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Ridebreck
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 943
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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| Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 7:14 pm Post subject: Need some info - XBox360 for playing .ts files |
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Lately I've been getting the itch to start recording HD programming via firewire from my Motorola 6412 HDDVR. As I understand it, there are two ways to go about this - a D-VHS machine or a computer. With HD-DVD coming out, I've really got no desire for a D-VHS. So I've been toying with the idea of getting an XBox 360 for playing back .ts files, which still leaves me with needing a computer to record to.
My question is this: how much of a computer do you need in order to get smooth playback using the XBox 360? Is there any way I could beef up this old P2 machine that I've got sitting in a closet somewhere to be an adequate media server?
Thanks.
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Clarence
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 3827
Location: Smith Mtn Lake, VA
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| Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 7:37 pm Post subject: |
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You need Windows MCE 2005 (Media Center Edition), which isn't sold separately. So any hardware system which it's sold with will have sufficient horsepower... even the cheapest celeron system I could find does fine. I did bump the RAM up to 2Gb.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7334754&&#post7334754
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Ridebreck
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 943
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
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| Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 7:59 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks, Clarence. That stinks that you have to buy a new PC to get the latest MCE. Remind me to give Bill Gates a kick in da nuts the next time I'm in Seattle. 
Looks like I need to start paying more attention to those Dell catalogs and BB sale adds when they come in the mail.
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Clarence
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 3827
Location: Smith Mtn Lake, VA
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WanMan
Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 10270
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| Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 1:16 pm Post subject: |
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I think this is only a problem if you are connecting to a network computer. A directly-connected HDD might be a better approach, but I haven't even opened my Xbox 360 yet (got it yesterday).
Also, keep in mind of the limitations of the Xbox 360. If you use the RGBHV cable, you cannot get 1080i output unless something has changed in the lands of Microsoft. Their originally published 1080i ability was corrected when the public proved it was a no-go. So, you are stuck in the land of Component video, and potentially component video abuse.
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Clarence
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 3827
Location: Smith Mtn Lake, VA
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| Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 5:52 pm Post subject: |
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| WanMan wrote: | | A directly-connected HDD might be a better approach, but I haven't even opened my Xbox 360 yet (got it yesterday). |
Interesting... I'd never even heard of the potential of hooking up a HDD directly to the x360. I assume you're using the USB2 ports? Do you have a link?
| Quote: | | Also, keep in mind of the limitations of the Xbox 360. If you use the RGBHV cable, you cannot get 1080i output unless something has changed in the lands of Microsoft. Their originally published 1080i ability was corrected when the public proved it was a no-go. So, you are stuck in the land of Component video, and potentially component video abuse. |
I bought the x360 "VGA" cable (link), but since it doesn't do 1080i, I use the component cables to feed 1080i to my scalers, which then deinterlace to 1080p.
But the "VGA" cable (providing 1024x768, 1280x720, 1280x768, 1280x1024, and 1360x768) would be very appealing to CRT owners without transcoders or scalers.
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Clarence
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 3827
Location: Smith Mtn Lake, VA
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| Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 7:12 pm Post subject: |
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| WanMan wrote: | | A directly-connected HDD might be a better approach |
Hopefully you'll have more luck that I did. I tried it and didn't even get the xbox360 to recognize the USB2 drive.
So I did a quick search for "USB" in the xbox forum at "Site A" and found this:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6942968&&#post6942968 | HeadRusch wrote: | You can connect anything USB that doesn't require a driver....including USB external hard Drives.
The problem is that:
1) They must be formatted in Fat32, not NTFS
2) They can only be used to stream photos and music, NOT video |
Yecch. The FAT32 limitation was why I sold my snazzio and went with the xbox360. FAT32 is limited to 4Gb files and 30Gb partitions. All of my USB2 drives are NTFS. I find it hard to imagine that Microsoft doesn't support NTFS... they own NTFS  
But I look forward to your alternative solutions.
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Clarence
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 3827
Location: Smith Mtn Lake, VA
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| Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 8:39 pm Post subject: |
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Interesting...
http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/mods/USB%20Hard%20Drive%20Mod.htm
| llama.com wrote: | | The Xbox 360 supports removable and portable devices via USB. Most of these devices use the FAT32 file system which is capable of volume sizes up to 2 TB. Windows 2000 and XP can read and write to FAT32 volumes of large size but cannot natively create or format them above 32 GB. In order to create a FAT32 partition and format it above 32GB you will need a utility like Partition Magic or some other drive/partition utility. Windows 98 does support the creation and formatting of FAT32 partitions up to 127 GB in size. |
So Win98 can create FAT32 partition up to 127Gb.
But I don't see anyway to overcome the 4Gb per file limitation. And I still think you'll be limited to .jpg's and .mp3's
I might format a HDD as FAT32 just to try .wmv
I'm ecstatic with using MCE2005, but it'd be nice to find something to suggest to people who don't want to spend $500 on a new PC.
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mtmelvin
Joined: 18 Mar 2006
Posts: 153
Location: Bay Area, CA
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| Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 4:49 am Post subject: |
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Maybe the geeks have hacked this already, but my understanding was that you couldn't play video at all from an external hard drive connected to the 360. Has someone on here gotten that to work?
