Xbox 360 Video Streaming – Good, Bad & Fugly at Simon’s Blog

Xbox 360 Video Streaming – Good, Bad & Fugly

Update: For more info on Xbox360 video streaming, please see my post – Top 5 Tips For Setting Up Your Xbox 360 To Stream Media – which I will try to keep up-to-date.

Increasingly, I’m finding that the “television” I’m watching these days consists less of regular broadcast content, and more of content that I’ve downloaded over the Internet. That is, video podcasts and downloaded TV shows and movies etc. However, getting the downloaded video to the TV is a pain: burning DVDs is sooooo slow; and you end up with what seems like hundreds of DVDs that you only watch once. The alternative of watching TV on a computer really isn’t a great experience. So I decided the time had come to try streaming from a hard drive on a computer direct to the television in the living room.

Now, I knew that the Xbox 360 has a media streaming feature, but I had never gotten around to networking my 360. It’s in a part of the house where there’s no wired networking, and I had always objected on principle to paying £60 (>$100) for the wireless networking add-on (it should have been built-in, or at least cost no more than £20). Yesterday, though, I decided that £60 would be a price worth paying to get more value from the content I download.

So, I spent my Sunday afternoon setting up my Xbox 360 for wireless streaming of media from a Windows XP desktop computer. Overall, I can say that I’d recommend this setup to anyone that wants to stream video from a computer to their TV. I’ve seen quite a few video streaming solutions in the past, and they’ve all been really clunky, flaky and generally crappy. Video streaming on the Xbox 360 isn’t like that. Quite the contrary, it’s pretty damn great.

However, it’s not close to being perfect. Herewith, then, The Good, The Bad, and The Downright Fugly, so you can make up your own mind…

The Good

Once it’s set up, it really works fabulously well. It’s easy to use, robust and fast: select the show you want to watch from your library, and it starts streaming over the network instantly.
If you’ve been used to watching video podcasts on your computer, or burning DVDs of downloaded content like TV shows, streaming using the Xbox 360 is really a transformational experience.
You don’t need a Media Center PC to do this. You get a great experience from installing the Zune player software on your PC (the Microsoft equivalent of iTunes), and sharing media from with the Xbox 360 with that.
The Xbox 360 can stream a pretty reasonable variety of video formats now (it couldn’t when it was first released). These include the following file types: .mp4, .m4v, mp4v, .mov (both H.264 and MPEG-4 Part 2, in both MPEG and Quicktime containers) and, of course, .wmv files.
The interface is nice e.g. it displays the embedded artwork for MPEG-4 Part 2 and H.264 files, so you can see visually what it’s in your library (the same idea as showing album artwork for music, really).
Each video is automagically organised into chapters, so you can skip around quickly if you need to.
The Xbox Live-based automatic software updating system works really well; upgrading to latest version of the Xbox 360 software is a piece of cake.

The Bad

No XviD/DivX codec support. This is really a shame. If Microsoft would add this, they would have a totally killer video streaming solution. With support for XviD, I could eliminate burning DVDs altogether. As it is, I can reduce the DVD burning by about 80%… 100% Update: I just figured that I can use Nero Recode to pretty painlessly convert XviD to H.264 – but people’s mileage will vary a lot here, depending on how much of the content they watch is XviD. I hope the right people inside Microsoft understand just how great it would be have support for XviD; and aren’t scared that support for XviD would damage their business. XviD isn’t going away… so they really might as well support it. The Dec 07 Dashboard update added support for Div/XviD
Figuring out how to get the streaming working with anything other than .wmv files was far from obvious. It doesn’t work out of the box. It turns out, if you want H.264 mpeg videos etc., you have to install and use the Zune player software on the PC you’re streaming from. Not exactly plug-and-play – I mean, who (except Zune customers) would have Zune player software installed? To be honest, I didn’t even know it existed! I’d wrongly assumed that Windows Media Player would be the thing to use.
Given that it doesn’t “just work”, the documentation isn’t as good as it could be. Once you know the issues involved in setting up, you could be up and running in less than 20 minutes. As it is, it look hours to get everything working optimally.

The Fugly

The Xbox 360 wireless network adapter and networking software in the Xbox 360 is horrible – it’s like the kind of buggy rubbish that used to on cheap wireless routers in 2004. If I hadn’t been knowledgeable about networking, and wireless security, and so understood the kind of bugs that have historically been present in these kind of devices, I don’t think I could have got it working.
- It was super-ridiculously slow to find the wireless networks that were available. That’s several minutes. At first, I thought the adapter wasn’t working.
- The security features are old and weak. To get the thing working, I had to downgrade the level of security on my wireless network. You want WPA2 security (which is what any modern wireless network uses)? Forget it. Want WPA? Forget it. Want to type in an ascii WEP key for ease of use? Forget it. The only thing that worked for me was using a 26 character hexadecimal WEP key.
I had heard much about the Xbox 360 being a great “Media Center Extender” (MCE). The Xbox 360 can attach to Windows Media Center server, and give the same interface as a Media Center PC. However, I found it to be exceptionally flaky in this mode… losing connection to the server every few seconds. It’s completely unusable as a MCE. Fortunately, streaming from the Zune software works amazingly well (see above), so it doesn’t matter.

