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Windows 7 Streams Media To the Xbox 360 and PS3 Seamlessly

Posted by Soulskill on from the let's-see-this-on-the-big-screen dept.

HardcoreWare reports that the release candidate for Windows 7 contains improved video codecs, and does a much better job of streaming media to popular consoles out of the box. "No longer will you have to install special REG files to 'trick' Windows into streaming video to your PS3 or XBOX 360. And no longer will you have to use UPnP media servers like TVersity that transcode video, severely reducing quality and cause unnecessary CPU load on the server."

18 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Not so new... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    WMP11 has long supported streaming to the 360. I have WMP11 on my XP laptop, and it works like a charm....

    1. Re:Not so new... by XDirtypunkX · · Score: 5, Informative

      You can stream to the PS3 from WMP11. In fact, you can stream to any device that implements the right set of UPnP media functionality. There are even a reasonable number of digital media receivers that offer this functionality from 3rd parties too, meaning you don't have to deal with either MS or Sony, which is a plus in my book.

    2. Re:Not so new... by Methlin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think it's funny when people don't even RTFS...

      You can stream to the PS3 from WMP11. In fact, you can stream to any device that implements the right set of UPnP media functionality.

      From the summary:

      And no longer will you have to use UPnP media servers

      What's even funnier is people who RTFS but don't understand it. What "And no longer will you have to use UPnP media servers" means is you will not have to use a 3rd party UPnP media server as that service (DLNA) will be built into Win7.

      The bit about not having to transcode, that's a load of hogwash as the PS3/Xbox360 only support certain subsets of certain codecs, anything that exceeds those subsets MUST be transcoded.

  2. Odd article by boaworm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It looks like it cannot make up its mind:

    --

    And no longer will you have to use UPnP media servers like TVersity that transcode video, severely reducing quality and cause unnecessary CPU load on the server.
    --
    So how are you going to stream to the PS3? The PS3 is a UPnP client, of course you have to provide UPnP services. That has nothing to do with the transcoding.

    They they state:
    --
    The Playstation 3 streams through UPnP.
    --

    So, now you do use UPnP.

    And sure it is convenient to have this built-in, but why would that use less resources than a 3rd party server? The job has to be done anyway...

    Its a nice feature, especially if they can get transcoding to work smoothly in conjunction with pausing, stopping, searching backwards and forwards in files. Otherwise the new PS3 feature to get 1 minute snapshots to browse back and forth in episodes will not work very well.

    From what I can see from the format list, they don't do transcoding anyway, they just provide UPnP streaming, and it is way too rough when it says "YES/OK" for XVid/DivX. That depends not on the container, but what is contained in them. Some DivX files I have are not encoded with standard mp3 sound, hence they are not playable without transcoding to begin with.

    --
    Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
    Aristotele
    1. Re:Odd article by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 4, Informative

      UPnP serves up the plain ol' media to the client.

      However, some UPnP servers are smart enough to know some UPnP clients can't decode certain files, so it, in real time, transcodes to formats they know are readable by most clients.

      --
      Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    2. Re:Odd article by k-macjapan · · Score: 5, Informative

      And that is why I will not stop using PS3Mediaserver(http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/). It is by far the best UPnP client for PS3 and is catching on with Xbox360 users as well.

      It is an open source project that is updated quite frequently. For anyone still using Tversity I would highly recommend giving this a shot. It transcodes all basically all formats for viewing on the PS3.

      The official forum for PS3Mediaserver = http://ps3mediaserver.org/forum/ You can find beta builds here and interesting conversation.

  3. No transcoding if natively supported on console by beef3k · · Score: 4, Informative

    I stream video and audio content to my PS3 via TVersity (and MediaTomb on a linux box) all the time. There's never any transcoding involved for files that the PS3 natively supports. How exactly is a Windows 7 machine supposed to serve alien formats to a PS3? The ones "tested" in the article are all natively supported. There's no way for the PS3 to play back content in formats it doesn't support unless the host computer transcodes the media.

