What kind of content can be streamed to the 360 from a MCE PC? I mean what file types are compatible? Is there a list on the net somewhere?

I can stream all I want using Transcode 360 on my pc. All my Xvid, DIVX AVI etc file splay fine.

I can stream all I want using Transcode 360 on my pc. All my Xvid, DIVX AVI etc file splay fine.Is Transcode 360 the program required to use the 360 as a media center extender?

Is Transcode 360 the program required to use the 360 as a media center extender?


For Divx its required.

Is Transcode 360 the program required to use the 360 as a media center extender?


Its a 3rd party free program that makes life alot easier using the 360 as an extender. If you download tv shows.

http://www.runtime360.com/

Its a 3rd party free program that makes life alot easier using the 360 as an extender. If you download tv shows.

http://www.runtime360.com/You mean it will only make life alot easier using the 360 as an extender if your going to download TV shows?

What is better about Transcode 360 than the regular program that MS supplies?

Its a 3rd party free program that makes life alot easier using the 360 as an extender. If you download tv shows.

http://www.runtime360.com/You mean it will only make life alot easier using the 360 as an extender only if your going to download TV shows?

What is better about Transcode 360 than the regular program that MS supplies?

Does Transcode 360 run on your Xbox 360 or on your Media Center PC?

You mean it will only make life alot easier using the 360 as an extender only if your going to download TV shows?

What is better about Transcode 360 than the regular program that MS supplies?

Does Transcode 360 run on your Xbox 360 or on your Media Center PC?


Transcode 360 runs on your pc and allows the use of streaming video content other than vob files to the 360 such as AVI and other blocked video formats for the 360...Its a great tool and runs flawlessly although some people complained about audio synch that has been fixed and I have never experienced that...Its great I loved it until I got my HTPC...Definately worth the download and its free....Just google "transcode 360"

Transcode 360 runs on your pc and allows the use of streaming video content other than vob files to the 360 such as AVI and other blocked video formats for the 360...Its a great tool and runs flawlessly although some people complained about audio synch that has been fixed and I have never experienced that...Its great I loved it until I got my HTPC...Definately worth the download and its free....Just google "transcode 360"So does it run alongside or in place of the MS download for your PC to use the 360 as a media center extender?

Also when you download videos (trailers) onto the 360's hard drive from the marketplace, what format are they in? Is there a way to copy them to my computer and then just stream them to the 360 when I want to watch them (this will save me a lot of HD space)

So does it run alongside or in place of the MS download for your PC to use the 360 as a media center extender?

Also when you download videos (trailers) onto the 360's hard drive from the marketplace, what format are they in? Is there a way to copy them to my computer and then just stream them to the 360 when I want to watch them (this will save me a lot of HD space)


It runs in the background of your pc.

I am not quite sure what format the videos from the marketplace are...I think they mpeg but I cant confirm that as I cant rip video files from my xbox HDD to my PC (dont have the datel transfer pack)..Pick up the datel X-Sata and you can transfer anything on your xbox hdd to your pc.

I don't have a 360 yet... keep sitting on the fence. However, I am interested in its streaming capabilities as a media center extender.

I'm curious, for those of you using it for this, are you streaming wirelessly or via an ethernet cable? I was browsing the MS site and I believe I recall reading that a cable was the "prefered" method.

I don't have a 360 yet... keep sitting on the fence. However, I am interested in its streaming capabilities as a media center extender.

I'm curious, for those of you using it for this, are you streaming wirelessly or via an ethernet cable? I was browsing the MS site and I believe I recall reading that a cable was the "prefered" method.Wired is always best. Yes the MS website does say it is prefered. Wired is much more reliable than a wireless connection.

It runs in the background of your pc.

I am not quite sure what format the videos from the marketplace are...I think they mpeg but I cant confirm that as I cant rip video files from my xbox HDD to my PC (dont have the datel transfer pack)..Pick up the datel X-Sata and you can transfer anything on your xbox hdd to your pc.There is also a MS-provided download (that runs on your PC) for establishing a connection between your 360 and media center PC. Do you have to use this if you are using Transcode 360?

Will the X-Sata allow me to transfer all the files from my PC to my 360 (like if my HDD crashes or something)?

There is also a MS-provided download (that runs on your PC) for establishing a connection between your 360 and media center PC. Do you have to use this if you are using Transcode 360?

Will the X-Sata allow me to transfer all the files from my PC to my 360 (like if my HDD crashes or something)?


Windows media connects the pc to the 360 that is required...All you have to do is download the software from Microsoft website for connecting the pc to the 360 using MCE and then download and install transcode 360 and it does the rest...

