XBOX 360 to HD Entertainment

alik4041

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 6, 2005
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Hi. What I am in search of here is an adapter for my 360. I have a 360 that I would like to play my HD movies and play games on. The 360 will be attached to my 56" HDTV supporting a maximum of 1080i. The 360 will be connected wirelessly to my wrt54g (DD-WRT). My PC (in sig) is also connected to this router. My goal is to stream 1080p quality movies from my computer to my 360. I have thought about the Logitech link play and the Nyko net extender, but I just don't think they can handle the transfer rate for streaming the movies. The 360 wireless adapter is not an option to me right now. I have considered the linksys 54mps gaming adapter, but I just want to get some info on this from the experienced users. Thanks for the help in advance.

Edit: A question I wanted to ask; what is the transfer rate for a 1080p video? Video stuttering is my #1 problem.
 
Don't bother. If you want to stream HD then go with a wired connection, unless you've got "N" it'll be a stutter-fest.
 
I'm not sure which format your 1080p videos are in, but ATSC/HDTV over the air recordings are 20mbit 1080i/720p.

However, your '54mbit' adapter is unlikely to be able to actually sustain 20mbit without causing hiccups. Ive seen it recommended for hiccup free streaming to the xbox a 802.11A or 802.11N wireless setup with good signal strength.
 
Sometimes even wireless-N stutters, go with a wired connection.
 
Thanks for the input guys. BTW ambientZ, my video files are in mkv format. Will the 360 support this? This is my first time attempting this, but I have no problem trouble shooting with it for a couple days. I can't test anything right now as my 360 is supposed to be arriving back from Microsoft for repair within a couple days.

I don't have enuf money to get wireless N, so wired is probably my best bet. The only problem is the wiring from the upstairs to my basement. Would a powerline Ethernet adapter work for this scenario? ...Nevermind; I was thinking of this, and then I saw the $100 price tag for only one when 2 are required. Back to brainstorming.
 
Just drop the ethernet cable through the air vents. Start at the top floor and tape something heavy to it, then grab it at the bottom in the basement. Of course that's assuming the vents are routed so you can do so.
 
my video files are in mkv format. Will the 360 support this?

No, it will support MP4, AVI, WMV containers only i believe.

for AVI it will support MPEG4/ASP (Divx/Xvid) with AC3 or MP3 audio
for WMV it will support the normal windows media files and WMA audio (including 5.1ch)
for MP4 it will support MPEG/AVC with AAC audio (limited to 2 ch)

If you have HD mkv's that you havent encoded yourself then there normally MPEG4/AVC with AC3 audio. To get them to play on your 360 you will either have to

- keep the video and convert the audio to AAC (fast but reduce 5.1ch to 2ch)
- encode the video to divx and keep the 5.1 ch audio (slow and lose video quality)
- Convert both audio and video to WM codecs (slowest and lose audio and video quality)

5.1channel audio probably means more to me than having a HD video (except sports) so its a choice of what you want really, better thing would be to ditch it as a video playback system unless MS wakes up one day and decides to allow at least 5.1ch AAC, even if they charge you points for the license.
 
For MKV just convert it to .mp4 using gotsend and then rename it to .wmv.
 
Never rely on a console to do a PC's job. They fall short nearly every time, except in the realm of "console exclusive" games.
 
I've used connect360 on a mac with a xbox 360 and had no problems.

Its not that its an actual problem to get it to stream, its just that the 360 is limited in its playback choices (not tech related, more license related).

So lets say i have a HD rip, if i play it on the 360, via Mac/pc/file on dvd/flash drive, i still have to lose either video quality or audio quality for it to playback, for HD stuff that normally means dropping 5.1ch sound immediately :(.
 
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