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Title: Xbox 360 and MKV Files and the art of pulling my hair out. Post by: LanTheWarder on September 11, 2008, 06:00:43 PM For the last three days after work I have spent a few hours trying to get HD media to stream to my Xbox360.
I attempted to use TVersity and I was able to get an MKV file to transcode to the 360 but it was way too slow to be watchable. (Computer needs to be updated badly) I then attempted to use Encode360 but I just keep getting codec errors. I then attempted to use XenonMKV and I was left with an MP4 file that I haven't tested yet. Does anyone have a suggestion on something I could install that just works? I am not against formatting one of the laptops and just installing exactly what is needed only. Barring that any suggestion on what I may be doing wrong? I am running Windows XP Professional 32 Bit and using Windows Mediaplayer as an extender. Title: Re: Xbox 360 and MKV Files and the art of pulling my hair out. Post by: Trippy on September 11, 2008, 06:22:51 PM I don't know anything about the Xbox 360 video but I do do tons of transcoding so you need to help me before I can help you.
What container format and codecs (both video and audio) are you trying to create (i.e. what formats and codecs will the Xbox 360 accept as streaming video) and what container format (I'm assuming MKV) and codecs are you starting with? Note that "container format" and codec are in many cases independent. E.g. AVIs, MOVs, and MKVs can contain video encoded in a variety of codecs such as Indeo, H.263 (Divx, Xvid), H.264, Sorenson, VP6 and so on and so forth. Title: Re: Xbox 360 and MKV Files and the art of pulling my hair out. Post by: LanTheWarder on September 11, 2008, 06:37:31 PM This is a link to what the xbox will support.
http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archive/2007/11/30/december-2007-video-playback-faq.aspx I am downloading H.264 or x264 mkv files. Just EZTV rips. If I am leaving something out let me know and I'll try and find it. I'm honestly just considering buying a Popcorn Hour so I don't have to mess with it, but I don't have the cash for that right now and I would like to learn how to do this correctly so I am not stuck with the resolution that someone else provides. Title: Re: Xbox 360 and MKV Files and the art of pulling my hair out. Post by: Trippy on September 11, 2008, 07:00:55 PM Okay it sounds like streaming H.264 is too hard for your computer (not surprising) so I would suggest using ye old faithful AVI with Xvid as your target container and codec. If you had a more powerful computer you might actually be able to convert the MKV container into another one the Xbox 360 can handle without touching the video at all.
My preference is to use Unixy command line batch processing tools to do this sort of heavy duty transcoding (e.g. mencoder or ffmpeg on Unix/Mac OS) but there are plenty of GUI tools that can do the job as well. E.g. this program should work: http://www.videohelp.com/tools/alltoavi I haven't tried it myself but I've seen it recommended a number of times (cause it's free :awesome_for_real:, among other things) for doing what you are trying to do. Edit: BTW if you don't have the Xvid codec installed you'll probably need to do that too. You could use Divx if you had that but I much prefer Xvid since it's comparable in quality and the main open source encoding tools (like mencoder and ffmpeg mentioned above) are setup to handle its config parameters. That's why all the CD-sized TV shows (the ones that fit a 2 hour show on a single-CD) are made with Xvid. |