X-sata will allow file swapping its a bit pricey (50 bucks) or you could pick up a sata to usb adapter which would be much much cheaper and function the same way except you would have to disconnect the HDD everytime you wanted to transfer files....As the X-sata just stays connected to the 360 at all times...

I have a mod'd xbox, and a 360.

Thje 360 sucks as a media extender. It's horrible. Media support is pathetic, the interface is horrid. It doesn't do anything right, mp3's, pics or movies and the picture quality sucks. And yes I have a media center with transcode 360 on it. "when it works" it's "ok" but XBMC is WAY better and you can get a mod'd xbox for peanuts these days.

Get XBMC, it'll stream anything over wired or wireless.

I have a mod'd xbox, and a 360.

Thje 360 sucks as a media extender. It's horrible. Media support is pathetic, the interface is horrid. It doesn't do anything right, mp3's, pics or movies and the picture quality sucks. And yes I have a media center with transcode 360 on it. "when it works" it's "ok" but XBMC is WAY better and you can get a mod'd xbox for peanuts these days.

Get XBMC, it'll stream anything over wired or wireless.


How can you say the Media Center on the 360 sucks in terms of quality? Its always had great picture for me...Is the original source crap? I mean stream some dvd rips or some wmv-hd it looks fantastic...The interface is the same as WMC which has gotten some positive reviews.

But I do agree XBMC is a cut above what the 360 offers...But its also homebrew and homebrew 9 times out of 10 is always better...Id seriously consider purchasing a new Xbox for XBMC alone if I didnt already own a HTPC....That is a great little thing they got going on in that big black box.

If the picture quality sucks you are doing something wrong. Go to greenbutton if you need to but get whatever you did fixed!

The HD quality is fantastic. OTA HD (Or downloaded if you do that and have lots of time) is amazing.

The only thing the 360/MCE combo lacks is the ability to play formats primarily used for pirating and the quality of that crap sucks on anything over a small monitor. (Hell it sucks on that too).

Using the 360 a Media Center Extender looks best when using the VGA cable. Streaming Video quality (especially though transcoding) looks bad on component.

Using the 360 a Media Center Extender looks best when using the VGA cable. Streaming Video quality (especially though transcoding) looks bad on component.


I've thought the quality was pretty good via components when I used it. Havent tried it since I connected to vga since I got my HTPC.

Using the 360 a Media Center Extender looks best when using the VGA cable. Streaming Video quality (especially though transcoding) looks bad on component.


Transcoded material is very low res, it looks bad no matter what you do. There is no way HD material looks bad through component. I have 360's connected via component and one through VGA. All are used to stream OTA HD and all look fantastic. The 360 works far harder producing a 720P game that a machine needs to to stream 720P video.

Windows media connects the pc to the 360 that is required...All you have to do is download the software from Microsoft website for connecting the pc to the 360 using MCE and then download and install transcode 360 and it does the rest...

X-sata will allow file swapping its a bit pricey (50 bucks) or you could pick up a sata to usb adapter which would be much much cheaper and function the same way except you would have to disconnect the HDD everytime you wanted to transfer files....As the X-sata just stays connected to the 360 at all times...Using your Xbox 360 file manager software such as the free PC app Xplorer 360, you can transfer materials from your console’s hard drive to your PC, using your computer’s hard disc space to store demos, game saves and other such materials you’re not currently using.What is Xplorer 360?

I have Windows XP sp2, not Media Center. Is there a way to still get the xbox 360 to stream videos without getting media center?

I just downloaded and installed the Microsoft Media Connect software and synced my PC with my X360. It works great for Music and Pictures.

I have Windows XP sp2, not Media Center. Is there a way to still get the xbox 360 to stream videos without getting media center?

I just downloaded and installed the Microsoft Media Connect software and synced my PC with my X360. It works great for Music and Pictures.
Today there is no way to stream video except from Media Center. There are rumors (http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3816&Itemid=2) that the Zune wil enable stream-via-USB functionality.

You may be able to get the Vista Beta which I believe has Media Center embedded.

I am in the early stages of implementation of the latest Vista beta release, and intend trying this out. I have it installed in a dual boot situation with Windows XP Pro.

I already have a Media Center installed on an old (no, ancient) PC which streams very well via the 360, with the one exception of protected content. Media Center finds that the 360 fails to authenticate itself. Microsoft is working on this bug.

Maybe Vista will work happily with the protected content! If there is interest, I will provide updates.

I have MCE working with my 360.

I use transcode 360, and VLC 360. Both are great, though the interface on VLC 360 is a bit clunky.

The reason I use VLC 360 is for HD Divx content. Transcode 360 has a hard time on my 2.8ghz system transcoding a HD divx file in real time. VLC works without issues.

