Unfortunately, licensing fees and digital rights concerns have limited the patch to WMV-support only. Being Microsoft's proprietary format, WMV is neither popular or oft-used, taking a backseat to preferred codecs like DivX and XviD. And so, we're still left scrambling for a solution to getting our video content onto Xbox 360.
Windows Media Center users have enjoyed on-the-fly transcoding for some time, courtesy of Transcode 360. 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:
Luckily, Happy Beggar has already taken care of most of the legwork. The site recently compared three (WMV-capable) transcoding applications: VLC, WinAvi 7.7, and Windows Media Encoder. The clear winner, in both speed and quality, was VLC, an open source media player that has a history of proven functionality. VLC is what we'll use for this guide.
Step One: Download VLC (official website). Exctract the folder to the root of your hard disc drive (usually "C:\"):
For clarity, rename folder as "vlc":
Step Two: To make things even easier, Happy Beggar provides us with a supplemental batch file that optimizes transcoding (download here).
Step Three: Move/copy batch file into the folder where the videos you wish to transcode are contained:
Step Four: Drag and drop a video file onto the batch file:
Command Prompt will automatically launch (and execute batch script), followed by VLC; transcoding begins:
(Arrow: WMV is automatically added to the oringal file's folder)
[Note: Transcoding times will vary. Happy Beggar was able to convert a typical 42-minute TV show (hour-long program with commercials removed) from XviD to WMV in 13 minutes; it took us just over twenty minutes for the same size file.]
Step Five: At this point, you can transer the newly created WMV file(s) to a thumbdrive or burn them onto a CD/DVD; or better, stream them from your PC (Windows XP required) to your Xbox 360. [For help establishing a connection between your PC and Xbox 360, see here.]
You could use Windows Media Player 11 (guide here) or TVersity (guide here) to tag your videos for sharing, but we've found the simpliest approach is to add your WMV files (as they're created) to a folder (example: "My Videos") that has been set up to share with the Xbox 360.
To set up a folder for sharing, launch the Windows Media Connect application (under Network and Internet Connections) from the Control Panel:
Select the "Sharing" tab and add the folder you keep your WMV videos in:
- 1. Select "Sharing"
- 2. Click "Add..."
- 3. Locate folder (and rename, if desired)
- 4. Allow folder to be shared with Xbox 360
- 5. Click "OK" to add
Step Six: Now it's time to fire up your Xbox 360 (first: make sure your PC is on and Windows Media Connect is enabled). Navigate to the Media Blade and select "Videos," and then (1) select "Computer"; (2) select the video you wish to stream; (3) Select "Play":
Voilà (on HD monitor):
On standard-def TV:
On 57-inch Projection HDTV:
[Note: video quality will vary and is dependant on several key factors: (1) quality of original video file; (2) transcoding settings (Happy Beggar batch file is designed to use optimal settings); (3) the display -- we found that videos looked best on a 25-inch standard-def TV because the lower resolution muted most of the WMV's imperfections (due to compression).]
While tedious, transcoding your video files to WMV is simple -- and free. If you're the type to catch up on TV's latest hunched over your computer screen -- or perhaps delve into other, more sordid, types of video -- now you can consider moving that experience onto your Xbox 360. Enjoy.
[Thanks to Happy Beggar for its good work!]
(Page 1) Reader Comments
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcoding
Alex: this IS a guide on transcoding and streaming. If you want to do it "on-the-fly" you have one option: use Windows Media Center and Transcode360. We mention that right there in the guide, remember?
"Windows Media Center users have enjoyed on-the-fly transcoding for some time, courtesy of Transcode 360. 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."
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
I just gave that T2 disc a shot.
No dice.
Still puts up the dialog that it is playable in a PC and to return to the main menu.
Bummer
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
For those asking for a true streaming transcoding solution... are you high? Or do you just not understand the computational load of video decoding and encoding? Unless you have hardware acceleration, video encoding is going to take a very, very long time if you want to get anywhere near decent quality. Transcoding from Xvid or Divx into WMV is a cardinal sin of video processing anyways, since you're going from lossy format to lossy format. That is Just Not Done.
