Topic: Stream DivX movies to your Xbox 360 using MediaCenter (Read 665 times)

Xbox-Scene · « **on:** January 15, 2006, 10:06:00 AM »

Stream DivX movies to your Xbox 360 using MediaCenter-- Posted by XanTium on January 15 11:30 EST
Well not really, the Xbox 360 will still not accept an DivX/XviD stream, but using this method you can convert your DivX/XviD videos to WMV on-the-fly while it's streaming to your Xbox360. You will of course still need a Windows MediaCenter PC, the real-time converting will put some load on your host PC and there might be some quality loss ... but overall it's easier than (re-)converting all your videos manually. Best choice would still be to use your old modded Xbox and XboxMediaCenter(info) of course :-)

Quote

This article shows how to stream DivX (and XviD) movies to an Xbox 360 using a Media Center. For the picky people, it doesn't actually stream DivX... it converts to WMV on the fly to stream.
The core process for accomplishing this is taken from a thread found on the Xbox forums: Playing DivX movies without having to Re-encode, through media centre. This works fine, but has the disadvantage that you have to manually set up the encoding process on your Media Center and then move over to the Xbox 360 to watch it. So all this article really does is provide an MCE interface so you can control everything from your Xbox 360 being used as an MCE Extender. i.e. its for lazy people. It was also an excuse for me to write a ListMaker AddIn for MCE ... which i hadn't done yet.

Check out the full guide on mperfect.net (via 360insider.net)

dcware · « **Reply #1 on:** January 15, 2006, 10:34:00 AM »

sounds like a right pain

bucko · « **Reply #2 on:** January 15, 2006, 10:02:00 AM »

*Waits for X360XBMC*

Xavierking · « **Reply #3 on:** January 15, 2006, 10:55:00 AM »

wooo!!!! xbox1 pwns!!!

ksteiner · « **Reply #4 on:** January 15, 2006, 10:31:00 AM »

I just fixed my xbox today and the first thing i did after fixing it, was get the latest version of xbmc

xbmc rapes the shit out of the 360 media center

trunkster · « **Reply #5 on:** January 15, 2006, 12:28:00 PM »

Still not good enough to make me disconnect my original xbox (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

kcchesnut · « **Reply #6 on:** January 15, 2006, 01:13:00 PM »

er, um ... i'm the author of that program. it is a bit of a pain to get setup, but it's been working great.

never had an XBox1, so don't know anything about XBMC.

i do know about the next generation SDK we get with Vista's Media Center ... and it'll get alot better then.

Cheers,
casey

redwolf · « **Reply #7 on:** January 15, 2006, 01:05:00 PM »

QUOTE(kcchesnut @ Jan 15 2006, 09:44 PM)

er, um ... i'm the author of that program. it is a bit of a pain to get setup, but it's been working great.

not tried it don't have MediaCentre, but good work

QUOTE(kcchesnut @ Jan 15 2006, 09:44 PM)

never had an XBox1, so don't know anything about XBMC.

its worst to buy one right now JUST for XBMC

Mekapo · « **Reply #8 on:** January 15, 2006, 01:52:00 PM »

The only thing i hate about XBMC is that i'm not longer connected to the Live Community. Obviously this wasn't a problem before the 360 came out, but now i'm absolutley in love with the idea of always being connected, and being able to see who is online at any given time. Anyone know if there is a python script for xbmc that checks your friends list and alerts you when people come online? I know it obviously can't connect to the live servers and let others know i'm online, but If i could use xbmc and be able to tell if one of my friends signs on that would be killer.

This post has been edited by Mekapo: Jan 15 2006, 09:53 PM

cyberg4 · « **Reply #9 on:** January 15, 2006, 02:11:00 PM »

QUOTE(Mekapo @ Jan 15 2006, 01:23 PM)

The only thing i hate about XBMC is that i'm not longer connected to the Live Community. Obviously this wasn't a problem before the 360 came out, but now i'm absolutley in love with the idea of always being connected, and being able to see who is online at any given time. Anyone know if there is a python script for xbmc that checks your friends list and alerts you when people come online? I know it obviously can't connect to the live servers and let others know i'm online, but If i could use xbmc and be able to tell if one of my friends signs on that would be killer.

something could probably be made using the msn alerts in MSN messenger, or the listing showing who is online at xbox.com (or bungie.net). Unfortunately I wouldn't know how to make a script for it, but just an idea as to how to get it to work

Mekapo · « **Reply #10 on:** January 15, 2006, 03:28:00 PM »

QUOTE(cyberg4 @ Jan 15 2006, 01:18 PM)

something could probably be made using the msn alerts in MSN messenger, or the listing showing who is online at xbox.com (or bungie.net). Unfortunately I wouldn't know how to make a script for it, but just an idea as to how to get it to work

That's what I was thinking as well. You could possibly also use whatever my gamertag.net uses to get a personalized buddy list type thing going. I'd love to do it myself but unfortunatley i don't have there werewithall to do such a thing.

oswald · « **Reply #11 on:** January 15, 2006, 07:21:00 PM »

yep, it really is easier to setup than it sounds, and it works as advertised. Now if only we could integrate it a little better in to the MCE experience, maybe even a My Divx tab on the home screen?

thanks for the app/method. it'll tide me over until we can get something a little cleaner, hopefully without the need to re-encode.

It pains me so the way it is currently. It's impossible to beat XBMC for its compatability with various media, but the MCE extender has the TV stuff thats just as important to me. I'm one format away from console nirvana.

Anyway, does anyone know of an app that will do clean batch divx to wmv conversion? The windows media encoder works fine for me for streaming like this setup, but always screws up or crashes during conversion, and it really isn't the nicest interface for doing a bunch of conversions. I would use videora and go with mpeg2 but it is messing up the aspect ratio of my videos, which is inexcusable.

i guess what I would love is a mce based "Convert these videos to WMV" in Other Programs.

anwyay, keep up the good work!

kcchesnut · « **Reply #12 on:** January 15, 2006, 09:47:00 PM »

the 'My DivX' will be super simple to do in Vista MCE. the problem right now is they give us one programming method for UI (Hosted HTML), and another with power (AddIns) but limited UI. Vista will give us both in the same programming model. you can do it now, but it becomes a real pain in the butt.

as far as conversion programs within MCE, that is possible to. my app could easily be modified to convert to a file format instead of streaming (still using Media Encoder and handling lists). and i based my program off another one that converted dvr-ms files to wmv (originally written by Stephen Toub).

Cheers,
casey

Xavierking · « **Reply #13 on:** January 16, 2006, 06:55:00 AM »

that live buddy script for xbmc is an awesome idea... too bad i dont use live anymore...

Dasgooch · « **Reply #14 on:** January 16, 2006, 08:23:00 AM »

kcchesnut-

I really appreciate all your hard work on this one. I installed it in about 5 minutes yesterday and it works great. I don't think the point here is to argue whether XBMC is better or not but to possibly improve on this method. I know I have thought of converting my collection of Divx/Xvid over to WMV or another compatible 360 format, would it be possible to modify this to keep the conversion and specifiy a dump location so I can do this one movie at a time as I feel like watching them?

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