    1. Re:No transcoding if natively supported on console by Astronomerguy · · Score: 2, Informative

      Obviously you don't download much content via BitTorrent. There are many BBC shows that I can't get on North American TV e.g. Richard Dawkins' specials on Darwin, evolution, and atheism; BBC's "Horizon" series (like PBS' "NOVA", some shows shared), sir Patrick Moore's "The Sky at Night" etc. Also many NOVA shows that I missed. I now have a large collection ready on demand to watch, no digging for a DVD. My wife copies her movie and hobby-related DVD's to the server. Again, no fumbling for disks. Concert films? Dozens. All high quality and ready to watch on a moment's whim. We also have satellite TV and a PVR, but even with 100's of channels, we may watch 3 or 4 at most, and even then not so much. On-demand what we want, when we want it is the ticket, and having them on the media server is the vehicle. Have torrents, will travel to the couch to watch.

    2. Re:No transcoding if natively supported on console by Theoboley · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm watching TV Shows that i've missed over the past week, or Shows on channels I don't have access to, I.E. Top Gear via BBC, or True Blood via HBO.

      There's little to no effort with setting these things up.

      I Installed Tversity, and within seconds of turning on my ps3, I can be watching an episode of whatever I want to watch. No fuss, no mess.

      I have recently though, bought another external hard drive, hooked it straight to my ps3 and watch movies, tv and whatever via that. Haven't had problems with codecs not working or whatever. And if i do, i just re-encode the files to something that will work with the ps3 while I'm at work.

      --
      Stupidity only gets you so far, then you've gotta try
  4. Sounds awfully like trying to sell old features... by XDirtypunkX · · Score: 2, Informative

    As long as you have a compatible router, Windows Media Player 11 streams via UPnP with very minimal setup. You configure media sharing in your library, then you allow the devices you want to see your media.

    In fact, the process for me was this simple:
    1) Install a bunch of codecs (divx/xvid) for the formats I wanted to stream.
    2) Go to "Media Sharing..." under the library tab in WMP11 and tick the "Share My Media" box, then allow the 360 and the PS3.
    3) Connect from the Console.

    There is no need to put in special .reg files for this functionality. In fact, all you need is a codec that will allow you to load the files into your library on your PC. Unlike TVersity, Windows Media Player won't transcode stuff that's not supported, it will just refuse to play on your device.

    The big thing here is that they're actually adding support for the other codecs out of the box and maybe making the process more automated.

  5. how is this a good thing? by Rennt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Or you could just share your videos via samba and watch them with XBMC on the original xbox - this has worked great for years.

    The fact that this is news shows exactly how broken closed source platforms are. The only reason this is not already possible is because you are not in contol of hardware that you own.

    1. Re:how is this a good thing? by revengebomber · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Alright, if I have just exactly the right format I can stream to my 360 or PS3 from any standard server. However, all of my files are in various different formats, many of which (like Matroska) are completely alien to EVERYTHING proprietary. XBMC plays 99% of my media just fine, right out of the box from an xbmsd server on my Linux desktop. I still haven't been able to configure transcoding properly, and out of ~250gb of video, only 3 or 4 files will play on the PS3. Commercial media centers, especially the 360 and PS3, are a fucking joke. It's downright embarassing that a homebrew effort on a 8 year old console beats them in every regard on an SDTV.

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
      45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
    2. Re:how is this a good thing? by Amphetam1ne · · Score: 2, Informative

      Mine are set up in ASUS P2-M2A690G Barebones, as at the time they were the only acceptable looking AMD compatable systems with HDMI out. There may be better ones out there now, so go take a look and see what's about. Inside it's running AMD Athlon X2 4800+ / 2x1GB PC6400 / 80GB Seagate Baracuda. It handles the decoding of 720P video just fine through XBMC Windows. The ram and hdd are probably overkill, but halfing the quantities would only have saved me £10, and you never know what things you might want to use a system for in the future.

      I mostly use the MCE Remote for input, as it's cheap, good quality and well supported. I've got the basic MS Wireless desktop KB/M combo as well, but they don't work well beyond about 1.5m range and fall off very quickly if not in line of sight. You probably want to look at a good quality Logitech wireless desktop set if you want more range.

      On the other box I don't run a keyboard at all, just the Logitech MX-Air, which is awsome but very expensive for a mouse. In the rare cases that I do need to type on it, I use the on-screen keyboard from accessability options.