I have a Divx library of 200+ movies all around 800MB each. The 360 with MCE and transcode 360 do a great job with quality. I do only have a 30" LCD though.

I don't have a 360 yet... keep sitting on the fence. However, I am interested in its streaming capabilities as a media center extender.

I'm curious, for those of you using it for this, are you streaming wirelessly or via an ethernet cable? I was browsing the MS site and I believe I recall reading that a cable was the "prefered" method.

Wired is best and almost required if you are going to stream video to 360 via media center. If you're only going to images and mpeg then wired is ok.

I have XBMC and Xbox 360 and while XBMC is fantastic homebrew there is one BIG difference and that is that the 360 can play HI DEF video and do it quite well.

XBMC runs on a regular Xbox and doesn't do well playing high definition video.

I don't have a 360 yet... keep sitting on the fence. However, I am interested in its streaming capabilities as a media center extender.

I'm curious, for those of you using it for this, are you streaming wirelessly or via an ethernet cable? I was browsing the MS site and I believe I recall reading that a cable was the "prefered" method.
I'm streaming hi-def video (unprotected content) wirelessly (802.11g) with absolutely no problems

I'm streaming hi-def video (unprotected content) wirelessly with absolutely no problems
Same here.

I find that colors on the 360 to be a little blah for movies whether it's a dvd or xvid through transcoder 360 or anything. Even after calibration for the 360 on my pj, the blacks aren't quite as black, and the color overall isn't quite as vivid as even the xbox running xbmc. It's the same problem with the dvd player. I like the picture the original xbox gives better. And yes, I've evenly compared 480p to 480p on both, as well as 720p.

ok,
revitilizing this from dead last on page 4...
I downloaded media connect...I don't have Media Center... I have a decent DELL but my 360 does not recognize the computer on the network... I would like to play music and view photos over my 360...
Do I need Media Center?
What am I missing?
Thanks all

ok,
revitilizing this from dead last on page 4...
I downloaded media connect...I don't have Media Center... I have a decent DELL but my 360 does not recognize the computer on the network... I would like to play music and view photos over my 360...
Do I need Media Center?
What am I missing?
Thanks all

You don't need media center to stream music or view photos. Did you make sure that Media Connect has actually started?

I found the trouble...I had to tell my Macaffe to trust the IP coming in from the 360.
Excellent picture quality viewing my kids' photos on my Sammy DLP.

I have my 360 streaming video from a Dell Celeron D 3.06ghz machine....all wired, not wireless.

When I play videos (HD WMV) on the 360, it plays just fine, but when it's done...it just shows STOP on the lower left of the media center screen on the 360, and it hangs. I have to restart my 360 to go to the next video... I don't have to touch my PC, so I assume its not the PC's fault...

any ideas?

Bump, I need help with this, please help.

This may help. I was getting a hang on startup. Pressing the green button sent me to a black screen and the only way out was power-off. So I re-established the relationship between the 360 and the MCE PC. Deleted the computer from the 360 in the dashboard and setup again.

Extreme, but no more hang-at-black-screen.

well, I got a new Samsung as mentioned in other threads. The media center looks much better on this. But, I stil think the media center itself is crap and a waste of time. I was hoping to take my older mod'd xbox and leave it in another room, and have my 360 on the new tv. But, that's not the case. transcode 360 isn't reliable for divx/xvid. You can't always fast forward or rewind, heck sometimes even pausing it pisses it off and it restarts the video which of course you can't FFW so your screwed. Then there's the once you start transcoding a file, your pc continues to trancode it until it finishes the entire file or until you start another, which slows down the PC drastically. Which leads me to my biggest complaint.

My media center pc is a p4 2.4 GHz with 1 gig ram. Even with that machine running nothing. No firewall, no virus scan, no transcoding, no downloading, just completely at idle, the menu on the 360 xtender is SO SLOW over a 100meg wired network it frustrates everyone in the house. It certainly doesn't help that there is no way to browse a list of your video/photo/music instead of these gigantic thumbnails of everything that try to display the contents of each file/folder and accomplish nothing but thrash your pc's hard drive constantly.

Will Vista fix it? probably not because it's the same moron's making it. So back to my trusty XBMC that I can run wirelessly more reliable then I can run the 360 over a 100meg network. Pathetic.
I've said it a thousand times before, the 360 won't make a good xtender until it is doing some of the processing instead of being nothing more then a dummy terminal or remote for the pc. And, would a proper folder tree listing without the big thumbnail views be THAT HARD to implement??

I agree that the MCE interface can be clunky. One thing to note - you can stop the transcoding if you select the file and try to transcode it again. It will ask you if you want to continue or stop transcoding.

