Stream supported/unsupported movies to Xbox 360/Xbox One

Windows Media Player 12 (Windows 7) or 11 (Windows Vista) can stream out to the Xbox 360 pretty easily.

Make sure:

a. Connected the Xbox 360 to your home network (either with an ethernet cable or via Wi-Fi), and have configured it accordingly.
b. You have a Windows Media Player 12 Movie library.

1. Enabling The Media Streaming Option

• Ensure you are in library view mode. You can quickly get to this by holding the CTRL key down on your keyboard and pressing 1.
• In library view, click the Stream drop-down menu near the top of the screen. From the list of options, click Turn on Media Streaming.
• On the screen that is now displayed, click on the Turn on Media Streaming button.
• Name your media library and click OK.

For Window Media Player 11, go to Library > Media Sharing.

Ensure that the Allowed option is selected for your PC's media programs and connections and also the Xbox 360.

2. Playing Your Move Library on the Xbox 360

Using your Xbox 360 controller, press the Guide button (the big X) to view the menu.

• Press to the Right one time and you'll be on the Media Tab
• Navigate to the Movie sub-menu and then select Video Library option and then choose your computer's name as the source for streaming videos.
• Wait a few seconds for the Xbox console to connect to your computer. You should now see the name of your movie library that you set up earlier displayed on the screen. You can now browse through your movie library and play videos as if they were on your console!

Drawbacks? Somewhat clunky format support. In our tests we could not stream Quicktime video at all, and had inconsistent experiences with MP4 files. MPEG-4 and H.264 support are technically supported via third-party WMP codec add-ons, but even with those, we still had trouble—MP4 files tended to play fine on the WMP 11/12 end, but not show up as browsable on the 360.

Somewhat unbelievably, the Xbox 360 team actually recommends you manually rename your unsupported MPEG-4 and H.264 files, adding the ".avi" container extension to fool WMP into playing them. This worked occasionally, but not for every file and was generally inconsistent.

Zune offers a much nicer interface than WMP (Settings -> Sharing -> Add is the extent of the setup), and thankfully supports MPEG4 and H.264 much more consistently.

1. Install and launch Zune software and click Settings.
2. Click Software and choose Xbox 360.
3. Select the media types you want to share, and then click OK.

On Xbox 360

1. Press the Guide button on your controller, go to Media, and select the media type you want to play.
2. Select the name of your computer and then press the A button. If a media source is already selected, press X to select a different media source.
3. Select the item you want to play or view.

Drawbacks? No DivX or Xvid support, which means a huge chunk of your Torrented video probably won't work.

If you already have a Media Center setup honking on your network, there's a good chance you won't need this guide, but the Xbox 360 can of course stream your MCE content to your TV seamlessly. The interface is really fantastic.

• First make sure you have the media libraries in Windows 7 Media Center setup. Leave Windows Media Center up on the screen.
• Turn on your Xbox 360 Console. On the newly updated dashboard, scroll to Apps >> My Apps.
• On the My Apps screen select the Windows Media Center tile.
• Your Xbox will try to find the PC running WMC – but not find it. Select Set Up a New Connection.
• An overview of what you can do with WMC and the Xbox will display. Select Continue.
• Next it shows you a Setup Key. You’ll need this to connect the console to the PC running Windows Media Center.
• Your computer will detect the Xbox 360 on your network. You’ll see the following message. Click Set Up Now.
• A message comes up explaining Media Center Extender Setup. Click Next.
• Now enter the Setup Key that’s displayed on your Xbox. Click Next.
• Your system will go through the steps to configure the extender.
• At the same time, you’ll see the Xbox connecting to Windows Media Center on your PC.
• The amount of time it takes will vary depending on your network speed and computer hardware. When the Extender Setup is complete, click Finish.
  On your Xbox you’re able to browse through your media libraries. You have access to everything from WMC on the PC. Movies, Music, Video, Live TV, Pictures and more.
• Here I selected the Movies Library on the Xbox 360. If you have a lot of content, it will take several minutes while the Libraries are Updated. Especially over a slow WiFi connection.

Now enjoy all of your media from your PC on your Xbox 360. To close out of Media Center on the Xbox, press the Guide button on your controller – the center button with the X. Then select Xbox Home. Drawbacks? The gimpiest codec support of the bunch: only MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and WMV are supported. So unless you're converting everything you have into those formats, you'll still need something like TVersity to play most files you'll find up for download.

• First, open the Windows Home Server Console and set up Media Library Sharing. Click Settings then Media Sharing. Select the media types (Music, Photos and Videos) you want to share. Click OK.
• Next, power on your Xbox Console and verify it's connected to your network. Wireless or Ethernet will work, but for best performance I recommend you plug in the Ethernet cable.
• From the main menu, select My Video Apps.
• Then scroll over and select Video Player.
• A list of the computers on your network will be listed. Select your WHS – mine is called Geekserver: 1
• Next you'll be able to browse the media library folders you shared from the server.
• Then drill down to the video you want to watch.
• Enjoy the show from WHS through the Xbox 360. You can use your Xbox controller or Xbox 360 remote to control playback.

Drawbacks? Of course, the format limitation also exists.

One you get Rivet loaded on your MacBook, it places an icon in the menu bar. That icon also serves as the menu for the app. Click it to view the options. You can check to share or not share your movies, music and photos through the application. The preferences dialog box will also let you choose what to stream, set settings for each media type, and to change network settings. There isn't much to change to get it to work.

After setting up the software, turn on your Xbox 360. From the Xbox menu go to the My Xbox item and choose any of the three kinds of libraries. We first tested the Video Library playing the great Civil War film God's and Generals. It worked Flawlessly. It does not stream video downloaded from iTunes. It works well on movies that you create or that you rip from your own DVDs.

This is the simplest way to get iTunes content onto your Xbox. The software transcodes the video and audio to be viewable on the Xbox if needed. The quality of the streams is as if you were watching it on any other Apple approved device like the Apple TV. We were very pleased and happy to pay the $20 to get this to work. The only disappointment was that it doesn't work with movies downloaded from the iTunes store. However, DVDs backed up using Handbrake and imported into iTunes worked fine.