Ok so my roommate just got an xbox 360 and we want to be able to play all our movies/tv shows/etc on it over the lan. We got the media center extender working but none of our videos will play on it. How do we deal with this? I DO NOT want to convert everything to .wmv. Has anyone had any luck with transcode 360, or any other methods to play .mkv files?

2/6/2008 7:47:31 PM

if you get the dashboard update, the 360 now supports divx/xvid and most other directshow wrappers.

AFAIK it doesnt work with the Windows Media Extender, you have to use the media connect from the dashboard, or connect through a windows home server.

It DOES work with files on a burned cd/dvd, as well as USB thumbdrive/hard drives attached to the 360.

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/xbox-360-divx%5Cxvid-test/xbox-360-divxxvid-playback-tested-verdict-its-almost-perfect-329769.php

MKV does not work (the 360 supports h264/x264, but it doesnt support the MKV wrapper). You can transcode all your mkv stuff to MP4 compliant h264

http://jakebillo.com/2008/02/04/playing-x264h264mkv-on-the-xbox-360/

its actually VERY simple and VERY fast to transcode, because you are just swapping the wrappers basically. for the rare stuff I get in mkv its about the same speed as unrar to transcode it. plus mp4 avi files means I can use windows media player instead of VLC/MPC which i hate.

[Edited on February 6, 2008 at 8:14 PM. Reason : .]

2/6/2008 8:09:38 PM

^we're trying media connect now. It sucks because about 95% of my movies are .mkv.

-Ok we got media connect working. It plays everything except .mkv files. Considering 95% of my movies are.mkv, and most of my tv shows are.

It's just a pain because my other roommates modded original xbox will play .mkv files and this won't. Theres gotta be a workaround.

-So if i wanted to watch anything i'd have to individually convert each .mkv file to another wrapper? If there was a batch option i might consider it, but almost everything i have is .mkv 720p/1080p.

[Edited on February 6, 2008 at 9:01 PM. Reason : .]

2/6/2008 8:44:51 PM

yep im in the process of converting my hd stuff to mp4 avi standard.

The problem isnt the xbox, its that MKV as a format does everything its own proprietary way. As much as you may hate on it, the avi container is the standard.

The difference is on your original xbox you were running homebrew code, on the 360 its legitimate, supported services. And I highly doubt you were running anything HD on it

I'm sure you could batch it all with a pretty basic batch script.

oh, and you dont need transcode at all anymore BTW

[Edited on February 6, 2008 at 9:31 PM. Reason : .]

2/6/2008 9:30:47 PM

Sweet figured it out. Yeah I can convert a folder, then I have a batch filename/extension program I can use. Thanks!

2/6/2008 9:34:56 PM

I had no luck getting this to work with Windows XP (not using the media center route, using the methods described online). It would not play DivX files through the network, but had no problem playing them from a flash drive. I installed TVersity and everything works, but its a pain to have to run another background program, plus it doesnt keep the organization I already have (ie, everything shows up in the same folder). XBMC remains with the television for now.

On the plus side, it will play MKV files...but not very well. It transcodes them on the fly, but Im guessing unless you have a super-fast PC or a lot of time to wait, it wont be of any use.

2/6/2008 10:25:28 PM

modded xbox1 spoiled us but the 360 vc1/5.1 audio support works really well along with the other codecs. so don't count out wmv based stuff.

wmp11 will also share media for you (if you already use vista) and don't need to use media connect or WHS. setup sharing in it, allow the xbox to connect to your share, and then it'll work from then on.

a modded xbox1 with the latest XBMC will find your wmp11 share as well (using UPNP) and if you have vids on there, it'll play them (unless its HD and too much for the 733mhz cpu).

[Edited on February 6, 2008 at 10:44 PM. Reason : .]

2/6/2008 10:30:16 PM

So i converted a few of my .mkv files to .avi so i was able to play them on the 360, but i noticed the audio converted to 2.0, from its original 5.1 source.

According to what Noen posted:
http://jakebillo.com/2008/02/04/playing-x264h264mkv-on-the-xbox-360/

Quote :

"There is still a way to view HD content (with 2 channel sound) on the Xbox 360: transcoding the audio track and repackaging the MKV file into a MP4 container. This process takes significantly less time than converting both video and audio, and the visual quality is maintained. You do lose the additional 3.1 channels, but it’s better than having to install a Core 2 Duo E6750 under your TV just to play these files."

