Sharing Data from PC to Xbox 360, Videos, music, and pictures. Options

[I Am Aurora]

dang im paying 46 a year for xbl gold service and im suprised that they dont have a little hosting tab maybe like 1 gb per user, or more for more money, and u could go to your account on the marketplace and download stuff u uploaded from ur pc . that would be cool. how many months b4 something good comes out which we can copy movies and music etc to the hd? its driving me crazy

[tmac_27]

Does anyone know if we are able to stream radio from the computer to xbox if we have windows media center?

[tdiamond14]

I haven't heard about radio streams to the xbox yet.

XBMC with a moded original xbox will though

[CalisFinest]

is there anyway to download a videogame onto ur computer then streem it onto ur Xbox 360 or something

[EcksBawks]

Is there any way to set it up to play your own video content on burned dvd if you have a fw hack/modchip?

[Jonolche]

Calis, if you are talking about downloading a xbox 360 game from the internet, and playing it on your xbox. Thats piracy, and is not suitable for talk here. But if you are not, the answer is no.

Eckw, and what do you mean by video content. As in a movie? Burn it to a dvd with nero, or some other dvd burining program. You dont even need a firmware hack, or modchip.

[myfranco]

Jonolche he means streaming videos(avi,divx etc..) not video game
as far as i know,you can only stream pics and mp3s not movies

[chek1234]

Is a harddrive required to use MP3s from the computer to play during a game?

Also, how do I play MP3s from my computer in a game?

Thanks!

[DR3AD]

Ok I have just purchased a 360 Premium (wireless with HDD etc) and decided to sort out some of these questions. I am new to these forums also but will help in any way I can.

Playing Video media on Xbox360


HOW IT WORKS

You can stream video media to your xbox directly using a network connection. you must have a fairly decent pc and have your xbox360 connected to it via wireless or network cable, what I mean is the pc and the xbox360 must be networked. The xbox360 does not need a HDD unit for this to work, nor do you need any codecs or media software on the XBOX360, everything you need on the XBOX360 end is inlcuded when you buy it (premium consoles with hdd come with sexy remote though ). All of the hard work is done by the PC, the media is streamed (decoded and played on the pc, with the images /sound only being sent to the xbox in near realtime). There are certain things you need to know for this to work, most is discussed on many other websiter including the official XBOX website FAQ and forums.




-You MUST have XP Media centre 2005 sp2 (as at 17th sept 2006 standard xp does not do video, only music and pictures, hence i suggest that you aquire XPMCE2005, less hassle does everything. I could not find any software mods for standard or pro xp to do what mce does ). Obviously your pc must be good enought to run this OS.


-You will need the Xbox 360 media centre extender software from the xbox official website (go to media/media centre in xbox360 console for the website.)

-If you want to play non supported video files you will need the appropriate codec on your pc, aswell as extra software to recode the video or to transcode it (recoding on the fly).

-You will need to authenticate the XBOX with XPMCE, to do this go to the Media Blade on the XBOX360, select media centre, and follow the instructios. It will provide a code that you can then enter into the extneder software on the PC. Basically all it is doing is making a user account in media centre for that particular XBOX360, which is needed to stream the video media.

\\\\All of this is pretty straight forward, after the code is entered you can select the folders/drives on your pc you want to share./////

The tricky part is the fact that MS only included streaming capabilities for a very limited number of video file types. When you try to play .avi, Xvids or 99.9% of any compressed video files via streaming on the XBOX360 it gives a message like "cannot play media, file is corrupted or codec not present"

Within 3 minutes of searching google under XBOX360 CODECS i had all the info I needed.


2 ways to play your media

TRANSCODING- process involving Software that will decode the video file, and present it to the XBOX360 in a format it understands and can play. It does this on the fly, which means that it will do this while you are watching the video media.

Transcoding is awesome, it means you dont have to spend any time recoding everything, and leaves your media in the same format you had it in to begin with, so it doesnt make any permanent changes to the video as such. The downside is that it chews PC resources, depending on the original file format it can make your pc practically unusable until you finish the video. I reccomend "Transcode 360"

RECODING- Process involving software that decodes the video, and then recodes it or leaves it in a raw format, you can then play it on the 360.

Recoding is tedious and requires you to get your pc to change every file you want to play into a format the 360 can play. you cannot watch the media at the same time, you need to change it before you can watch it It alters the file, so when you recode it it is a different file then what you started with. The upside is that it uses less PC resources when you are playing these on your 360 then if it is transcoded. I cant recommend any because I dont use this method, but someone mention the software I would look at first earlier in this thread.


I went with the transcoding option, and am pleased to say that I can now watch all of my ingame videos ( I record alot of demos in pc games, and like to watch demos recorded by others aswell) and free web tv show on my television, Thanks to a program called "Transcode 360". It is free and easy enough to find on google.

