Xbox 360 + Media Center + Transcode 360 = Not Crap

M

MST3K-rules

Contributor
Veteran X
Maybe this is really old news to everyone since it's been out for a while, but I had no idea someone had figured out an easy way to stream Divx content to Xbox 360s:

http://runtime360.com/projects/transcode-360/

When I first got the 360, I was pissed to discover I couldn't share videos without converting them to .wmv or the proprietary dv-msr format, and I really had no interest in turning 20 gigs of TV shows into some crappier format. Enter, Transcode 360, which basically does just that, but on the fly.

It's definitely not half as versatile as Xbox Media Center on a modded Xbox, but if you have a media center PC, it's a lot easier to get set up and working.

I installed Windows Media Center 2005 on an old laptop (1.7 GHZ and 768 RAM) and then put transcode on it, and now I can stream all my mst3k episodes and what have you across the network to the 360.

Cons:
- It's transcoding as you do it, so you can't fast forward right away through the file. You can start watching after only a few seconds, but the transcode is usually only 4 or 5 minutes ahead of where you are in the file (at least for the first half hour).
- Need Windows Media Center 2005 on your computer, which is annoying to get to the point that stealing it is probably easier than buying it.
- Xbox 360 Extender can be a little bit laggy if your connection isn't great
- Way, way, way fewer options than XBMC

Pros:
- Very little if any of the futzing around required to get XBMC working really well
- Low system requirements so you can use any halfway decent PC you have lying around
- 360 has a nicer interface than XBMC (at least until XBMC 2.0 and the 360 clone skin come out)
- No samba shares or shifting IP address stuff to worry about
- Can apparently handle a lot of codecs and things

Again, my apologies if everyone in the world already new this shit existed.
 
cool... installing media center on friday.

btw is there any way to stream h264 stuff to the 360?
 
I just watched some Scrubs episodes in the living room streaming wirelessly from my laptop in the bedroom. Worked very well. Again, not perfect and not super versatile, but way more pain-free than my modded Xbox.

As for h264 I really don't know because I don't have anything in that format. This forum post suggests that it's possible but might require some screwing around: http://www.runtime360.com/forums/read.php?3,1072,2018
 
I tried this when it was first released, but it only supported a couple codecs and never worked. Was setup still a pain or did you just install and go?
 
The latest version is just a normal Windows install. No more playing with services and whatnot. So it's pretty easy to get the basics working.

It's also handled every codec I've thrown at it, but I've heard it's tough to add new codecs and change the basic settings, though the developer just released some new documentation (he wants to get the program integrated with http://www.mymovies.name which would be very awesome).

So to answer the question: It's easy to get installed, but if something doesn't work right, it's apparently a bit of a bitch to change.
 
Oh, one more thing. Apparently there are a few competing programs that do the same exact thing. This is just the one that was easiest to find and that worked right away for me. All of them require Windows Media Center though.
 
it won't be ratbert. Vista has it in a much of versions. it will just be expected that people who game will have one that has it. Which will be the case most of the time.
 
? That was me saying that once it is modded, can play backups, and emulators, and have the xbox media center from the original xbox on it, I will buy it.

I am confused by your statment. :confused:
 
I have a wireless hardware media player that transcodes DivX/XviD that I never use anymore. The video quality wasn't that great and I would always have syncing issues.
 
A few more notes:
Playback is generally quite good even over wireless between rooms. The only real fly in the ointment was that I couldn't get something to rewind at all. To fast forward I had to hold down the track-forward/skip button, which was weird but worked fine. But for some reason i couldn't rewind.

I'm not sure if it was just this mst3k episode or everything since I don't really remember ever trying to rewind anything (the transcode web forum suggests rewinding does work, but sometimes gets flummoxed by the network). Just a warning. Again, not a perfect solution, but it's been way easier for me to watch 5 or 10 things already on it than it was for me to watch them on XBMC.

I'm really hoping that the mymovies integration comes through because then I can really have a sweet video setup.
 
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