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Streaming to Xbox 360

Question
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Hi
I have recently built my own Windows Home Server and most things on it are working fine, its really made a difference in my household.
However, I am experiencing a few problems when it comes to the streaming to xbox 360. I live in a student house, and we all have xbox 360s (mispent student loans!). I know the Xbox will stream .avi, .xvid .divx and .wmv, and some work fine but I have a lot of video files that are in .avi format that do not stream.
I get the error message on the xbox of
'Can't play this content because it may not be supported. For more info, go to wwww.xbox.com/support.
Status code: 69-C00D36C4'
Comparing two files, one that works and one that doesn't, when checking the codecs used on the .avi files (I understand that .avi is just a wrapper) on AVIcodec both say they are encoded in MPEG-4 Codec with a LAMEMP3 codec, so I can't work out why one works and another doesn't.
Is it worth converting my media into .wmv (I know it will take a while), which I don't mind doing, but will create larger files, or lesser quality? What is the exact specification for the best format to stream to Xbox 360? I have looked all over for information but don't seem to be able to find much (or I am looking in the wrong place!)
Thanks in advance
Thursday, January 22, 2009 2:38 PM
Answers
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The Xbox 360 can stream a pretty reasonable variety of video formats. These include the following file types: .mp4, .m4v, mp4v, .mov (both H.264 and MPEG-4 Part 2, in both MPEG and Quicktime containers) and, of course, .wmv files.
According to my reseach, WMV and AVI are probably the most compatible formats for windows. However I can not find any evidence that avi is supported for streaming to the XBox. Since I do not own an XBox, I really do not have any first hand experience.
Here is a good article about how to choose a suitable digital video format:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/briefings/briefing-25/html/- Proposed as answer by Mike Ceranski Thursday, January 22, 2009 4:07 PM
- Marked as answer by El Del Thursday, January 22, 2009 11:33 PM
Thursday, January 22, 2009 4:07 PM -
From the XBox 360 Video FAQ :What does the Xbox 360 console support for AVI?
Answer: The Xbox 360 console supports the following for AVI:- File extensions: .avi, .divx
- Containers: AVI
- Video profiles: MPEG-4 Part 2 (Simple Profile and Advanced Simple Profile)
- Video bit rate: 5 Mbps with resolutions of 1280 × 720 at 30 fps. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second.
- Audio profiles: Dolby® Digital (2 channel and 5.1 channel), MP3
- Audio max bit rate: No restrictions. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second.
That link is for the NXE interface, but the functionality was added in late 2007, I believe.
I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)- Proposed as answer by Ken WarrenModerator Thursday, January 22, 2009 4:29 PM
- Marked as answer by El Del Thursday, January 22, 2009 11:33 PM
Thursday, January 22, 2009 4:28 PMModerator
All replies
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The Xbox 360 can stream a pretty reasonable variety of video formats. These include the following file types: .mp4, .m4v, mp4v, .mov (both H.264 and MPEG-4 Part 2, in both MPEG and Quicktime containers) and, of course, .wmv files.
According to my reseach, WMV and AVI are probably the most compatible formats for windows. However I can not find any evidence that avi is supported for streaming to the XBox. Since I do not own an XBox, I really do not have any first hand experience.
Here is a good article about how to choose a suitable digital video format:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/briefings/briefing-25/html/- Proposed as answer by Mike Ceranski Thursday, January 22, 2009 4:07 PM
- Marked as answer by El Del Thursday, January 22, 2009 11:33 PM
Thursday, January 22, 2009 4:07 PM -
From the XBox 360 Video FAQ :What does the Xbox 360 console support for AVI?
Answer: The Xbox 360 console supports the following for AVI:- File extensions: .avi, .divx
- Containers: AVI
- Video profiles: MPEG-4 Part 2 (Simple Profile and Advanced Simple Profile)
- Video bit rate: 5 Mbps with resolutions of 1280 × 720 at 30 fps. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second.
- Audio profiles: Dolby® Digital (2 channel and 5.1 channel), MP3
- Audio max bit rate: No restrictions. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second.
That link is for the NXE interface, but the functionality was added in late 2007, I believe.
I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)- Proposed as answer by Ken WarrenModerator Thursday, January 22, 2009 4:29 PM
- Marked as answer by El Del Thursday, January 22, 2009 11:33 PM
Thursday, January 22, 2009 4:28 PMModerator