DVD (.iso) streaming to Xbox360 over G? Transcode audio?

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scootermaster

Platinum Member
Nov 29, 2005
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I'd like to rip my DVDs to my computer, which is now (unfortunately) in my bedroom. My xbox360 and TV are in the living room. The computer is connected to my wired router, but the Xbox is wireless (G, not N).

I've had a problem with stuttering before, when streaming movies with 5.1 soundtracks. Or, at least I'm assuming it's the 5.1 soundtrack. I've played with Handbreak a bit, transcoding to different rates and stuff, so I guess my quesiton(s) are this:

1). Anyone know what the best bitrate/codec/resolution are for streaming wirelessly DVDs to an Xbox?

2). Is there a program that'll take a DVD and somehow do this on the fly (downsample the audio to 2 channel, whatever)?

I'd like to just rip to ISO and not worry about compression and stuff. Also, if it's normaly to be able to stream DVDs with 5.1 soundtracks over Wireless G, and there's something else going on, I'd like to know that too. Otherwise, I'm not so stoked on ripping everything if I have to compress them all and lose quality/etc.

Thanks!
 
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smitbret

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2006
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I regularly streamed DVDs from my PC to my PS3 using Tversity on a Wireless G network. Never had a problem with stuttering or anything. I never paid much attention to whether it was multi-channel audio or anything, but considering the number of DVDs I watched this way, I'm sure at least a handful had the 5.1 audio. These were just VIDEO_TS folders copied straight to my hard drive, not converted or transcoded and I never transcode on the fly. A good wireless G connection should be plenty to stream a standard DVD from my experience. Blu-Ray is another story altogether.
 
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scootermaster

Platinum Member
Nov 29, 2005
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Huh. Good to know. You probably have a point; the videos I was watching that were studdering were encoded into whatever the one video container that supports 5.1 audio on the Xbox is. Perhaps if I just do the re-name trick it'll work. I'll have to try it again.

Thanks for the heads up! That'd be great if it works!
 
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smitbret

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2006
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I haven't had any trouble with .mp4 or .avi files, either. Seems like the magic number for streamable bitrate was about 18-20mb/s on my wireless G network, regardless of file format. You've got me curious now, think I'll rip a BIG movie with Dolby 5.1 and stream it over. Just to make sure I'm not preaching untruths. Incidentally, I'm using a PS3 and Tversity, rather than an Xbox. What are you using to stream from your PC?

Update: So I ripped Gladiator to VIDEO_TS files, keeping the 5.1. Streamed it with Tversity to my PS3. Bitrate never got higher than 9mb/s, even during action scenes. That should be easily handled by a Wireless G connection. I believe that there are a few restrictions on streaming multi-channel audio to an Xbox 360. My guess is that whatever you are using to stream is automatically transcoding the 5.1 to 2 channel audio on the fly and possibly the video, too. That may be your bottleneck.
 
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slackerinabox

Lifer
Mar 15, 2003
12,668
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Firstly, who needs menus? I'd just encode to XVID with DD in tact.

Your issue might not be network related - I upgraded my network a dozen times before realizing that my server was in fact choking, not being able to transcode with the quickness. How do xvids play? If they're fluid and transcoded video is choppy, then you may need a CPU upgrade.

I had a hell of a time getting 720p mkv playback on first G, then N, then powerline, then finally ethernet. Then I upgraded my CPU and playback was MUCH better, but sometimes bit rate spikes would cause stuttering. Frustrated, I just bought a ASUS O-PLAY that, while it has it's quirks, costs $100 and plays ISOs, 1080p rips, DTS/DD audio.. SUBS! Subs without issues, that is.
 
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smitbret

Diamond Member
Jul 27, 2006
3,382
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I've never actually ripped and streamed a DVD with the menus. I'm just talking about the movie itself and the 5.1 audio track. With a decent connection, there should be no reason that you couldn't stream a standard DVD (whether in VIDEO_TS, Xvid,h264, etc.) over wireless G, regardless of audio. I'm just speculating that whatever streaming software is being used is probably set to automatically transcode an incompatible file. Since the Xbox 360 is picky about multi-channel audio, the software automatically transcodes on the fly because it decides that it needs to downsample the audio. Most likely the PC can't transcode in real time, so the movie stalls and skips. The Xbox 360 will support multi-channel AC3 in the .avi container though. The solution is probably to convert DVDs to multi-channel AC3 or mp3 stereo in an .avi container (Xvid will probably work great). Or just rip the DVD into VIDEO_TS format with just the 2-channel audio. THEN stream.
 
Queasy

Queasy

Moderator<br>Console Gaming
Aug 24, 2001
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I just use FairUse Wizard to convert my DVDs to Xvid with 5.1 intact and very low compression settings. My 360 handles the audio just find.

Yeah, I could use handbrake or another app for free but FairUse Wizard is ridiculously easy to use and performs very well.
 
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scootermaster

Platinum Member
Nov 29, 2005
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Great responses guys.

My system is a C2D hackintosh, with an e7200 running at 2.5ghz. I've got 4gb of ram, and if it matters I've got a WD 640blue HD.

