TLynnM4591 that only works when using the Zune software as the media server for the Xbox 360. You can install the Zune software & use it without having to actually own the hardware.

Just download and install and go into setting and enable streaming to the Xbox but be aware that the Zune software only supports WMV/H.264 (main profile) streaming to the Xbox 360 when it comes to video (no Divx in AVI).

I don't have a surround sound system but videos with AC3 5.1 audio do indeed play, fast forward and rewind works well though the chapter skip is the same as before with H.264 videos in that it does not support any built in chapter marks the video itself may have but when you press the chapter skip button it will jump ahead  to an amount determined by how long the video is in total & that applies to all videos.

cw-kid glad to hear it worked for you I have posted better instructions on my blog along with an update for 64-bit support so Vista 64-bit can stream from 32-bit WMP11 which is the default player (it appears to be working but still not 100% certain need to do more tests).

As for videos I would recommend that you check out Xvid4PSP and it's MP4 Xbox 360 profile for converting unless you are familiar with more advanced software like MeGUI which also has an Xbox profile.

If you use the Zune player can you also get MP3 album art on the dashboard?

Also, does the Xvid4PSP embed the album art or would I still need  a separate utility like you mentioned before. I am not familiar with H.264 and am assuming it is the MP4 or Xvid format? Sorry for my ignorance, I haver never used that format, if you could point me in the right direction, I would be happy to read up on it.

Thanks, this sounds interesting.

TLynnM4591:

hobo-2,

Thanks for the respose, but not sure if I follow you. The method you listed, embedding  the artwork, is that the method that only works with the Zune or does that work without the Zune? I dont have the Zune and dont think the thing would hold my DVD collection.

Also, streaming the Dixv from WMP11 to xbox360; do you have any surround sound? And can you fast forward, rewind, and chapter skip? These are basics that I am not willing to do without.

Thanks.

I don't have an actual  Zune hardware device, I was refering to the Zune software. I embedded art working in to my MP4's using MP3tag and then on the XBOX dashboard connected to the Zune software I could see the artwork when browsing the MP4 files. However having said that last night I could not see the art work maybe something has changed with the update?

I can now stream AVI and MP4 files from WMP11 to the dashboard and just MP4 files from the Zune software to the dashboard. I don't think there is away at the moment to make the Zune software see AVI files ???
I really like the new source switching in the media blade in the dashboard, just press X and you can switch between WMP11 / Zune / Tveristy or what ever your media servers are on your PC.
Before you had to connect to one in System setup and then disconnect if you wanted to connect to another media server.

I don't have a surround sound system connect to my XBOX in the bedroom but I do have an amp and stereo speakers. I can also FF and RW, AVI and MP4 movies cool!

---

Stu

aka C-Dub



The Windows Media Center Blog

Tips Tricks & News!

TLynnM4591:

If you use the Zune player can you also get MP3 album art on the dashboard?

Also, does the Xvid4PSP embed the album art or would I still need  a separate utility like you mentioned before. I am not familiar with H.264 and am assuming it is the MP4 or Xvid format? Sorry for my ignorance, I haver never used that format, if you could point me in the right direction, I would be happy to read up on it.

Thanks, this sounds interesting.

I'm no expert on video formats but as far as I understood it H.264 is MP4.
I used ImToo MP4 Convertor 3 software to convert downloaded AVI files to MP4's using the MPEG-4 AVC profile.
I was doing this before we could stream AVI's directly to the dashboard, and I was using the Zune software to stream the MP4's to the dashboard instead of WMP11 as I could never get WMP11 to stream MP4's untill Hobo's reg file!
Now that the dashboard support's AVI's there is no point for me in converting them to MP4 any more unless I buy a Zune player and want to play my movies on that device as I doubt the Zune 2 players support AVI yet.

---

Stu

aka C-Dub



The Windows Media Center Blog

Tips Tricks & News!

A short primer - there are three MPEG-4 video specifications of note.