I agree that both Media Center and the XTender are crap. Anyone who has used Front Row knows just how bad MCE works.

Front Row? Please.

So back to my trusty XBMC that I can run wirelessly more reliable then I can run the 360 over a 100meg network. Pathetic.
I've said it a thousand times before, the 360 won't make a good xtender until it is doing some of the processing instead of being nothing more then a dummy terminal or remote for the pc. And, would a proper folder tree listing without the big thumbnail views be THAT HARD to implement??

Tell me about it. I had such high hopes for the 360 as a media device. When I started to see that MCE was going to be required for video I started having doubts that their implementation would be serious or even solid. I still don't own a 360, bummer for them as no doubt I'd have bought a decent amount of games too. I use Divx/Xvid a lot. For quality hr.hdtv xvid is better than DVD any day of the week.

Right now I just upgraded to XBMC 2.0 and I'm real happy except for the true HD video thing. XBMC does everything I want perfectly except that it will never be able to handle full HD well (I've even looked at upgrading the RAM and processor in the Xbox but it still won't be enough). The only viable option I see is a HTPC and I just am not that keen on doing it. Maybe Sony will save us with this whole Linux/media thing. I won't be holding my breath though.

I guess I am in the minority then. I ran MCE 2005 on a P4 2.8 with 1 GB for over a year. After the initial install with my original xbox I had no problems. Then I moved to an Xbox 360. Did the install and no problems. I have over 300 xvid/divx files and have not had one crap out on me. I use Transcode 360. I do not find the interface clunky at all. My thumbnails show up in a timely fashion and borwsing my 500 cd's is quite fast since moving to the 360.

As for Front Row on my iMac and MacBook Pro....I find that interface clunky. No support for tv tuners and accessing my media library is slow and I have a top end Macbook Pro.

I guess each experience is different but I just wanted to point out that not everyone has serious problems with MCE or the 360.

yeah, and that is what confuses me the most. I see Front row and it operates sooo smooth in comparison to my 360 it makes me jealous.

As for stopping transcoder360....yeah, mine used to stop when I did that trick. for some reason now it does not. After reinstalling 50 times, it still doesn't do it. It's a great effort by this guy who made it, but it's not the answer I'm looking for. too buggy.

The big issue with MCE and a 360, is that the 360 is basically logging into a terminal session on your windows pc. Which is really not bad, but as libraries of media grow, it will slow down your pc, and the more things you have on your network accessing that pc for streaming media it's going to make it worse. The 360 would benefit greatly from some pre-fetching and then some caching after the fact, that would alleviate some issues, less load on the network and less disk access on the pc which really chokes things out.

I am also really, really disappointed that the pc does the processing for movies and not the 360. The 360 is more than powerful enough that it can handle the juice.

Optimally, I am thinking pc's with a stripe set are going to perform much better, and obviously lots of ram, and dual procs would be great to.

For music and photos, hey it's great, but for movies, the setup is just a poor implementation. Terminal Services is for old workstations that you want to run newer apps on with out upgrading, or minimal upgrade because all the work is done at the server, obviously, the 360 does not fit into this category. I think this was a cheap way for MS to provide this kind of fuction.

Everything works great for me. I record TV shows with my MyHD-130, then strip the commercials. I have a DVR directory which I watch everything on the 360 in .TS format.

I also installed the My Movies plugin for MCE, and now all my DVD rips have a nice interface on the 360.

The only real problems people seem to hae with the 360/MCE is that they cannot play pirated content without a work around...

The only real problems people seem to hae with the 360/MCE is that they cannot play pirated content without a work around...
Since when did Divx = pirated content? You shouldn't assume.

Pirated or not - if people bite the bullet and convert their media to WMV they will have a better experience with MCE. There are alot of items MS could improve, but I have found WMV playback to be quite nice.

The only issue I have with MCE right now is subtitles. I haven't found a good way yet to rip a DVD to one file and keep subs.

I wish MS would add .iso compatibility, things would be easier. Also, I wish they would add a recorded TV area.

I wish people wouldn't always associate Xvid / Divx w/ piracy...

The only real problems people seem to hae with the 360/MCE is that they cannot play pirated content without a work around...

You also cannot archive and stream legitimate DVDs (as in DVDs that you OWN) through MCE without a hack.

The big issue with MCE and a 360, is that the 360 is basically logging into a terminal session on your windows pc.
<snip>

I am also really, really disappointed that the pc does the processing for movies and not the 360. The 360 is more than powerful enough that it can handle the juice.

Optimally, I am thinking pc's with a stripe set are going to perform much better, and obviously lots of ram, and dual procs would be great to.

For music and photos, hey it's great, but for movies, the setup is just a poor implementation. \<snip>

I have to disagree.

