XBOX/WMC Banwidth

lolwuthalp

Hey guys, this is my first time posting a thread.

I've got a pretty simple question that I imagine can be answered with one reply.

I have just setup my xbox 360 with Windows Media Center. I cant figure out if streaming from my desktop to my xbox using WMC is using up bandwidth that I probably cant really afford to be using, seeing that I am sharing only 50g with two other people.

also, WMC really seems to be bollocks. Its all glitchin and lagging out, whats that all about?

should I just give up on this and rock a USB to watch my movies?

cheers!

Dranyth

Streaming from your desktop to your Xbox should only be going over the local network, nothing to do with the internet connection, so you should be safe there.

Rohan

We tried running WMC through the Xbox once and for some reason it had terrible bandwidth issues, even though connected via a 100MB ethernet cable. Meanwhile, our laptops are perfectly capable of watching a 10GB+ .mkv file over wireless G.

Never again.

Synthesis

It seems hit or miss. I've known people who swear by WMC for video streaming, and for others, it's just far too laggy. It's possible that your computer has something running on it already when you stream, but chances are you'd already have figured that out.

Sadly, if you've got a bandwidth cap, that might still be your best option (other services like TVersity were, and I imagine still do, require internet access to run properly).

I preferred TVersity, but I was able to stream fairly large (near-HD) video over ethernet cables in the past with manageable lag. One thing you could try is setting up media streaming with WMP and seeing if you get similar lag.

Tharghor

I've had the same problem. Do you have a 4gb model?
After I cleared some space on the hd it didn't lag as much.

lolwuthalp

Dranyth wrote:

Streaming from your desktop to your Xbox should only be going over the local network, nothing to do with the internet connection, so you should be safe there.

so it shouldn't be taking up internet usage? I swear that it is.

I hooked up WMP and its far better. WMC is no good.

thanks for the help!

Synthesis

Happy to help. Consider TVersity too, if you want more file format support, or even PS3Mediaserver if you want MKV support. People don't think about it as much anymore (at least, I don't), but the Xbox 360 basically has the best streaming options of the three current consoles.

maximumzero

I hate to make a new thread for such a simple question, so I'll just ask it here.

I've been ripping DVDs lately with Handbrake for playback on my iMac, iPhone, and eventual AppleTV purchase. (As soon as I get a TV with a HDMI port.)

I like to include the audio commentary in addition to the standard audio track, so every video has two audio channels. I streamed an episode or two over to my Xbox 360 using a OS X program called Rivet, and the video looks and sounds great, but it defaults to the commentary track...

Anybody know how to change the audio track using the video player on the Xbox 360?

Will the AppleTV be able to do this, for that matter, or have I wasted my time including two audio tracks on all my videos?

Synthesis

Hmm...I'm not exactly sure of your particular situation (never done it on a Mac), but you should have the ability to configure which audio track the program gives priority to. It's usually assigned by number or language (ENG, JAP, KOR) code.

If your case, probably by number?

maximumzero

Synthesis wrote: »

Hmm...I'm not exactly sure of your particular situation (never done it on a Mac), but you should have the ability to configure which audio track the program gives priority to. It's usually assigned by number or language (ENG, JAP, KOR) code.

If your case, probably by number?

Hmm, in Handbrake the standard vocal track is listed first and the commentary track second.

Thrack

maximumzero wrote:

Synthesis wrote: »

Hmm...I'm not exactly sure of your particular situation (never done it on a Mac), but you should have the ability to configure which audio track the program gives priority to. It's usually assigned by number or language (ENG, JAP, KOR) code.

If your case, probably by number?

Hmm, in Handbrake the standard vocal track is listed first and the commentary track second.

Use mkvtoolnix to make that the audio track you want has the default track flag set to 'yes'.
If that doesn't work you can use the program to pull out the track you don't want.

maximumzero

Thrack wrote: »

maximumzero wrote:

Synthesis wrote: »

Hmm...I'm not exactly sure of your particular situation (never done it on a Mac), but you should have the ability to configure which audio track the program gives priority to. It's usually assigned by number or language (ENG, JAP, KOR) code.

If your case, probably by number?

Hmm, in Handbrake the standard vocal track is listed first and the commentary track second.

Use mkvtoolnix to make that the audio track you want has the default track flag set to 'yes'.
If that doesn't work you can use the program to pull out the track you don't want.

I don't want to have to keep two sets of the same video on my HDD (A iPhone/Mac and a Xbox 360 variation), so I'll try mkvtoolnix, and see what happens.

Thrack

maximumzero wrote:

Thrack wrote: »

maximumzero wrote:

Synthesis wrote: »

Hmm...I'm not exactly sure of your particular situation (never done it on a Mac), but you should have the ability to configure which audio track the program gives priority to. It's usually assigned by number or language (ENG, JAP, KOR) code.

If your case, probably by number?

Hmm, in Handbrake the standard vocal track is listed first and the commentary track second.

Use mkvtoolnix to make that the audio track you want has the default track flag set to 'yes'.
If that doesn't work you can use the program to pull out the track you don't want.

I don't want to have to keep two sets of the same video on my HDD (A iPhone/Mac and a Xbox 360 variation), so I'll try mkvtoolnix, and see what happens.

I looked into it and mkvtoolnix might not work. I assumed you were making .mkv files, but the 360 doesn't support them. Looks like MP4Box does the same thing as mkvtoolnix for mp4 files.
It's been my experience that there are a lot of software/devices that can play mkv and mp4 videos, but very few of them can switch between audio streams and toggle subtitles. For example my Roku 2 can play .mkv files from a usb stick but only plays whatever audio is set to default, but on my Android phone I have a video app that supports audio stream switching.

maximumzero

They're .m4v files from Handbrake, using the "Universal" preset.