      While these boxes will serve as general purpose PC's if required, I'd try and keep them as clean as possible so that you can have better startup times and less chance of TSRs and services suddenly trying to do somthing while you're watching a show and causing stuttering or hitching in the playback.

      I don't know any specifics about the subscription service that you'd want to use, but most likely it's either fully web plugin based, or uses a propriatory player. Either way it's doubtfull that you could access it directly from XBMC, although there are python scripts that will let you run external programs from inside XBMC which you could make use of.

      Hope that helps.

      --
      I only buy pepper spray that's been tested on anti-vivisectionists.
  6. Matroska and ASS Subs? by mcnazar · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What about MKV containers and ASS subtitles. I bet it can't handle those or if it does, it renders these crappily.

    No thanks! I'll stick to my chipped XBox server running Samba on Gentoo and my other chipped Xbox running XBMC.

    This setup worked better in 2005 than Microsoft's current offering.

  7. Re:windows streaming to 360 by Inda · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just install Windows Media Centre. Forget all that other rubbish. A manual handshake is needed by way of typing in a key code - just follow the onscreen instructions. Share folders in windows as normal. Nothing could be easier.

    Xvid plays fine from the Video Library. VOBs must be played in the 360's WMC. WMV ... heh.

    --
    This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
  8. The real solution is.... by Jackie_Chan_Fan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The real solution is simple do not use consoles for viewing media. Use a PC.

    Build yourself nice small PC with some horse power and HDMI out. Network it to a storage server and play every dam media format available easily.

    I dont know why we keep trying to stream stuff to game consoles. I'm guilty of it as well, but why turn a console into a PC when we already have PCs capable of far more, with more freedom and less headaches?

    Its the fault of the console makers really. They want to let you do somethings, but they really dont want you to do other things :)

    Sony could have done far better, even though its fairly good at what it does. It still cant play DVD's with regions outside of yours. It still cant play MKV, it still has poor MP4 support.

    Its just not going to happen. Build a small PC and use it for watching media.

    1. Re:The real solution is.... by Blimey85 · · Score: 2

      Give me the $$ needed and I'll build myself a pc for playing my media. Until then, I'll use the xbox 360's I already have in various rooms to stream my media. Oh wait, you'll need to give me $$ to build 3 pc's because I currently have and stream to 3 xbox 360's.

      And wait again because I just realized I don't really want yet another device in these rooms, especially not one that could get viruses or have other problems. Sure my 360's can get the RROD or crap out for some other reason but I already have them and they work just fine right now. Why add yet another device to the loop when I already have something that works?

      Maybe it's just me and what I watch but I don't have any problem with streaming. I'm using TVersity, Grid something or other, and PlayOn to stream from one of my pc's to the network. I can watch stuff on my pc's, Revision3 (DiggNation, Totally Rad Show), stuff on Hulu, NetFlix, and a bunch of other stuff. I also run SimplifyMedia and stream my audio collection to my iPhone when I'm out and get bored with Pandora.

      What you seem to be missing is the current consoles ARE pc's. MS and Sony could both add other codecs and completely remove the need for transcoding and I would love that. Why do I need my computer to transcode videos? For divx the 360 handles it just fine. Why not add support for a bunch of other ones? And maybe that's the plan. Maybe that is how Windows 7 will handle streaming... you'll install an update for your 360 that will allow it to stream a lot more formats without any transcoding. That would be pretty sweet.

      --
      How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
    2. Re:The real solution is.... by CastrTroy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's been said before but I guess I'll say it again. I already have a DVD player, Game console, digital cable box, and surround sound receiver sitting by my TV. I don't want yet another box sitting there, when one of the current ones has all the physical capabilities to perform this task. All we need is software

      My game console is the Wii. Which is the weakest of the current gen systems. Using homebrew, I'm able to watch videos. It works great. There's some movies that don't play, either because of encoding errors, or unsupported codecs, and network is a little slow, but on the whole it works pretty good. If there was commercial software product that "just worked" and provided this functionality, I would be one of the first to buy it. I will get around to building a media centre box sometime, but until then we should at least let the boxes do what we all know they are capable of.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.