The 360 does the heavy lifting and the PC is merely a delivery mechanism. I have Win XP Media Center Edition running on an 8 year old Pentium II (400MHz). 384MBs RAM, single processor, and no striping of disk.

That old PC does a fine job of delivering 1080i Hi Def video to the Xbox 360. Or concurrent music and slideshows. No problem.

The only strange thing is that on startup of Media Center on the 360, the PC is so sluggish that the 360 thinks it might be too "busy" to do the job and requests confirmation that I want to proceed.

I have to disagree.

The 360 does the heavy lifting and the PC is merely a delivery mechanism. I have Win XP Media Center Edition running on an 8 year old Pentium II (400MHz). 384MBs RAM, single processor, and no striping of disk.

That old PC does a fine job of delivering 1080i Hi Def video to the Xbox 360. Or concurrent music and slideshows. No problem.

The only strange thing is that on startup of Media Center on the 360, the PC is so sluggish that the 360 thinks it might be too "busy" to do the job and requests confirmation that I want to proceed.

This is only true if you're using wma or mpg files, I believe. If you do any transcoding, the PC does all the work.

I'm using WMA HD files, and while the PC streams them just fine, for whatever reason the 360 hangs on the WMA HD file ending...it just shows the STOP icon and sits there. Any ideas?

bottom line is that it DOESN'T WORK.
It's the buggiest piece of @$#@#$ Windows Software I have ever used and I am actually Pro MS for the mostpart.

bottom line is that it DOESN'T WORK.
It's the buggiest piece of @$#@#$ Windows Software I have ever used and I am actually Pro MS for the mostpart.

What exactly doesn't work?

I have a mod'd xbox, and a 360.

Thje 360 sucks as a media extender. It's horrible. Media support is pathetic, the interface is horrid. It doesn't do anything right, mp3's, pics or movies and the picture quality sucks. And yes I have a media center with transcode 360 on it. "when it works" it's "ok" but XBMC is WAY better and you can get a mod'd xbox for peanuts these days.

Get XBMC, it'll stream anything over wired or wireless.

I would tend to agree, even as an extender it's hobbled, because normal extenders can do divx, xvid. Supposedly MS is adding those formats into a future revision, rumors lately have said. Even so a freeware app like Media Portal Doe a overall better job.

The only real problems people seem to hae with the 360/MCE is that they cannot play pirated content without a work around...

You know it this augument that pissed me off the Most, people assume because we want to play Divx/xvid that it's pirated. I convert my TV Shows over for Archiving, material I own. So let's not all assume we're using **********

You know it this augument that pissed me off the Most, people assume because we want to play Divx/xvid that it's pirated. I convert my TV Shows over for Archiving, material I own. So let's not all assume we're using **********

Sorry the reality is most divx/xvid content is pirated. Not all but the VAST majority (just use a ********** client to see this) is. Consider yourself a victim of piracy. After all if divx was not the pirates format of choice there would be no reason not to include it with MCE.

FYI you can archive you HD TV on DVD if you have space issues. It will look so much better than a DiVx copy.

You also cannot archive and stream legitimate DVDs (as in DVDs that you OWN) through MCE without a hack.

Sure you can. You can strip the DVD to VOB and convert to MPEG. I have several Disney DVD's done this was so my daughter can watch them in the HT.

I guess I am in the minority then. I ran MCE 2005 on a P4 2.8 with 1 GB for over a year. After the initial install with my original xbox I had no problems. Then I moved to an Xbox 360. Did the install and no problems. I have over 300 xvid/divx files and have not had one crap out on me. I use Transcode 360. I do not find the interface clunky at all. My thumbnails show up in a timely fashion and borwsing my 500 cd's is quite fast since moving to the 360.

As for Front Row on my iMac and MacBook Pro....I find that interface clunky. No support for tv tuners and accessing my media library is slow and I have a top end Macbook Pro.

I guess each experience is different but I just wanted to point out that not everyone has serious problems with MCE or the 360.
I have no problem with my MCE and xbox 360 i am running amd 64 3200,1 g ram. i am running 4 360 off my mce .

Sorry the reality is most divx/xvid content is pirated. Not all but the VAST majority (just use a ********** client to see this) is. Consider yourself a victim of piracy. After all if divx was not the pirates format of choice there would be no reason not to include it with MCE.

FYI you can archive you HD TV on DVD if you have space issues. It will look so much better than a DiVx copy.


That is just an ignorant atitude 100% of my Xvid files are ones that I ripped.

Sure you can. You can strip the DVD to VOB and convert to MPEG. I have several Disney DVD's done this was so my daughter can watch them in the HT.


