How to stream media to your Xbox360 using TVersity
Submitted by justin on Wed, 12/09/2009 - 00:51
I've been a long time TVersity user. Love the app. It's the nicest of the UPnP streaming out there. Well documented, easy to use, etc.. Enough with the kissing up...
One thing I've been struggling with as of late is streaming large videos across the network. I've started ripping my DVDs & Blu-rays so the family can watch them whenever (and so the discs don't get goobered up). The trouble I've found is that if they are not a lower bitrate WMV, transcoding will darn near kill your PC. As a result you get crappy (technical term), choppy video. Since I can't leave well enough alone, I spent many hours trying to come up with a solution.
This guide will (hopefully) help you stream various video file formats/containers including the Matroska .mkv files.
What You Need
- TVersity - http://tversity.com
- Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP) - http://www.cccp-project.net/
- MediaInfo - http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en
- Video files in various formats (.mkv, .wmv, etc.)
- Decent Hardware
A Word on MKV Files
I think it's important to quickly cover .mkv or Matroska files. MKV files are containers for video, audio, subtitle, or picture files. They are NOT video files themselves. They merely contain the video/audio/etc.. This allows for multiple languages and subtitles to be packaged into a single file. More on Matroska files here.
Software
This has been tested on Windows 7 64-bit and Windows Server 2008 R2. This should work on on Windows XP as well. If you're running an anti-virus program, you may want to exclude your media directories from being scanned when accessed. I would still advise that you run a nightly scan on your entire computer just to be safe.
Hardware
You will need a PC with a dual-core processor at bare minimum. Why you ask? Well because you will be using the PC to do the heavy lifting otherwise known as transcoding. The more CPU you can toss at it the better.
You will need some RAM too. At least 2GB. Again, the more the merrier. Though this is NOT as important as CPU.
Your network needs to not suck. If your Xbox is on a wired connection, you should be good. If your Xbox is connected via wireless, make sure the signal is good. A poor signal will cause issues.
Basic hard drives should work fine. Internal (SATA) drives will perform better than external. Externals do work fine for smaller videos though.
My Hardware Setup:
BFG nVidia 8800GT Video Card
BFG 680i Motherboard
Intel Q9550 2.83Ghz Quad-Core
6GB RAM (no pagefile)
WD 36GB Raptor Hard Drives in RAID0 (operating system)
WD 1TB USB External Hard Drive (movies / music /pictures)
Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit
Xbox360 Elite
My Network Setup:
Xbox360 Wired to a Linksys WRT54G acting a as client-bridge (running dd-wrt firmware)
Linksys WRT54G acting as an AP (PC wired to this)
As you can see, I am using wireless. My SNR is excellent though. I have no signal issues.
Installation Steps
- Install MediaInfo.
- Download TVersity.
- Install TVersity, but do NOT install the TVersity codec pack.
- Install CCCP using the defaults. (Don't mess with the settings. I know it's tempting.)
- Open the TVersity GUI.
- Under Library, add a folder for your videos. Click advanced and choose "always" under the transcode options. (At this point you're probably complaing about quality because everything will be transcoded. Well, quit. Read to the entire article first.)
- In the Settings menu, choose "Transcode".
So here's where things get interesting. I'm going to give you all of my settings that work for me. First I need to tell you that I "dumb" things down to 720p. Why you ask? Well quite honestly 1080p is rough on hardware. There aren't currently any hardware decoders for the format so it tends beat up the CPU. The other part is that 720p looks just fine to me. Heck the Xbox can't even do Dolby Digital on streamed movies so what's the point. That said, here are my settings:
- When to transcode: Only when needed
- Decrease the bitrate...: Unchecked
- Maximum Video and Image Resolution:
Video: 1280 x 720
Images: Who cares - Windows Media Encoder
Use DirectShow for Windows Media Encoding: Checked
Windows Media 7 - Optimization: Quality
- Connection Speed and Quality
Wireless 54G
Medium (if you're using wireless, choose medium) - Compression: Minimum
- Decoding Speed
Decode the media as fast as...: Checked - Audio Capture
Use Stereo Mix: Unchecked
There you have it. It wasn't complex, but it did take some time to fine tune everything. Some movies will still buffer at the start. They shouldn't pause during the movie though.