To play using transcode 360 you need to highlight the video file on the xbox, but instead of pressing enter or play (will still return same error) you hit info (only on xbox media centre remote with premuim pack) which will give you a little menu, select "more info" and press "Transcode" and your video will play.



IF YOU WANT THE MOST OUT OF YOUR 360 FOR MEDIA

-BUY A PREMIUM CONSOLE OR BUY THE REMOTE (hre in Australia the remote + core = premium price anyway)

-Make sure you got XP MEDIA CENTRE 2005 SP2

-Get TRANSCODE 360 (Its free but you can make donations to suport their great work)


then you can do much more with your XBOX 360


If anyone wants to add more to this post or use info in it go right ahead, I am not great at writing stuff like this but I hope I helped. Most of this information is easily accesible elsewhere on the net if you care to take 5 minutes to look.

[DR3AD]

When using media connect to stream music to my 360, I've encountered an annoying issue. Media connect allows you to share individual folders of music, but the 360 will only see the music files directly in that folder and not in subfolders beneath it. Personally like a lot of people I have all my music organized in subfolders. I'm certainly not going to share the hundereds of subfolders individually...so does anyone know a way around this?

It should show subfolders also. Selct the top Music folder with all you sub folders in it in media connect and it should show them on the XBOX360. Make sure your running the newest version of media connect, and that your XBOX dash is up to date also via Live. For a better answer to your question , please let me know if your using Normal XP or media centre.

How do I make a play list? I got songs that don't show up in "albums" only under "artist" and i want to only play certan ones. I put them in the same folder on the PC but it didn't help.

You need to make a playlist in Windows Media playe on the PCr, and then save it. I will test this for you but It is my understanding that you cvan share playlists with the XBOX360 using media connect, or if you save the playlist on your pc in one of your shared folders.

you can also add music to "current playlist" on the XBOX 360, and save them, but it will only save if the songs are ripped onto the HDD unit for the XBOX 360 via a cd.

Does anyone know if we are able to stream radio from the computer to xbox if we have windows media center?

I am pretty certain you Can. I noticed when I was setting up the Media Connect software for MCE2005 that it was sharing some of my radio stations when searching for songs etc in my selected folders. I believe it also has a radio option in the media centre menu somewhere on the XBOX.

Is a harddrive required to use MP3s from the computer to play during a game?

Also, how do I play MP3s from my computer in a game?

Thanks!

You do not need a HDD unti to play music during Games afaik. It streams them direct from the PC, and is stated on several sites that you dont need a HDD to play songs etc. To play music in game, connect to your XP or Media centre PC using media connect.

Onec that is done you can push the ring of light on your controller (dont hold it in just press it) and you will get a side menu. you will notice controls etc for music in there. HAVE FUN .

[csenoj]

I am able to stream music from my 360 but if I want to save my music directly onto my 360 HD from my computer, what is the best way to do that? Every time I try to go to media center it gives me my 8 digit code and says that the program will sk me for it. The program never asks me for it and I'm frozen on the next screen where is says to leave your console while I install the software. Any suggestions or what am I doing wrong?

[DR3AD]

I am able to stream music from my 360 but if I want to save my music directly onto my 360 HD from my computer, what is the best way to do that? Every time I try to go to media center it gives me my 8 digit code and says that the program will sk me for it. The program never asks me for it and I'm frozen on the next screen where is says to leave your console while I install the software. Any suggestions or what am I doing wrong?

First of all with the music, apparently at the moment the only way is to copy the music from a cd onto to xbox360 . I know you can play music directly of a portable usb music device like an ipod, but afaik there is no easy way to copy your music files from your pc directly to the 360.

With the software installation you need at least windows XP service pack 2 or windows MCE2005 service pack 2, and the xbox media connect (xp) /media extender (mce2005) software. The xbox and the pc need to be networked correctly. If you have setup the pc right, after the screen you mention it should try to contact the pc. If the pc does not ask you for the code you have either nopt installed the software correctly or do not meet the requirments ( service packs ?). Try downloading the correct software for your windows (xp and mce use different software) from the x box . com website.

[nezff]

So basically there is no way of streaming video files onto the 360 unless you have media center 2005 on your pc?

[smp]

So basically there is no way of streaming video files onto the 360 unless you have media center 2005 on your pc?

That's what I've managed to gather reading through this thread and other info online.
Kind of sucks, this whole "WMV" only thing is keeping me from buying a 360, stupid proprietary garbage.
I have a modded xbox classic but it choked on high def content which I want to be able to watch.

[regginator]

nzeff, there are more then a few ways to stream video, music, and other content to your 360. Check out a post I wrote, it shows some of the ways you can stream your media to your Xbox 360. Streaming Media to your Xbox 360 Hope this helps!