Playing unsupported XVid/DivX (and other) videos on an XBox 360 MCE: Transcode 360 Vista beta 1

Transcode 360
http://www.runtime360.com/


Recently, when my wife and I decided to switch to Cable from Satellite TV, we decided we were not going to use the rental DVR. We then decided to go with a Media Center PC. I had a spare license of Vista Ultimate sitting around (I'm sure quite a few people have a spare Vista license around, eh?), and figured this might be a good opportunity to give Media Center a chance.

I purchased a Hauppage WinTV card, hooked up the cable and ran the Media Center configuration.

Now, I know there are some freely available media center solutions out there, such as Media Portal and MythTV (for Linux), but I have to say, we LOVE Media Center...it blows away any DVR that we've ever used, and it has the capability to play whatever videos that you have codecs installed for.

Since this was just so great, I decided that we needed to get a Media Center Extender, since it was advertised that we could watch all of our videos and television in another room where the extender was plugged in...and that is sort of true.

By default, a Media Center Extender can run videos from your Media Center PC, but only if they are of a certain type (thanks to the info at VideoRa):

Microsoft Windows Media Video (WMV) 7, 8, & 9

• - Maximum resolution of 1920x1080 (1080p) at 30 frames per second
• - Windows Media Audio Standard or Windows Media Audio Pro audio
• - WMV content may be Windows Media DRM-protected
• - Bitrates up to 8 Mbps

WMV Image 1 & 2

• - Maximum resolution of 800x600

MPEG-1

• - MPEG-1 layer I and II audio

MPEG-2, DVR-MS

• - Maximum resolution of 1920x1080 (1080i)
• - MPEG-1 layer I and II or AC-3 audio
• - Bitrates up to 19.2 Mbps

So, in order to play those XVid/DivX or other media types (like Quicktime or MKV) on my Media Center Extender, I thought I was out of luck...until I found Transcoder 360!

Transcoder 360 is a real-time agent that allows you to stream a previously unsupported video your extender. This is great news as like a lot of you, I have many of my DVDs (especially our childrens movies) copied to our Media Center PC in DivX format.

So, in order to play the videos you would browse to them through your picturs and videos, then find the video, press 'info' and then click on 'Transcode'. That's it. Video quality is awesome, and it does in fact transcode in real-time + a little faster. You won't be able to fast-forward to the end of the video right off the bat, but I have found that I personally don't need to since most of my DivX recordings are movies...

Finally, if your Windows Media Center PC is not powerful enough to perform the transcoding, you can install Transcode 360 on another more powerful PC on your home network, and offload the transcoding process... not bad!

Please donate and support this excellent project!