XBOX 360 problem recognizing MPEG2 files

[odiovidio]

I'm currently using the XBOX360 as a media center extender in my home theater. I have been able to stream WMV movies no problem from my computer running XP Pro and WMP11. I noticed online that the 360 should also natively support MPEG2 files. However the MPEG2 files in my Media Library do not show up on the 360 when I go to the Video blade...only the WMV movies show up.

Is there something I have to do to get MPEG2 files to be recognized?

[pnear]

Just to clarify your question...

There are two "modes" of using the 360 to play back digital media:
1. As a media center extender, which connects to your media center PC and provides a remote user interface to the media center.
2. As a media player, which uses the XBox blades to list the videos it finds on a network share.

I take it that you are using it like scenario #2, and MPEG2 files are not showing up? Are those files in the same directory as the WMV files on the host computer? Does Windows Media Player 11 know about those files on the host computer? Are the mpeg2 files, or VOB files from a DVD rip?

[odiovidio]

You are correct, I'm using the XBOX Media Blade > Videos

The MPEG2 files are in the same folder as the WMV files, and they show up in WMP11 Video Library.

These are VOB files that were converted to MPEG2 using Nero.

[pnear]

I don't personally use it that way, so I've been Googling to try to find your answers. So far, what I've found doesn't look promising:
http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archi...o-formats.aspx

This says that it only supports WMV, which seems odd to me.

What I can tell you is that if you use access method #1, media center extender, then it will play back MPEG2 video just fine. You can use this method if you have Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, or if you have Windows Vista Premium.

Hopefully someone will chime in and either correct or validate the WMV-only information I found for the media blade.

[odiovidio]

I just found that article as well...

Seems odd that they would support MPEG2 streaming through Media Center and not through XP.

Looks like a lot of people are unhappy that they do not support MPEG1, 2 or 4 in this way...as am I.

I guess I'm going to have to continue transcoding MPEG2 to WMV files...which I do not like to do because:
1) WMV files look washed out
2) It takes like 4 hours to transcode using my Opteron PC at 2.8GHz

I hope Microsoft updates their support of MPEG2 soon!

[pnear]

Also give this a read... the site it points to looks to be down right now but might be a decent option for you in the short term.

http://runtime360.com/2006/11/25/tve...e-transcoding/

[DLPFreak]

You might want to look at TVersity. I used it to play all sorts of videos through the Media blade before I set up Vista with MCE and it's free.

It transcodes, but your Opty should have no issues at all playing the stuff. Only caveat is that it transcodes to WMV which is what you're trying to avoid, but it saves you having to wait for the file to be converted

http://www.tversity.com/home