WMV coming to 360, can TVersity support it and transcode?

[bmaltais]

I was not aware it only handles square pixel, I mean it has to do some adjustment since TVs do not have square pixels right? Or are you saying that it does no adjustment so if TVersity did it that would have been good?

Anyway, assuming all your videos are 4:3 or 16:9 or anamorphic you can already use TVersity to force a specific aspect ratio by modifying the minVideoInfo in config.xml. Of-course most people have mixed aspect ratio movie collection so we will look further into that.

We will be very much interested in your feedback so please keep testing and let us know. Be sure to also test Internet content.

Regarding videos that do not work, you can probably install some directshow filters that will fix that. ffdshow is really a must and I suggest using it to decode mpeg2 as well, this way you can play VOBs.

Out of curiosity how fast is the machine on which TVersity is running? What is the maximum target resolution you find working in real-time?

My PC is a 3Ghz HT P4. The issue is really a combination of source video size and desired output resolution. For example, converting an xvid file that is 624x352 to 640x360 won't be an issue... but trying to convert a 1280x720 source to 640x352 will be too much for realtime. The issue is due to the time it takes to decode the source. It really is hit and miss.

One suggestion to the users is that if the video freeze during playback they should hit pause for a minute or two before starting playback again... so the PC can build a buffer. Repeat when freeze happen again or just give it more pause time to create a larger encoded buffer.

[bmaltais]

In regard to anamorphic content, here is what MS said about it:

"Anamorphic content with nonsquare pixels is currently unsupported on Xbox 360 console, and will be displayed as if the pixels were square. If you want to play such content on your console, it is recommended that you re-encode the content in a square pixel format."

from: http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archive/2006/10/31/fall-06-supported-video-formats.aspx

Essentially if the xvid video if anamorphic with non square pixel (like 2.35:1 movie encoded to 720x364) it will look bad on the 360 since it will be displayed as 1.98:1 square pixel. But if the video use square pixel (like a 2.35:1 movie encoded to 720x306) it will look proper with black bars on top and bottom.

[bmaltais]

One more thing, if you want to see a drastic result of this simply transcode any 16:9 video to 640x480 resolution for playback on the 360 What do you get? A video that will play in 4:3 due to the square pixel limitation of the 360 decoder. Now, if you WMVE added a flag to state that the video was 16:9 it will play just fine on the PC... but not on the 360.

[ronenmiz]

We try to overcome this latter issue by maintaing the aspect ratio of the source video. However, as you say, if you have a 720x480 16:9 DVD if we just maintain the 720x480 aspect ratio the result will be distorted. We need to create a 640x360 or other 16:9 video. This will be addressed in future releases.

[Linx]

What am I doing wrong? It lists the videos on the 360. But either I'll get a message saying it lost the connection to the computer or a this video is unsupported type message. What do I do?

[ronenmiz]

Can these videos be played in Windows Media Player?
Do you have Windows Media Player 10/11? Directshow 9?

Also, there is the known long URL issue, if your videos are relatively in a deeply nested folder hierarchy they will fail since the 360 trims the URL. We will issue a solution for this soon, but for now make sure the videos are at some top level folder.
Finally if the videos come from some other computer on your home network you need to change the logon account of the TVersity service (pleae read the FAQ about this).

[luckyknight]

I've just installed TVersity latest beta along with this patch. I'm having two issues:

When I press A on a file on the 360 (Xvid format) I get the following error: The connection to your computer was lost. Make sure your computer is turned on, connected to your network, and is running media sharing software.

Status code: 53-04-80070015

There is no delete button on the "library" feeds! How do I remove all these feeds? It takes too long to scroll through all the feeds to find my media.

I have disabled WMP 11 file sharing (xbox couldn't detect TVersity with it enabled). My OS is Vista x64 with Xvid 1.1.2, AC3Filter 1.11, DivXCodec 6.4 and vsfilter 2.37.

I have tried playing a WMV and it works fine. 360 is PAL if that makes any difference, at 720p connected via component. A friend of mine has just tried it (PC is XP) and has the same problem.

I have also tried moving some files to a shorter file path - basically D:\file.avi and have the same issue.

[Linx]

Can these videos be played in Windows Media Player?
Do you have Windows Media Player 10/11? Directshow 9?

I have Media Player 11 installed. I don't know about directshow. How can I tell if I have it or where can I download it?

