XBOX 360 media center bandwidth requirements

[Darth Paris]

When streaming recorded content to an XBOX 360 from a PC via media center, what is the data transfer rate like?

[yoda313]

I still haven't gotten it to work for video for me yet. I have a vista premium pc with media center.

I can get music to stream over wifi no problem. The quality is just fine. However wifi g isn't fast enough for video.

You need a lan connection to do video well. You should probably use a crossover cable instead of a patch cable. Even though the 360 is set up for both for direct connection to a pc a crossover is better.

On a side note are there are any WIFI N adapters that would work with a 360 yet? Would that be fast enough for stable video streaming?

[FulciLives]

I don't know if this helps but with my Sony PS3 I can stream or I can copy from the computer to the HDD inside the PS3. If I do that then play it from the built-in HDD I have no issues whereas if I stream I will have stutter ... well at least with some files.

Don't know if the XboX 360 allows for that option i.e., copy to HDD then play from there.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[yoda313]

I don't know if this helps but with my Sony PS3 I can stream or I can copy from the computer to the HDD inside the PS3. If I do that then play it from the built-in HDD I have no issues whereas if I stream I will have stutter ... well at least with some files.

Don't know if the XboX 360 allows for that option i.e., copy to HDD then play from there.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

I don't believe so. An alternative is if you have a ZUNE or compatible mp3 player you can connect it via usb for excellent playback (my zune works great on the xbox 360). But I don't believe there is any direct "copy" function.

The one thing about the xbox 360 is with the media center function you are supposed to be able to watch and record live tv through the xbox (the recordings are on the pc but the xbox is the go between in this case). I'd love to be able to do it but since my wireless router is in another room I can't get an ip assigned to my xbox over lan but I can on wifi.

EDIT - Also you can take dvr-ms media center files and transfer them to a zune for playback on the 360. The one thing I haven't tried yet is to burn them to dvd and play on the 360. This isn't streaming but playback. Unfortunately you have to keep the recording small enough for a single or dual layer disc and I haven't tried it yet.

What I would love is if MS would create a "certified" usb harddrive add on so that you can watch/play anything on a harddrive. TIVO now has a certified harddrive addon. I want this for the 360.

Getting back on track to Darth Paris's question I believe video should be just fine over lan. I just haven't experienced it personally. You just won't be able to do it over wifi. Unless wifi n can work with the 360, that might be the only quick and easy way to go about it.

[FulciLives]

That's strange that the XboX 360 doesn't have that COPY capability. Like when I stream from my computer to my PS3 I can do just that ... stream ... or I can copy the file whole to the PS3 HDD and then play it from the HDD. I did have to do that with a couple 720P downloads because they did stutter with straight streaming and that was with a wired network although my current computer isn't the fastest when it comes to decoding h264 so maybe that was the bottleneck for me.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[yoda313]

I have to say I am not a 100% sure about the copy ability of the 360. I just don't remember seeing the option with my zune when it's plugged in. Even on a 20gb hd you can still copy a lot of music and videos. It may be there on a networked connection.

Still that is not directly important to streaming but an important side option. THough you can get a 120gb harddrive for the 360. I just didn't want to spend that much for it.

[FulciLives]

Well my point in bringing it up is that if streaming causes stutter then maybe (as in my case) you can get rid of the stutter by first copying to the internal HDD of the XboX 360 and playing it from there. On my PS3 it doesn't take long at all to copy from the computer to the PS3 HDD via my wired network. I do that for smooth playback. Afterwards the file can be deleted. So you don't need a huge hard drive per se.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[yoda313]

Yeah I've checked and I don't see a copy function when I put in a wmv video on a cdr. I also don't see a copy function from my wifi connection to my pc in the other room for my music files (via my zune software).

But burning to disc in compatible format is an option.

As a side note I tried putting my burned cdr of predator recorded in wmv zune format in my ps3 and i was suprised it wouldn't play. The ps3 doesn't support wmv? It plays just fine in my xbox 360.

