 0.25 mbps

The bandwidth requirements for Rdio are similar, though both services offer a low-quality option for slower mobile connections.

https://support.speedtest.net/entries/20893327-What-speeds-do-I-need-for-Skype-Netflix-video-games-etc-