[ronenmiz]

It is a part of directx.

[Linx]

It is a part of directx.

Yes I do have directx installed.

[ronenmiz]

There is no delete button on the "library" feeds! How do I remove all these feeds? It takes too long to scroll through all the feeds to find my media.

Select hit and press the DEL key.

Occasionally, while starting to play something the Xbox may say it lost connection with the server. You should hit plat again since sometimes the Xbox is not waiting long enough for the server to start the transcoding session.

It may also be worthwhile explicitly choosing the Xbox 360 device profile in the GUI settings tab (and saving it) instead of leaving it on auto-detect.

Please also make sure you have indeed stopped TVersity before installing the patch.

Everyone still having problems with playing Xvids we suggest downloading a utility called graphedt.exe and making sure your Xvids work with this utility. If it does and TVersity still gives you errors, enable logging (see announcement forum for insructions) and send us the logs.

[luckyknight]

I have changed the device type to 360 - still no go. So I loaded up the log to see what is going on and these caught my eye:

2006-11-20 14:00:03,098 WARN [2940] (MSDSDecode@..\dshow\MSDSDecode.cpp:1793) - Could not create the ffdshow audio filter
2006-11-20 14:00:03,099 WARN [2940] (MSDSDecode@..\dshow\MSDSDecode.cpp:1794) - Direct show error code is -2147221164, error message is Class not registered
2006-11-20 14:00:03,099 WARN [2940] (MSDSDecode@..\dshow\MSDSDecode.cpp:1810) - Could not create the ffdshow video filter
2006-11-20 14:00:03,099 WARN [2940] (MSDSDecode@..\dshow\MSDSDecode.cpp:1811) - Direct show error code is -2147221164, error message is Class not registered
2006-11-20 14:00:03,100 WARN [2940] (MSDSDecode@..\dshow\MSDSDecode.cpp:1835) - Could not create the FLV splitter filter
2006-11-20 14:00:03,100 WARN [2940] (MSDSDecode@..\dshow\MSDSDecode.cpp:1836) - Direct show error code is -2147221164, error message is Class not registered

The codecs I had installed were: xvid 1.1.2, ac3filter 1.11, DivXCodec 6.4 and vfilter 2.37. So I downloaded FFdshow (FFdshow-Tryouts-20061116-rev555) and now I can confirm it does work

Finally DivX on my 360 thanks guys/gals

Two other little notes:

On Vista x64 the "TVersity Media Server" link on the start menu causes a crash in the Microsoft HTML Application (mshta.exe) but I can still acccess it from http://localhost:41952 thankfully. The error brings up the Data Execution Protection (DEP) help.

Secondly, there seems to be quite high CPU usage - like 80% on a Athlon 64 X2 4400+. Any chance you would consider a 64-bit build? That might increase the speed of the encoding.

[luckyknight]

Ok I am having a weird one. Now it just doesn't work!!! I uninstalled the DivX & Xvid codec (seeing as I'm using ffdshow) and now I get another error on the 360:

"Unplayable Content: Can't play this content because it may not be supported. For more info, go to www.xbox.com/support.

Status code:69-04-C00D3E84"

I tried reinstalling DivX & Xvid, and also ffdshow to see if it would fix it but heyho still the same problem.

The log comes up with this:

2006-11-20 15:08:41,559 WARN [1348] (MSDSDecode@..\dshow\MSDSDecode.cpp:1835) - Could not create the FLV splitter filter
2006-11-20 15:08:41,560 WARN [1348] (MSDSDecode@..\dshow\MSDSDecode.cpp:1836) - Direct show error code is -2147221164, error message is Class not registered
2006-11-20 15:08:41,618 DEBUG [1348] (MSDSDecode@..\dshow\MSDSDecode.cpp:2059) - Could not find audio pin on the source filter or on a splitter filter
2006-11-20 15:08:46,618 ERROR [1348] (MSMediaManager@.\MSMediaManager.c:864) - Could not start transcoding for file://e:/videos/file.avi
2006-11-20 15:08:46,618 ERROR [1348] (MSMediaManager@.\MSMediaManager.c:1053) - Could not start or restart transcoding
2006-11-20 15:08:46,618 ERROR [1348] (MSMediaManager@.\MSMediaManager.c:1082) - Could not start transcoding
2006-11-20 15:08:46,619 ERROR [1348] (MSMediaManager@.\MSMediaManager.c:1082) - Could not start transcoding
2006-11-20 15:08:46,619 ERROR [1348] (MSMediaManager@.\MSMediaManager.c:1990) - Can't get file size for file://e:/videos/file.avi
2006-11-20 15:08:46,619 DEBUG [1348] (MSMediaManager@.\MSMediaManager.c:2002) - For URL file://e:/videos/file.avi and Player ID 192.168.0.3, returning file size 0