[starwarrior29]

I stream tv shows from my media center pc over my xbox 360 and there is absolutely no stutter at all, plays just like you are playing it from a vhs or dvd player. And no there is definitely no way to copy the media center content onto the 360 hard drive.

[yoda313]

@starwarrior29 - are you using a lan cable? Is it a direct connection to the pc or are you using a router?

[starwarrior29]

I'm using a lan cable into a router.

[FulciLives]

The Sony PS3 will play a WMV ... I have one that I downloaded that plays and it is 1080p ... but you have to turn that option on. By default it will not play WMV but somewhere in the setup menu you can turn it on.

Perhaps you haven't done that?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[yoda313]

@starwarrior29 - ah the router must be weak point in my connection scheme.

@fulcilives - really? I saw the option to play wma and I switched that on (haven't tested it but activated it). Is it in the video setting somewhere?

[FulciLives]

@fulcilives - really? I saw the option to play wma and I switched that on (haven't tested it but activated it). Is it in the video setting somewhere?

I believe the option to turn on WMV is under SETTINGS. In any event there is only one place where you need to go to turn it on ... nothing overly tricky if you ask me.

However I can't find any info about what the parameters are of a WMV file that the PS3 will play.

For instance I mentioned that I have a 1080p WMV that plays ... well I only recently tested this and since I was just testing I didn't have the audio on. Well when I went to watch it "proper" I found out that although this 1080p WMV plays it only works video wise. The audio (which is recorded in some super duper 5.1 WMV format) only works on the XboX 360 but not the PS3. I had to demux and re-encode the audio then re-mux and although I didn't try ALL of the WMV formats I tried a few and none worked until I got tired and figured the CD audio profile HAD to work. I was right. Unfortunately I loose the amazing 640kbps 5.1 WMV audio in the original. Since the video in this WMV file is VC-1 I'm wondering if I can't somehow get it into a more "proper" MP4 format without re-encoding the video but just the audio into AAC audio. I haven't had time to explore it more yet ...

So WMV works but apparently not all settings.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[yoda313]

Thanks fulci. Yeah there must be a ps3 friendly wmv profile out there somewhere.

[adam1972]

I'm using the Netgear 802.11N/G router with 2 bridges.... One plugged into my 360 and it works great. I'm encoding all my Blu-Ray and HD-DVD's to Divx HD profiles maxxed in quality... with AC3 5.1 audio (I use EAC3to for everything video/audio). No stutters no nothing. It works great as long as you stick to the profiles.. 8)

The reason I use Divx as well is because it's less CPU intensive to decode than H.264. The quality is also outstanding; just like any other codec it will cost you in render time. Also the flexibility of having 5.1 surround play through my xbox360; AND it's something my 1st gen XBox with XBMC can still handle in my kids room upstairs.

[FulciLives]

Didn't someone mention in another related thread (or was it this one I read it now really fast and didn't see it) where you can get an external HDD to work with the XboX 360 if you format into some MAC format ... this allows larger than 4GB files.

If I had an XboX 360 I would do that and forget about streaming over a wi-fi connection ... but then again if you don't have a MAC computer maybe that MAC formating ends up being a PITA ???

I guess the trick would be trying to get content from a Windows or Linux computer to the MAC formatted HDD ... oh the pitfalls are endless here aren't they LOL

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[TooLFooL]

download fat32format.exe from softpedia to format an external drive as large as you want. it works great for xbox 360!

[prankstare]

When streaming recorded content to an XBOX 360 from a PC via media center, what is the data transfer rate like?

According to my own tests:

- 3,6MB/s max (HDTV connection test on Windows Media Center)
- 1,5~1,6MB/s average (for a 1080p MP4 YouTube video)

My gear:

* TP-Link TL-WR841ND (WiFi 802.11n)
* Xbox 360 Slim (WiFi 802.11n)


PS: sorry for bringing up such an old topic, but I just couldn't resist.