Latest News - Page 1286

MOV is not one file format but rather a format envelope that can be made up of any of dozens of codecs, resolutions, and frame rates from basic DV through H.264, HEVC to ProRes, and other pro formats. However, most apps on your computer try only to support MOV with codecs that come from common consumer cameras. Converting MOV to MP4 before posting to social media or sharing with someone who doesn't have a Mac is therefore a pretty good way to avoid compatibility issues.

In this article, I'm going to offer a quick primer on how to convert MOV to MP4 with a great converter. Whether you're an experienced user or a newbie for video conversion, you can turn any 4K/HD videos from MOV into MP4 easily.

WinX Video Converter - Some of you may have heard of it, but for those who haven't, WinX Video Converter is a free MOV to MP4 video converter which is incredibly helpful to convert any video into the format you want with the best results.

Microsoft makes history with a new all-time record for Xbox's Q1 revenues, driven by a massive spike in console sales.

Microsoft kicked off its Fiscal Year 2022 with a bang. Xbox earnings hit $3.593 billion, up 16% year-over-year and a new high for any Q1 period in the history of Microsoft gaming. Microsoft says this uptick in revenues was driven by a huge 166% jump in Xbox console sales primarily due to significant Xbox Series X/S demand. This Q1 performance follows another record year for Xbox with over $15.37 billion earned through FY21.

"Gaming revenue increased $501 million or 16% driven by growth in Xbox hardware," Microsoft writes in an SEC filing.

Blizzard has cancelled its BlizzCon event in 2022 so it can focus more on games development and "supporting its teams".

Embroiled by multiple legal battles, Blizzard has chosen to nix its plans to hold Blizzcon 2022 in February. The developer says it will instead focus wholeheartedly on company reform and games development:

"Any BlizzCon event takes every single one of us to make happen, an entire-company effort, fueled by our desire to share what we create with the community we care about so much. At this time, we feel the energy it would take to put on a show like this is best directed towards supporting our teams and progressing development of our games and experiences."

A new horror game based on A Quiet Place is in the works from veteran Far Cry and Rainbow Six developers.

Today Paramount announced a new singleplayer game based on the terrifying A Quiet Place franchise is in development. There are three teams involved: the Montreal-based studio iLLOGIKA, who is made up of old-school devs from Behavior Interactive, Ubisoft, and Eidos-Montreal, will handle principle development. Austin, Texas-based studio Ep1tome will also help development. Saber Interactive (World War Z, The Witcher Wild Hunt Switch and PS5/Xbox Series X) will publish the game.

A Quiet Place horror game details:

Housemarque finally addresses Returnal's most problematic and frustrating feature...and it only took them six months to do it.

Returnal was one of the most aggravating PS5 games of 2021, and I actually avoided it based on what people were saying at the time. It's a roguelike without a manual save feature. That's...well, frustrating, but what made it worse is that you had to beat an entire biome, which are levels that can last multiple hours or more to beat--in order for the game to save your progress. You can't save if your in the middle of a biome level, and your progress would be wiped if you turned off your PlayStation 5 or launched another game. So gamers were keeping their PS5s on or in rest mode to preserve their playthrough, not unlike the old-school NES days.

That's all been changed. Gamers can now suspend their Returnal progress and fully turn off their PlayStation 5 consoles and close Returnal. Think of it as a save state in an emulator, but one that vanishes after you resume. Finally!

Today Devolver Digital and Flying Wild Hog delayed Shadow Warrior 3 in the best way possible.

Shadow Warrior 3 has been delayed to sometime in 2022. The announcement was made in a very tongue-in-cheek way with an official delay trailer which somehow made me laugh in real life. We always see announce trailers, teasers, and even those famous pre-release builds that get downgraded before release...but delay trailers? That's a new one.

"The team here at Flying Wild Hog here have been working our flying wild butts off to hit the quality level we all want for Lo Wang's next adventure. The exact date will be announced soon and we'll have a ton more to show," the developers said in the trailer.

Microsoft is testing a new update that adds native Twitch integration into the Xbox UI, allowing gamers to launch streams without opening the Twitch app.

Xbox Insiders in the Alpha and Alpha Skip Ahead tiers can now test out Twitch streaming directly from the Xbox quick bar. The Xbox team is working to natively add Twitch streaming right into the UI to replace the now-defunct Mixer's functionality.