MPEG-4 ASP - this is what DivX is based off, DivX along with 3ivx, Nerodigital are commercial implementations of this video format. XviD is an open source implementation of it.

The containers used depends on the flavor of the codec DivX uses .avi/.divx, XviD uses .avi/.mp4, Nerodigital uses .mp4 and 3ivx uses .avi/.mp4. The Xbox 360 now supports MPEG-4 ASP in .avi & .divx containers.

MPEG-4 SP - this is a simpler version of the above standard and is what Apples MPEG4 in .mov files is based off along with some other niche or out of date codecs. The Xbox 360 actually supports MPEG-4 SP in .mp4 containers.

MPEG-4 AVC - otherwise known as H.264 video which is a wide ranging format designed to accommodate H.264 video on cell phones to broadcast quality video to HD movies. Because of the H.264 specification is so large it was compartmentalized into profiles with baseline (the most basic implementation) followed by main profile (middle of the road) and then high profile (the full works).

Nerodigital AVC, x264, Apple H.264, Mainconept, Flash 9 & more are all based off this standard though generally again Apples is the most basic and all the others are H.264 high profile. The Zune software however is H.264 main profile only & will not accept non-compatible H.264 videos into it's library but the Xbox 360 can play back up to H.264 high profile in .mp4 containers.

The official container for H.264 video is the MP4 container though it can also be shoehorned into the .AVI container but there are limitations from doing so and finally the open source container .MKV but MKV is special as it can hold any combination of video/audio.

The MP4 container supports all of the above video types along with MP3, AAC HE, AAC LC and AAC 5.1 as audio formats but not every piece of software implements those options and not every device supports those in playback. The Xbox 360 only supports AAC LC audio in MP4 no other types are supported.

Phew...

TLynnM4591 - XviD4PSP is just an encoder it will not embed cover art in .mp4 files whether they are video or audio for that you must manually use mp3tag software and inject the jpg yourself into the file.

The Zune software should auto display & download cover/album art for any music that is in it's library ( and that goes for audio ripped to .mp4 containers too) if the .mp4 file has video in it then it will generate a thumbnail and display that in the Xbox dash. If there is cover art in the video .mp4 file then that will over-ride the thumbnail and the dash will display the cover art instead.

going back to the issue with DivX native inside Media Centre - appreciate I may be telling people how to suck eggs but TVserity now sits inside MCE and will playback DivX natively with ff/rw etc etc so yes its ugly, yes its stupid and yes you can do this outside of MCE entirely but you can also do it under one roof..almost !!!

ac_v0dka666:

going back to the issue with DivX native inside Media Centre - appreciate I may be telling people how to suck eggs but TVserity now sits inside MCE and will playback DivX natively with ff/rw etc etc so yes its ugly, yes its stupid and yes you can do this outside of MCE entirely but you can also do it under one roof..almost !!!

I didn't know this, I used TVersity a little bit to stream stuff to my Sony PSP that's all I ever used it for. So there is a TVersity add-in now for media center? Interesting.  

Hobo thanks for the information on the video formats, I always find it hard for some reason to get my head round it all.

---

Stu

aka C-Dub



The Windows Media Center Blog

Tips Tricks & News!

its just a link within MCE to the application but it does save you from going in / out of the dashboard and take straight back to the MCE root menu easily. Its not perfect by any stretch of the imagination and nor is the interface as clean as MCE but under the hood, looks like they are miles ahead of M$....will also encode on the fly for MKV HD if your rig is up to it.

 

 

 

For anyone having success streaming Divx to the dashboard (non-Media Center):

Are the files able to play 5.1 surround sound (AC3)?

Also, what about fast forward, rewind, chapter skip, etc.? Also if anyone can tell me how to tag a Divx file with metadata (actor, genre, cover art, etc) I would be greatly appreciative.

 

Thanks in advance.

I've played several DivX files through the dashboard and it works great.  Can't comment on 5.1 sound but fast forward works, it's choppy but it works.  Chapter skip works fine.  I don't have any experience with metadata, sorry.