Xbox 360 now supports x264?

[Unrealistic]

So I stumbled across something just now by accident. I used Windows 7 Media Center to share all of my video files on my Homegroup. After that, I setup Media Center to scan these folders and share them across the network. With this setup, I then went and added a Media Center Extender and input the 360's unique number.

I was watching some shows and saw an x264 file and said "**** it, worth a shot." To my amazement, the 360 started streaming it in HD and I watched it. I've tested other x264 files and they are working as well. :)

Now as far as I knew, the xbox 360 only supported h264. If anyone is on Windows 7 RTM, has a 360 and some HD x264 files, could you test and confirm?

These are MKV/x264 files.

Edited July 27, 2009 by Unrealistic

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

x264 is a library for encoding h264. H.264 is the video codec/video format, x264 is a program to encode H.264 video format.

Basically, x264 is not a codec, h264 is the codec that is needed to support HD.

From Wiki itself

x264 is a free software library for encoding video streams into the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format

The 360 has support for H264, I dunno about AVC, don't think it does that.

[ViperAFK]

It doesn't support the mkv container though making it goddamn useless to me.

[Unrealistic]

Right, but before today I have never been able to stream x264 files. It would say "unsupported codec".

Viper: I am streaming .MKV files. At least now I am with Windows 7 RTM MCE.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

It doesn't support the mkv container though making it goddamn useless to me.

MKV is just a container, I don't know how many times on this board I've had to tell people it's codec support that matters not container :p Containers can be remuxed.

Right, but before today I have never been able to stream x264 files. It would say "unsupported codec".

Viper: I am streaming .MKV files. At least now I am with Windows 7 RTM MCE.

That's because Windows 7 actually knows how to stream to the 360.

The only limits I know are video bitrate

- H.264 video support: Up to 15 Mbps, Baseline, Main, and High (up to level 4.1) Profiles with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.

- Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 8 Mbps, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.

And the 360 won't do 5.1 sound when streaming H264, at least not AC3 or DTS, only that WMA audio codec in 5.1. It will downmix AC3 5.1 to 2.0.

[Unrealistic]

I will have to test that, because I could have sworn it was in AC3 5.1. Too lazy to test it atm though.

Just thought it was interesting though because before today I've never been able to play these files. I'd like to see if other people can confirm this though, because if it is not working for them, then I know what I installed to allow them to play.

[ViperAFK]

MKV is just a container, I don't know how many times on this board I've had to tell people it's codec support that matters not container :p Containers can be remuxed.

That's because Windows 7 actually knows how to stream to the 360.

The only limits I know are video bitrate

And the 360 won't do 5.1 sound when streaming H264, at least not AC3 or DTS, only that WMV audio codec in 5.1. It will downmix AC3 5.1 to 2.0.

Did you not notice my post said "mkv CONTAINER" lol I am very (obviously) aware of the difference.

And even when I have files that are .mp4 or use software to put it into and mkv4 container it doesn't play at all on my xbox unless I stream it which is odd (for example playing off a usb doesn't work for h.264 at all) I have had some luck using xenonmkv to make it into a .mp4 and streaming with tversity though.

The h.264 support is really shoddy in general, for example it the xbox cant play h.264 files larger than 4 gigs, and can ONLY use 2 channel aac audio.

@Unrealistic what are you using to stream .mkv? tversity works but it tries to transcode it for some reason.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

I will have to test that, because I could have sworn it was in AC3 5.1. Too lazy to test it atm though.

Just thought it was interesting though because before today I've never been able to play these files.

You should of asked for help before hand, I could've got you setup for streaming before now :p It's just Windows Vista wasn't made in mind for streaming HD content, you had to use 3rd party software.

[+Jester124 Subscriber²]

It doesn't support the mkv container though making it goddamn useless to me.

Divx has a tech preview driver that gives access to mkv files for streaming. the only catch is you have to be using the 32bit win 7 as 64bit is not yet supported. I'v been using it since the Win 7 RC works pretty good. The only probles I have is 1080p is touch and go but it more than likely is my pc as its an old athlon 64 3500+ system.

Edit: Streaming through MC not through Dashboard

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Did you not notice my post said "mkv CONTAINER" lol I am very (obviously) aware of the difference.

And even when I have files that are .mp4 or use software to put it into and mkv4 container it doesn't play at all on my xbox unless I stream it which is odd (for example playing off a usb doesn't work for h.264 at all) I have had some luck using xenonmkv to make it into a .mp4 and streaming with tversity though.

