DivX on Xbox 360 - Apparently Possible.

[Akuma]

I just found this thread on the official Xbox forum discussing a method of streaming DivX to a 360. I'm giddy with delight and haven't been able to figure out exactly what's going on under the hood so I'll just quote it verbatim:

Playing Divx on media center –



Download Windows Media Encoder 9 from here and then Install.



Put your divx video in “My Videos” and then open up notepad, in the document write - mms://*INSERT PC IP ADDRESS*:8080 and then save your notepad file as *name of video*.asx



screen shot of what your notepad document should look like. (note ip address replaced with X's)



**for example if your video is called perfectdarktrailer.avi the notepad file would be saved as perfectdarktrailer.asx**





save the file to the directory of the video your wanting to watch.



Open up Windows Media Encoder



In the wizard dialogue popup box click “Custom Session”



In the sources tab change “Source From” to File and then browse and open up the video you want.



Use the other tabs to change the quality of the output. In this case we have set it as “DVD quality video”



When you’re happy with your settings click “apply” and then start encoding.



Open up media center on your 360 and locate the .asx file and play it, you should now be able to watch it on your xbox 360 J

Original discussion here.

[simbot82]

this looks sweet, just waiting for it to be confirmed then Xbox 360 is back on the radar, but not until my birthday in May, should have sorted out all the crap by then and dropped the price.

[Akuma]

Hopefully my 360 should arrive from the UK next week and I'll be able to confirm it works. That's assuming my brother can put the controller down and post the damn thing to me, so don't hold your breath.

[PaulW]

That just sounds like describing how to use WME to convert a DivX file to WMV/ASF.

So.. the way to play DivX format video is.. convert it to a different format..

Paul

[Edit]
OK, having read it properly it's using WME to stream the DivX using ASF. Clever, but not really playing DivX directly.

[simbot82]

Better than mass conversion to a format that isn't as good

[PaulW]

Better than nowt, true.


Paul

[gussey]

Agreed Simbot.

So who has their 360 yet? I am waiting until March, im just a bit paranoid about compatability and warranty issues. Im just dying to grill the first person who gets one here with all sorts of questions though.

[simbot82]

Akuma would prob be the first amongst us Aussies, brave/crazy lad

[gussey]

hmm i wonder where you adjust video properties...eg selecting between 720p/1080i output... in the MS dash?? sigh, just wondering out loud, the tele i want to use the 360 on is fussy with component input.

[scritch]

Originally Posted by gussey

Agreed Simbot.

So who has their 360 yet? I am waiting until March, im just a bit paranoid about compatability and warranty issues. Im just dying to grill the first person who gets one here with all sorts of questions though.

My Xbox 360 Premium should arrive from Germany this week, hopefully tomorrow <fingers crossed>

It's been torture sitting here with all my games and controllers without anything to play them on. I have an extra wireless controller, Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo, Quake 4, Project Gotham Racing 3 and Call of Duty 2.

I've been toying around with TMPGEnc Express to encode from xvid or DVD to WMV - gives you more options than WME. So far I have gotten some good quality results, but can't test anything with a 5.1 WMA soundtrack fully until the 360 arrives and I can see if it outputs it in a way my amp can handle it (works OK through analog multi-channel output from my MCE PC to my amp, but then DD gets screwed around with).

I can only hope MS wake up and realise that people want to use xvid and divx and don't want to be forced to use something that is sub standard and less cross platform friendly. Even if they let a third party developer make an authorised codec pack it would be better than nothing. xvid, divx and h.264 would be nice.

Anyway, back to topic, I will be happy to answer any questions once it arrives, but depending on how good it is you may have to pry the controller out of my fingers and pull me away from the TV with a crowbar

Regards,
Shane.