I downloaded and installed FLVSplitter.ax (using regsvr32 FLVSplitter.ax) and the FLVSplitter error disappears. But I am left with:

2006-11-20 15:39:41,590 DEBUG [1964] (MSDSDecode@..\dshow\MSDSDecode.cpp:2059) - Could not find audio pin on the source filter or on a splitter filter
2006-11-20 15:39:46,590 ERROR [1964] (MSMediaManager@.\MSMediaManager.c:864) - Could not start transcoding for file://e:/videos/file.avi
2006-11-20 15:39:46,590 ERROR [1964] (MSMediaManager@.\MSMediaManager.c:1053) - Could not start or restart transcoding
2006-11-20 15:39:46,590 ERROR [1964] (MSMediaManager@.\MSMediaManager.c:1082) - Could not start transcoding
2006-11-20 15:39:46,591 ERROR [1964] (MSMediaManager@.\MSMediaManager.c:1082) - Could not start transcoding
2006-11-20 15:39:46,591 ERROR [1964] (MSMediaManager@.\MSMediaManager.c:1990) - Can't get file size for file://e:/videos/file.avi
2006-11-20 15:39:46,591 DEBUG [1964] (MSMediaManager@.\MSMediaManager.c:2002) - For URL file://e:/videos/file.avi and Player ID 192.168.0.3, returning file size 0

*UPDATE*: Ok now its working again! A reboot of the PC was needed (I guess uninstalling codecs didn't register until a reboot). Hopefully this will just work now!!

[luckyknight]

HOWTO: Divx Streaming & Transcoding on Xbox 360

Here is a little guide for the inevitable wave of peeps trying to get this to work.

Files required

TVersity:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/download.tversi ... 9_8_2a.exe
TVersity Xbox 360 patch:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/download.tversi ... _9_8_4.zip
FFdshow:
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDShow.htm
FLVSplitter:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfile ... _id=183318

Note: Links subject to change

If you use Windows Media Connect or Windows Media Player 11

If you already have Windows Media Connect or Windows Media Player 11 sharing your media, you will have to disable them. Goto the 360 and remove the PC from the System tab->Computers. Unistall Windows Media Connect and/or disable sharing in WMP 11.

Instructions

On the PC (in my case Windows Vista x64):

1) Install TVersity
2) Make sure the TVersity service is stopped
3) Overwrite the TVersity files with the 360 patch
4) Install ffdshow and flvsplitter (extract to a useful folder e.g. C:\Windows\system32, use a command prompt to install: regsvr32 flvsplitter.ax)
5) Goto: http://localhost:41952/
6) Add the folder you would like to share under the sharing tab by using "Add folder" on the file menu. Change the device to "Xbox 360" in the settings tab.
7) Reboot

You may also wish to delete the internet streams under "Library" by pressing the delete button. This adds too much to the 360 (about 1500 items! making it hard to find your files).

Also you may need to add "MediaServer.exe" to Windows firewall as it may not be added automatically.

On the 360:

1) Goto the blue "Media" tab
2) Goto video - Computer
3) Connect to TVersity on XPC
4) You may need to go back and forward, to refresh list first time
5) Play a DIVX!!!

Other codecs

The only codecs I have installed are: ffdshow, flvsplitter, vsfilter, quicktime alternative and real alternative.

Unofficial known issues

350mb AVIs work straight away, 700mb AVIs require me to load them twice on the 360 (it will say timed out or whatever), just try it again.

Some files will fail to work because the filename is too long - so try shortening it.

Thanks for all your hard work guys, keep it up

Finally DivX on 360 thanks to TVersity

[fscked]

Argh, now I see this


j/k I used to have an xbox with XBMC on it and loved to stream all of my stuff through it. I just won the 360 last week and have been trying to get this working ever since.

I get the same error when I try to connect from the 360. I am going to go home after work and follow Luckyknight's HOWTO and see if I can get it going.

Thanks LK, wish me luck!