Converting video formats to WMV for use on your 360

Kur4mA

I'm not sure if anyone has seen these yet, but I thought some people would be happy that there's some kind of solution in place for the moment!

This is a batch file which will convert your xvid/divx/whatever video files into WMV for you. Please be aware that the encode time has been reduced because it has been optimized so it might not look as pretty as you're used to. People on the forums there are reporting varied results.

How to Transcode and Stream videos on Xbox 360

This is a program that can download(using RSS feeds) your favourite videos and then start re-encoding them immediately even if you're not at your computer. It looks promising! I'm gonna check it out as soon as I'm home.

Videora Xbox360 Converter

*EDIT*

SCRATCH THE ABOVE! Real time Transcoding from your PC to your Xbox 360 is now possible. Like the man says, the patch is still beta BUT the cat is most indeed out of the bag now. YAAAY!!!

http://happybeggar.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=70&Itemid=2

I haven't tried either of these yet but just thought some of you might want a heads up.

Clover

i'v been doing it with win-avi video convertor over the last few weeks for my B.S.G and Heroes episodes and it works like a charm.

Kur4mA

Yes but with the last method above the TVersity Media Server will transcode your xvid/divx/whatever files ON THE FLY! I've finally managed to get it set up correctly and it is absolutely brilliant.

When it's been set up properly your Xbox 360 will see all of the files in the folders you specify in TVersity as WMV files and then as it tries to play them TVersity starts transcoding the file into a WMV on the fly. So no more messing around with your episodes of Heroes/Lost/Dexter and whatever else. I'm a happy camper! The only downside for some people coule be that you need a pretty powerful processor to get decent quality from the larger files.

If anyone wants help with this, feel free to PM me or annoy me in this thread.

*EDIT*

Taken from the TVersity forums > HERE < with some minor additions to the PC steps from me that weren't included in that post.

HOWTO: Divx/Xvid/WHATEVER ELSE Streaming & Transcoding on Xbox 360

Here is a little guide for the inevitable wave of peeps trying to get this to work.

Files required

TVersity:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/download.tversity.com/Setup_0_9_8_2a.exe
TVersity Xbox 360 patch:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/download.tversity.com/Xbox360Patch_0_9_8_4.zip
FFdshow:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDShow.htm
FLVSplitter:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=82303&package_id=183318
OTHER CODEC LINKS IN THE DOWNLOAD SECTION ON > THIS < PAGE

Note: Links subject to change

If you use Windows Media Connect or Windows Media Player 11

If you already have Windows Media Connect or Windows Media Player 11 sharing your media, you will have to disable them. Goto the 360 and remove the PC from the System tab->Computers. Unistall Windows Media Connect and/or disable sharing in WMP 11.

Instructions

On the PC (in my case Windows Vista x64):

1) Install TVersity
2) Make sure the TVersity service is stopped
3) Overwrite the TVersity files with the 360 patch
4) Install ffdshow and flvsplitter (extract to a useful folder e.g. C:\Windows\system32, use a command prompt to install: regsvr32 flvsplitter.ax)
5) Goto: http://localhost:41952/
6) Add the folder you would like to share under the sharing tab by using "Add folder" on the file menu. Change the device to "Xbox 360" in the settings tab.
7) Go to the config.xml file(By default it's in C:\Program Files\TVersity\Media Server).

8) Right click on the file and open it using NOTEPAD. Change the line for minvideo* settings to the following:

<minVideoInfo width="640" height="360" bitrate="0" fps="24" />

9) Click on File, Save, then EXIT.
10) Reboot your Computer.

You may also wish to delete the internet streams under "Library" by pressing the delete button. This adds too much to the 360 (about 1500 items! making it hard to find your files).

*BE WARNED. IF you do not change this the videos will looks like crap. This needs to be changed in order to ensure TVersity outputs in a resolution that is native to the Xbox 360. It should be doing this already but because it's a beta they seem to have overlooked it for now.

I've found the quality is perfect when it's set at this and my computer can keep up with transcoding like this. All you other tech heads can obviously change this to something higher or whatever or for you guys with the CPU's that can't keep up you can lower this(although it would be pointless tbh, you may aswell give up or upgrade your PC )

On the 360:


1) Goto the blue "Media" tab
2) Goto video - Computer
3) Connect to TVersity on XPC
4) You may need to go back and forward, to refresh list first time
5) Play a DIVX!!!



Other codecs

The only codecs I have installed are: ffdshow, flvsplitter, vsfilter, quicktime alternative and real alternative.

Unofficial known issues

350mb AVIs work straight away, 700mb AVIs require me to load them twice on the 360 (it will say timed out or whatever), just try it again.

Some files will fail to work because the filename is too long - so try shortening it.

Thanks for all your hard work guys, keep it up Very Happy

Finally DivX on 360 thanks to TVersity Smile

Kur4mA

Hmm, sorry for the huge post. Could a mod sticky this and maybe change the title to something like Transcoding & Streaming Xvid/DivX from your PC to Xbox 360.

Pretty please? I wanna spread the word.

ntlbell

doesn't vlc convert on the fly also with a lot less hassel?

Kur4mA

With VLC you have to do it manually as far as I'm aware, so there's no "On the Fly" solution with it as yet.

happybeggar.com pretty much lists every method out there right now throughout his site. I've tried most of them, and although TVersity is one of the most annoying to set up correctly, it is definitely the best solution in the long run. It is brilliant to be able to just open the TVsersity Media Server, add a few episodes of Heroes(xvid files) or whatever to it and then go onto your Xbox then play them without having to go and re-encode them all to WMV manually. :cool:

ntlbell

I'll try and find the article but I'm pretty sure it involved vlc converting on the fly

Hyzepher

TVersity keeps crashing when I try and play a divx file - any ideas

Hyzepher

Kur4mA

It crashed for me at first too and I couldn't figure out why. If it's in relation to the qasf.dll file then it's most likely because you haven't upgraded to/installed Windows Media Player 11 yet? TVersity uses some of the newest WMV codecs which are only available with WMP11 so try that first.

If it's not that or if that doesn't fix it, I'd say you will need to go to the TVersity Xbox 360 forums here for more help with it.

CiaranC

God I wish they'd just let us play back our files without all this nonsense.

Anyone know if the PS3 does proper media player stuff? Maybe they'll be forced to make the change if Sony have done it.