Myself, the way I get my Divx and Xvid files onto my HDTV, I switch inputs over to my modded Xbox running XBMC (total cost: $120) and I browse my fileserver and stream the video straight from there in whatever format it's in. No re-encoding, no quality loss, hell I can even apply quality enhancing filters to the output! It can't handle true HD content, but it handles the greater-than-DVD resolution Xvid and h.264 encodes that come from HD sources, and it looks great. If only it had a more powerful processor...
There are no licensing or DRM issues preventing Microsoft from including Divx and Xvid support. They're both MPEG-4 formats. So is WMV. So is Quicktime. They only vary by sound compression formats and container formatting issues. The only thing stopping Microsoft is Microsoft. No one would be able to sue them or anything like that if they supported Xvid and Divx.
Shredso: Expect less than DVD quality.
Reply
Reply
Of course, you can do it very easily with a PC and a modded Xbox running XBMC. Or a home theater PC running MythTV or Sage or most other non-Microsoft media center software solutions.
Can you see the future? The only consumers not writhing in pain will be those living in the sewers and hacking their Nikes to remove the nails from the sole, hunted day and night by cybernetic lawyers/bounty hunters.
Reply
Reply
Streaming to the 360 was the one thing I forgot about when I switched, oops. :-\
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Gee, I wonder why they think that?
Reply
Gee, I wonder why they think that?"
Because a small minority are. I'd be willing to bet that 95% of movie watchers buy or rent DVD, and the other 5% pirate (in the states, at least).
Reply
If you have a subscription to cable TV, downloading the shows you could have watched when they aired will never be something the courts will declare illegal. It is technically illegal now only because no one has had the money to fight the DMCA to the supreme court. As soon as they do, it will fall in a heartbeat. It's like the Communications Decency Act was... overly-broad and legally worthless.
Reply
A more probable scenario is making the DiVx support an item that can be pruchased on the Xbox Live Marketplace. If it required the purchased version of DiVx on the PC side it would make the DiVx folks especially happy. A combined cost of under $30 would be pretty reasonable. DiVx Pro can currently be had for $14 with a coupon code but the MPEG-2 support cost an additional $10. If, like me, you're pulling files from a DVR for permanent retention, converting to DiVx saves a huge amount of space but also makes that MPEG-2 support a critical item.
Reply
Reply
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Reply
and to Creepy17 above..
Make sure if you used the installer, instead of the zip folder, to change the directory info in the batch file to where you installed the program.. I had this issue too.. (default install was C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC) Just change the info in the Quotes in the first line, not all just the directory *it starts with it*, to that and you should be set..
Reply
Reply
it's happening because the batch (I'm pretty sure) points to an .exe in the folder (Hard Drive Designation)\VLC. if you've got the program extracted in a subfolder of HDD\VLC or another location it will show the command screen but will not locate the program. try moving your VLC folder if that's the case, and it should work fine.
Reply
For those interested, check back on my site, I have now an updated set of batch file to produce cleaner looking file for both 4:3 and 16:9 content.
Can you beleive it, playing with resolution I noticed that the 360 seem to have a bug with some resolution. If you feed the 360 with a WMV of 640x360 it will alway play it as a 16:9 Aspect Ratio... even if it is flagged as 4:3. The same file will play as 4:3 in WMP11... so it is clearly a bug.
I actually ran into a similar bug with the MPEG2 decoding engine when working with runtime on Transcode 360. We had to come up with a work around to fix the issue.
Cheers!
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
"c:\vlc\vlc" -vvv %1 --sout-ffmpeg-qscale 1 :sout=#transcode{vcodec=WMV2,scale=1,acodec=wma,ab=96
Reply
Reply
Transcode converts your media on the fly! you don't need to do all this manual crap!
And u donโt have to do all that.. they have no idea!
All u do is install transude 360 on ur pc.
You just click on media center (on the 360) then point to the video file u wanna watch (any xvid or divx) and on the remote click more.. then choose trascode.
Thatโs it.. it converts and streams on the fly without you leaving your chair.
Reply
Search on VLC and dvdsimple.
Reply
Reply