Sure if you want to keep them at 4GB in size, and then you cannot use them on portable players. Bottom Line the 360 was pushed as a Media Hub it's far from that.

Sure you can. You can strip the DVD to VOB and convert to MPEG. I have several Disney DVD's done this was so my daughter can watch them in the HT.

True but you can also rip it to Divx/Xvid with roughly the same quality and vastly smaller file sizes.

Originally Posted by newfmp3
I have a mod'd xbox, and a 360.

Thje 360 sucks as a media extender. It's horrible. Media support is pathetic, the interface is horrid. It doesn't do anything right, mp3's, pics or movies and the picture quality sucks. And yes I have a media center with transcode 360 on it. "when it works" it's "ok" but XBMC is WAY better and you can get a mod'd xbox for peanuts these days.

Get XBMC, it'll stream anything over wired or wireless.

Sorry but that's not correct. I softmodded my XBOX to try out XBMC, and it is useless for any HD material. Working with DVD rips was nicer but for my purposes I need something that works with HD material. I record shows on my PC and stream it to the 360. XBMC just can't do that due to the lack of power in the original XBOX.

That is just an ignorant atitude 100% of my Xvid files are ones that I ripped.

No thats a realistic attitude. Sure yours are, but you make up how large a % of Dixv users? Again just go online and look. Seems there are a large number of divx enthusiasts who do not bother to rip their own content but pirate others instead.

Sure if you want to keep them at 4GB in size, and then you cannot use them on portable players. Bottom Line the 360 was pushed as a Media Hub it's far from that.

Bottom line is its a game console. Sure it allows a varied assortment of media features, (MPEG2, WMHD, OTA HD) but it was never marketed as supporting every file format out there. If you buy a MCE thats not made from MS you will find you cannot play Divx on most of them as well.

Sure if you want to keep them at 4GB in size, and then you cannot use them on portable players. Bottom Line the 360 was pushed as a Media Hub it's far from that.

I don't understand I can watch NTSC, HDTV, DVD, WMV, DIVX and slideshows of all the images on my PC in my home theater. I can listen to my MP3s and playlists and that's even been improved with the advent of WMP 11 and the dashboard update. Hell the interface is easy enough my family can access all that stuff now. I get all that functionality through my 360 as a media extender. I can video conference with friends and family in my home theater with the camera. I can do it all wirelessly, but for the record I ran cat5. Even if I cut out divx since I'm using a third party ap how is the 360 not a media hub again?

Sorry the reality is most divx/xvid content is pirated. Not all but the VAST majority (just use a ********** client to see this) is. Consider yourself a victim of piracy. After all if divx was not the pirates format of choice there would be no reason not to include it with MCE.

FYI you can archive you HD TV on DVD if you have space issues. It will look so much better than a DiVx copy.


Same could be said for MP3's but M$ thinks it's ok to stream that..

Same could be said for MP3's but M$ thinks it's ok to stream that..

Yes and no... most pirated music is in MP3 form but most legal rippers rip to MP3 by default as well. Add to this that the second most common for is Apples... well the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Support Apple or support Piracy...

The reality is that Divx looks like hell compared to the original source. Most people are not going to strip a DVD to Divx for archiving (This does not imply nobody does) after all if you own a 100% version of something why watch a copy thats not even close in quality? (And no I am not going to belive that all of these under 700M divx movies floating around look as good as a DVD)

For the most part Divx is used to avoid paying for content. As such it does not enjoy widespread support from content providers. Again legitmate users are victims of piracy. As is everyone who pays for content.

We're not going to convince each other about file formats here, let's just get back on topic.

Until someone figures out for me what is wrong with my 360, I can't even successfully play WMA HD files. That is ashame considering WMA is MSFT's file format. If I can't even use 360 as an extender for MCE properly the way MSFT says its supposed to work, then how on earth am I supposed to hope other 3rd party stuff works.

The 360 is a great gaming system...and thats it. I'm not at all impressed with it as a media hub.

Until someone figures out for me what is wrong with my 360, I can't even successfully play WMA HD files. That is ashame considering WMA is MSFT's file format. If I can't even use 360 as an extender for MCE properly the way MSFT says its supposed to work, then how on earth am I supposed to hope other 3rd party stuff works.

The 360 is a great gaming system...and thats it. I'm not at all impressed with it as a media hub.

Am I mistaken that wma stands for "windows media audio"? Do you mean wmv hd? Because I have no problem with wma audio or wmv video files accessed through the extender back to MCE '05.

