Converting to format Xbox 360 can play through streaming

[KyleG]

Hello all,

I've tried my best to google and research this, it seems quite a few people ask the same question, but never really a very solid answer.

I think I understand the basics of alot of this, but could use some help.

I have an Xbox 360, and a blu ray drive player. I can rip blu rays fine to .m2ts with AC3 audio, and either H.264 video, or VC-1 Advanced Profile, I also have no problem converting these to .mkv files

I understand that the xbox 360 is able to play WMV HD files, as well as might have some support for H264? (I could be incorrect on the H264)

Here is what I think I know, feel free to correct me on anything where i'm wrong.

-WMV HD is actually just another name for VC-1 Advanced.

-M2TS and MKV (in my case) are just container formats that hold the audio and video streams.

-^^ in my case, these files are holding streams the the xbox is supposed* to be able to play.

So why can't my xbox play the .m2ts files or the .mkv files (or the .ts files) with AC3 Audio, and either H.264 Video, or AC-1 Video?

What do I have to convert my video stream to so that the xbox will recognize it.


I tried using Microsoft's new expression encoder, but no matter what I try to do to the files (the .m2ts, the .ts, and the .mkv) it just says "File Type Not Supported", and won't let me encode the video to the installed 'xbox profile'.

If anyone can point me in the general direction, or anything, that would be much appreciated.

Even if someone could just right out very general steps that are required, i'm sure through google and sites like this I could find a way to do the steps.

Thanks for any help,
Kyle

[osgZach]

I remember my friends 360 being a PITA to get setup.. It was some weird involved process with lots of menus.

I've had problems with my WDTV Live of a similar nature that you're having. Although it seems to play WMV's and the one AVI I tried when accessing my PC as a Media Server, it refused to play MKV's that it would normally play fine off a USB HDD.

So then I went and enabled file sharing on the actual folder my stuff is stored in and accessed it that way, and low and behold the damn thing worked and played anything I wanted.

Does your 360 have any kind of option like that? Instead of streaming off a media server, just browsing through a file-share and playing a file that way? If so, maybe give that a try.

I still think Windows 7 has something to do with my problems... But I'm inexperienced with network streaming and all this stuff.

[KyleG]

Thanks for your post osgZach,

Uhmm, I think I'm doing something like that with the xbox 360,
I actually go into My Video Library on Xbox360, and it shows the computers on the network and I browse to the one, and it shows the videos that are shared on that computer.

I did find out some more info about what the xbox 360 supports from this webpage (http://support.xbox.com/support/en/us/nxe/gamesandmedia/movies/videofaq/viewvideoplaybackfaq.aspx#maxBitRate)

Some things of note for my case


Q: What does the Xbox 360 console support for H.264?
A: The Xbox 360 console supports the following for H.264:

File extensions: .mp4, .m4v, mp4v, .mov, .avi
Containers: MPEG-4, QuickTime
Video profiles: Baseline, main, and high (up to level 4.1)
Video bit rate: 10 Mbps with resolutions of 1920 × 1080 at 30 fps. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second.
Audio profiles: AAC, 2-channel, Low Complexity
Audio max bit rate: No restrictions. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second.



Q: What does the Xbox 360 console support for WMV (VC-1)?
A: The Xbox 360 console supports the following for WMV:

File extensions: .wmv
Containers: ASF
Video profiles: WMV7 (WMV1), WMV8 (WMV2), WMV9 (WMV3), VC-1 (WVC1 or WMVA) in simple, main, and advanced up to level 3
Video bit rate: 15 Mbps with resolutions of 1920 × 1080 at 30 fps. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second.
Audio profiles: WMA7/8, WMA9 Pro (stereo and 5.1), WMA Lossless
Audio max bit rate: No restrictions. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second.


So it looks like to play 5.1 channel audio to the xbox, I will have to convert the .m2ts and .mkv files to some sort of .wmv.

One hurdle looks like it might be converting AC3 to WMA9 Pro, but before I get into that problem, I'm wondering why i'm failing everywhere I try to just convert the VC-1 Video from a m2ts container to a wmv?

Any help again is appreciated.

[osgZach]

I know very little about WMV / VC1 formats, so I can't offer much advice there.

Just a theory, but you could remux your H264 containing MKV's to an MP4 container ? I think there are utilities out there that may do it automatically for you, but I really don't know much in this arena.. I know MKVs in particular often have a timecodes file unless your content is a constant frame rate, then getting it into the MP4 should be as simple as demuxing the files, and muxing them with an MP4 muxer.

If I were to attempt something like that. I would look for a tool that can convert whatever format your 5.1 audio is in, into the WMA 5.1 format that the Xbox360 supports, then include that file in the MP4 with your video track and see what happens. You just might be able to skirt having to transcode the whole video that way.

[RunningSkittle]

In addition, there is one more restriction on the xbox and its h264 capabilities. The mp4 can only be 4gb.

So yeah if you want surround on the xbox360 you need to use either wmv or mpeg4-asp with AC3 in the AVI container, which again has a 4gb limit. WMV does not have the 4gb limit.