343 Industries have announced that all legacy Halo game servers will go offline January 2022.

Last year 343i confirmed it would shut down online services for older Xbox 360-era Halo games, Now it finally has an end-of-service date: January 13, 2022. After that date the following games will no longer be playable via online matchmaking and no playlists will be accessible:

The reality is that MCC was always meant to take over the mantle and carry the series forward. Soon these old games will be a memory as MCC's custom games, awesome functionalities, and ridiculous seasonal-based rewards take precedence.

Gamers are reporting multiple issues with N64 emulation in Nintendo's new $50 Switch Online Expansion Pack subscription.

It looks like Nintendo is using subpar Nintendo 64 emulation in its new Switch Online service. Subscribers that shelled out the steep $50 cost are reporting lots of problems including random frame rate drops, significant audio issues, and even heavy input lag that makes games like Ocarina of Time a lot harder to play than they should be (Super Mario 64 is also suffering from input lag).

Ocarina of Time is also missing a number of environmental effects including water reflections in the Water Temple and fog throughout the entire game. The beloved N64 classic is getting lampooned pretty badly on Twitter right now. OoT on Switch is apparently worse than the Wii U Virtual Console version, a port that was also criticized for its wonky emulation.

Modders continue doing impressive things with Halo 3's modding tools including injecting new models into the game.

Halo 3's new modding toolset is breathing new life into the old-school shooter. We've seen massive all-out AI war chaos with never-ending UNSC vs Covenant battles, huge 100+ AI sequences that bypass the game's combat NPC limiter, and tons of new models thrown into the mix. Now Halo Infinite's Spartan 117 shows up to finish the fight.

After cursing Halo 3 multiplayer with Five Nights at Freddy's models, modder Glitch has injected Halo Infinite's Master Chief into Halo 3's campaign. Using Fortnite's MC model as a base, Glitch upgraded the textures to match the rough-and-chunky Mjolnir armor from Halo Infinite. The results are pretty impressive and show that Halo 3's graphics were no slouch back then and still look great today.

The new GTA trilogy remaster collection will require extra downloads on the Nintendo Switch.

New listings on Target.com confirm the Nintendo Switch version of the new multi-game Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition remaster bundle will require downloads. The trilogy is listed at 25.4GB on the eShop however, so the game will technically fit on a single cartridge but it isn't being shipped on one.

Right now Switch GameCards only come in 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB and 32GB sizes, with the latter being the most expensive option. It looks like Rockstar, Take-Two, or Nintendo picked the 16GB variant (or possibly smaller) for the GTA trilogy. It's also worth mentioning the overall file size of the Switch version (25.4GB) is a lot less than the Xbox version, which is listed at 49GB.

Guerrilla Games outlines a bunch of new changes in the cross-gen Horizon Forbidden West sequel coming in February 2022.

In many ways, Horizon Forbidden West sees the franchise unleashed and fully realized. Guerrilla Games is making huge fundamental changes that will alter the scope of the game and how players engage with the world. One of the biggest changes is the inclusion of free climbing, which brings Assassin's Creed-style exploration and verticality to combat and gameplay.

While the animations look very Assassin's Creed-ish, the truth is Forbidden West seems closer to Breath of the Wild. The combination of free climbing with the new Shieldwing paraglider gives players unprecedented freedoms to scale tons of areas in the game and fly down them in real-time. This is something that I sorely missed in AC Valhalla, although it wouldn't have made any sense historically.

Sledgehammer Games has created multiple dynamic phases of DualSense trigger actuation in Call of Duty Vanguard.

Like most PS5 gamers, Vanguard will make heavy use of the DualSense controller's new rumble tech. Similar to Black Ops Cold War, which had amazing next-gen tactile feedback, the new WWII-themed Call of Duty has its own multi-phase pressure-sensitive trigger haptics to significantly increase immersion. Guns will pop with recoil and power as you fire them, precision weapons will feel more satisfying, and gunfights will actually feel like lethal do-or-die battles.

There are four stages to a trigger pull in Vanguard:

Pimax revealed the Pimax Reality 12K QLED VR headset today during the company's Frontier virtual event. This new headset is the most ambitious attempt at a perfect VR headset that any company has ever made. Get ready to spend some big money because this thing is incredible.

The specifications of the Pimax Reality 12K QLED don't even make sense to me. Pimax crammed two 6K mini-LED QLED panels into its new headset, which is a massive increase in resolution compared to the current 8K X flagship, which boasts dual 4K panels.

Pimax partnered with Tobii to integrate Tobii eye-tracking hardware and enable foveated rendering to achieve smooth framerates at such high resolution. The headset also had a motorized automatic IPD system, kind of like the Varjo Aero's solution.

The new $350 Nintendo Switch OLED isn't any more durable than the base 2017 model, and you really should put a screen protector on it.

