Speaking of Macs, Connect360 has been handling this flawlessly for me ever since the latest update:

[www.nullriver.com]

BingleyJoe

Ahem... excuse the self-linking but I wrote a post on how to do this for PS3, streaming from a Mac here: [www.insidetonic.com]

Tom Clarke

I havent touched my 360's streaming abilities since installing Xbox Media Center. And this update won't change that.

sinderphytik

Don't forget the Zune software also offers streaming to the Xbox360. Before my 360 Red Ring'd (Rung?) I was using a combination of the software outlined in the article and comments above. The DViX update also brought with it much better handling of PC connections, making streaming from the computers on your home network much easier.
Has anyone used Home Server with the 360?
Also, has anyone tried streaming with a Linux box?

btgoss

XviD/DivX play back fine once you get your xbox to recognize the video folder you are sharing. For me this was a huge pain using WMP11. Ended up having to revert to WMP10 and reinstall WMP11 after the XBL update. Now that it works, it works well.
Now if only the XBOX has a gigabit lan card rather than lonely old 100mbps. Streaming is fine on it but its an unnecessary bottleneck in my network.

g8trtim

If only the wii had support for streaming media, my life would be much better!

Maurik

I used the winamp and WMP 11 to stream movies to my 360, not bad. I prefer TVersity, it is awesome and it allows for internet content and i believe it can convert videos to a 360 friendly format if needed.

[tversity.com]

tamushrek

@Maurik:

[corp.orb.com]

lercio

@aujahlisa:

Any video file can be converted to any video format. Loss of quality will result most of the time though. Checkout videohelp.com

monkeyboy

I'd be grateful for pointers about playing the non-XviD formats. I have a lot of anime files that are recognized and are playable by WM11 on my PC, but the Xbox 360 doesn't even see them.

I know that audio files can be converted to different formats, can similar be done with video files?

aujahlisa

@sinderphytik:

Thats only good for people with an old Xbox :)

monkeyboy

@yon2501:

WTH did you just say? lol

Anyway, why go through all of these hoops when Tversity handles this just fine? Whats the benefit of using the above apps versus FREE Tversity?

monkeyboy

Could someone answer a seamingly basic question for me, which still has me confused? When you say 'streaming' video, which side of the connection is doing the decoding?
i.e., when I think of 'streaming' I think of something like playing a video on my PC with VLC and streaming it to another box. My PC running VLC is doing the decoding.
However, with my xbmc and original xbox I play videos off of a USB drive connected to a shared PC on my network, which I consider 'serving' or 'sharing' the video, but not 'streaming' it. The shared PC and external USB drive aren't decoding any of the video, so my processor has very little to do with the transaction. My xbox processor is doing all of the work in that case.

Hopefully my question and explanation make sense. The end goal is to play native HD DivX/Xvid files, which my xbmc can't quite do (yes, it can upscale), but I'm assuming an xbox360 could handle.

However I want to keep the files on my shared USB drive on an old, always-on, network PC (or mac). That PC isn't powerful enough to decode native HD files either, so if by 'streaming' you mean the host computer will have to decode the video, then I'm still looking for my perfect solution.

farleyro

i set my friends laptop up the other day with an old copy of windows media connect. its basically the part of wmp11 that allows you to share on a network...but without the wmp11.

it worked really well and just idled in the background. if you hunt long enough, you should be able to find a copy. microsoft stopped supporting it to push wmp11, but using wmconnect alone ius really helpful on minimizing resources.

ronnsprocket

I wanted to try this out, but I can't find my PC on my network with my XBOX360... argh

I used to be able to find it when I used transcode360... none of the default "how to use Media Player 11 with 360" guides seem to cover what is messed up with my computer.

engtech

I've just got a s-video port on the back of my laptop, and a sub woofer on the underside the thing is surprisingly loud... for a laptop.

yon2501

I use TVersity to stream music, videos, and pictures to my 360. It's so great, it will even stream BBC Planet Earth 2GB HD videos. If I listened to podcasts at home, I would use it for that as well (playing an Arcade game).

I love it.

SubKamran

i can only agree with BINGLEYJOE on this one. Connect360 is more than satisfying since last update

Giovanni Borella

I have TwonkyServer running on an old Ubuntu box. I don't stream video just yet (considering I'm heavily anti piracy and have yet to find a legitimate use for DivX/XVid) but it works a treat for my photos and ripped CD collection, and particularly for making my favourite streaming radio stations available in my living room. TVersity is another option, but I was never able to get it running satisfactorily under Wine on Linux.

FlintZA

@g8trtim:
Thanks, that was the last clarification (streaming vs. sharing) I was trying to confirm before adding the 360 to my setup.

farleyro

I use WMP11 to stream to the 360, but I have found that some videos that I have on my External Hard Drive don't show up in the Video list, any way to work around that?

jquack

TVersity is all you need. I used Magic DVD Ripper to convert all my kids DVD's to DIVX and use TVersity to stream it througout the house. Works great on Vista and does Video, Audio and Interent streams.

bleucube

@[lifehacker.com]

You and I think alike... WMP11 is sharing the media across the network, not streaming it. Why XBL calls it streaming I don't know. BTW, you can DL full 1080p wmv's from the Microsoft HD Showcase and play them easily over xbox.

