Streaming Media to Xbox360

[Luke122]

I few weeks ago there was a brief discussion in here about LinuxMCE vs Xbox Media Center, vs Xbox360.

LinuxMCE is a bit tricky to configure, and as it's still in Beta, it's pretty flaky with very limited hardware support.

XBMC is killer in every aspect except for HD video.. the regular Xbox doesnt have enough processing power to decode anything from 720p up.

Xbox360 (I was told) is apparently able to stream HD video, so I jumped at a chance to test this out on a friends system. He's got a Windows Media Center PC also, so there was almost no configuration required to make it go.

With one exception. The 360 cannot stream Xvid, DivX, MKV, MP4, h.264, or Quicktime (MOV) files. What does it play? MPG, MPEG2, and WMV videos. Only.

This site (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/musicandvideo/hdvideo/contentshowcase.aspx) has a bunch of HD clips in WMV format, and they do stream without an issue to the xbox, even the 1080p stuff. So that means that it IS possible, it's just a pain in the ass to make it happen unless it's already in the right format.

I did a bunch of reading about how to get his Divx collection to stream, and after a TON of useless info, I did find a method that works, using something called MCE. Install it on the computer, and it runs resident in the systray on startup. On the XB360, select the video you want, hit the "more" option, and select "Start Encoder". Wait until the confirmation message (10-15 secs), then hit "Play Encoder". Then, select the thumbnail image, and click it to go fullscreen.

Be prepared to be disappointed. Quality SUCKS. (Part 2 to follow)

[Luke122]

So, if encoding on the fly and streaming is going to result in such crap quality, and MS wont support the common formats that people keep asking for, then what are we to do?

Well, using VLC was proposed by a few people also to stream. Then I found something really cool.. a pre-written script (actually a batch file) that you can use to convert your media to WMV in one step.. drag and drop. (http://happybeggar.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=60&Itemid=2)

The speed is not great (just about 1:1), but it works! It's worked every time so far that I've tested, including a 720p mkv file (1.5gb). The final output was about 1.8gb, so there's a bit of a gain in size, but the file quality is almost as good as the original!

So.. while still not as good as a PC based stream for HD, or an XBMC stream of anything but HD, the 360 can stream acceptable quality of most media.

[crenn]

The sad thing about WMV is even if you have more than one core, you can only ever encode with the 1 core (it can spread over more.... but I've found it faster to use a single core)

[Luke122]

In case anyone is interested, we did find a workaround for my friend with the 1080p tv and the Xbox360.

We connected his TV directly to the vga output on his computer, and his monitor to the DVI output, and set up the TV as a secondary display. Yay, full HD quality output from the PC with zero conversion, frame dropping/skipping, and a "one time" configuration. haha..

OK, so it doesnt exactly solve the issue of streaming through the Xbox 360, but I'm continuing to work on the problem. I'll update more as it happens.

[Luke122]

Update! I havent tried it yet, but apparently Winamp Remote supports streaming to the Xbox360. I'll investigate further when I can. :)

[NightrainSrt4]

We connected his PC directly to the vga output on his computer

I was interested and following you except for here I don't understand?

[Greco101]

I didn't get it either lol, but I have a feeling he meant he hooked up his monitor to the vga and the tv through the dvi?

[Luke122]

My bad.. we hooked his TV up to the vga output on the computer. :blush:

We used the DVI connector to his monitor on the desk, and the VGA output to the TV. :) We didnt have a DVI to HDMI cable, so we just went vga-vga. Yes, analog video to the 1080p TV, but it looks great anyways. :D

I've been doing a bit of reading on the Winamp Remote software to stream to Xbox360, but apparently it's still pretty much in Beta. I've continued to use my regular Xbox running XBMC to stream my media to my TV, but for the HD video (720p) I'm using a PC connected directly to the TV. Not a very graceful solution, and it does require a PC (rather than the xbox or xbox360), but what are you gonna do? :D

LinuxMCE "sort of" worked for me, but I wasnt happy enough with the video quality, and with all the "half-assery" going on with the rest of my hardware (compatibility issues), I backed off on that.