Hi all, I wanted to start a new thread for XBOX360_HD_Movie_Encoding_Pack. I got this working, it was a long road to get this info so I wanted to break it down and share with anyone that would like to do this. Here's what I did in the next post.
Please write me if you have any problems and I'll do what I can. Thanks to all of you guys here that helped me set this up.

MKV HD + other format movies to WMV_HD Guide for XBOX360 (based on Boomstick's instructions with added info from Shaner1 and JeepHed)
5/29/7
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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This pack will enable you to encode any movie with any
resolution to play on your xbox360 via dvd or streaming
################################################

Download the "XBOX360_HD_Movie_Encoding_Pack.zip" file from here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/30627470/XBOX360_HD_Movie_Encoding_Pack.zip.html

uninstall any video/audio codecs you have on your pc
Do this in "Add or Remove Programs" but I also went into Hardware (Start, Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager) and under "Sound, video and game controllers" in the "Video Codecs" section I deleted everything. Having other codec installed can cause problems and a lot of headachs.

Reboot

Unrar the Encoding Pack zip file

install combined community codec pack

install wmfdist11.exe

Extract WMNicEnc.zip to desktop

Extract Avisynth-257.zip and install

Go into the ffdshow audio decoder configuration utility. On the left hand side of the screen find the "mixer" section. It's near the bottom of the list. Select that and change the output speaker configuration to "3/2 - 5 Channels" and make sure to toggle on "LFE" right next to the drop down. Ok that to save the changes.

Place your target movie file directly on your root hard disk not in any folders,
then create an Avisynth script in notepad (this is a text file you create and then
change the extention from .txt to .avs)
and point it to your movie file

Example:
DirectShowSource("c:\Name Of Your File Here")
You have to have the parenthesis and quotes, no spaces between DirectShowSource and the first (.

Now run WMNicEnc and input your .avs script and change your settings
to suit your needs my recommended settings for an mkv hd file with
5.1 audio are

** Audio Options **
Windows Media Audio 10 Professional
384kbps, 48khz, 5.1 channel 24bit CBR

** Video Options **
Windows Media Video 9 Advanced Profile (VC-1)
Bitrate - 600000
Quality - 100
FPS - match your file
Secs/KF - 5
Use Input Size - ticked
Use VBR - ticked
VBR dropdown - Quality
VBR Quality - 95

multipass seems to cause problems...

Hope this helps! Boomstick...

JeepHed,

Good job putting the info up. I'd suggest one change or addition. I've found that using 95 as the video Quality setting keeps the video quality great and doesn't inflate the size of the file as much as 100. You can adjust from there based on your needs.

Cheers,

JeepHed,

Good job putting the info up. I'd suggest one change or addition. I've found that using 95 as the video Quality setting keeps the video quality great and doesn't inflate the size of the file as much as 100. You can adjust from there based on your needs.

Cheers,

Thanks, I actually missed the last part. with the VBR Quality settings. Now it should be alright. And thanks again for all the help.

This is excellent. Although I would add a couple things. For the layman like myself who don't necessarily know a lot of things about avs, I would add the fact that you must change the notepad document extension to .avs (it's default is .txt). I may actually be doing it wrong I suppose, but that is what works for me.

Also something Shaner1 pointed out to me in the other thread is that you can make the encoding go a lot faster if you go into the advanced options in the video section and change the Minimum/Maximum Complexity setting to 'fastest'. I did not notice any quality loss by doing this.

This is excellent. Although I would add a couple things. For the layman like myself who don't necessarily know a lot of things about avs, I would add the fact that you must change the notepad document extension to .avs (it's default is .txt). I may actually be doing it wrong I suppose, but that is what works for me.

Also something Shaner1 pointed out to me in the other thread is that you can make the encoding go a lot faster if you go into the advanced options in the video section and change the Minimum/Maximum Complexity setting to 'fastest'. I did not notice any quality loss by doing this.

Thanks, I made the change about the .avs file, good call. Let me take a look at the Minimum/Maximum Complexity setting and then I'll change it.
Thanks

Thanks, I made the change about the .avs file, good call. Let me take a look at the Minimum/Maximum Complexity setting and then I'll change it.
Thanks

Setting that to fastest is the best way to go from my experience with this software. My encoding time is so much faster and the quality remains the same as far as my eye's can tell. :eek:

How would be the best way to go about to fix an audio sync problem?

This is awesome -- I can't wait to try it this weekend. Out of curiousity, does this method also allow you to convert .ts videos to wmv-hd? If this is an incredibly stupid question, I'll have to claim newbie status as my excuse. :)

This is awesome -- I can't wait to try it this weekend. Out of curiousity, does this method also allow you to convert .ts videos to wmv-hd? If this is an incredibly stupid question, I'll have to claim newbie status as my excuse. :)

No problem, I'm pretty new at this stuff too. I have only tried it for MKV files so far. But try putting your file in the root directory and edit the .AVS file to point to it and let us know what happens.
Let us know if you have any problems.

This is awesome -- I can't wait to try it this weekend. Out of curiousity, does this method also allow you to convert .ts videos to wmv-hd? If this is an incredibly stupid question, I'll have to claim newbie status as my excuse. :)

Yes you can get .ts into wmv-hd.

From my experience you have to convert the .ts file to .mpg first. I use a utility called HDTV to MPEG2. After that I would convert the file with Windows Media Encoder. I haven't had to do a .ts file since I started using WMNicEncoder so I can't say for sure if it will convert the mpg or not. I think it will, you can give it a shot and let us know. If it doesn't work, I know for sure that WMEncoder 9 works.

Now how can I make .mkv files (or .wmv) files from my HD DVD ripped .evo files? :)

Setting that to fastest is the best way to go from my experience with this software. My encoding time is so much faster and the quality remains the same as far as my eye's can tell. :eek:

Hey Shaner, something I have noticed, and perhaps this is something I'm just doing, is that when setting the minimux/maximum complexity to fastest you get a larger file size. Have you, or anyone else that has tried this, experienced this as well?

Hey Shaner, something I have noticed, and perhaps this is something I'm just doing, is that when setting the minimux/maximum complexity to fastest you get a larger file size. Have you, or anyone else that has tried this, experienced this as well?

I've noticed that but it's not always the case. I ran a few tests a while back on different files to see how it worked. It was different from file to file. But most of the time the file size is larger.

hi guys...

i tried the method described by JeepHed, with those settings, but when i click Encode i get an error which says 'Could not open input stream!' and it stops

Any ideas what could be wrong? Thanks

hi guys...

i tried the method described by JeepHed, with those settings, but when i click Encode i get an error which says 'Could not open input stream!' and it stops

Any ideas what could be wrong? Thanks

What is the name of your MKV file and exactly what text do you have in your .AVS file?
I always rename my MKV file to test.mkv so I never need to change the .AVS file. In the .AVS file I have:
DirectShowSource("c:\test.mkv")

What app can tell you the fps or other detail of the source mkv file? BTW good work, by far the fastest and easiest method for me.

What app can tell you the fps or other detail of the source mkv file? BTW good work, by far the fastest and easiest method for me.

Hey, I'm glad this helped. I had a lot of problems getting this all to come together and the guys at this site were a big help.
I'm not sure about the fps. I know some files have a .NFO file that you can open in Notepad and it has all the info they created the file with. But on files I don't know I leave it at the default and they seem to come out right.
If you do find one let us know.
Thanks.

it says "When are YOUR files deleted?" 90 days without download WTF

never mind I am stupid

I'm just not courageous enough to delete ALL of my codecs. I got rid of a few, but there are some that appear to have to do with Pinnacle Studio that I don't want to get rid of, as well as some Intel ones.

I may still try this process, later in the week but I think I'm going to have to test my luck by keeping a few of my codecs installed.

okay, above works like a charm. However, are there any additions to this program for batch encoding, because the renaming (copy and pasting of file names, into .avs document takes a while). Anyway, thanks for the info, but batching would help a great deal.

With Batch encoding all 360 owners will rejoice, if they aren't already.

Well, the weather was crappy today, so I gave this a whirl. I did an episode of 24 that was 1.2GB in size. With Quality set to 95, VBR Quality at 95, and Min/Max Complexity set to Fastest, it took just over 2 hours. It looked good in the Windows Media Player, but I can't test it out on my 360 since I got the red ring of death a couple of days ago.

Has anyone figured out to make this process go faster? I'm guessing on my 2.8Ghz box with 1GB of memory, a DVD9 sized file could take 12-14 hours (if my experiment with 24 is any indication).

Hey Shaner, something I have noticed, and perhaps this is something I'm just doing, is that when setting the minimux/maximum complexity to fastest you get a larger file size. Have you, or anyone else that has tried this, experienced this as well?

I did a file last night and set min/max complexity to fastest. It was a 6.9GB file that became 11.9GB after the conversion. The conversion itself took about 10 hours. I'm running the same file again today using "default" for max/min. I'll report back with the file size and how long it took.

I did a file last night and set min/max complexity to fastest. It was a 6.9GB file that became 11.9GB after the conversion. The conversion itself took about 10 hours. I'm running the same file again today using "default" for max/min. I'll report back with the file size and how long it took.

