WMV HD help

[mooner111]

ok im fairly new to all this video encoding bullshit (why oh why cant we just have 1 format for everything ) so sorry if i misuse words or dont give enough detail. anyway ive search all over the web and found ways to do this which are now obsolete as most posts were from a few years ago and the software has either been removed or the method no longer works.

basically what i want to do is convert the file below into a WMV HD file without losing quality in the video (not fussed about the audio because i only have stereo speakers), the posts ive read as i say were written a few years ago say doing this would take time however i have successfully encoded a similar video file to another format in around half an hour so my pc is powerful enough. what i have done so far is demux the mkv file into the audio and video files and i get a .H264 file and a .DTS file. I want to be able to play the file on my xbox 360 via a USB stick (ive tried streaming it but the quality is horrific) and ive read that the 360 will play a WMVHD file no matter how large it is (i had previously converted to mp4 but they only work when they are <4GB).

so my question is can somebody tell me step by step how to put the .H264 and .DTS file into a WMVHD container that will play on the 360 without losing any noticable video quality, not too bothered about the sound as i dont have a speaker set up, it just comes through the tv. also the subtitles are not important at this stage but i will probably need them for my final edit, so if i need to do anything with them to get them into the container also please let me know.



any help would be much apprecatied, thanks

[Baldrick]

Is your usb in fat32 mode? Then will it ONLY work with max 4gb files whatever format you use.

See http://www.360-hq.com/article-2121-thread-1-0.html

[mooner111]

Is your usb in fat32 mode? Then will it ONLY work with max 4gb files whatever format you use.

no, it is formatted to HFS+ ive had files that are as big as 20GB on here, the issue isnt the size of the file, i just want to be able to do as ive stated above, which is to turn my .h264 video file and AC3 audio file into a WMVHD file.

thanks

[jman98]

The Xbox 360 supports HFS+? I had no idea but then again I don't own one.

Have you considered just being a media player like a Western Digital or similar small form factor device so you don't have to convert at all? They're not as expensive as you might think. I understand your annoyance but the truth is that it's caused by the Xbox 360 being restrictive about what it will play. Honestly the Xbox and PS3 have both been surpassed for years now as media playback devices by the WD and other companies' models of streaming media players.

[Baldrick]

It doesnt support h264 in wmv(and I have not seen any such muxer) so you have to reconvert to wmv with vc1 with wmvmuxer.

[mooner111]

The Xbox 360 supports HFS+? I had no idea but then again I don't own one.

Have you considered just being a media player like a Western Digital or similar small form factor device so you don't have to convert at all? They're not as expensive as you might think. I understand your annoyance but the truth is that it's caused by the Xbox 360 being restrictive about what it will play. Honestly the Xbox and PS3 have both been surpassed for years now as media playback devices by the WD and other companies' models of streaming media players.

I would but at the moment i cant really afford such luxury's, id rather blow 60-70 quid on a night out lol.

@ Baldrick thanks for the tip, i googled "wmv muxer" and downloaded the one from dvbportal, however it does not appear to support .h264 so how would i go about re-encoding the h264 file into something which is compatible?

EDIT: right ive done some more research and it appaears i need to be familiar with a program called avisynth, however ive installed the program and i dont appear to have any program to "open" as such all i have in my start menu is a new folder with avi synth, with a plugins and extras sub directory...can anyone explain how to use it? like i mentioned in my first post im not fully informed about doing these types of things so a step by step guide would be much appreciated.

thanks

[oldfart13]

Such luxuries? Check out pawn shops. I got my WDTV Live Gen. 2 for $50 (30 pounds) a couple months back. Going out and blowing the kind of money you stated on a night out would be foolhardy on my fixed income...

[camccar]

Really i have searched for weeks now for a way to encode my blu ray rips to a wmv for my xbox 360. I know i could buy another player but i don't want to. Im beginning to think its impossible. Which makes one think. Why would Microsoft support a format that doesn't really exist? I would pay 50 dollars for a program that could convert a 1080p blu ray rip(mkv container) to a 720p wmv file with surround sound(around 4 to 8 gigs). Is their anybody with some helpful advice that doesn't include buying something else. If you say buy something else im going to kill a panda. I need to know is their a handbrake like program for wmv? or is it a fruitless quest like the fountain of youth.

[jman98]

Is their anybody with some helpful advice that doesn't include buying something else. If you say buy something else im going to kill a panda. I need to know is their a handbrake like program for wmv? or is it a fruitless quest like the fountain of youth.

So you REALLY are arguing that you are so cheap that you'd rather consistently waste hours of your time possibly every week for the upcoming years doing these moronic conversions just to beat a square peg into that round hole xbox rather than buy something ONCE and NEVER do one again and get on with your life? Sorry man, but it gets kind of tiresome helping insane people stay in their insanity.

Microsoft's licensing limits the number of non-Microsoft applications that can encode WMV. That's why the tools aren't there. You're painting yourself into a corner and we've offered you a way out but if you want to go in the corner that's your business. Just don't expect us to cheer you.

[DarrellS]

XBOX 360 supports MP4 doesn't it? Just use Yamb or MyMP4Box to remux H264/AAC MKV to H264/AAC MP4. How much simpler could it be? If you look to the left under conversion, you will find guides on how to convert to xbox compliant files.

[camccar]

jman98- I wasn't arguing. I wanted and answer not an alternative. I love my 360 that much and im interested in learning the wmv format. That way i could bring my movie over anybody's house with a 360, and get hd with surround sound. But it shouldn't matter my reasons. Any way buying something isnt really helping. If i had an unlimited budget i could solve nearly any problem including aids.


DarrellS- Thanks but the mp4 format has a 4 gig limit on the 360 and no surround sound support. Thats what im using now. I mux in an ac3 track to preserve the surround sound but i have to include a 2 channel aac track that is actually getting played. The 360 ignores the ac3 track. Squeezing in 2 audio tracks also pushes that four gig limit. It would be nice to make a wmv movie without a 4 gig constraint. Especially convenient for a dual layer dvd.

I found another site that has some direction back from 2008 but its really complex and looks like it would take me a a whole day to see if it even works. Maybe sometime next week ill try it out and if i have any luck ill post the useful information back here. But i would love to hear if anybody else has successfully done something like this.

[camccar]

Ok i have decided that its impossible.

[Cornucopia]

Impossible!? Strong word.

Have you tried Encode360, Expression Encoder, WME / WMNicEnc / WMConvert ? You would need a newer machine so it supports VC1 and HD profiles, but I don't see this as being that hard.

Scott