Anyone seen this problem before. I have ripped my dvds to my media center pc. I simply renamed the VOB to MPG and only one sound track and dropped the sub titles. On some movies when I try to play them back through the Xbox360 it will lock up at some point in the movie and then skip ahead in the movie. These skips can be upwards of 20 to 30 minutes later in the movie. They appear at exactly the same point in the movie whenever I play them. If I play the same movie directly on my MC PC it get a slight glitch in the stream at that point but it picks right back up. Any ideas?


Ben

Until someone figures out for me what is wrong with my 360, I can't even successfully play WMA HD files. That is ashame considering WMA is MSFT's file format. If I can't even use 360 as an extender for MCE properly the way MSFT says its supposed to work, then how on earth am I supposed to hope other 3rd party stuff works.

The 360 is a great gaming system...and thats it. I'm not at all impressed with it as a media hub.

Are your WMV files copy protected? If so you have to play the disc on your PC first to re-obtain the license. Then rip the files to your HDD and you should be able to play them on your 360.


Anyone seen this problem before. I have ripped my dvds to my media center pc. I simply renamed the VOB to MPG and only one sound track and dropped the sub titles. On some movies when I try to play them back through the Xbox360 it will lock up at some point in the movie and then skip ahead in the movie. These skips can be upwards of 20 to 30 minutes later in the movie. They appear at exactly the same point in the movie whenever I play them. If I play the same movie directly on my MC PC it get a slight glitch in the stream at that point but it picks right back up. Any ideas?


Ben


From what I've read simply renaming the vob to mpg does result in glitches. It's best to run the vob through a program like vob2mpg or VideoRedo.

Anyone seen this problem before. I have ripped my dvds to my media center pc. I simply renamed the VOB to MPG and only one sound track and dropped the sub titles. On some movies when I try to play them back through the Xbox360 it will lock up at some point in the movie and then skip ahead in the movie. These skips can be upwards of 20 to 30 minutes later in the movie. They appear at exactly the same point in the movie whenever I play them. If I play the same movie directly on my MC PC it get a slight glitch in the stream at that point but it picks right back up. Any ideas?


Ben
Use a program called Videoredo and use the quickstream fix function to make them into proper mpeg2 files. Only takes a few minutes per vob and solved my same problem.

Thanks for the info I'll check it out. This will keep the Ac-3 5.1 audio and such and just re-stream?

Ben

Thanks for the info I'll check it out. This will keep the Ac-3 5.1 audio and such and just re-stream?

Ben

Yes.

Thanks,
redid like a dozen movies Mpg's last night. Works great.

Ben

I'm confused: why does it matter that the add-on does not have a digital output?

It will have component I'm assuming, which is all that is needed for my 1080i HDTV. So pic/audio quality won't make a difference for me whether it is digital or component, right?

Is there any way to stream movies ripped from DVD into video_ts/VOB? I've got a media server for my home theater and all of our movies are stored there. I would LOVE to be able for kids to watch on the TV the 360 is hooked up to!

You could use Transcode 360 to watch a vob but right now it just doesn't work very well. When I did it, the audio was way out of sync.

Is there a way to change my video files on from thumbnail view to list view in media center? Thanks in advance.

FYI you can archive you HD TV on DVD if you have space issues. It will look so much better than a DiVx copy.Actually, standard DVDs are 720 x 480 pixels while DivX files have no such restrictions. If you are recording a 1080i broadcast (like an NFL game), you will get much better results storing it as an HD DivX file than down-converting it to 480 for an MPEG2 DVD.

Using HD DivX will allow you to put a couple hours of 1080 content on to a standard DVD. Blu-ray disks are not required. HD DivX has been available for a long time now and HD DivX DVD players cost less than $250. It is the most affordable way to capture and play back HiDef broadcasts.

http://www.divx.com/products/hw/browse.php?c=7

Anyone know how to increase the volume within MCE? On the PC in MCE there's a toolbar that lets you increase the volume. I just reformatted my HDD and all the movies within MCE are really low compared to normal gaming.

How do you refresh the file list that is detected by Xbox and Media Connect?

The problem is; When I first installed Media Connect, I had 211 mp3's in my "My Music" folder. They streamed and played properly on the Xbox. However, since then, I've downloaded several additional mp3's to the same folder, but the Xbox isn't seeing them, and thus I can't play them. The song count still says "211".

I have a Sanyo HD1 camcorder that records HD in mpeg4, I believe H.263. I am wondering if the 360 would be able to play these back. I have a modded xbox that can play them but they are very jerky because it cannot handle the HD load. It handles the SD videos fine after I put them through MP4Cam2AVI which I believe recontainers them into an AVI file.

