Streaming video to 360 from XP

[Mekon]

Not sure if I should ask this in this forum, but I'm running xp and want to stream my videos to my 360. Has anyone else done it already? Is WMP11 all I need at the PC end? What converter did you use to transcode to WMV (if that is all it will stream)? I have Apex (AVI DiVX MPEG MOV RM WMV) COnverter 2.5 already. Is are there optimal bitrate/resolution settings for the 360? I was planning on going for 1.5mbps and 720x576.

[Steve_Evil]

I use a program called Videora to do all my conversions for the 360, but any good transcoder should be fine. Think once you've got the PC to recognise the 360 and vice-versa it's fairly simple stuff to get your videos working, just go to the media tab on the 360, select videos, then computer as the source and you're away.

[Mekon]

Do you have media centre installed? I've got the freeware videora xbox converter, but read that you can only stream WMV with xp plus wmp11, not MPEG-1 or 2 that Videora converts to. Am I misinformed?

[Steve_Evil]

I do have MC yeah, not sure what other difficulties you might run into running on standard XP, sorry.

[Mekon]

Yeah, on XP you have to use wmv. I've been using the vlc/batch file combo from happy beggar, but have now switched to encode360. Still not sure on optimal settings.

[trooperiziz]

I'm assuming you are ok with computers, so apologies if this doesn't make sense...

Download the free windows media encoder from microsoft, then create a .cmd file with the following inside it

cscript.exe "C:Program FilesWindows Media ComponentsEncoderwmcmd.vbs" -input "C:shows and filmsToBeWatched" -output "h:Xbox" -v_codec WMV9 -v_performance 0 -v_keydist 3 -v_mode 0 -v_bitrate 2000000 -v_buffer 10000 -a_codec WMA9STD -a_mode 0



Replace the input and output parameters to be whatever you want, as long as the output is shared to the xbox via wmp11. Dump all your vids you want to convert into the input directory, run the .cmd file, wait a bit...
The above settings are pretty much optimal for a shared wmv file. The outputs typically come out at about double the size of a divx encoded avi.

I leave my .cmd file on the desktop and have utorrent drop complete downloads automatically into the input directory, so only a simple double click once in a while to transfer files and a bit of directory clearup when I can be bothered is all thats needed.



Hmm... PH seems to strip out backslashes, so the above script will need them re-inserting in the appropriate place, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out. The important bit is that the script file you are calling is wmcmd.vbs

Edited by trooperiziz on Sunday 31st December 15:41

[Mekon]

Thanks, that works brilliantly.

[trooperiziz]

Mekon said:

Thanks, that works brilliantly.

No problem. I spent weeks trying to a get a workable solution, might as well share the results

[spandexx]

Does the XBOX 360 still have the probelm with only showing vids in 4:3 and not widescreen? When i tried this a year ago this aspect infuriated me so i gave up and bought a pinacle box to do my streaming.

[trooperiziz]

spandexx said:

Does the XBOX 360 still have the probelm with only showing vids in 4:3 and not widescreen? When i tried this a year ago this aspect infuriated me so i gave up and bought a pinacle box to do my streaming.

Everything is running in 16:9 on my box.

[chilled]

tversity will do the transcoding on the fly if you don't have MCE. Can't get it to do .mkv yet, but can get it to do DivX .avi files though.

Just google for it.

[trax]

I didnt really understand any of the above fixes.

I have my home laptop able to connect to my 360, using WMC, as I have XP media edition or whatever its called. Its fine at using the 360 to look for files on the computer (wirelesly), and I can play music via the telly, but no videos work. Is it a case of downloading some software?

[trooperiziz]

chilled said:

tversity will do the transcoding on the fly if you don't have MCE. Can't get it to do .mkv yet, but can get it to do DivX .avi files though.

Just google for it.

That's new! It didn't do that a few weeks ago I'll have a play tonight...

[craigw]

trax said:

I didnt really understand any of the above fixes.

I have my home laptop able to connect to my 360, using WMC, as I have XP media edition or whatever its called. Its fine at using the 360 to look for files on the computer (wirelesly), and I can play music via the telly, but no videos work. Is it a case of downloading some software?

Doug, this is strange, i'm using virtually same setup as yours but videos seem to stream perfectly for me. I've only done it a couple of times but seemed ok.

[JimboCTR]

Just got my new HD Tv and was about to get a 360. I currently stream media using a chipped Xbox (Original) but of course this limits me to SD.

How fast a computer do you need with TVersity to convert divx/xvid etc on the fly to wmv. Anyone tried converting an HD avi to wmv on the fly? I am thinking my very old 1Ghz computer that is currently acting as the torrent/media server will not be up to the task.

The other option is a dedicated media streamer. Anyone have any experience with them and wether they support HD sources?

Jim

[Mekon]

I'm using an old p3 for slimserver/torrents/media, so I think TVersity won't work for me.

[trooperiziz]

JimboCTR said:

Just got my new HD Tv and was about to get a 360. I currently stream media using a chipped Xbox (Original) but of course this limits me to SD.

How fast a computer do you need with TVersity to convert divx/xvid etc on the fly to wmv. Anyone tried converting an HD avi to wmv on the fly? I am thinking my very old 1Ghz computer that is currently acting as the torrent/media server will not be up to the task.

The other option is a dedicated media streamer. Anyone have any experience with them and wether they support HD sources?

Jim

The FAQ mentions a 2.4GHz P4 (or something of that magnitude)

[trooperiziz]

trooperiziz said:

chilled said:

tversity will do the transcoding on the fly if you don't have MCE. Can't get it to do .mkv yet, but can get it to do DivX .avi files though.

Just google for it.

That's new! It didn't do that a few weeks ago I'll have a play tonight...

Tried tversity out and i'll stick with my solution.

3 things kill it for me:
1) You can't fast forward or rewind the video until the encoding is complete, so no stopping a film a third of the way through and then coming back to it at a later date.
2) If you stop watching a film, then the encoding on the server doesn't stop, it keeps going till it has encoded everything. Not too clever when it is taking up 90% of my cpu and i want to use the pc.
3) It takes a lot longer to start a film while it kicks of the encoding.

For the sake of not having to run a batch file once in a while, I don't think it's worth the change