The h.264 support is really shoddy in general, for example it the xbox cant play h.264 files larger than 4 gigs, and can ONLY use 2 channel aac audio.

Well put it this way, MKV container support wouldn't really change anything.

The same limitations would be in place, as those limitations are due to codec & hardware support/compatibility, not container support.

[Unrealistic]

Viper, can you test this? I was streaming a 6.56GB 720p x264 movie in mkv container. I'm just using the Media Center Extender to stream, no 3rd party software.

@Audioboxer, I didn't want to use TVersity or any other conversion software, even though my computer can clearly handle doing it. I'm odd with converting formats, even if they are mathematically similar.

[ViperAFK]

With windows media player? WMP streaming doesnt seem to work at all for me so I can't test that anyway. I have to use orb or tversity, or usually copy files to my usb drive.

[+Jester124 Subscriber²]

With windows media player? WMP streaming doesnt seem to work at all for me so I can't test that anyway.

no i corrected my post only in media center

[Unrealistic]

Windows 7 Homegroup sharing -> Windows Media Center 7 sharing -> Xbox 360 Media Center Extender.

[ViperAFK]

Media center doesn't even recognize mkv files for me.

[Unrealistic]

Are you using Windows 7 RTM?

[+Jester124 Subscriber²]

Media center doesn't even recognize mkv files for me.

with the tech preview driver it will enable it give me acouple seconds and i will try to find the page for it

[ViperAFK]

Are you using Windows 7 RTM?

right now using the RC

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Viper, can you test this? I was streaming a 6.56GB 720p x264 movie in mkv container. I'm just using the Media Center Extender to stream, no 3rd party software.

@Audioboxer, I didn't want to use TVersity or any other conversion software, even though my computer can clearly handle doing it. I'm odd with converting formats, even if they are mathematically similar.

720p content shouldn't need converting/transcoding, just remuxing. It's 1080p content you'll have headaches with on a 360 for two reasons

- H.264 video support: Up to 15 Mbps, Baseline, Main, and High (up to level 4.1) Profiles with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.

- Added MPEG-4 Part 2 video support: Up to 8 Mbps, Simple Profile with 2 channel AAC LC and Main Profiles.

Some 1080p content exceeds those bitrates, AVC which is the second line is uncompressed so off a Blu Ray it will be 25-40Mbps. H264 encodes are typically around 10-15Mbps, but some go higher. 720p encodes won't exceed such rates.

Secondly many rips of films on the internet were done in profile 5.1 (scenesters fault, there was no reason to rip in 5.1, they were just uneducated about hardware support), this is a hardware limitation, the PS3 only does up to profile 4.1 as well, so those encodes need to be transcoded.

The Media Center Extender IIRC will transcode any content that needs to be, Windows 7 ships with the H264 codec so it can encode. This is the reason streaming from Windows 7 works out of the box, and Windows Vista didn't.

[+Jester124 Subscriber²]

http://labs.divx.com/mkvwin7preview

that has the info for it and has the steps to get into the preview. works beautifuly with my setup.

[ViperAFK]

Yeah I can play mkv files by using a decent program called xenonmkv which simply transcodes the audio to 2 channel (no video transcoding) and puts it into the mp4 container, but the files it produces work perfectly streaming but not off of my usb drive.

The xbox likes to be really random though, I've had it refuse to play xvid files and I tried the same file 3 more times and it played. Its so goddamn touchy.

[Unrealistic]

Interestingly enough, I didn't have to install that link Jester124. Here is the movie (mkv) running inside Media Center 7 64 bit. I will test 1080p when I can.

[ViperAFK]

unfortunately I am running 64 bit :(

[Unrealistic]

I said 64 bit, lol...unless you meant 32 bit. Media Center supports 1080p as well, I'm gonna go ahead and test it on my 360 now.

Okay AB, you are correct, as it is downmixing to 2.0. It does however play the 1080p video!

[+Jester124 Subscriber²]

@ Unrealistic

If you have the MKV spitter installed it will work on the pc. if you install the divx it will allow streaming to the xbox as well. My son is watching Cars in 720p as we speak. lol

@ Viper

Thats the only problem. I had it MKV support under x64 but to get it working was way to much work and it was really hit and miss on steaming to the xbox. I ended up switching to 32bit and now it works perfectly.