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Comments

Asam Bashir wrote:

What content are you downloading and where are you getting it from?

Most of the content I want to watch is on BBC, Spooks, Dr Who, Top Gear etc so although I have the lameware BBC iPlayer working in a VM in parallels needed a proper solution.

This I have found to be using a Miglia DVB-T USB 2 stick connected to my iMac. It’s connected up to a proper digital aerial so I get almost all the freeview channels and crystal clear, together with the award winning EyeTV software (http://www.elgato.com/) it’s pretty much an idea set up. EyeTV lets you programme content using Mac OS X quality GUI and for a further subscription I can do this over the Internet remotely. Once recorded I can either watch it directly on the iMac, or have it exported to iPod/iTV format, chucked into my shared playlist in iTunes, then it’s available from any laptop or iTV in the house. It’s perfect, and it’s totally free and totally legal. Don’t even have to think about configuration over my wifi, it just works with iTunes sharing and streaming. EyeTV also works with front row on the iMac so you can use the Apple Remote. Few times I really want to watch something on my Nokia E65, then I can just export to 3GPP format in Quicktime Pro. Future proof and ready for iPhone…

Posted 05 Nov 2007 at 2:44 pm ¶
simon wrote:

Video podcasts, quite a few from Revision 3. The Totally Rad Show is probably my favourite (yes, I’m a big kid!).

Other content, I couldn’t possibly say… I have heard BitTorrent is a clever piece of software. Not sure what people use it for though.

iTV? Is that the same as Apple TV? Have you got one of those… what do you think of it?

Posted 05 Nov 2007 at 2:59 pm ¶
Asam Bashir wrote:

Sorry yes meant AppleTV – no don’t have one as I don’t get a chance to sit infront of the TV much – normally watch from one of my laptops in bed with content streaming from iMac over my exisiting Airport network at home. Have added DivX codecs to Quicktime on the iMac so it will play DivX movies in iTunes. Once it’s in iTunes it will work with all the rest of the built-in streaming features and be available in Front Row and therefore if I did add an AppleTV it would be available there as well..

One problem with BitTorrent now though is bandwidth throttling – like on Virgin/NTL now, if you download more then 750 MB between 16.00 and 00.00 you get your bandwidth throttled down.

Posted 05 Nov 2007 at 5:18 pm ¶
Asam Bashir wrote:

PS I programme the content remotely anyway even though I don’t have a tvtv subscription – I just use Remote Desktop and do it that way from where ever I happen to be….

Posted 05 Nov 2007 at 5:32 pm ¶
Asam Bashir wrote:

And of course, my Airport network is WPA2 – but iTunes sharing features works with whatever network you throw at it…

Posted 05 Nov 2007 at 5:36 pm ¶
simon wrote:

My wireless network used to be WPA2 LOL!

Setting recording remotely is interesting. I keep meaning to set up my Sky+ box so that I can control recording on that from my mobile… but haven’t got around to it yet. Also, I want to try a Slingbox… need to see how up-to-date we are in the UK with Slingboxes – last time I looked, we were behind the curve there.

Actually, if I get a Slingbox, I’ll need to get a wireless network bridge… so I’ll be able to chuck the crappy Xbox 360 wireless adaptor out, and wire the console into the wireless bridge. So, the downgrade to 128-bit WEP may be only temporary.

Posted 05 Nov 2007 at 6:41 pm ¶
Asam Bashir wrote:

Why don’t get yourself a little MacMini with a USB 2 stick and give it a whirl – Use a generic VNC server and remote control it.
Take the plunge Si, you might actually enjoy the experience – 21st century media done right ;P

Posted 05 Nov 2007 at 6:46 pm ¶
simon wrote:

I’ll look into it. The idea of having a small form-factor computer under the TV is a really good one in principle. That way, you’re not restricted in terms of codecs you can use (again, in principle).

The only problem is: problems with mismatching screen resolutions abound (computers tend to output resolutions that aren’t a 1:1 match with TV screens). So, I’d need to make sure I understand how to get around those issues (if they exist) on the Mac. And, I’d need to check that Front Row plays all the video formats I want.

However, aside from the lack of XviD support, I have to say that the Xbox 360 makes a pretty nice media streamer.

Posted 05 Nov 2007 at 6:55 pm ¶
Asam Bashir wrote:

MacMini connected to EyeTV with a Migla USB stick (dual function, digital and analogue so can stick in Sky/Virgin as well) – EyeTV to record content then exported automatically to iTunes shared list – then final touch, add the AppleTV that automatically syncs with the MacMini and it’s on your TV screen of choice. But sure, you can plug in the MacMini straight to TV and should be fine (Mac OS X is very elegant at handling output screensize – not what you’re used to in the Windows world) – add the AppleTV to refine at a later stage.