Alright, I got home from work tonight and the file I started this morning had only gotten to 5 bars on the progress meter -- after 11 hours. So clearly, "default" is not the way to go for the min/max complexity.

Given that I was using 384 kbs, 48khz, 5.1 channel 24 bit CBR for audio and 95 for both video quality and VBR quality, what are your suggestions for the best way to keep the file size as close as possible to the size of the source file (with a minimum compromise on the quality). If anything, I'd prefer to take the hit to audio, as I'm projecting on a 10' screen.

Hey everyone, everything I have encoded has worked great except for the fact I keep getting stuttering withing the videos. It seems to be every 1-2 seconds that it occurs. You really only notice it during some scenes with continuous (sp?) motion. Anyone know of any way I can avoid this? I have the video quality at 100 and I have tried all fps settings possible including the original fps of the .mkv. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!

Hey everyone, everything I have encoded has worked great except for the fact I keep getting stuttering withing the videos. It seems to be every 1-2 seconds that it occurs. You really only notice it during some scenes with continuous (sp?) motion. Anyone know of any way I can avoid this? I have the video quality at 100 and I have tried all fps settings possible including the original fps of the .mkv. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks!

Are you streaming the videos? If so, is it a wireless network stream?

Streaming over my wireless network worked fine before the spring update, now some of my videos skip (they all played fine before the update) and act like a steaming video acts when it's not buffered enough. This could be the problem.

I have continued to experiment with the settings in WMNicEnc in an effort to create a WMV that roughly matches the same file size as the source MKV. I've been using a 106MB file in this experiment. I've found that the audio settings have very little impact on the file size -- little enough that those aren't worth messing with. Additionally, Video Quality seems to have no impact on the file size.

It appears that VBR Quality has the biggest effect on file size. At 95% and 94%, my 106MB file grew to 149MB. At 93% and 92% it was around 120MB. At 90% it dipped down to 86MB.

Unfortunately, I'm not a video guru. I don't know what VBR Quality does or the impact of the bitrate or Secs/KF. And I can't even test out my results on my 360 because I'm waiting for Microsoft to repair it. It seemed like a week or two ago, a lot of people were contributing to this discussion in this and another thread. It would be great if we could put our brains together and figure out the most effective way to convert .mkv's to .wmv's.

Has anybody tried getting this to work on Vista? As soon as I click "encode" the WMNicEnc program crashes. I've tried running it as administrator and in XP compatibility mode, but no luck. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

The subtitle that's embedded into my mkv file disappeared after reencoding. Any idea as to how I can play around with the settings to retain them?

thanks,

TC

you could extract them from the mkv, but i dont know if wmv has support for seperate subtitle files? you'd have to look into that.

can someone post an example avisynth script please? Thanks Ok i think i got the script part right but i'm getting the same problem the poster doomakis is having. Same exact problem.

http://forum.xbox-sky.com/showthread.php?t=20976&page=3

Nevermind i figured it out. Thanks for reading though. lol

It appears that VBR Quality has the biggest effect on file size. At 95% and 94%, my 106MB file grew to 149MB. At 93% and 92% it was around 120MB. At 90% it dipped down to 86MB.


Hi Darthclem, I been setting this up with the Quality = 100 and the VBR Quality = 95. I've noticed the size is sometimes bigger and sometimes smaller. I think it depends on the movie when it's a variable bite rate on how long the bit rate is high and taking more space. I could be way off on this though.
As far as the speed goes, I've been told you can make the encoding go a lot faster if you go into the advanced options in the video section and change the Minimum/Maximum Complexity setting to 'fastest'. I never did this because I didn't care how long it took. But give that a try playing with the settings.

yes, definately any info about running in Vista would be appreciated. Any new news?

yes, definately any info about running in Vista would be appreciated. Any new news?

Im running under Vista without any issues. Just make sure you have WME 9 installed and it should run just fine. I did a fresh format the other day, just make sure you have the right decoders for the video and audio and WME installed.


Ok I spoke to soon, something on my system changed and now it crashes as soon as the encode button is presses. grrr but it was working under vista :)

Working Again!! I had avisynth 2.0 installed, went to 2.0.8 and is now working again. Hope this helps

Thanks fragility!

I will definitely give it a shot when I get home. Seems like the problem might be with AviSynth. If I remember correctly, I have AviSynth 2.5.7 installed because that came with the 360 Encoding Pack. I will try to run a different version and see if that helps.

Update: I first tried reinstalling AviSynth 2.5.7, but I still had the same problems. I then uninstalled AviSynth and installed version 2.0.8. Now it works perfectly. There must be some compatiblity problem between AviSynth 2.5.7 and Vista.

I can vouch for this method. It is the only method that works and with the suggestions for faster encoding in the advanced tab, my conversions look no different from the original and the resulting wmv file is actually a bit smaller than the original. It only took my core2duo 6600/2GB RAM/XP-SP2 only about 3 hours to convert. I am playing the converted wmv (The Good The Bad And The Ugly) on my XBOX 360 via my USB HDD fine with no problems at all on my Dell 2407 24" LCD monitor connected with a Microsoft brand VGA cable (3rd party VGA cables don't look as good as a Microsoft VGA cable) and it looks very sweet.

BRAVO!

Now I don't have to wait for WMV-HD versions to come out any more. Wish I would have kept the x264's I had before I deleted them :(

Anyone know if there is a way to batch convert many .mkv files to wmv ?

Wow! Thanks for the info. I was afraid to try it.

Only thing I have done different was place the encode into a new folder not C:\ because I was getting some access problem I guess due to administration rules. It is working my dual core system to the max, and appears to be working mighty quickly. I put the min max to Fastest!!!

Lets hope it plays correctly.

Also, I have the Vista Codecs installed, any one have those installed, and not the ones that are on the first post here?

Holy Smokes this is gonna be completed within an hour if not better. Something must be wrong..... :cool:

Yes Batch encoding is the next necessity!!! :p

Ok I could use some advice now. Something changed on my system and i am unable to encode any videos with audio. I can play the mkv files fine. I have tried using AC3filter which worked in the past and ffdshow. Of course im not using both at the same time, one or the other is always disabled. This one has me stuck, several uninstalls and reinstalls have not worked.

fragilityv2: I spoke too soon when I said I got everything working perfectly in Vista. With Avisynth 2.0.8, WMNicEnc no longer crashes right when I hit the encode button. Now it goes all the way till the progress bar fills all the way and it looks like it's almost done, but it just sits there and never finishes. Also, my output file doesn't have any sound. Does this sound like the same thing you are dealing with. Doing the same thing in XP and everything works great. Something... either WMNicEnc, AviSynth, FFDShow, etc. must have a compatibility problem with Vista.

Update: I've been trying to get this to work and noticed that if I try to install different versions avisynth, I get different results. As I said before, version 2.5.7 will crash. 2.5.6 runs but I get a weird error message, but it does not crash. Tried all other prior versions and got the same error message. When I try 2.0.8, it works and it encodes, but I don't get audio. I tried opening the .avs file with Windows Media Player, and the file plays back but with no audio, so that is why we get no audio with our encodes. Trying any other version (2.5.2 - 2.5.6) the file will play in Windows Media Player just fine, but won't work with WMNicEnc. Playing back the .avs file with 2.5.7 installed and Windows Media Player crashes, just like WMNicEnc does. Seems like the problem is definitely with AviSynth and Vista.

Here's a little discovery I've made. When converting MKV's that are 1080p, I tend to get much larger resulting WMV's when the VBR quality is set to 95 (sometimes up to 80% bigger). There's a fair amount of variability in all this, but it seems like 92-93 seems like the sweet spot for converting 1080p source material if your goal is to retain a comparable file size.

Generally, when the source is 720p, a VBR quality setting of 95 seems to create a WMV that is smaller -- sometimes as much as 25% smaller -- than the source MKV file.

This process is still more voodoo that science, but whatever I add to the knowledge pool, I'm happy to do.

Does anyone in this thread have any familiarity with converting 1080i .TS or .MPG files to WMV-HD. I really need to convert my FusionHDTV captures into WMV-HD for 360 playback.

Does anyone in this thread have any familiarity with converting 1080i .TS or .MPG files to WMV-HD. I really need to convert my FusionHDTV captures into WMV-HD for 360 playback.

If windows can play the file, just edit your avs script for that specific file. try loading that into Nics WM Encoder.

On that note, i managed to get everything working perfectly. Of course i ended up reinstalling vista lol Though that confirmed that Avisynth 2.5 works fine, as does all the codec in the Codec Pack.

I reinstalled Vista and continued to have the same problems. I found a workaround though. I just used the regular Windows Media Encoder 9 program and it works fine with my .mkv file. Converted iRobot in 1hr 56min.

Hi Darthclem, I been setting this up with the Quality = 100 and the VBR Quality = 95. I've noticed the size is sometimes bigger and sometimes smaller. I think it depends on the movie when it's a variable bite rate on how long the bit rate is high and taking more space. I could be way off on this though.
As far as the speed goes, I've been told you can make the encoding go a lot faster if you go into the advanced options in the video section and change the Minimum/Maximum Complexity setting to 'fastest'. I never did this because I didn't care how long it took. But give that a try playing with the settings.

