Topic: How-To: Transcode and stream videos on Xbox 360 (Read 198 times)

Xbox-Scene · « **on:** November 08, 2006, 01:21:00 PM »

How-To: Transcode and stream videos on Xbox 360
Posted by XanTium | November 8 15:21 EST

Quote

Last week's Xbox 360 Fall Dashboard update added support for the Windows Media Video (WMV) video codec. The feature was a welcomed gain for non-Media Center users who have been limited to photo and music sharing between their Windows PCs and Xbox 360s -- and to anyone who's longed to watch video files on 360 via a thumb drive or CD/DVD.

Unfortunately, licensing fees and digital rights concerns have limited the patch to WMV-support only.
Windows Media Center users have enjoyed on-the-fly transcoding for some time, courtesy of Transcode 360(info). While the developer says he expects "someone to knock up a transcoding solution not too far down the line" for Windows Media Player 11 and Windows Media Connect (read: not Windows Media Center), he suggests that it won't be him doing it.

So, until Microsoft adds support for more codecs or offers up an application capable of transcoding (to WMV) and streaming on-the-fly (okay, that will never happen), we're forced to manually transcode our non-WMV files into WMVs and then, if we wish to stream, point our 360s at the WMV files (on our PCs). That's the solution. Now, we're gonna show you how it's done.

Read the whole HowTo on joystiq.com

kidkinetix · « **Reply #1 on:** November 08, 2006, 12:46:00 PM »

Too bad, this is just a conversion guide, not a real time transcode / stream.

I like the solution though, very straightforward and no thinking involved

djzzib · « **Reply #2 on:** November 08, 2006, 01:05:00 PM »

Sad... I really enjoyed streaming DIVX TV episodes through the "sixty" , as my daughter called it, when I missed the airing... WMV is just blah to me.

rasstar · « **Reply #3 on:** November 08, 2006, 01:06:00 PM »

This is great just tried it and you can begin playing before the transcoding is complete. Som eapplications would tell you the file is in use but this is nice.

QUOTE(djzzib @ Nov 8 2006, 09:12 PM)

Sad... I really enjoyed streaming DIVX TV episodes through the "sixty" , as my daughter called it, when I missed the airing... WMV is just blah to me.

What is wrong with WMV? It's the same damn quality sometimes even better. Because the videos you download is not coded with wmv that's a problem right? If you record your own shows which i doubt you do why not record them using wmv.

This post has been edited by rasstar: Nov 8 2006, 09:08 PM

blue_calx · « **Reply #4 on:** November 08, 2006, 01:08:00 PM »

I really wish there was a method to transcode 5.1 AC3 to 5.1 WMA...VLC won't do it and none of the other utilities will out there will as far as i know

kencix · « **Reply #5 on:** November 08, 2006, 01:08:00 PM »

what's the best app, to convert divx movies to wmv???

rasstar · « **Reply #6 on:** November 08, 2006, 01:09:00 PM »

QUOTE(kencix @ Nov 8 2006, 09:15 PM)

what's the best app, to convert divx movies to wmv???

I uses AoA DVD ripper and the quality was superb.

xmos · « **Reply #7 on:** November 08, 2006, 01:27:00 PM »

as long as there's no folder browsing support i'll stick to my xbox 1 with xbmc anyway, finding my unlabeled media files is like finding a needle in a haystack

tutu · « **Reply #8 on:** November 08, 2006, 01:47:00 PM »

QUOTE

Unfortunately, licensing fees and digital rights concerns have limited the patch to WMV-support only.

1) Licensing fees = there are open source MPEG 4 codecs as well as alternative licensing options (e.g. market place purchase)

2) DRM concerns = wrong again, as we can just convert our files to WMV.

So whats the point in holding back the media codec support of the 360?

rasstar · « **Reply #9 on:** November 08, 2006, 02:09:00 PM »

QUOTE(blue_calx @ Nov 8 2006, 09:15 PM)

I really wish there was a method to transcode 5.1 AC3 to 5.1 WMA...VLC won't do it and none of the other utilities will out there will as far as i know

I just did a file that used 5.1 AC3 and it workd fine and I still have dolby digital on the 360. This works really well and it takes less than 10 minutes to complete a 40 minute tv episode plus you can begin playing right away.

This post has been edited by rasstar: Nov 8 2006, 10:13 PM

Caldor · « **Reply #10 on:** November 08, 2006, 02:47:00 PM »

Windows media encoder 9 is the best way to transcode into WMV on WMV8.9.9-AP and WMA8,WMA10P. Multithreaded too. In cases where it wont accept the source format I would use mencoder as a last resort.

The 360 uses only one thread while streaming video and in fact has two decoders - one for HD-DVD mode which is only enabled with the HD-DVD plugged in. Therefore VC-1 has to be set for specific peak and avrage bit rates and frame rates for a given resolution.

rasstar · « **Reply #11 on:** November 08, 2006, 02:53:00 PM »

QUOTE(Caldor @ Nov 8 2006, 10:54 PM)

Windows media encoder 9 is the best way to transcode into WMV on WMV8.9.9-AP and WMA8,WMA10P. Multithreaded too. In cases where it wont accept the source format I would use mencoder as a last resort.

The 360 uses only one thread while streaming video and in fact has two decoders - one for HD-DVD mode which is only enabled with the HD-DVD plugged in. Therefore VC-1 has to be set for specific peak and avrage bit rates and frame rates for a given resolution.

This works much better and faster. No time wasting setting up options. It transcodes it with the same settings as the original and they look identical. Plus with WM encoder you cannot look at the file while it is encoding.

Bizquick · « **Reply #12 on:** November 08, 2006, 03:32:00 PM »

This is joke. MS needs to add support for DIVX. You know I bought a Dvd player that plays Divx files just cause I know one day my Xbox1 will die and I wont have a good chance of finding a replacement. And sometimes its easyer to teach my wife how to just burn the xvid files on to dvd than to explain how to use XBMC. but this honestly is a joke that we can have our old Xbox 1's actualy do more than what the new great Xbox360. if MS wanted to they could take XBMC and modifiy enough of it to work on the x360 and add it to the dash or sell it as a product. Its really sad that MS is not helping the open source just cause they want to make money off it. It makes me like the Idea of using Mac's and linux alot more.

DMAddict · « **Reply #13 on:** November 08, 2006, 03:35:00 PM »

Like xmos, I'll just keep using my xb1 for streaming.

QUOTE(rasstar @ Nov 8 2006, 12:16 PM)

I uses AoA DVD ripper and the quality was superb.

kinda off topic ? for you rasstar, kinda not. Will AoA convert dvr-ms file to avi? I've always had a tuff time finding a good/easy converter for those file.

mark403 · « **Reply #14 on:** November 08, 2006, 04:44:00 PM »

QUOTE(rasstar @ Nov 8 2006, 10:16 PM)

I just did a file that used 5.1 AC3 and it workd fine and I still have dolby digital on the 360. This works really well and it takes less than 10 minutes to complete a 40 minute tv episode plus you can begin playing right away.

you sure you didnt just make a stereo one and *thought it was 5.1" when played on ur 360 ??
only asking because the batch file is onyl set up to create a WMV with 2 channel audio...

i tried doing this transcoding and then muxing in the 5.1 audio from the original file, (ripped out with vDubmod and transcoded to WMA with WME), with windows media stream editor but ended up with garbage.

i spend a little more time over my WMV's, 3 - 4 hours and i got an exact same quality video with the original 5.1 audio in a nice WMV format.

Author Topic: How-To: Transcode and stream videos on Xbox 360 (Read 198 times)