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I just bought kinect and it's pretty cool-- a few minor irritations for a technology as cool as this; it's well worth it.

(irritations such as a small lag in game, but then the sensor is only 50cm from the floor and not in the specification, and having to hold you hand up forever before it selects the menu, I mean a grab action should make it quicker, anyway I guess these could be fixed in a software update)

But can the voice recognition be used to pause and play movies on DVD, on the HDD and on the network?

Brett White
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Jonathan.
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4 Answers4

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Yes!

From: Using Kinect to watch movies, play tunes on the Xbox 360

Still, I had fun with the Kinect-ready Xbox features that were under my control. Launch the Zune app, for example, and say "Xbox, Suggest a movie" to start watching previews of new rentals; if you like what you see, you say "Xbox, Watch this" to start watching, or "Xbox, Next" for another preview. Or you can jump into your library of TV episode purchases, waving your hand to select the series and episode you want to watch. alt text

Even better is scanning within a video for a certain scene. You wave your hand, move the floating hand icon over the little white mitt on the progress bar, and then swipe back and forth to scan the video forward and backward. I have to say, I was surprised by the degree of control I had; I was afraid the video would fly all over the place, but Kinect did a great job of tracking even my most subtle movements, allowing me to move forward or back in steps as small as 15 seconds.

Or watch this ad by Microsoft itself

Ivo Flipse
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  • Well I'm in the uk if that makes a difference. And I didn't mean zune app. I literally mean a DVD disc. I haven't downloaded the zune app but I tried to pause a DVD and it wouldn't. Also I noticed it does recognise "xbox open tray" the voice feature while works amazingly only works for things you cam see on the kinectboard. – Jonathan. Nov 10 '10 at 23:50
  • Doesn't you Zune app handle your DVD-playback? – Ivo Flipse Nov 11 '10 at 08:41
  • No it doesnt. I've found the voice controls very very limited are they reduced in the UK? – Jonathan. Nov 11 '10 at 20:04
  • Also does Zune handle network videos as well, if only Apple had made Kinect, its got amazing potential which is also a problem. – Jonathan. Nov 11 '10 at 20:05
  • I've found the MS ads to be very exaggerated, there is no way this is worth $150 at the moment (lag, recognition issues, voice control is very thin, no gestures on the dashboard etc) In all technology = amazing, implementation = crap, i should have waited, so if you're reading this dont buy Kinect...yet. – Jonathan. Nov 11 '10 at 20:12
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Kinect voice can not be used to play videos/music (DVDs or xbox media library). Project Natal had its own CPU, kinect doesn't. this means there will never be turn on voice command or gesture. Kinect can't be used on the dashboard. Also voice cant be used on Netflix

In sum, basically everything you see in Project Natal videos is what you can't do. It is pretty cool just it could be a hell of a lot better.

Jonathan.
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  • This answer is wrong now. It was more correct back when it was written. See my answer for details. – M. Travis Volker Apr 20 '11 at 17:48
  • @M. Travis Your answer is wrong for this question. This question was about playing DVD Discs, and media from the HDD and Network. You answer is about online Kinect Hub Apps. Please reconsider the downvote if it was you – Jonathan. Apr 20 '11 at 19:00
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@Jonathan I'm 99% sure that the original Project Natal promo never showed anyone turning on the Xbox 360 via voice or gesture, just turning it off. (If I remember rightly in the video the mother said "Xbox, Goodnight!" after watching a movie.) And everything in that video can be done, it just hasn't been implemented yet and has nothing to do with one of Kinect's processors being removed. (And it was only a simple processor to convert the tracking data into controls on the Kinect itself rather than have the Xbox360 do it like it does now. They removed it because they found it took much less processing power than they originally thought it would so they might as well cut costs and have the Xbox360 itself process it instead.) Like what would implementing DVD controls have to do with the removed processor? You can cantrol Zune movies via Kinect and Kinect's games themselves come on DVDs so why wouldn't Kinect be able to control movies that are on DVDs? Lol! It's only just been released so give them time to implement everything. Xbox Live wasn't even implemented on the original Xbox until a year after it was released and loads of the things we have now on Xbox Live on the Xbox360 weren't implemented when the Xbox360 was first released.

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Voice and gesture is now available for Netflix on Xbox 360. Read about it here on PCWorld. You cannot Kinect navigate through all the menus but you can use Kinect control all of the in movie commands: Pause, Stop, etc.

We've had Kinect control over ESPN 3 since November 1st, 2010.

M. Travis Volker
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