I am running a Vista MCE machine with My Movies 2.2 installed and using the
Xbox 360 as an extender. I have all my DVD's burned down to .vob files and
it reads to the computer GREAT, the problem is the Xbox 360 says it needs internet connection to play the file. Well i have internet connection and signed into
xbox marketplace... so why wont the files play? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated! thanx... C

I'm not sure what the internet connection problem is, but you even if you get that worked out the xbox360 will not play vob files directly. See this link (http://www.mymovies.name/documentation/xbox360extender.aspx) from the mymovies web site for details. There is another option call transcode360 (http://runtime360.com/projects/transcode-360/). I tried this for awhile and it worked great sometimes however I had too many problems with it and have abandoned using the xbox360 as an MCE extender to play ripped DVDs. Good luck.

Jay

Are your movies saved as one vob or multiple vob's? If a single vob, just use a program called vob2mpg and then your 360 should see your movies and play them for you.

Good luck on the connection issues, I gave up on my 360 as a media streamer because 1 day it would connect the next it wouldn't... My 360 is sitting here collected dust waiting for the hackers to catch up...lol

Oh no. I just bought a 360 for this. You're saying if I've got DVD's ripped to VIDEO_TS folders, MyMovies will NOT be able to play them on the 360??

I've only ripped a few DVDs. Can I rip them into some other format that will work consistently?

Oh no. I just bought a 360 for this. You're saying if I've got DVD's ripped to VIDEO_TS folders, MyMovies will NOT be able to play them on the 360??

I've only ripped a few DVDs. Can I rip them into some other format that will work consistently?

you can rip them into other formats the 360 supports but i havent found a really good and easy solution for this yet. but im waiting for a new vista version of my movies before i spend too much time in researching easy ways to do this.

other than the dvd issue media center extender on the 360 is awesome.... im really starting to like the new UI for vista mce but it does have a few quirks id like to see fixed.

I'm using MCE 2005. How will that affect things?

So I'll just have to find something that combines the vobs into a single mpeg 2 file or something? The link above seems to indicate that causes problems at times.

I'm just starting, so I don't have a lot of legacy data. I'm willing to build my media library around the 360 at this point, but I need to know that it's actually going to be something I can do.

PastorDan,

Don't worry about the little blurb that states there are problems with some rips... I ripped several movies from my DVD collection with DVD Shrink to single VOB files (option is in preferences in DVD Shrink). I then used VOB2MPG to convert the files to .mpg. I watched all of the movies from start to end (over a period of time) and had zero issues.

I personaly just wanted more functionality and so I went with a modded xbox and XBMC.

You should be able to stream your DVD's if you use the method I mentioned above.

On a side note: Every time I read your screen name "PastorDan" I hear it in my head in Forrest Gumps voice....lol

Good luck!

Scott

Once the vobs are all joined together, is VOB2MPG doing anything other than changing the file extension?

Yes it is, I think it is re-muxxing or muxxing or somthing with muxx in it....lol It is basically checking for audio/video sinc, (I think)

I have successfully renamed the .vob to .mpg and it worked on about 7 out of ten movies. The ones it didn't work on would have missing sections of the movie or the movie would just freeze. VOB2MPG fixed the issue.

all the vob to mpg stuff is ok, BUT you loose your menu functionality. Because when you uncheck the box where it splits up the movie in 1gb chunx (from dvd shrink) you still get the menu, deleted scenes, etc. in another .vob file... so my
feelings are you CAN NOT use xbox360 as an extender if you want the full movie with dvd menu functionality. but it is easy to change vob to mpg and have movie alone in My Movies. You do have some lag and freeze issues with my Movies in Vista though... hopefully it will get fixed for vista b4 i turn 90! ;)

My movies really does rock! also cause it uses IMDB to grab info/cast/crew...

been playing with mymovies 2 alot since i got my 360, its awesome.
just such a shame other companies cant add this kind of UI to their devices.
getting sick of file browsers.