My MKV was about 4,583MB. I compressed with VBR quality at 96% and got a WMV of 4,711MB. Not bad at all I think.
I didn't use 'fastest' in the complexity and the movie (about 1h 40m) took about 4 hours to re-encode on my Core 2 X6800. Well worth the time IMHO.
BTW, JeepHed you are my HERO! Thanks so much for this invaluable guide!

Does anyone in this thread have any familiarity with converting 1080i .TS or .MPG files to WMV-HD. I really need to convert my FusionHDTV captures into WMV-HD for 360 playback.


If you use a Media Center PC, you can install HDTV Pump and stream the .TS files. Not the answer to your question, but an option.

FWIW.. I use nullpacketstripper to join the .TS files. it's a little gem that is fast as winrar.

If you use a Media Center PC, you can install HDTV Pump and stream the .TS files. Not the answer to your question, but an option.

FWIW.. I use nullpacketstripper to join the .TS files. it's a little gem that is fast as winrar.

FYI...I was able to use JeepHed's method to re-encode .TS files by installing two things:

1> HDTVPump (I can't post links, but google this and it's the first match)

2> Matroska Splitter (same as above)

My understanding is that the Matroska splitter shipped with the CCCP does not work properly (so you need to grab the latest & greatest.) Also, I had to reboot after installing these.

Now, a question. These .TS files seem to be capable of including multiple audio channels (including DTS!.) Does anyone know if:
a) WMV is capable of containing a DTS channel
b) Nic's WMEnc can choose which audio channel to encode when there are multiple channels?

Thanks!

Edit: My end result was a WMV with the audio out-of-sync by about 1 minute or 2. So, some problems still to solve...

Edit: My end result was a WMV with the audio out-of-sync by about 1 minute or 2. So, some problems still to solve...

The audio is out of sync throughout the entire video by a minute or two? I've had some videos that start to run out of sync by the end of the movie and I've found that it is due to the framerate of the source versus what I had re-encoded.

My MKV was about 4,583MB. I compressed with VBR quality at 96% and got a WMV of 4,711MB. Not bad at all I think.
I didn't use 'fastest' in the complexity and the movie (about 1h 40m) took about 4 hours to re-encode on my Core 2 X6800. Well worth the time IMHO.
BTW, JeepHed you are my HERO! Thanks so much for this invaluable guide!

Hey man, I'm glad it worked. Like that other guy said, I think this is all a little more voodoo then science. lol. I know when this stuff starts acting weird sometimes it's easier to rebuild everything and start from scratch then fix the problem. There are so many parts that need to work in just the right order.
Good luck man.

The audio is out of sync throughout the entire video by a minute or two? I've had some videos that start to run out of sync by the end of the movie and I've found that it is due to the framerate of the source versus what I had re-encoded.

Darthclem you are absolutely right. I entered the wrong framerate :rolleyes:
If only MediaInfo could properly analyze these TS files I wouldn't have made that mistake :)
Thanks again to everybody!

Darthclem you are absolutely right. I entered the wrong framerate :rolleyes:
If only MediaInfo could properly analyze these TS files I wouldn't have made that mistake :)
Thanks again to everybody!

Well consider us even, then. I've been wondering how to do .ts files for quite some time. :)

Basic question:

In the example you mention audio settings at 384KB. I assume this refers to WMNicEnc's settings.

How do you enter this value?

I don't see anything higher than 160KB and can't enter any custom values.

Thanks.

When using Nic's WMEnc program set the Audio to Windows Media Audio 10 Professional, and then select 384kb 5.1 etc....

Thank you for the pointer.

I thought transcode 360 was supposed to do this stuff on the fly?

It does. However, the benefit of this is you can avoid the necessity of Transcode. Which can benefit those whose pc can't keep up, you have to wait to play while transcode gets down the road a ways on the file, and/or the fast forward and rewind, etc., is more fluid. Granted the downside is you have to encode them yourself. You can encode 720p and watch it. To have a pc to Transcode 720p it would need to be at least dual core. I have sucessfully transcoded on the fly a 720p file, but that is with a dual core machine... Not sure of other reasons... However, Transcode works very well, and I normally use that... But this is just another option for the folks...

Also, if you don't have Vista, or Windows Media Center PC you have to settle for another option other than Transcode as far as I know. Not completely certain on this point...but I think T360 only works with these operating systems...

I do have a question:

Is the complexity as fastest the best option? It sounds like this may impact the encode negatively... Anyone test Fastest vs. Slowest?

Maybe I will tonight...

I have been using encode360 beta 7 and it works. Thanks for the tutorial.

I have been using encode360 beta 7 and it works. Thanks for the tutorial.

What does that do and how does it work? I'm very interested.
Thanks.

I have been using encode360 beta 7 and it works. Thanks for the tutorial.


Hmm, interesting...the power of the community! I am intrigued, checking it out now!!! :D

Installing now. Hmm, I removed K-lite for install since I am running Vista :\

Instead I use a Vista video package, we shall see how this works!!!

Hmm, nothing yet, must try to reboot.....:(

Wonder if no K-lite no encode....uh oh...

If you have an mkv file, I've found that it's much easier to extract the raw h.264 video, dump the audio and re-encode to aac, and then use MP4Box to remux it back together.

Example assuming mkv with track 1 being h.264 and and track 2 being ac3 audio (mkvinfo)...
mkvextract tracks myfile 1:myfile.264 2:myfile.ac3
ffmpeg -i myfile.ac3 -ac 2 -ab 192k myfile.aac
MP4Box -add myfile.aac myfile.mp4
MP4Box -add myfile.264 myfile.mp4

For this trick to work, you'll need to make sure your h.264 file is set to profile 4.1, or else you'll have to use something to change it.

yea but no AC3 5.1 sound

so whats the point

really people I dont understand why people are converting videos to play on the 360 it sucks as a media player really what you should be doing is calling MS everyday and demanding they allow the playback of other formats like .mkv and divx among others

this is the main reason why after the original XBOX was hacked one of the first things that was done was support for every format out there just about

so instead of converting videos start calling MS and writing letters demanding this - or lets hope it gets hacked to run XBMC now that would make me buy more 360's

yea but no AC3 5.1 sound

so whats the point

really people I dont understand why people are converting videos to play on the 360 it sucks as a media player really what you should be doing is calling MS everyday and demanding they allow the playback of other formats like .mkv and divx among others

this is the main reason why after the original XBOX was hacked one of the first things that was done was support for every format out there just about

so instead of converting videos start calling MS and writing letters demanding this - or lets hope it gets hacked to run XBMC now that would make me buy more 360's


I gave up on MS ever doing anything about it.. And good thing they didn't because I never would've hooked my PC up to my projector.. Works alot better than the 360..

yep

MS is failing at this for sure

I mean a media extender that wont play the same files as my Media Center PC WTF

my XBOX 1 running XBMC does a better job at this than the 360 and can scale DVD's up to 720p (1080i but not as good as 720p) and it looks much better than the 360 doing it at 1080i/p or 720p for that matter

Just use Encode360...no fuss no mess

Just to let you guys know Windows Movie Maker on Vista (not sure if its the same as on XP) but will take MKV files and convert them anywhere between 480p to 1080p and even has an option for Xbox 360 WMV-HD.

Just to let you guys know Windows Movie Maker on Vista (not sure if its the same as on XP) but will take MKV files and convert them anywhere between 480p to 1080p and even has an option for Xbox 360 WMV-HD.


Holy MKV batman! How did this slip under the radar? Perhaps Vista isn't as evil as we first thought. :p

nice catch.. I'm going to check this out.

Holy MKV batman! How did this slip under the radar? Perhaps Vista isn't as evil as we first thought. :p

nice catch.. I'm going to check this out.


I love Vista Ultimate...The HD movie maker is also on HOME premium as well...I was a bit surprised considering how gimped the XP version was I used before. I searched the hell out of MKV to 360 streaming and everyone had long and tedious methods or methods that ended in failure..Who knew it would be under our nose. :D Shows how many people DONT use Vista, I finally found a great reason to do it now...Saves me money, I am definately cutting back my Blockbuster subscription.

The damn thing takes FOREVER to encode though..Not days like other programs or complicated but takes the MKV file and converts to wmv-HD 720p quality or 1080p with essentially one click..GREAT program it took about 10 hours to encode one movie...Im getting another stick of ram in a few days to see if that helps a bit to speed up the process.

I got Disturbia as an MKV at like 4.4gigs and in WMV-HD it only took it to about 5.4gigs not to shabby...I did it in 720p I wonder if I should have went with 1080p and then let the 360 down convert the signal?

I stand corrected, Disturbia was at 4.4gb in MKV and in 720p WMV-HD it averaged out to be like 3.6gigs...Booted up the 360 and went straight to the videos folder sure enough the file was their took about 30-60 seconds to load it up and skipped through a few parts and watched the about 10 minutes of it in various spots and I must admit its amazing...Granted I dont have the original HD-DVD source to compare but that thing looked awesome...Im definately seeing a future with this. :)

spinks: I tried to use Vista's Movie Maker, but it seems it can't play .mkv files. I imported my clip, but it will only add the sound from the clip. When I play the clip in Media Player, it plays fine, but it won't work with Movei Maker. I have the Vista Codec Pack installed.