PS MacMini should be fine exporting, but if you find you’re using the MacMini for more things you can add a hardware USB 2 h.264 encoder to turbocharge your exports..

http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_turbo264

http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetv250na

Posted 05 Nov 2007 at 8:55 pm ¶
Nathan wrote:

Some of the issues you were/are having are because you have not been connected to Xbox live to receive the dashboard updates. By now you probably know you can stream divx and xvid to your 360 and it works seemlessly.

As far as wireless security goes, I have no idea. Mine is wired. However, the wireless adapter from MS has received an enormous amount of praise. You notice there aren’t many, if any, 2nd party wireless adapters. You simply can’t beat the size, performance and price of what MS offers on this product (a little unusual I know).

So the Zune softward lets you stream more video types than MCE? Or at least that’s what you are saying. I use MCE right now and it’s very limited. I think I’ll download Zune’s software and give it a try.

You should update this post.

Posted 11 Dec 2007 at 4:31 pm ¶
Nathan wrote:

Asam, you can do the exact same thing using a MCE PC and the 360 as long as you have a tuner card for your PC. MCE has all the software for setting up recordings (DVR) then it will all stream through the 360. not to mention with a PC you will have many many more software companies to choose from to find the best software on the market. The one thing I dont like about Apple is only Apple offers anything. example, iMac, iTv, itoy, ibox, iphoto. By the time you’re finished buying an iMac, all the hardware and/or software needed you’ve spent a ton of money. then you’re still limited by what Apple allows.

Zune, MCE PC and 360 are the best way to go. Plus you can stream HD content via HDMI (don’t know if you can or can’t witth apple tv) good info though

Posted 11 Dec 2007 at 4:37 pm ¶
simon wrote:

Nathan, you’re right – I have been meaning to update this post after the latest Dashboard update was released at the beginning of December. It’s now updated… also see:

http://www.psynixis.com/blog/2007/11/07/top-5-tips-for-setting-up-your-xbox-360-to-stream-media/

which I will try to keep up-to-date.

The new DivX/XviD support does indeed work great, although it doesn’t work with the Zune player software. I use Windows Media Player sharing services for streaming DivX/XviD videos, and Zune Player sharing for the rest. It’s a pity that Microsoft can’t share all video formats from a single piece of PC software; as I understand it, they are legally prevented from doing this as a result of anti-trust issues. However, the Xbox 360 software makes it easy to switch between services.

If you’ve been using the Media Centre Extender, then yes, you’ll find the Zune Player supports many more types of file. Typically, if the file extensions are: .mp4, .m4v, mp4v, or .mov, you can stream it from Zune Player.

Posted 11 Dec 2007 at 5:08 pm ¶
Richard wrote:

Hey I found this blog through google whilst revising Video Streaming to the 360, I came up on another article on a site I use(afterdawn) that uses a program called TVersity.

Quote “TVersity offers a much more robust solution for sharing multimedia from your network or directly from feeds on the Internet. It even supports sharing media that is not compatible with the Xbox 360 console directly. It can be used over a normal wired network or a wireless network”

Link: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/stream_video_xbox_360_tversity.cfm

Enjoy!

Posted 19 Jun 2008 at 6:12 pm ¶
Raph wrote:

Thanks for the well written article. And thanks for the link Richard.

Posted 29 Jul 2008 at 3:00 pm ¶
Rookstar wrote:

Hi,

personally I use my xbox 360’s as Media Center Extenders, one wired and the other with the wireless network adapter and both work flawlessly. I’m not sure about the flaky problems you seem to have with your wireless network adapter, maybe poor reception? I use 802.11g (don’t have an 802.11a device yet….) and it is ony about 15 feet away from the router and works great. I find it most useful for watching/pausing/rewinding live TV as well as playing my library of music and videos. Media Center rocks! Its soo easy to use the interface is pleasant and easy to understand, my girlfriend uses it with no problems (and she’s not the most tech savvy person i’ve ever met). I dunno what i’d do without my 360. cry perhaps??

Posted 02 Sep 2008 at 10:29 pm ¶
Salil wrote:

I’ve been using my Xbox in conjunction with PlayOn.tv for a few weeks, and absolutely loving that.

However, I was curious about just what the upper limits of streaming was for this thing, and how I could practically resolve issues locally on my network. I’m using 100Mbit wired ethernet (on a gigabit switch, though…not sure if that might be an issue).

I downloaded a full 1080p torrent of a movie in Matroska format, and tried to stream that from the Xbox using the PlayOn media plugin (beta). It loaded and began to play, but the stream was very jittery, and the Xbox would have to keep rebuffering the file.

I don’t think my server’s hard drive is the bottle neck (SATA II, 7200 rpm, decently fast read speeds). It would seem that regular fast ethernet would be fine for streaming the file.

Posted 02 Feb 2010 at 4:33 pm ¶

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