-Mark
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Clarence
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 3827
Location: Smith Mtn Lake, VA
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| Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 12:18 pm Post subject: |
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| mtmelvin wrote: | | my understanding was that you couldn't play video at all from an external hard drive connected to the 360. Has someone on here gotten that to work? |
WanMan just said he thinks it'd be better than my MCE recommendation. But he hasn't attempted anything yet.
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WanMan
Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 10270
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| Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 3:49 pm Post subject: |
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I was told last night that you can now get an update from Microsoft that will allow you to stream video from non-MCE Windows computers on your LAN. Go to www.microsoft.com/extender according to a) my newly bought Xbox 360 and a friend that is all-about Microsoft products.
I have not tested this so YMMV.
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Clarence
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 3827
Location: Smith Mtn Lake, VA
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| Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 9:19 pm Post subject: |
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| WanMan wrote: | | I was told last night that you can now get an update from Microsoft that will allow you to stream video from non-MCE Windows computers on your LAN.... according to a friend that is all-about Microsoft products. |
Cool! Hundreds of thousands of non-MCE Xbox360 owners eagerly await to follow your success.
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Z-Photo
Joined: 07 Mar 2006
Posts: 2749
Location: Huntsville - Alabama
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| Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 11:08 pm Post subject: |
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Crap - now you tell me..
I just found a bunch of the 360 in stock today....
If anyone has used the extender let me know how well it works..
Pete
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mtmelvin
Joined: 18 Mar 2006
Posts: 153
Location: Bay Area, CA
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| Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 12:37 am Post subject: |
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It works really well, actually. My only beef is that you have to have a Media Center PC to do it. Maybe that is changing, according to the previous post.
Also, it was rather painful for me to get it working with my PC. That may be because I built the PC and it's not a "certified microsoft media center" or whatever, but I did finally get it to work. After weeks of reading in all kinds of forums I've decided that it's not just me. This 360MCE thing is quirky.
Not to discredit my own endorsement of the 360 for .ts playback, but mine just stopped working yesterday. I've read about people having this kind of problem before, where it suddenly won't connect anymore. I can only suspect that it is the result of some small change I made to the PC without realizing it. I did install the Avel Linkserver software (for the Avel Linkplayer2) a week or so ago, but the two were co-existing fine for a while. I don't know what happened. I may or may not have the patience to try to get that worked out again. In the mean time the Linkplayer seems to be doing a smashing job as well. It's much quiter than the 360 (silent, actually... has no fan like the 360) and I think the picture quality is just as good to my eyes. As for reliability, some files play back perfectly, and some don't. I'd say the same thing about the 360.
-Mark
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overclkr
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 4227
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| Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 2:42 am Post subject: |
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| mtmelvin wrote: | It works really well, actually. My only beef is that you have to have a Media Center PC to do it. Maybe that is changing, according to the previous post.
Also, it was rather painful for me to get it working with my PC. That may be because I built the PC and it's not a "certified microsoft media center" or whatever, but I did finally get it to work. After weeks of reading in all kinds of forums I've decided that it's not just me. This 360MCE thing is quirky.
Not to discredit my own endorsement of the 360 for .ts playback, but mine just stopped working yesterday. I've read about people having this kind of problem before, where it suddenly won't connect anymore. I can only suspect that it is the result of some small change I made to the PC without realizing it. I did install the Avel Linkserver software (for the Avel Linkplayer2) a week or so ago, but the two were co-existing fine for a while. I don't know what happened. I may or may not have the patience to try to get that worked out again. In the mean time the Linkplayer seems to be doing a smashing job as well. It's much quiter than the 360 (silent, actually... has no fan like the 360) and I think the picture quality is just as good to my eyes. As for reliability, some files play back perfectly, and some don't. I'd say the same thing about the 360.
-Mark |
That's odd Mark,
I've had ZERO, ZILCH, NADA problems with the extender other than my MCE box only has 1.5 gig of ram and runs out. Popped 2 gig of ram in and it works great.
It may also be that I use the extender STRICTLY for .ts playback......
Cliff
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Clarence
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 3827
Location: Smith Mtn Lake, VA
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| Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 3:50 am Post subject: |
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Ditto... I've recorded and streamed ~100+ .ts movies using MCE2005... not a single dropped frame, freeze up, or BSOD. I'm also running w/2Gb RAM. But everything else is low-end.
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mtmelvin
Joined: 18 Mar 2006
Posts: 153
Location: Bay Area, CA
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| Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:02 am Post subject: |
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Yeah, well I guess I should say that when it worked it worked perfectly. I'm just frustrated that the connection is so finnicky. I'm not sure what changed on my PC that is preventing the 360 from connecting, and I'm not sure I will ever find it. I've tried all the fixes (that I could find) associated with the error message I'm getting, and nothing works yet.
I don't really use that PC for anything else besides .ts playback. I have my G5 for real computing  Wouldn't even have this PC if I could stream from my Mac.
Oh, some day when I'm less frustrated I'll figure it out. I may just have to start from scratch and reinstall the OS. I may not have the patience to figure out what went wrong
Take care guys.
-Mark
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Clarence
Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 3827
Location: Smith Mtn Lake, VA
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| Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:01 pm Post subject: |
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WanMan, now that you've had your XBox360 for a month, can you update us the success that you and your Microsoft friend have had streaming .ts without MCE2005?
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WanMan
Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 10270
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| Posted: Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:40 pm Post subject: |
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I got my 360 on 4/7/06, 12 days ago. Let me call him ...
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WanMan
Joined: 19 Mar 2006
Posts: 10270
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