@[lifehacker.com]
Same problem as me... read above
I had to uninstall and reinstall wmp11 after the fall update

g8trtim

Quick question? Why not use ORB? It allows you to share between not only your pc and your xbox (or ps3) but also your mobile phone, other computers, and just about any device that supports streaming audio / video (it works great with that new wii too)

www.orb.com

BTW: This isn't an ad, I dont work for them, but after fighting wmp's memory hogging services, and winamps funky UI, orb was the easiest and best solution. Oh, and it works with divx, et al.

dietrichmd

Go get yourself a QNAP TS-101 (or 109) and turn on Twonky. Then drop your files on the QNAP and you're all set. Very very cool - and your computer doesn't have to be one - the QNAP only uses a few watts and its fanless (quiet).

I've ripped most of my DVD collection and encoded them to h.264 (in MP4 format) and they all look great!

For re-encoding, I suggest MeGUI. Check out this guide for a how-to on MeGUI. [www.digital-digest.com]

ffejie

Oh does anyone know a good Zune conversion tool? I have divx files in a variety of formats (Stage 6 not my own ripping). I am weary to try one of those hardcore batch encoders bc each of my divx files seem to have different resolutions.

ajax622

My 360 actually hangs alot when I connect it to my dreaded Vista box over my LAN (wired so it's not a mbps issue with streaming). I have heard that it may be an ethernet driver issue with Media Player in Vista, but I ended up buying a 4 GB flash drive for $20. Kind of a lame work around, but I can't get the streaming function to work well.

Oh I only have videos in divx formats, and the 360 even hangs when I try to play music.

ajax622

TVersity is one of the best streaming softwares out there - it also allows you to stream and watch video podcasts, youtube videos and more on your Xbox. Tversity is my choice - and its free! (for now).

onebigswede

My experience with WMP11 has been very unstable and erratic. While my 360 always recognizes my share and its directories, it does not always play the contained files. I usually have to manually switch the media source, then switch back to the WMP11 share, and then it will work.

Connect360 of course, works flawlessly.

samuraispy

Does tthe xbox360 support 1080p upscaling of streamed files?

djshorty

I use UShare ( [ushare.geexbox.org] ) on my CentOS 5 system to stream to my xbox 360. It works great but there is one issue where you have to recompile for the new types to show up on xbox properly.

Has anyone else used another solution?

m4dhatter

Personally I prefer TVersity. It can play the most common formats including mkv-files, easy to configure although the gui is ugly. Tried Windows Media Player but haven't used it a single time since i installed TVersity. Give it a try..

[www.tversity.com]

zapo

what about the same functionality for the PS3? I wanted a X360 but the RROD issues kept me away from it... BUT! I want to use my videogame as a media extender... can the PS3 provide the same funcionality?

leomrlima

Thanks for all of the tips. My 360 is being repaired right now. Got a refurb for Christmas and it Red Ring'd on me right off the bat. I currently use Xbox Media Center on my old Xbox and it works like a champ. I'm anxious to set up TVersity.

dustyken1

@bleucube:

Never heard of Magic DVD Ripper. Is it the best way to convert DVD to Divx/Xvid?

Anyone else have any suggestions?

monkeyboy

Another shout-out for Connect360 for the Mac. Easily one of the best programs that I've used ever, in that it just is there and does its job smoothly and quietly. Funny that a Mac program would play so nicely with MS. That said, I haven't had any trouble using Unbox to Xbox using WMP 11 under Parallels.

hixer

Update: I installed TVersity, so far it works great. It does seem a little bit slower than Windows Media Player but much faster than Winamp Remote (Orb). It has also played most files I have tried. One negative so far was the installation/setup, which is much easier with the other two programs. After installation I had to read a couple FQAs on the TVersity site to find out why my Xbox 360 couldn't find my PC. Eventually I found out I needed to disable WMP sharing and allow a specific file of TVersity as an exception to the Windows Firewall. Thanks for the recommendation, I might add it to the review/tutorial.

fram0027

Am I the only one who doesn't even bother with a media player or 3rd party app streaming/sharing my media files to my 360? I don't have WMP, WinAmp Remote, Zune, Connect360 or any of the other aforementioned software running to my xbox. I have WMP11 and WinAmp 5.5, but have the sharing turned off.

I turn on windows file sharing, and at the connect to screen select the PC on the network that has the shared drive(s). It plays all the divx/xvid media 100% with no buffering, delays or issues.

I did notice that when I had my Zune and WMP 11 setup for sharing (tried it out at one point)and went to connect to a PC on my 360, I had 3 Options: PC, PC-Zune, PC-WMP. I always just picked my standard PC and shut the other two off finally.

The only problem I have is that you cannot play music this way (that I've found).

agroom

@BTGOSS
I'm using it with windows home server and it's great.

Russell