So no matter what i do if i want to play them on the 360 i have to sacrifice 5.1 sound? All my movies are 5.1, and i want to keep them that way to play them on my computer.

2/6/2008 10:45:39 PM

^ Any 264 stuff is limited to 2 channel.

Here's a good link of what the 360 currently supports:

http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archive/2007/11/30/december-2007-video-playback-faq.aspx

2/6/2008 10:50:49 PM

My original files are .mkv files with 5.1 surround. So when I convert them to .264/.avi I am limited to 2 channels?

If I wanted to keep the 5.1 sound and have them play on the xbox my only option would be to download/convert them to .wmv files w/ vc1/5.1 audio support?

[Edited on February 6, 2008 at 10:59 PM. Reason : .]

2/6/2008 10:57:04 PM

There's absolutely no reason to not use WMV. Transcode your stuff and stop using a shitty wrapper like MKV.

Go find the "XBOX360_HD_Movie_Encoding_Pack_UPDATE_july2007" it has everything you need and handy pictures.

2/6/2008 11:27:27 PM

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=616929

This says i'm able to use windows media encoder with .mkv files, but when i attempt to it doesn't recognize the .mkv file.

^i have no issue with converting everything to .wmv. I just wonder why everything is in the .mkv wrapper. It's rare to find something encoded in .wmv. What's the best method to convert it?

[Edited on February 6, 2008 at 11:35 PM. Reason : .]

2/6/2008 11:30:13 PM

i got mine to play mov and mp4 files natively without transcoding or MCE.. don't need to convert anything when itunes downloads podcasts.. with the right directshow filters and reg keys to make WMP11 think it can play the file extension.

2/7/2008 12:16:51 AM

Quote :

"i got mine to play mov and mp4 files natively"

From what i understand, the 360 already plays .mov and mp4 files natively:

http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archive/2007/11/30/december-2007-video-playback-faq.aspx

I was talking about the .mkv wrapper.

2/7/2008 12:19:07 AM

Quote :

"I just wonder why everything is in the .mkv wrapper. "

Dumbass Linux kids.

Quote :

"What's the best method to convert it?"

Get the pack I mentioned. Really it's more an instruction guide than anything. The most complicated part of the whole procedure is that Windows Media Encoder, for whatever reason, won't let you encode VC-1 video and WMA 10 Pro 5.1 audio at the same time, so you have to encode both separately and then use Windows Media Stream Editor to combine the two streams.

2/7/2008 12:40:56 AM

I'll try. It just seems like too much trouble to individually convert every movie/tv show i want to watch on the 360 to .wmv. That would take forever.

Quote :

"Dumbass Linux kids. "

who obviously don't have 360s.

2/7/2008 12:56:54 AM

http://www.orb.com/orb/

That will allow me to play ANY file type on the 360, including .mkvs. It just takes a little longer than media connect to buffer. Better in my opinion than converting every single .mkv to .wmv.

2/7/2008 9:15:32 PM

Orb is just another transcoder though, which defeats the purpose entirely.

2/7/2008 10:21:20 PM

Lol, i have no reason to mod my roommate's original xbox anymore right? I seriously had no idea i could do this with the 360.

[Edited on February 10, 2008 at 5:40 PM. Reason : .]

2/10/2008 5:39:52 PM

bah, do i need vista or MC ?

wmp11 won't find my 360, but im connected to live and what not grr

[Edited on February 10, 2008 at 6:41 PM. Reason : .]

2/10/2008 6:20:14 PM

You should be able to share files through windows media player, and your 360 should be able to see them when you go to "media connect", NOT media center.

Roommate just picked up this for the apartment:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8386285&type=product&id=1181831586462

Finally we can rid the apartment of the 27" SDTV!!

2/10/2008 7:11:24 PM

I had to manually enable some services to get wmp11 to proceed past "share media" It would just sit there and cycle the checkbox/OK button without ever actually doing anything. I think I've got it now. Gonna test on the xbox in a min. scanning 300gb takes a while

^my roommate took his lcd HDTV into his room, we moved the furniture so the projector doesn't work where the ceiling mount is, so now all we have in the living room is an old DLP projection where the guns are misaligned and it crops most of the left hand side and bottom of the blades off. Wonderful. Wish I had non-broke roommates

[Edited on February 10, 2008 at 8:34 PM. Reason : .]

2/10/2008 8:32:55 PM

Got tired of trying to deal with transcoding and that all bs, so we just hooked my old dell laptop up to the tv to play all the HD stuff.

2/17/2008 8:05:22 PM