Update: I changed the file extension from .mkv to .avi and now the file loads and plays correctly in Movie Maker. We will see how this goes. So far the only thing I've noticed that could be a problem is the framerate. Movie Maker wants to make a 30 FPS movie, even thoguht the original is 23.976. We'll see if the framerate conversion messing anything up.

spinks: I tried to use Vista's Movie Maker, but it seems it can't play .mkv files. I imported my clip, but it will only add the sound from the clip. When I play the clip in Media Player, it plays fine, but it won't work with Movei Maker. I have the Vista Codec Pack installed.

Update: I changed the file extension from .mkv to .avi and now the file loads and plays correctly in Movie Maker. We will see how this goes. So far the only thing I've noticed that could be a problem is the framerate. Movie Maker wants to make a 30 FPS movie, even thoguht the original is 23.976. We'll see if the framerate conversion messing anything up.


I didnt have a problem with either, are you running home premium or Ultimate?


Initially it wouldnt accept MKV and then I went over to the right and clicked "all files" and it showed the mkv file and then I loaded it and then continued on with the process of converting it to Xbox 360 720p...Framerate or audio wasnt an issue...I have had no trouble and worked flawlessly so far on 300/Disturbia/TMNT. This isnt for MKV playback its for converting the MKV file into an WMV-HD without all the hooplah of other methods. Playback I recommend the Combined Community Codec Pack and Media Player Classic or VLC Player.

I finally got it working and the output came out great. There is only one problem... you cannot get surround sound using Movie Maker! It changed the sound to stereo.

I'm making WMV's from my 1080i HD transport streams (.TS) files and they are 'almost' perfect, but I've noticed that horiztonall movement has a very slight stutter, like something is not quite right. Not a big stutter, but noticeable if you look for it. All of the clips are flim based, not video based. The original files are 29fps 1920x1080i. I'm converting them to 1920x1080p at 29fps. They are being played from a DVD+R DL disc directly on the Xbox360, not streaming over the network



Should I change something??


Marc.

So would I be able to use Encode360 or Movie maker to turn my regulard dvd's (porn) into 1080p? Then burn that new 1080p file onto a disc and play it in me and my friends 360's?

So would I be able to use Encode360 or Movie maker to turn my regulard dvd's (porn) into 1080p? Then burn that new 1080p file onto a disc and play it in me and my friends 360's?
None of this will take your standard definition porn and make it look like high definition. The boobs and stuff might look a little sharper, but it won't be anything close to real HD quality. Would it work.... yes, but since your source material is a standard definition DVD, I would just make a standard definition WMV file. Don't bother making it a 1080p file. Just keep it at the same resolution and enjoy the porn. If you make it 1080p, you will just get a bigger file size. Keep it the same resolution as the original DVD and you will be able to fit a bunch of DVDs on one disc. More porn for everyone!

I just converted StarShip troopers MKV (6, 878,815 kb) using the exact settings, but I end up with a file that is 9, 781, 772 kb.

Why is this?

None of this will take your standard definition porn and make it look like high definition. The boobs and stuff might look a little sharper, but it won't be anything close to real HD quality. Would it work.... yes, but since your source material is a standard definition DVD, I would just make a standard definition WMV file. Don't bother making it a 1080p file. Just keep it at the same resolution and enjoy the porn. If you make it 1080p, you will just get a bigger file size. Keep it the same resolution as the original DVD and you will be able to fit a bunch of DVDs on one disc. More porn for everyone!


So what can I use to create standard def dvd into watchable 1080i/p HD or can this not be done?

Or better yet what does HBO, Cinemax etc use to convert movies that only have a standard definition dvd format available (ex star wars) into HD

So what can I use to create standard def dvd into watchable 1080i/p HD or can this not be done?

Or better yet what does HBO, Cinemax etc use to convert movies that only have a standard definition dvd format available (ex star wars) into HD

They used a better source then the DVD you have. Just because standard DVD is the only source available in the stores, doesn't mean their highest quality archive of the movie is a 8GB 720x480 MPEG-2 file ;)

i just wanted to say thanks for the tutorial!!!

previously i'd been using the tutorial from xboxscene which utilizes tmpgeng xpress 4.0. whilst the tutorial there is great and most everyone has good results i had a problem that i couldn't get straightened out. after the encode, the first ~5 minutes of the film had a stutter in the video, not the audio, just the video as if it has a decrease in frame rate. after that, it smoothed out for the rest of the film and the hd quality was great.

i just encoded a few minutes of the same file with this method and the stutter is no longer there. so hats off and thanks again. also, how do dts audio tracks fair with this process? does the program accept them fine or will i need to convert them to ac3 (which is no biggie)?

if anyone has any ideas on my issue with tmpgenc, i'd be glad to give it a try. i really liked the program and it's features (especially it's ability to control/estimate output file size). but, ultimately, you use what works and thus far it isn't working perfectly for me.

lastly, has anyone come up with an equation or table to estimate the output file size when using this tutorial? reason i ask, is that i intend to burn the files to discs once converted, so file size is an issue.

thanks again

if anyone has any ideas on my issue with tmpgenc, i'd be glad to give it a try. i really liked the program and it's features (especially it's ability to control/estimate output file size). but, ultimately, you use what works and thus far it isn't working perfectly for me.


thanks again

I had the same issue with TMPENC4 . Under de-interlacing filters, select 24fps (prioritze motion), and then 3:2 pulldown. This will fix the apparent frame rate drop. Before using this, sometimes the video would go into this stuttering low framerate mode, whenever a show cut from a comercial or back agian. Using these settign fixed it.

Marc.

I had the same issue with TMPENC4 . Under de-interlacing filters, select 24fps (prioritze motion), and then 3:2 pulldown. This will fix the apparent frame rate drop. Before using this, sometimes the video would go into this stuttering low framerate mode, whenever a show cut from a comercial or back agian. Using these settign fixed it.

Marc.

thanks man, i'll have to give that a shot and see if it fixes it.

i assume that i am to select these options in tmpgenc itself and not in ffdshow. i've selected 24fps (prioritize motion), but 3:2 pulldown isn't available. i just see inverse pulldown.

Yes, sorry, they call it inverse pulldown. And yes, it's right in Tmpenc4 itself, under the de-interlacing filter.

Marc.

Yes, sorry, they call it inverse pulldown. And yes, it's right in Tmpenc4 itself, under the de-interlacing filter.

Marc.

for whatever reason, it caused the encode process to throw an error at 50% completion (after the analyzing process and when it begins to encode) every time.

After using Encode360 for a long time, I started using AutoMKV because it can do 2-pass VBR while I was only able to do 1-pass CBR with Encode360. Although the takes longer than Encode360, the quality is much better.

After using Encode360 for a long time, I started using AutoMKV because it can do 2-pass VBR while I was only able to do 1-pass CBR with Encode360. Although the takes longer than Encode360, the quality is much better.

i tried autoMKV some time ago and never could get 5.1 output. so i gave up on it. perhaps they have that ironed out by now..... dunno.

i tried autoMKV some time ago and never could get 5.1 output. so i gave up on it. perhaps they have that ironed out by now..... dunno.

Never had problems with 5.1 output. Under audio track, I just select Original, then WMAPRO and 6 channels under the advanced audio options. Try it with sample MKV files and see if it works.

Never had problems with 5.1 output. Under audio track, I just select Original, then WMAPRO and 6 channels under the advanced audio options. Try it with sample MKV files and see if it works.

i did that, a billion times. even asked the creator of the prog about it. he tried helping me out, but i finally just got tire of fooling with it.

on a different topic. i'm having a small issue with this nic wmenc method. thus far it's been working great, however the output of this last conversion is out of sync. the video is ahead of the audio by about 5 seconds. any ideas to remedy this? i've tried changing a few settings in ffdshow vid, but i'd likely do more harm than good in there as i don't know what half the settings do.

UPDATED TO USE EXPRESSION ENCODER - 11/6/07

OK, I very much appreciate this tutorial but I kept running into "problems" so I sort of came up with my own roundabout method of converting MKV to WMV-HD 360 Ready files. Here's the process I now use and that has worked "flawlessly" every time thus far...

VISTA/XP USERS W/ MICROSOFT EXPRESSION ENCODER:
(Note: For XP users, you can follow this tutorial, but install a different and comparable codec pack)

Setup:

1) Uninstall all codecs and then use the Codec Removal Tool 2.12 (I believe) to fix and remove broken codecs

2) Install the Vista Codec Package and leave all options/configuration at defaults (including ffdshow audio and ac3 filter settings)

3) Install Avisynth 2.5.7

4) Extract the standalone WMENicEnc

5) Install the MKVtoolnix and the MKVmerge GUI (if not included with MKVtoolnix)

6) Install Windows Media Encoder (includes the Windows Media Stream Editor and Profile Editor which we will use)

7) Install Microsoft Expression Encoder


After that is done, here's the process I use:

1) Open the MKV in MKVmerge and uncheck the audio track and all subtitle tracks. Set the height and width for video track to the actual height and width of the MKV movie. Then save MKV to a new file which now only contains a video track.

