Xbox Noob Questions

Hom3r · 17-05-2008, 07:54

Yesterday I bought a Xbox360 Elite, and need help on a couple of questions.

1. Today I'm getting the wireless adapter, are there anything that I need to watch out for when connected to my netgear WGT624v3 router.

2. What are the minimum & maximum gametag sizes.

3. When I plugged my Creative Zen in to the USB port it found the music without problems, but could not find the video.

4. So what the video format that the 360 will read, and whats the best way to put audio, video on the the 360's HDD. will it be able to be done via the
My network places, and can I use a cross-over cable between my 360 & PC

DocDutch · 17-05-2008, 08:18

thought that the Xbox only supports WMV files not avi.

have a read here... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360

Multimedia

The Xbox 360 supports videos in .wmv-format, as well as high-definition .wmv-videos, H.264, MPEG-4, and PlaysForSure WMV videos. The Fall 2007 dashboard update added support for the playback of MPEG-4 ASP format videos.[37] The console can also display pictures and perform slideshows of photo collections with various transition effects, and supports audio playback, with music player controls accessible through the Xbox 360 Guide button. Users may play back their own music while playing games or using the dashboard, and can play music with an interactive visual synthesizer.
Music, photos and videos can be played from standard USB mass storage devices, Xbox 360 proprietary storage devices (such as memory cards or Xbox 360 hard drives), and servers or computers with Windows Media Center or Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or higher within the local-area network in streaming mode.[38][39] This is possible with video files up to HD-resolution and with several codecs (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV) and container formats (WMV, MOV, TS).[40]
In the UK the Xbox 360 will be enabled to download and display BT Vision video content. [41]

17-05-2008, 09:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hom3r

Yesterday I bought a Xbox360 Elite, and need help on a couple of questions.

1. Today I'm getting the wireless adapter, are there anything that I need to watch out for when connected to my netgear WGT624v3 router.

2. What are the minimum & maximum gametag sizes.

3. When I plugged my Creative Zen in to the USB port it found the music without problems, but could not find the video.

4. So what the video format that the 360 will read, and whats the best way to put audio, video on the the 360's HDD. will it be able to be done via the
My network places, and can I use a cross-over cable between my 360 & PC

Lots of FAQ here on video playback aswell:- http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archi...yback-faq.aspx

Tezcatlipoca · 17-05-2008, 18:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hom3r

Yesterday I bought a Xbox360 Elite, and need help on a couple of questions.

1. Today I'm getting the wireless adapter, are there anything that I need to watch out for when connected to my netgear WGT624v3 router.

2. What are the minimum & maximum gametag sizes.

3. When I plugged my Creative Zen in to the USB port it found the music without problems, but could not find the video.

4. So what the video format that the 360 will read, and whats the best way to put audio, video on the the 360's HDD. will it be able to be done via the
My network places, and can I use a cross-over cable between my 360 & PC

1) Nope, it's easy to set up. Just make sure you use wireless security.

2) Dunno.

3) What format are the videos?

4) It'll play WMV, VC-1 (e.g. WMV HD), divx & xvid (MPEG-4 Part 2 ASP), AVC / H.264 (MPEG-4 Part 10). To play anything other than WMV requires an optional media support update (sign in to XBL, try & play a video, & it should prompt you to get the update).

It will play music & videos stored on CD, DVD, USB flash drive, external USB2 HDD.

It can stream music & videos from a PC using some sort of UPnP Media Server (e.g. Windows Media Player 11) via the Media Blade.

It can also be used as a Media Centre Extender (although using it as an MCE it will only stream WMV or MPEG-2 videos).

If you've got the 360 networked, there's no need to connect it directly to your PC.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DocDutch

thought that the Xbox only supports WMV files not avi.

It will happily play videos using the .AVI container, so long as they're encoded using a format the 360 supports (e.g. MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile [divx, xvid]).

Hom3r · 17-05-2008, 22:31

The formats of video vary, avi, mp4, mpg etc, just cannot find them.

Tezcatlipoca · 17-05-2008, 23:21

Have you got the media update for the 360?

Also, I think the 360 needs to be online when you want to just play one of the more recently-supported video formats (as it checks for the update again for some reason).

Have you tried streaming?

Also, got anything else you can copy the videos to & plug into the 360, just to check it's not something to do with the Zen?

Hom3r · 18-05-2008, 20:57

I've done some updates and they now work

Is there any way to put media on to the xbox HDD other that using CD?

I can stream to it but not put anything on it other than what I down load.

Tezcatlipoca · 18-05-2008, 20:59

Nope.

For non-Marketplace videos (i.e. your videos), it can only play stuff via CD / DVD / USB storage device / streaming.

No way of copying videos over to the HDD.

Hom3r · 18-05-2008, 21:40

Thats a bummer, I have 20GB of MP3s that I could put on the Xbox.

cimt · 18-05-2008, 21:51

Yeah, it is a bummer. If you have an external hard drive then all is good.

Hom3r · 18-05-2008, 21:53

I do but the xbox has 120GB.

I'll have to look into ripping the CDs then

Hom3r · 31-05-2008, 11:52

Ok I want a HDD that I can put my 20GB or so music & videos on.

I have a 2.5"HDD in a enclousre but the Xbox doesn't find it.

Could be because the HDD needs some power via the USB.

What make of portable HDD should I go for / avoid. Prefereable it should not have to be plugged into an AC outlet.