rocketsauce

Do you have to have Windows XP Media Center based PC to stream to your 360? I have XP Service pack 2, and the website you needed that OR the media center? can someone tell me how to get this hooked up? I downloaded the windows media connect and set everything up, but my 360 is not reconizing my computer. It said to enter the code during installation, but it never offered a chance to, and I can't find how or where to enter this number.

njchris

You need windows media center edition to do video. you can still do pictures and music (dont use the media center button on the 360). I think on the PC you have to install the media extender and that should be good for the pics & music.

tenaciousdave

With XP service pack 2 you can stream pictures and audio. You need Windows Media Connect.

You can get it here. http://www.xbox.com/en-US/pcsetup

rocketsauce

ya i got it to stream my pics and audio, that sucks that i can't do video.

sracer

You'll have to upgrade your system to Windows Media Center Edition in order to do that. I love streaming pix and audio to my 360 but I don't know if $100+ for a copy of WMCE is worth the ability to stream video.

If WMCE will allow me to stream audio over the net that is referenced to by a local .wax file, THEN I could be convinced. (I'm hooked on LuxuriaMusic)

rocketsauce

ya, it's defianately not worth it. I mean it would be cool to watch certain video dl's on my tv, but after the purchase of the 360 and HDTV, I am officially wiped.

raven56706

i still cant stream anything over to xbox 360... i am connected through a router .....


any ideas

damn_skippy

Make sure you keep the xbox 360 on the set up screen when you enter the code on your computer.

(This is the screen after the 360 gives you the 8 digit code.)

edstein

Make sure your firewall is set right. Check out this screen grab of my settings.

Do this: firewall
Then do this: Windows Media Connect

Then reboot for good measure. I never entered the 8 digit code either but, this setup worked for me.

raven56706

i dont have media center... just regular xp sp2

my firewall was on and it didnt work and i tried it off and it doesnt work.... i should just give up.....maybe its my router

edstein

Windows Media Connect is not Windows Media Center. Your xp sp2 will work fine, that is what I am running.

raven56706

well thats what i am running


so you have your firewalls on?

DJ_Longfellow

Does anyone havea problem when using Windows Media Connect that your PC slows down a bit when sharing LOTS of files? I have an entire drive dedicated to music, so I share the whole thing, but it seems slow my PC down when it is left running for a while.

I think I may just get a HD and Enclosure, format with FAT32, then connect it DIRECTLY to my 360. Thus, portable jukebox

The Bus

I had that problem too. Apparently Windows Media Connect doesn't work well when you're sharing tens of thousands of files. I resolved the problem by just sharing a thousand or so, which makes finding the files a lot easier too.

DJ_Longfellow

Well, I have to find a better way to categorize my music....right now, kinda a mess. I was just ripping all my CD's to the one partition. I'll either drop the amount I share or try my direct connect method.

hippochris

Streaming video isnt that easy. It seems the 360 won't play any videos with Divx or Xvid codecs (which i'm sure a lot of people have). You'd either have to convert the videos to an acceptable format (wmv? which defeats the purpose) or use another workaround. Theres one on the xbox.com forum using windows media endcoder that does something with an .asx file. It's an ugly workaround, but it works and it's the only way i can play xvid or divx files on my 360. I think i read that MS will not have an xvid or divx update on the 360 or play those files normally, but maybe the PS3 will force them to.

As for setting up the media connection, it was a bit tricky for me as well. My comp and 360 were both recognizing each other and trying to take steps to connect but i didnt know what to do first (take action on comp or 360 first?), but somehow got everything set up. As for music, i find it easier to just plug my ipod into the 360 and work from there. The best part.....I now can control the music playing from my ipod with the media remote! The xbox 360 visualizations are pretty cool too.

Edit: I'm running Windows MCE Update Rollup 2 and using McAfee firewall (not windows firewall).

MR ROBOTO 9000

From what i've read the 360 won't play AAC files from computer. O.K. Stupid design
Since I don't want to reencode my 5000 AAC files does anyone know if I can copy them all to a seperate harddrive and convert those to mp3 therefore leaving the original files as is ?

goLUCKY

To listen to unprotected AAC files:

Go to the Xbox Live area of the Xbox Dashboard and select Xbox Live Marketplace, Game Downloads.
Select All Games, Alphabetical List of Games.
Select Optional iPod Support twice (once from Xbox Live Marketplace and again from the Xbox Guide screen), then Confirm Download.
Once your download is complete, select Done and return to the Xbox Dashboard (press BACK or B three times).
Now you're all set to listen to your unprotected AAC audio files—either by themselves or in playlists with MP3 and WMA audio files—found on any combination of: your iPod, another connected portable audio player, your Xbox 360 Hard Drive, or a connected USB flash-memory device.

DJ_Longfellow

So, I take it no one is using an external HD with their 360? I keep putting it off to try it. I know there can be issues with trying to format a HD over 32GB wth FAT32, right?

jeffdsmith

If you are willling to install a free copy of a linux OS you can get that video streming for "free", but even then its not really worth it.

MR ROBOTO 9000

I've already done that and it's great for connecting the Ipod.
When I have the Ipod in my truck I want my wife to be able to stream all my music but the 360 only streams mp3's not AAC's so that's my question.

DJ_Longfellow

Another question, what if you get an EXTERNAL HD (like the Napster one at CostCo.com). They have it for $100, which is average for a 160GB HD storage. Would this work as plug and play or would it have to be formatted as FAT32 still?

I hate the fact that my PC slow to a crawl after I leave thousands of files shared for a while. I'm trying to archive my ENTIRE CD collection on my PC, and it just drags down.

Would it help if I just moved all my music files to an external drive and just shared a USB external drive? Currently, I have my HD partioned into two drives...one is my basic stuff, other is media. I share the media drive and it slows down. I may try just sharing my external HD when I get it together.

Michael Corvin

I tried my external Maxtor 250 GB drive. Worked, no problems at all. Disappointing that it won't play video though. Saw the pictures and music fine. Set me a new background on my "blades" screen.

njchris

From what I've read, If you connect a usb drive to a 360, it has to be in FAT32.

DJ_Longfellow

Did you plug it directly into the 360 or stream through the PC?

I know if you do FAT32, you acn only go to like 132GB I think.