2) Create an AVS file for the original MKV (with audio) and open that file in WMENicEnc. Uncheck the video option and select Windows Audio Pro 10 with a setting like this: 384 (640)kbps 48kHz 5.1 24 bit CBR. This will depend on the sources audio quality. You should at this point reload the AVS file to make sure it saves out the audio as WMA (bug in WMENicEnc?) NOTE: if your audio track is a DTS file you will have to convert it to AC3 first using something like Tranzcode and BeLight (Besweet).

3) Open the Window Media Profile Editor and create a new profile, for example:
NO audio (uncheck), Video=CBR, aspect ratio=1280x720 (1280x544, etc.), frames/sec=23.976 (29.97), key frame interval=2, bitrate=10M (10000K), buffer time=5, video smoothness=100 (sharpest).
(Note: I would recommend creating a new profile for each aspect ratio and/or frames per second)

4) Open up the new MKV (which now has just a video track) in Expression Encoder using the Import button. (You should now be able to delete the original MKV file as you have converted the audio track to WMA)

5) Load the profile you created. Uncheck the 2 pass encoding if it's checked and then select the down arrow below the checkbox--set the video complexity to Fastest=0. Since the profile has no audio settings in it, just disregard the audio settings in Expression Encoder. For good measure, you can change the Resize Mode to Stretch, but this shouldn't matter as the Profile should match your video's aspect ratio. You can now check the output settings to select where you want the WMV output to save to. Then hit the Encode button in Expression Encoder.

6) Now use Windows Media Stream Editor to create a new file. Since Expression Encoder does not publish 5.1 audio, you will open the newly encoded WMV in the Stream Editor and then select the video track (you shouldn't have an audio track in the output file). Then open the 5.1 WMA you made with WMENicEnc. Select the audio track from the WMA file. Create the new file with the selected video and audio tracks.

You should now have a 720p (544p) Xbox 360 WMV-HD movie with 5.1 audio :) I have tested many conversions using this process via network streaming, USB 2.0 hard drive, and DVD+R DL. All of them look fantastic and have synced audio.This method has produced nothing but compatible, smooth playback, 720p WMV-HD, 360-friendly files for me.

Note: For a 2.5 hour movie, it only took 3.5 hours to encode on my AMD 3800+ with only 1gb of ram! The key is selecting Fastest=0 for the complexity setting in Expression Encoder. The video smoothness=100 and 10M bitrate make up for whatever video quality is lost due to using the Fastest=0 settings. The goal was to encode an mkv to wmv-hd file as quickly as possible while still retaining great video quality and a file size that is still reasonable to work with.

If anyone is interested in trying this out and has further questions, plz don't hesitate to ask. I know this has been somewhat truncated and someone out there might not be able to track down all the needed software, etc. I can post file links if necessary. Thanks for reading all this ;)

Hey guys check out Riverpast Video Cleaner makes WMV-HD a snap.

Hey guys check out Riverpast Video Cleaner makes WMV-HD a snap.

what do you like about this one over some of the other methods? I'm going to give it a try anyway, but was just curious.

Hey guys check out Riverpast Video Cleaner makes WMV-HD a snap.

i have riverpast, and if you know how to get it to handle the 5.1 audio in a mkv file lemme know. that's one big reason why i don't fool with it. i do however use it for other things, good prog.

i have riverpast, and if you know how to get it to handle the 5.1 audio in a mkv file lemme know. that's one big reason why i don't fool with it. i do however use it for other things, good prog.

I just use the DVD Quality 16bit 192k stero sound..When converting and playing back through my HTPC the sound is sometimes better than some of the audio on certain HD-DVDs/Blu-Rays..Suits me fine though.


what do you like about this one over some of the other methods? I'm going to give it a try anyway, but was just curious.

Its less painful, you dont have to have Vista which is a cpu hog and it doesnt drag down your pc using all of your resources plus its basically drag and drop without the whole demuxing and other crap involved in converting mkv to wmv-hd...Flawless so far really.

I just use the DVD Quality 16bit 192k stero sound..When converting and playing back through my HTPC the sound is sometimes better than some of the audio on certain HD-DVDs/Blu-Rays..Suits me fine though.




Its less painful, you dont have to have Vista which is a cpu hog and it doesnt drag down your pc using all of your resources plus its basically drag and drop without the whole demuxing and other crap involved in converting mkv to wmv-hd...Flawless so far really.

i find it hard to believe that a compressed, stereo audio track sounds better than the 5.1 original from a hd or blu ray disc. in any event, i didn't think it supported a 5.1 track for this conversion so i will stick with tmpgenc or the method in the tutorial, both of which handle 5.1.

I had some banding and artifacting on scene changes on my first try with the riverpast software, but I'll have to delve into the settings a bit more. AutoMKV seemed to give a pretty good result in the first test run with a short sample and the speed isn't that bad either on my pretty modest system.

i find it hard to believe that a compressed, stereo audio track sounds better than the 5.1 original from a hd or blu ray disc. in any event, i didn't think it supported a 5.1 track for this conversion so i will stick with tmpgenc or the method in the tutorial, both of which handle 5.1.

My ears hear differently, so good for me I guess for not being as picky about the sound.

I had some banding and artifacting on scene changes on my first try with the riverpast software, but I'll have to delve into the settings a bit more. AutoMKV seemed to give a pretty good result in the first test run with a short sample and the speed isn't that bad either on my pretty modest system.

Im using Riverpast Video Cleaner PRO I havent experienced anything like that yet.

On a side note, I am streaming it to my 360 as opposed to straight from my HTPC to my LCD as I think the picture is better.

with a surround sound setup, 2 channel stereo in no way compares to a good 5.1 audio track. i wouldn't say you are fortunate for not being so picky, but rather, you are not enlightened ;)

as for converting with riverpast, i tried it out and was not happy with the end result, whether that be the video and/or audio quality and/or playback quality to the xbox 360. the method i've come up with using movie maker on vista is the most efficient one for me and produces a 5.1 wmv-hd, 360 friendly file. so i'll stick with what works. thx for the suggestion though.

after a day of messing with various programs, I've decided to be content with mkv>mp4 conversions. Sure, it's limited to aac 2.0 sound, but even on my modest PC it seems to only take 45-60 minutes to convert a full movie. Burning the first one now, but the test encodes looked great (as they should, since the video is untouched). Until I overhaul the pc, I'd much rather deal with that instead of 20-30 hour vc1 encodes.

I was pulling my hair out for a good hour or two though before I found out that mp4's don't show up on windows media connect....work perfectly via disc though.

Check out my updated mkv to wmv-hd w/ 5.1 guide using Expression Encoder:

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=628473

ok you gurus, i have an issue with a file i'm converting. once converted the audio is a few seconds ahead of the video. how can i adjust this?

Is the original file out of sync....i have found a couple of Audio fixes been issued by "groups" after the main release.

By the way many many many thanks for the dts to ac3 guide....if you ever make it to Derbyshire England....the beer's are on me!!!!

Cheerz

James

Is the original file out of sync....i have found a couple of Audio fixes been issued by "groups" after the main release.

By the way many many many thanks for the dts to ac3 guide....if you ever make it to Derbyshire England....the beer's are on me!!!!

Cheerz

James

nah, the original files are in sync. it's only after the conversion that it get's messed up. the files were originally in avi containers which i converted to mkv's. in any event, both the avi file and the mkv are in sync. it's only after i run it through wmnic that it becomes out of sync. i didn't know if there was someway to either delay the video or speed up the audio in order to get it back in sync.

glad at least someone has benefited from the dts to ac3 guide. :D:D:D

I love Vista Ultimate...The HD movie maker is also on HOME premium as well...I was a bit surprised considering how gimped the XP version was I used before. I searched the hell out of MKV to 360 streaming and everyone had long and tedious methods or methods that ended in failure..Who knew it would be under our nose. :D Shows how many people DONT use Vista, I finally found a great reason to do it now...Saves me money, I am definately cutting back my Blockbuster subscription.

The damn thing takes FOREVER to encode though..Not days like other programs or complicated but takes the MKV file and converts to wmv-HD 720p quality or 1080p with essentially one click..GREAT program it took about 10 hours to encode one movie...Im getting another stick of ram in a few days to see if that helps a bit to speed up the process.

I got Disturbia as an MKV at like 4.4gigs and in WMV-HD it only took it to about 5.4gigs not to shabby...I did it in 720p I wonder if I should have went with 1080p and then let the 360 down convert the signal?

How does convert this from MKV to WMV-HD affect video quality? Is there a loss?

Hi folks thx for this awesome 360 encoding package it worked like a hot damn for a fairly long time. I had been using your package and was getting great .mkv to wmv-hd encodes with both ac-3 and dts files converted to wma pro 5.1 surround! The quality of audio was outstanding. It emulated both dd and dts beautifully. Then for no reason about 3-4 days ago I started getting encoding errors. Well anyhow after reading a couple of zillion posts and trying other ways of getting this functioning again I am at my wits end. Right now I have windows vista 64bit CCCP Codec package and tmpegenc express as well as wmenic (my favorite). I have tried every possible configuration but for some reason my video is encoding awesome looks great but I seem to be completely missing an audio steam whatsoever!? AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Why me lord why me? This has got to be some kind of simple problem with my ffdshow audio settings does anyone out there have any suggestions.