Problems?
Well it could be a myriad of things. Open Task Manager and watch your CPU, memory, disk, and network utilization. My quad-core sits at around 75-79% CPU, 8-10Mbps network, and 2-8MB/s disk activity. You mileage will vary.
Also, use the MediaInfo tool. It will give you a wealth of information about your files. Pay special attention to bitrates. High bitrates will kill the network.
All else fails, feel free to leave a comment. I'll do what I can to help.
Blu ray streaming
I am on windows 7 and have xBox hard wired. So I am using windows media center and using Xbox as extender. I use my movies which will stream DVDs without no conversion. Just rip using any DVD and my movies will stream it though Xbox using windows media center. Blu rays must be ripped w any DVD then use tsremux GUI and use bdinfo to see what playlist main movie is and just choose this in tsremuxgui. Then take this new remuxed movie into avs converter and make wmv file using wmv 9 pro settings and use 16000 Kbps awesome quality and choose 5.1 audio. There are instructions on web how to use the programs I mentioned. It only takes about 5 minutes to get the file ready and into AVS. Avs takes awhile depending on you pc then my movies will stream this high quality picture with 5.1 surround sound to your Xbox my movies has a nice interface too
RE:
This doesn't seem to solve the +4GB file size issue does it?
I didn't have issues with
I didn't have issues with large files. Several 10GB+ files seemed to play fine.
RE:
This doesn't solve the issue for files over 4GB does it? Any large file doesn't play for me, but smaller files play fine
what version of tversity are
what version of tversity are you using to stream
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!
i did as you told, however,
i did as you told, however, the video buffers every 3-4 seconds and i dont get any sound....HELP PLEASE....(streaming on my xbox 360)
Gracias !!!! Thank you
I like you post very much... I was clear and easy to follow I make mine pc stream in no time :-).
Hopfully you can figure out how to make the subtitles to work, but...
sitill amazing !!!!
Thanks!
I spend weeks trying to figure out why it wasn't working. Great tutorial.
One question though. Am I still getting DTS sound after the transcoding from MKV to WMV (of course assuming the original mkv had DTS)?
Thanks!
G'day , I was able to get the
G'day , I was able to get the mkv files to stream after a bit of effing around with codecs and stuff but found the xbox would have to buffer every 20 secs or so. I think my PC may not have the power to convert and stream ,so this is what I've got , Can you let me know if this should be capable and if not what do I need too upgrade (hopefully not the whole pc)
My System:AMD Athlon 64x2 dual core processor 5200+
2.71Ghz, 2GB RAM. 500 gig HD(I stream movies off a 1T/B External dve)
nvidia geforce 8500t
Windows XP media centre edition 2002 SP3
Thanks
You should open task manager
You should open task manager while you're streaming a video. Pay attention to the CPU usage. Also how is the xbox connected to the network?
the task manager showed
the task manager showed 85-95% cpu usage.The xbox is connected via a d-link wireless modem/router with excellent(full bars) connection , I tried connecting with a cable just to compare and had the same result .
Sounds like you're
Sounds like you're underpowered on the CPU. Can you post the details of one of your MKV files (use MediaInfo)?
Thanks for this easy to
Thanks for this easy to follow guide!Any news on streaming subtitles?I've been partially deaf since I was 17.So if I watch a movie subs really help.Thanks!
I haven't tried subtitles,
I haven't tried subtitles, but you bring up a great point. I'll see what I can work up. Any particular issues you've had with them?
Subs
Thanks Justin,maybe my pc isn't up to the task of streaming subs.I have tried videos with hard-coded subs ,but the video stutters like crazy.
Video without the HC subs plays fine.
I just own a crappy e-machine pc with 80gbs hd.And 736 mbs ram,Sad to say the least.Lol!
Thanks again!
Well it could be the
Well it could be the processor in your PC. That will get hit the hardest when you're streaming.
I'd try lowering the video resolution under "Maximum Output Resolution". The settings I have above require a good bit of processing power.
Processor
Yup,its a sempron processor,wal-mart special.
Like I said it streams okay without the subs.Guess I'll have to crank up my hearing aids till I get a better computer,lol.Quad core would be nice!