YouTuber Jerry Rig Everything answers a simple question: How much abuse can the Switch OLED withstand? Starting with the screen, the outer-most protective layer scratches very easily with a level 3 hardness gradient because the surface is made of plastic. This is an anti-scatter sheet that protects the glass OLED panel underneath--and also protects users from shards of glass should the screen shatter.

Overall the OLED model is structurally sound. It didn't break or crack under pressure and the bezels are made of metal. The YouTuber proceeds to torture the OLED model with 35-seconds of ignited lighter action, multiple scratches from a razor, and even some really rough bending. The Switch OLED bends and flexes a bit but it doesn't break in two.

Halo Infinite's campaign has changed dramatically since its disastrous 2020 reveal.

Today 343i dropped a new campaign trailer showing gameplay, in-engine footage, and CGI cutscenes. The result flexes the new Slipspace Engine technology with impressive-looking visuals, UHD 4K textures, lighting effects, and advanced physics rendering. In short, the new 2021 footage completely destroys the controversial 2020 Halo Infinite gameplay trailer. Check below for some side-by-sides.

While most of the trailer looks great, we're still a bit worried about those draw distances especially on Xbox One consoles. They don't look too great even on the higher-end hardware that the footage was captured on--we're betting it was on PC or Xbox Series X. 343i was also quick to clarify that not every scene was actually in-engine (like that amazing Escharum screenshot seen below). To showcase the differences between the new and old footage we've put together a bunch of side-by-side screenshots to help illustrate how much the game has changed in a year.

The rumors of a new Oculus headset are starting to look very real. A set of video clips leaked from the Oculus website shows a headset with a more compact design. Could this be the rumored Quest Pro?

Twitter user Bastian (@Basti564) dropped a bombshell leak this weekend, with four new animated clips from Oculus that show different user experiences for an as-yet-unannounced VR headset. The cartoon renderings show a headset with a smaller, more compact visor that follows the contour of the lenses and nose cut-out. It also appears to have a more robust head strap with a counterweight-possibly where the battery is stored like in the Vive Focus 3.

The first video clip shows a woman trying out outfits for her avatar in front of a virtual mirror. There may be more than just a fashion aspect to this scene, though. Bastian also pointed out that Facebook Reality Labs filed for a patent covering a full-body motion tracking mixed reality solution that requires a reflective surface like a mirror.

Now that the Battlefield 2042 Open Beta has been wound down, DICE has been more open about how the beta went and the feedback from the community -- as well as unveiling 5 new Specialists for Battlefield 2042. Check them out:

Battlefield 2042's new Specialists include Navin Rao (Recon class), Santiago 'Dozer' Espinoza (Assault class), Emma 'Sundance' Rosier (Assault class), Ji- Soo Paik (Recon class), and Constantin 'Angel' Anghel (Support class). As for the Battlefield 2042 Open Beta, DICE explained that it was branched from the main development one of Battlefield 2042 back in August.

This should mean the final version of Battlefield 2042 will be in a much better state, given there will have been many months of work on the code and optimization. NVIDIA's magical DLSS technology will be in the final version, ramping up performance for those who want the frames, or quality for those who want higher fidelity graphics. EA DICE has also made some other major changes in Battlefield 2042, which they've talked about.

Intel's new mid-range Core i5-12600K processor should be one of the more interesting CPUs in the next-gen Alder Lake family of processors, with new benchmarks showing off some CPU-Z results.

The new Core i5-12600K "Alder Lake" CPU scored 746 points in the single-threaded test, and 7058 in the multi-threaded test -- this is boosted higher when the 12600K is overclocked, resulting in 79X and 72XX but those exact numbers are blurred out.

When benchmarked against the current-gen flagship Core i9-11900K, the new mid-range Core i5-12600K beats it -- 682 in single-core for the 11900K and 746 for the 12600K. Moving onto multi-threaded: the 11900K scores 6563 versus the 12600K with 7058.

ADATA has broken an overclocking record with next-gen DDR5 memory, with ADATA's in-house XPG DDR5 memory the first to be overclocked to DDR5-8118 speeds.

The company promised that it would be launching new DDR5-8400 memory in the future, but it wouldn't be with the first batches of DDR5 memory releases. However, just before the release of Intel's new Alder Lake and Z690 platform which has support for PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 technologies, ADATA has pushed its DDR5 to 8118 MT/s.

ADATA's own in-house XPG Overclocking Lab (XOCL) overclocked ADATA's upcoming DDR5 memory to 8118 MT/s which wins XPG the award of the first DRAM provider to hit this milestone using DDR5 memory.