Hi folks thx for this awesome 360 encoding package it worked like a hot damn for a fairly long time. I had been using your package and was getting great .mkv to wmv-hd encodes with both ac-3 and dts files converted to wma pro 5.1 surround! The quality of audio was outstanding. It emulated both dd and dts beautifully. Then for no reason about 3-4 days ago I started getting encoding errors. Well anyhow after reading a couple of zillion posts and trying other ways of getting this functioning again I am at my wits end. Right now I have windows vista 64bit CCCP Codec package and tmpegenc express as well as wmenic (my favorite). I have tried every possible configuration but for some reason my video is encoding awesome looks great but I seem to be completely missing an audio steam whatsoever!? AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Why me lord why me? This has got to be some kind of simple problem with my ffdshow audio settings does anyone out there have any suggestions.

Did you recently install any other codecs? What about the tmpegenc software, did you just recently add that?

Anytime I have had trouble like that was when I added software that put a new codec on my system. You may also want to check to see if ffdshow's settings were changed... Make sure the audio is set to 5.1 or the setting that matches the source.

If you've tried all of the above. Uninstall the lot and reinstall. I don't think you'll have to do this though, you probably just need to reset ffdshow's audio settings.

Last week I installed sony acid pro 6 and was thinking that might have been the problem but I uninstalled acid and then retried my encoding but still no love. I also have windows media encoder 9 (32bit version with Vista hotfix). One question that comes to mind in regards to ffdshow audio decoder config - I have ffdshow set to default and you know under the heading dolby decoder do I need to have this ticked?

You don't need dolby decoder ticked, I think that's only for setting a delay.

Check the mixer setting and make sure it's set to the 3/2 - 5 channels with LFE checked if your source is 5.1. Or use "same as input", I believe this works as well.

My mixer is set for 3/2 with LFE so that can't be it. Like I was saying its really weird how it was encoding fine into 5.1 and then it literally just quit one morning. Shaner you know how when you're encoding is running like it should with ffdshow video/audio and haali splitter icons start appearing in the taskbar? Well now when I start to encode I'm missing my ffdshow audio icon. I also have a creative audio card but the last set of drivers I put in seems stable. Maybe I should uninstall or reinstall tmpgenc? I dunno...

Yeah that is weird... you should see the icon for ffdshow audio. It has to be using, or trying to use some kind of audio codec to process the stream. I'd uninstall all of it and put the 360 movie encoding pack back on.

WOW! OK after this problem drove me crazy for a week I finally figured out a bulletproof solution thats working for me:

- download and install MKV extract GUI and MKV toolnix.
- use mkv extract to extract both video and audio streams out of mkv container.
- fire up mkv merge, browse to input heading select your audio and video as desired. At the bottom select your filename and add .avi to the end of it (also go to format specific options make sure your fps is set correctly.
-start muxing
-fire up windows media encoder 9 and encode avi to mkv!
This is tested to work with both dts an dd 5.1 so this was a real relief for me thanks for your help shaner1

Ah right. I've had that problem before too but only with one or two mkv files. I had to run them through mkv merge and it magically sets things right.

Good to hear you are back in action... jackson...

Cheers

I recently started using a program called Gotsent. It was made for the pS3 but works for xbox as well. It takes mkv files and converts them into mp4 files (since that is what they are really anyway) It only takes about 5-10 min for an hour show and there is no video quality loss. Just make sure to check the safesync option. The only drawbacks is it is fairly new so it still has some bugs and not all mkv's convert properly (but so far 90 percent of them have for me) and the other drawback is it outputs in stereo only right now so it downmixes 5.1 but supposedly the programmer is working on that.

savageone have you had much success ripping PS3 ready HD and 5.1 audio? If so what video/audio formats does it support? I was also wondering with this wmv encoding I was wondering what settings you guys use VBR or CBR?

Guys, I finally found a solution that has worked 100% of the time for me.

I was so frustrated trying EVERY program and method to convert my .mkv's to work on the 360, and with each one hopelessness grew on me like a fungus!

Now I can covert ANY form of media to play on my 360, even though I'm only interested in converting matroska files. I sit back, smile, and watch my high definition matroska files on my 92" screen. Great quality.

What's my sweet secret for success?

I use mkvmerge to split the file if it is larger than about 4.4 gigs, so I will be able to burn it on a DVD (I use Nero 7 to burn). Also I believe playback will be better on the 360 if the files aren't too large.

After splitting the .mkv, I load it up in XviD4PSP to convert it to a .AVI. The reason I do NOT use the .mp4 profile is because the 360 can ONLY play .mp4 files using 2-channel audio. So if you want to keep the surround sound, DO NOT use the .mp4 profile. I choose to encode it with highest quality settings for 2-pass encoding (vhq processing change to 3). I encode based on size, and set the program to output it at 1gb higher for every 2gb the original file is, due to the program encoding .AVI's at a much smaller file size than the .mkv (if the original .mkv is 4gb, make size like 6gb or so, it will end up only being 3.5gb or so). Personally, I choose to DISABLE audio encoding. I just extract the audio manually through mkvextract, and then mux the .avi and the .ac3 file with avi-mux GUI.

Have fun watching matroska files on your 360!

Can anyone help me out? When I select Use VBR the program freezes when I try and convert. but if I dont select vbr its fine, but I want vbr..

Now its saying could not open input stream. when i try and encode with nwmenc

Edit: yeah it works without vbr so is there some cccp setting i might have to do to get it to work with vbr ticked?

Now its saying could not open input stream. when i try and encode with nwmenc

Edit: yeah it works without vbr so is there some cccp setting i might have to do to get it to work with vbr ticked?

This is a new one. I've converted a lot of mkv files to wmv (all HD) and never seen a problem where it wouldn't let me use vbr.

I only use WMNicEnc to convert to wmv-hd. With that said, I only have the CCCP codec set installed on my machine. The only times I've had trouble with WMNicEnc is when I introduced other codecs to my system. Have you recently installed any new codecs or software that contains codecs?

Nope, only the stuff his tutorial says to install

Will 384kbps, 48khz, 5.1 channel 24bit CBR work on a Xbox 360 or is the rate too high?

Will 384kbps, 48khz, 5.1 channel 24bit CBR work on a Xbox 360 or is the rate too high?

It will work, I encode to 640kbps and it plays fine.

It seems like this program is just limited to x264, are their similar encoders or plug ins for this encoder that will allow it to decode others?

And it seems like DTS won't work in it either.

Which program are you using? A few were mentioned in this thread.

The original Nic's WMEnc

good tips!

Guys, I finally found a solution that has worked 100% of the time for me.

I was so frustrated trying EVERY program and method to convert my .mkv's to work on the 360, and with each one hopelessness grew on me like a fungus!

Now I can covert ANY form of media to play on my 360, even though I'm only interested in converting matroska files. I sit back, smile, and watch my high definition matroska files on my 92" screen. Great quality.

What's my sweet secret for success?

I use mkvmerge to split the file if it is larger than about 4.4 gigs, so I will be able to burn it on a DVD (I use Nero 7 to burn). Also I believe playback will be better on the 360 if the files aren't too large.

After splitting the .mkv, I load it up in XviD4PSP to convert it to a .AVI. The reason I do NOT use the .mp4 profile is because the 360 can ONLY play .mp4 files using 2-channel audio. So if you want to keep the surround sound, DO NOT use the .mp4 profile. I choose to encode it with highest quality settings for 2-pass encoding (vhq processing change to 3). I encode based on size, and set the program to output it at 1gb higher for every 2gb the original file is, due to the program encoding .AVI's at a much smaller file size than the .mkv (if the original .mkv is 4gb, make size like 6gb or so, it will end up only being 3.5gb or so). Personally, I choose to DISABLE audio encoding. I just extract the audio manually through mkvextract, and then mux the .avi and the .ac3 file with avi-mux GUI.

Have fun watching matroska files on your 360!



ok. I am trying to follow your instructions here. and I have done pretty well gleaning the procedure and settings from your brief post here. however, i encoded a .mkv last night and it ran for 10 hours, but my output avi was zero bytes in size, what gives? I also adjusted the output 1GB higher for every two of the original file. the original was 8175GB or something like that. so I made it 12175. if you could clarify these steps a little better I would appreciate it.

I also tried the original method using CCCP, and the output was great, however the filesize grew to over 25 GB. that may have been because I had quality set to 100. also the file play fine on my pc, but over wireless, there is studdering in places. this could be a bandwidth issue, or the fact taht xbox 360 has trouble playing very large files.

If you guys happen to have a mac sitting around, there is a program called VisualHub (http://www.techspansion.com/visualhub/) that may interest you. I take an mkv file, drag and dump it into VisualHub and hit start. When it's done, I drag the wmv into my PC shared videos folder (networked to my mac) and go watch it on my 360. Very easy.