Thanks a bunch for your input Justin.:)
TVersity on PS3
I used PS3 media server when I was running Vista, but when I got Windows 7, it didn't work that well anymore. Now I tried TVersity with these settings and it works perfect! No more crashes or stuttering. MKV works fine, but not every file. The_Green_Mile.mkv (6,55GB) didn't play, instead TVersity crashed. Untill now, it's just one file, the majority runs fine. Any ideas why this happens?
MediaInfo gives the following:
Matroska: 6,56 GiB
1 video stream: AVC
1 audio stream: AC-3
1 text stream: UTF-8
The AC-3 audio stream may be
The AC-3 audio stream may be the culprit. That seems to be a recurring issue for a lot of TVersity users. Most of the stuff I rip is with DTS.
If it's crashing right from the start, I'd suggest using DTS. You can try installing the AC-3 filter from http://ac3filter.net/. That's had mixed results. Let me know if that does work for you so I can update the tutorial.
It's not the AC-3 filter
I installed the AC-3 filter as you mentioned, but it didn't make any sense. I started AC-3 filter before starting up TVersity and used the default settings but no other results than a crash of TVersity.
I discovered another problem and that's the skipping in movies. When I want to skip/fast-forward (doesn't matter if it's 15x, 30x or 120x), the movie won't start when I press play. There are no errors, the screen just stays on hold. Very frustrating if you want to skip the first 5 minutes of a movie.
AC-3 seems to be an issue
AC-3 seems to be an issue with TVersity. There doesn't seem to be a reliable way to decode AC-3 using TVersity.
That tends to happen to me with larger movies or higher resolutions. You can increase the temporary space that TVersity uses to help get around that. Mine is currently set for 20GB since I have some larger rips.
Why do we need mediainfo?
After seeing what it does, I have no idea why we would need it.
MediaInfo will tell you what
MediaInfo will tell you what codec was used to encode the video files. This is useful for troubleshooting videos that don't play. MKV files, for instance, are just containers. They could container any number of formats within them.
Windows Server 2008 r2
My apologies this will seem like a newbie question for the obvious reasons I am sure. I have installed just as you said... I cannot find the Upnp server on my network? When I was running TVersity in XP 32 bit no problems. Any hint would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you in advance.
Firewall
You likely have the Windows Firewall on. Go into the Server Manager. Under Configuration -> Windows Firewall... Click on Windows Firewall Properties. Turn the firewall off to see of that helps you.
If you're behind a firewall already (e.g. Linksys/DLink/Netgear/etc) router) there's not a need to have this enabled at home.
Tversity
Very comprehensive documented help... I just hope that the player in Tversity can work more on controls of pausing and fast forwarding feature..much like web players and pass through more formats which are native to the Upnp clients.
I have experienced that all users would benefit from mediainfo and graphedit to study the behaviour of transcoding as finally its all about what codecs the streaming uses. So one can experience quality levels in streaming.
Well documented Information!! Thumbs up!
Very good guide.
I am curious which DvD ripping software do you use to create the .mkv, wmv files?
I use a few apps to rip
I use a few apps to rip DVDs. Handbrake is nice, but it doesn't break copy protection. DVD-Fab costs money but works very well for DVD and Blu-ray. It also breaks the copy protection for you.
Leet.
You are awesome, works great. One question you may or may not know the answer to :\ I have a D-Link-825 router and an Xbox 360 along with my leet computer :) I am wanting to use my external hard drive on my network using the USB port on the back of the router. I don't want to buy a NAS, so I am hoping to stick with my 1tb seagate HDD. I know you need the share port software to pull off of the usb port on the back of the router but would it be possible on the xbox 360 to pull movies off of the harddrive without the software or is there a way to install the shareport software onto the xbox 360?
If you map a drive to the
If you map a drive to the external hard drive from your PC, TVersity will be able to see the media on it. So you should be able to set it up on your router. I'm not all the familiar with DLINK routers tough.
mkv's
wonderful!! mkv's finally working. thank you!
Thanks!
Thanks, Worked perfectly for me!
yeah, this was really
yeah, this was really helpful. thanks sir