Project Scorpio To Feature HEVC 4K 60 FPS Game DVR And Live Streaming

With Sony’s PlayStation 4 kicking butt in the current generation console sales race, Microsoft is hoping for a winner with its upcoming Project Scorpio, which will be the next phase in the evolution of the Xbox One and Xbox One S. Today, we’re learning more about the gaming machine, which is being billed as a “true” 4K console.

Like the current Xbox One S, Project Scorpio is said to support both VP9 and HEVC codecs for decoding 4K content. That means that you’ll have no issues streaming 4K HDR content from popular video services like Amazon Video and Netflix. However, where Project Scorpio enhances the user experience is with 4K encoding, which will provide crystal clear imagery for Game DVR streaming and recording.

Current Xbox One/Xbox One S consoles are limited to 720p/30fps for the Game DVR, whereas Project Scorpio ups the ante with 4K at 60 fps. When all is said and done, Project Scorpio is expected to deliver 4K games, 4K encoding/decoding and 4K Blu-ray playback (something that the PlayStation 4 Pro surprisingly does not bring to the table).

In other Project Scorpio news, Windows Central also indicates that its sources confirm an internal power supply for Project Scorpio, which mirrors a move made on the Xbox One S (the original Xbox One used a huge external power brick).

We learned earlier this week that Project Scorpio, while directly aimed at those with 4K televisions, will also feature some performance benefits for the majority of us out there that still have 1080p televisions. The console will employ Shader Model 6 and dynamic scaling to improve system efficiency and hence performance at 1080p.

Project Scorpio, which will have 6 teraflops of compute power, will launch in time for the Holiday 2017 shopping season and is sure to be a hot-ticket item.