If you guys happen to have a mac sitting around, there is a program called VisualHub (http://www.techspansion.com/visualhub/) that may interest you. I take an mkv file, drag and dump it into VisualHub and hit start. When it's done, I drag the wmv into my PC shared videos folder (networked to my mac) and go watch it on my 360. Very easy.

is there any ways to make ps3 compatible version, via tversity etc

its amazing, iv read the whole thread and not once has anyone bothered to post the real facts or data required to make use of the 360 capabilitys as restricted as MS have chosen to make the AVC/H.264 and other codecs look bad against their MS VC1 (just DivX with bells on, and not as advanced as the industry standard AVC OC, VC1 has no lossless mode for instance)video and WMA audeo codec's.

so heres some known facts....
BTW that mac app url just above here doesnt work for me....

first up WMV is a CONTAINER not a codec, you place your prefered AV codecs inside this container to have it play.....

other used containers for the 360 to use are avi, mp4,mpeg,WMV

MPEG-4 Part 2 /ASP is infact just the official name for DivX/Xvid codec so when people say use "mpeg-4" they are infact unknowingly telling you to use the old "DivX/Xvid" codec rather than the far better industry standard AVC codec as that part-2 DivX is the very first "mpeg4" classifyed video codec, so make sure to use "AVC" or Mpeg-4 part 10 /AVC to be clear, and tell those sales people to stop trying to sell you old DivX kit ;) when they say "Mpeg4" LOL

"What does the Xbox 360 console support for AVI?
Answer: The Xbox 360 console supports the following for AVI:

File extensions: .avi, .divx
Containers: AVI
Video profiles: MPEG-4 Part 2 (Simple Profile and Advanced Simple Profile)
Video bit rate: 5 Mbps with resolutions of 1280 × 720 at 30 fps. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second.
Audio profiles: Dolby® Digital (2 channel and 5.1 channel), MP3
Audio max bit rate: No restrictions. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second. "

"What does the Xbox 360 console support for H.264?
Answer: The Xbox 360 console supports the following for H.264:
File extensions: .mp4, .m4v, mp4v, .mov, .avi
Containers: MPEG-4, QuickTime
Video profiles: Baseline, main, and high (up to level 4.1)
Video bit rate: 10 Mbps with resolutions of 1920 × 1080 at 30 fps. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second.
Audio profiles: AAC, 2-channel, Low Complexity
Audio max bit rate: No restrictions. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second.
"

"What does the Xbox 360 console support for WMV (VC-1)?
Answer: The Xbox 360 console supports the following for WMV:

File extensions: .wmv
Containers: ASF
Video profiles: WMV7 (WMV1), WMV8 (WMV2), WMV9 (WMV3), VC-1 (WVC1 or WMVA) in simple, main, and advanced up to level 3 Video bit rate: 15 Mbps with resolutions of 1920 × 1080 at 30 fps. See the question about max bit rate, resolution,and frames per second.
Audio profiles: WMA7/8, WMA9 Pro (stereo and 5.1), WMA Lossless
Audeo max bit rate: No restrictions. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second.
"


as is clear, MS are trying to make VC1 with its 360 allowed higher bitrate look better than the industry standard HD-BR AVC/H.264 video were cleary thats not the case.

MS are perposefully restricting your ability to use 5.1 Audeo too to their WMA codec, were AC3,AAC etc are perfectly playable on this 360 if your HD-DVD video was encoded to use that codec set for instance...

moving along and looking how MS are also restricting your streaming video playback etc....

tp://a8t8.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!2518DD508BB713E8!188.entry
"
Microsoft Xbox 360 Media Capabilities
Container......Audio .......................................Video
MP4.............AAC LC .......................................H.264 or XviD or MPEG-4 SP
AVI .............MP3 or AC3 .................................XviD or DivX
MPG ............AC3 (2ch) ...................................MPEG-2
DVR-MS .......AC3 ...........................................MPEG-2
WMV ...........WMA, WMA Lossless or WMA 5.1 ...VC-1 or WMV7/8/9
MOV ...........AAC LC .......................................Apple H.264 or MPEG-4 SP
M4V ............AAC LC .......................................Apple H.264 or MPEG-4 SP

Notes;

There is no file size limit when streaming over a network for all media types.

There is a file size limit of 4GB for all file types when playing from local storage (e.g hard drive, USB stick).

The Xbox 360 has a proper MPEG-4 ASP decoder & can handle the full XviD profile using all of it's features.

The MPG and DVR-MS containers can only be played through the Windows Media Center Extender mode.

With the MPG container any AC3 5.1 will be down mixed to 2 channel stereo.
The Xbox 360 officially only supports up to H.264 main profile videos even though it plays high profile H.264 (some minor features are lost if playing H.264 high profile but nothing significant).

M4V/M4A are the same as MP4 (just an Apple variant).
Only hard subs are supported by the console (burned into the container) no external subtitles.

"

you cant use a AVC/H.264 codec inside a WMV container AFAIK! so your going to have to totally fully re-encode all your MKVs if you want to use that container rather than use the far more widely used Mp4 container....

theres 3 main parts to this,
1: the video codec
2: the audio codec
3: the wrapper that these two get put inside

if your mkv video is HD encoded AVC/h.264 and your audio is the matching AAC then it should be a simple case of a quick mux, were you take the avc/aac out of your existing mkv wrapper/container and put them unchanged (as in NOT re-/trans coded or otherwise messed about with) into a generic MP4 wrapper/container, however MS have seen fit to restrict you for no good end user reason, to a subset of what even the cheapest 360 arcade can really play.

its seems a little crazy that MS droped the arcade 360 price world wide to get you to buy it (instead of the better codec/container served PS3)as a viable HD video LAN streaming device for your HDtv use, but didnt update the codecs and Containers you can use ,with a simple MP4 update and an additional new MKV container allowance in the latest firmware/hyperviser MS 360 and MS xp MP11 streaming updates.

in our best HD standard MKV case to the MP4 container A/V,MS set the 360 firmware/middleware/hyperviser or whatevr other term you want to call it.

you can play upto 10Mbit/s AVC/H.264 encoded streams reasonably well, however 11Mbit/s+ streams play badly there, so try and keep any AVC 1080 video at around the 9.5Mbit/s max mark or lower, for lower HD/widescreen formats that can take it.

for AAC, MS only allow you to play AAC Audio at only 2 channel stereo, so
if your original MKV content is AAC 5.1 it would NOT be allowed to play even after you have placed it directly inside an Mp4 container.

so the answer would seem to always check your original Mkv's for these AVC 10Mb/s, AAC stereo MS limits and your would be fine.

you can then use Avidemux to simply copy the AVC/AAC mkv contents directly to an mp4 container for instance
tp://avidemux.berlios.de/index.html

and on very limited testing, it also seems to convert/re-Encode AAC 5.1 audio inside a few Mkv etc to AAC stereo quickly.

so if you have to, that is an option for making the audio part compatable for 360 playback if its above the max 2 channel stereo allowed for playback as many MKVs are.

the only other data we need to keep in mind for these HD screens is the aspect ratio for the given content.

and tp://www.ctoforaday.com/articles/000055.html gives you that


"...
The 360 VGA, pre-November 2006 update (or whenever it actually ships) is 640x480 (4:3, 1.33, aka VGA), 848x480 (16:9, 1.77, aka Widescreen 480), 1024x768 (4:3, 1.33, aka XGA), 1280x720 (16:9, 1.77, WXGA), 1280x768 (15:9 1.66, aka 720p), 1280x1024 (5:4, 1.25, aka SXGA), and 1360x768 (16:9, 1.77, also aka WXGA) ...

There are, however, HDTVs out there in at least two other resolutions - 1440x900(16:10, 1.6), and 1680x1050(16:10, 1.6) - in common use in HDTV units today; other common resolutions include 1600x1200(4:3, 1.33), and 1920x1200(16:10, 1.6).
...
"

so the basic choices to keep HD widescreen ratios when you get the choice to Encode your content are 848x480 (16:9) ,1280x720 (16:9) , 1360x768 (16:9) , and OC 1920x1080

it explains to you why Tversity's Transcoding should be set for the lowest 848x480 (16:9) so as to keep your codeing upto speed without so much need to keep buffering the original.

so check your Mkv's with say
tp://www.headbands.com/gspot/

if they are already within these AVC 10Mb/s, AAC stereo top limits and you might think your fine, just use Avidemux in direct copy mode for both the AVC video and the AAC audio to an MP4 container and a few minutes later depending on the speed of your CPU and Harddrive you will have the same quality as the original but inside an MP4 container that the 360 can play.

if the original AVC/H.264 codec video's below the 10Mbit/s limit, but your AAC audio is not generic 2 channel stereo, then you can try a direct copy on video, and set the convert to stereo on the AAC audio content part, and it may or not work quickly, more testing is needed for that to be totally sure, but it seems fine ,far better than re-encoding any AVC video to VC1 and placing it in side a WMV container thats for sure.

if you want some HD content to play with, Big Bunny

tp://www.bigbuckbunny.org/index.php/download/

and Elephants Dream
tp://orange.blender.org/download
are good/best quality original CC content ,but their cartoon rendering so not so good for live action shot at 1920 × 1080 or above...


its not that simple OC due purely to MS restrictions that dont need to be there for your streaming video content use, see later.....

sorry the board wont let me post the real full url yet so your going to have to add the ht at the begining of any ....

you will notice from my official link above
tp://support.xbox.com/./support/en/us/xbox360/gamesandmedia/movies/videofaq/viewvideoplaybackfaq.aspx

that MS state they allow
Video profiles: Baseline, main, and high (up to level 4.1)
Video bit rate: 10 Mbps with resolutions of 1920 × 1080 at 30 fps

however that doesnt seem to be the case for my testing the last few days

if you compare these files data.
tp://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=86862&package_id=90614

one was a direct avidecode copy and AAC 2 channel stereo conversion to an Mp4 container
"General
Complete name : K:\test.1080p.x264-HD1080\hd1080-tests\test-1080-avc-mp4-aac2.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom
File size : 6.24 GiB
Duration : 1h 32mn
Overall bit rate : 9 692 Kbps
Movie name : K:\test.1080p.x264-HD1080\hd1080-tests\test-1080-avc-mp4-aac2.mp4
Performer : Avidemux
Screenplay by : Avidemux
Encoded date : UTC 1970-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date : UTC 1970-01-01 00:00:00
Writing application : Lavf51.12.1

Video
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 1h 32mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 9 554 Kbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Minimum frame rate : 23.952 fps
Maximum frame rate : 23.976 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.192
Stream size : 6.15 GiB (99%)
Encoded date : UTC 1970-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date : UTC 1970-01-01 00:00:00

Audio
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version : Version 4
Format profile : LC
Format settings, SBR : No
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 1h 32mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 128 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 84.3 MiB (1%)
Encoded date : UTC 1970-01-01 00:00:00
Tagged date : UTC 1970-01-01 00:00:00

"it doesnt play....

however this one does.