I also have a 360 but not MCE. It sounds from reading here that the 360 could not handle these videos because it cannot handle Divx but might be able to do so sometime in the future? Also the transcode options sound like they might work right now but reduce the quality which defeats the purpose.

ok,
revitilizing this from dead last on page 4...
I downloaded media connect...I don't have Media Center... I have a decent DELL but my 360 does not recognize the computer on the network... I would like to play music and view photos over my 360...
Do I need Media Center?
What am I missing?
Thanks all
Run Media Connect and for devices add the Xbox360 (it needs to be on so you can see it). then you need to choose folders that you will "share" to the X360. Currently you can only stream .wmv files unless you use transcode 360 to convert 'on the fly' your .mpegs and .avis, etc...). You can view .jpg pictures and play .mp3 files as well.
That's all done on your PC. On the 360 you need to go to the media blade and select Music, Pictures or Video (don't choose Media Center Extender). You'll have the 360 search the network for a computer and you should see it and once you establish that connection you don't have to do that again. Choose the appropriate media you want to stream (music, pics or videos) from their buttons on the media blade. You should see the files that you "shared" from your PC inside Media Connect.

Tom Crews

OK, I installed Transcode 360, are the videos accessed through Media Center on the 360, or just videos from the PC? I was hoping to see them in the video section, cause for some reason, my 360 hangs and disconnects when I try to access the My videos section when in Media Center Extender mode. It used to work fine, but no more. Same after the transcode 360 installation, as well as before. It says, the PC disconnected or something similar. Pictures and music come throught no problem.

Hey all -
Sort of longtime reader, first post. Question - back when MS first allowed us XP users to stream video (WMV), I eventually got it hooked up and it worked fine. Now, for some reason, whenever I try to stream a video, the playback on the 360 is really slow and hangs a LOT, whereas it didn't before. I did not change any of the settings, and I have all the folders I have enabled on WMP11. Is this just a function of me using a wireless connection for both my laptop and the 360? I tried using the hardline ethernet cord between them and the 360 couldn't pick up an IP connection so it wouldn't connect to the laptop that way. Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

OK, I installed Transcode 360, are the videos accessed through Media Center on the 360, or just videos from the PC? I was hoping to see them in the video section, cause for some reason, my 360 hangs and disconnects when I try to access the My videos section when in Media Center Extender mode. It used to work fine, but no more. Same after the transcode 360 installation, as well as before. It says, the PC disconnected or something similar. Pictures and music come throught no problem.

The video is accessed through the Media Center on the Xbox360.
Where did you install Transcode 360; on your computer running XP or XP MCE?
The transcode is running, you access the video on the XBox 360 MC extender. Highlight the video, click the X button, select more, select transcode. Once you do that, the video will be streamed to your xbox via your internal network.

Can you use Transcode 360 to stream my DVD backups from my MCE pc thru the 360 onto my TV? If not, what other program can help me do this? The files are ripped onto the hard drive in Video_ts form (if thats correct). I installed HDTVpump thinking thats what I needed but maybe that was for something else.

Happy new Year!!

Thanks,

Brandon

I'm gonna try videoredo to convert some vobs to mpeg.

I have been using vob2mpg thus far, and it is pretty buggy -- it didn't want to process any of my vob's for one movie on my hard drive.

Can you use Transcode 360 to stream my DVD backups from my MCE pc thru the 360 onto my TV? If not, what other program can help me do this? The files are ripped onto the hard drive in Video_ts form (if thats correct). I installed HDTVpump thinking thats what I needed but maybe that was for something else.

Happy new Year!!

Thanks,

Brandon
I use transcode360 (and also have mymovies installed) to watch video_ts. It works well for me.

Question for people streaming ripped dvds from video_ts folders or as .mpg.

I have a movie that has a dd 5.1, dd 2.0 and dts soundtrack. I used Videoredo to convert the .vobs to one big .mpg file.

When I play the mpg file on my 360, I default to the 2.0 track. I don't see an option to select the DTS or dd 5.1 track. Can this be done?

Thanks.

Is there any quality loss or anyway to improve quality when streaming off the PC?. I finally have a real HT setup and all my mp3's sound like crap now pretty much, Is it showing the limitations of the 192k mp3's i downloaded?. Some are telling me quality is lost going from the PC to the 360 then to the receiver, They are also telling me that i should run a lineout from the soundcard to the receiver and just use the 360 to choose which files i want to play, How the hell would I do this???


I have vista and running media center, I must say its really good and was a breeze to setup.

Does anyone know why thegreenbutton.com went missing?

i have an old p3 1ghz collecting dust. it has a tv tuner, and it does have MCE05 on it. would it be worth it to break that sucker out to watch live tv on my 360?

If you guys have XP but don't have WMC then try this.. It streams any video codec on the fly (of course it has to re-encode or whatever it's called so if your PC is decent it will work fine) and works really good..

http://www.tversity.com/