"General
Complete name : K:\test.720.x264-HD1080\hd1080-tests\test-720-avc-mp4-aac2.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom
File size : 1.08 GiB
Duration : 1h 32mn
Overall bit rate : 1 679 Kbps
Movie name : test-720-avc-mp4-aac2.mp4
Encoded date : UTC 2008-11-27 04:03:23
Tagged date : UTC 2008-11-27 04:03:23
Writing application : Lavf52.22.1

Video
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L3.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 1h 32mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 1 514 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.069
Stream size : 998 MiB (90%)
Encoded date : UTC 2008-11-27 04:03:23
Tagged date : UTC 2008-11-27 04:03:23

Audio
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format version : Version 4
Format profile : LC
Format settings, SBR : No
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 1h 32mn
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 160 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 105 MiB (10%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2008-11-27 04:03:23
Tagged date : UTC 2008-11-27 04:03:23

"

the working one was taken from the same original mkv 1080 but re-encoded with the vidora 360 app and took almost two days NOT something people are really ready to do and its loosing data OC that we dont need to loose if we can work it out.

note that it was using the exact same 3rd party app FFMeg underneath to do the long encode, but look at the slight diffences above, theres something the restrictions MS are setting that stops the first one running but allows the second, and its not the 1080 - 720 difference as iv had other 1080s clips play fine too in the past but dont have them to refer to now alas.

we need to find out the reasons its not playing with a simple mux were a full and long re-encode works, MS are doing something weard , if we can work it out what,we dont then need to spend time re-encoding and loosing detail or time.... for MP4 containers OC.

in case you dont know the MS wmv is using the VC1 codec and so your going to loose detail there to as most mkvs are nearly always AVC/AAC encoded, so a simple mux in to a mp4 container wont work or will it! with the right settings(unless MS allow that VC1 in the mp4 containers OC ?... never tryed it).

hmm theres something wrong here, i just checked my settings for the test encode from vidora and its set for H.264,High profile,level4.1,abr,10240bitrate CABAC
"-flags +loop -cmp +chroma -partitions +parti4x4+partp8x8+partb8x8 -flags2 +mixed_refs -me_method umh -subq 6 -trellis 1 -refs 3 -me_range 16 -keyint_min 25 -sc_threshold 40 -i_qfactor 0.71 -qmin 10 -qmax 51 -qdiff 4"
but it didnt use that setting according to the working file report above, strange......

given the thread title and the fact noone seems to be interested in the subject now, i thought id just finish the thread off and give you a direct link to the fastest way to create a quick and dirty transcode to WMV , that being the real old AVIVO stand alone free beta transcoder that came out in 2005.

no crappy multiple slow MS encoder apps or hacks, just one simple app and a bat to copy the dll's into place and your done, does a basic 90 min HD MKV at best bitrate (2Mbit) in 20 mins or so....

its by far the fastest way and way faster than the current free AVIVo you get in every single driver set for X and HD Gfx cards today, and it happens to be the hacked version so it runs with most Gfx cards today, not just AMD/ATI X/HD* cards.

enjoy and report back if your interested ,just to see if anyone downloaded it and tryed it.

http://files.filefront.com/ATIAvivoVideoConverter2zip/;12557121;/fileinfo.html

Does AVIVO output a video file with 5.1 audio or does it just downsample to 2 channel like all of the other transcoders out there?

I care about this because I want to see Galactica in HD without waiting six months and my PC plays the mkvs choppy.

I just tried the AVIVO application. Quality is AWFUL however it does work the quickest.

Im curious how long it usually takes most people using the method of the OP. I am converting a 4gb mkv file atm and after 4 hours or so its 1/3 of the way done. I am on a fairly good machine too with 2gb ram and an amd 3200+. Im not sure if the time is normal or if somethings wrong lol. I did some sample files and they all turned out great.

5.5 years old is not "fairly good"

no offense.

the time seems about normal for a machine that old.

5.5 years old is not "fairly good"

no offense.

the time seems about normal for a machine that old.


Did you in any way help with the question? I have a feeling you don't even know what the hell this post is even regarding. Have you ever done this? If so how long did it take for the same size file on your machine and whats the stats of your machine so I can compare. Perhaps id upgrade if it was worth lowering the time. This "5.5" year old machine (which is exaggerated by you) has until this point been a storage box for files and an internet surfer. Its not a gaming platform.

You should go troll else where to increase your post count. Great job "contributing" to a community. Your the man.

i said that time frame seems about right for a cpu that old, and yes, that processor came out in 2003.

i dont specifically convert using this method, but my overclocked e7200 @ 3.8ghz (dual core) takes right about an hour per GB (source), so roughly 1/3 of the time of that machine.

i wasn't trying to start trouble or talk trash, theres nothing wrong with using older equipment if you have the time to wait on it.

and i definitely wasn't coming off 'holier than thou' with my lowly $400 rig.

"You should go troll else where to increase your post count."

You are not off to a good start. Yes, formulanerd pisses me off on a regular basis, but he is also a good guy, and rather helpful. You asked a question. He answered it. You then attacked him because you didn't like the truthful answer. Your (notice the correct use of the term) hardware is old as hell. Video encoding takes forever on hardware that is older than Jesus.

given the thread title and the fact noone seems to be interested in the subject now, i thought id just finish the thread off and give you a direct link to the fastest way to create a quick and dirty transcode to WMV , that being the real old AVIVO stand alone free beta transcoder that came out in 2005.

no crappy multiple slow MS encoder apps or hacks, just one simple app and a bat to copy the dll's into place and your done, does a basic 90 min HD MKV at best bitrate (2Mbit) in 20 mins or so....

its by far the fastest way and way faster than the current free AVIVo you get in every single driver set for X and HD Gfx cards today, and it happens to be the hacked version so it runs with most Gfx cards today, not just AMD/ATI X/HD* cards.

enjoy and report back if your interested ,just to see if anyone downloaded it and tryed it.

http://files.filefront.com/ATIAvivoVideoConverter2zip/;12557121;/fileinfo.html

You post that the best bitrate is 2Mbit, that is really bad quality. How does it compare to current methods? You cannot get HD quality with 5.1 sound using that program, right?

Back on topic.

I am using the method the OP posted (I also found the same method, word for word, on AVForums). Since this thread is about a year old, has anyone found a better/faster way to convert 5.1 MKV HD files to WMV 5.1 or similar to play on Xbox 360?

Has anyone tried this program for watching MKV files on the Xbox?
PS3 Media Server. Its for Macs, Linux, and Windows.
http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/

I streamed some MKV files from my Macbook Pro to the Xbox and it works great.

if anyone else has given up and went the HTPC route, check out media browser for VMC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBhkmqyxTtI&fmt=18

Hi,

I will try it if you say it works with the xbox 360 :) I will be using windows though. Does it keep the 5.1 sound? Does it transcode or?

Has anyone tried this program for watching MKV files on the Xbox?
PS3 Media Server. Its for Macs, Linux, and Windows.
http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/

I streamed some MKV files from my Macbook Pro to the Xbox and it works great.

Hi,

I will try it if you say it works with the xbox 360 :) I will be using windows though. Does it keep the 5.1 sound? Does it transcode or?

an amazing discovery, my mkv dts 1080p rips being transcoded streamed as PCM 5.1 by ps3 media server. Only thing was true hd got down converted to ac3 640...making me un happy

Hi,

Cool! So I guess it transcodes? Does it need a lot of PC grunt? And how is the quality like, same as original mkv?

Cheers,
K.

an amazing discovery, my mkv dts 1080p rips being transcoded streamed as PCM 5.1 by ps3 media server. Only thing was true hd got down converted to ac3 640...making me un happy

One word...........Jaksta

I would like to point out (it may have been said on previous pages)
With windows 7, the right codec's such as shark 007 or kaaza and using media center you don't need to convert .mkv's if you you use media center extender on the xbox.