I'm using Connect360 to stream to the Xbox. I also have a Win7 partition, and that can do it natively via WMC, so that is a possibility. I believe, as I said, there's only one specific file type (I don't remember which) that'll support 5.1 audio, and I used handbrake to encode to that type. It played back fine locally, which is why I assumed it was a network issue. It never occurred to me it'd be a transcoding issue. The Xbox isn't plugged in right now and I have to re-do the DD-WRT settings to make it work as a wireless adapter, but I'm eager to try it again.

Is my system powerful enough for what I'm trying to do? If there's enough b/w on the network, obviously I don't want to transcode anything. And I would like to preserve as much as the DVD as possible (menus, etc). That's not a deal breaker, but i'm not going to bother ripping my collection if they're all going to be 2 channel audio. That one is a deal breaker.
 
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slackerinabox

Lifer
Mar 15, 2003
12,668
103
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scootermaster said:
Great responses guys.

My system is a C2D hackintosh, with an e7200 running at 2.5ghz. I've got 4gb of ram, and if it matters I've got a WD 640blue HD.

I'm using Connect360 to stream to the Xbox. I also have a Win7 partition, and that can do it natively via WMC, so that is a possibility. I believe, as I said, there's only one specific file type (I don't remember which) that'll support 5.1 audio, and I used handbrake to encode to that type. It played back fine locally, which is why I assumed it was a network issue. It never occurred to me it'd be a transcoding issue. The Xbox isn't plugged in right now and I have to re-do the DD-WRT settings to make it work as a wireless adapter, but I'm eager to try it again.

Is my system powerful enough for what I'm trying to do? If there's enough b/w on the network, obviously I don't want to transcode anything. And I would like to preserve as much as the DVD as possible (menus, etc). That's not a deal breaker, but i'm not going to bother ripping my collection if they're all going to be 2 channel audio. That one is a deal breaker.
Click to expand...

Well, you have a few possible bottlenecks:
- Hackintosh: Is your hardware working at it's peak performance, consider you're using software that's not guaranteed to work with unathorized hardware

- Connect360: Kinda sucks. I mean, I use it on my iMac but PS3 Media Server is outstandin

- Running media server under VPC/emulation = ?!? Especially since it's layered onto a hacked rig. I mean, MKV transcoding used to eat up 100% of my CPU resources using a dual core processor under Windows 7 natively, I'd imagine there to be a big performance hit due to virtualization

Local playback does not equal great transcoding. I thought the same too! Connect everything via ethernet, just as a test. Then boot into your Windows 7 partition (boot camp, not virtualized), install ps3 media server (which works outstandingly for the XBOX as well) and see how that works.

On the xbox 360, xvid + 5.1 is your best bet for standard def video.
 
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scootermaster

Platinum Member
Nov 29, 2005
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freedomsbeat212 said:
Well, you have a few possible bottlenecks:
- Hackintosh: Is your hardware working at it's peak performance, consider you're using software that's not guaranteed to work with unathorized hardware

- Connect360: Kinda sucks. I mean, I use it on my iMac but PS3 Media Server is outstandin

- Running media server under VPC/emulation = ?!? Especially since it's layered onto a hacked rig. I mean, MKV transcoding used to eat up 100% of my CPU resources using a dual core processor under Windows 7 natively, I'd imagine there to be a big performance hit due to virtualization

Local playback does not equal great transcoding. I thought the same too! Connect everything via ethernet, just as a test. Then boot into your Windows 7 partition (boot camp, not virtualized), install ps3 media server (which works outstandingly for the XBOX as well) and see how that works.

On the xbox 360, xvid + 5.1 is your best bet for standard def video.
Click to expand...

Ahhh. Okay. Things:

1). My Win7 is on another partition (actually, a separate WD 640blue), so it's not a VM.

2). I didn't realize that PS3 Media server thingee works on Xbox. I know there's another program called Rivet, but I didn't see any advantage from one to the next.

3). Like I said, I'd like to have to do exactly zero encoding or transcoding. My idea situation is to just stream the DVD, in all its 480i glory, over the network. If I have to encode, then I guess I will, but hopefully I won't have to transcode [on the fly]. I think that's the format (Xvid + 5.1) that was choking the system. Like I said, fine local playback, but stuttering over the Wireless. The reason why I focused on audio was that when I did the same framerate/resolution, but killed the 5.1, things went smoothly. But, as I said, there's no reason to bother with mass ripping if it's going to be stereo.

So I'll check out that PS3 Media server, and do some tests with the DVD/.vob rename trick, encoding to Xvid, etc, across Win7 and OSX with the different programs.
 
Queasy

Queasy

Moderator<br>Console Gaming
Aug 24, 2001
31,796
2
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scootermaster said:
3). Like I said, I'd like to have to do exactly zero encoding or transcoding. My idea situation is to just stream the DVD, in all its 480i glory, over the network. If I have to encode, then I guess I will, but hopefully I won't have to transcode [on the fly]. I think that's the format (Xvid + 5.1) that was choking the system. Like I said, fine local playback, but stuttering over the Wireless. The reason why I focused on audio was that when I did the same framerate/resolution, but killed the 5.1, things went smoothly. But, as I said, there's no reason to bother with mass ripping if it's going to be stereo.
Click to expand...

I do Xvid + 5.1 with my 360 and it performs just fine. And my system is an older dual core Athlon running at 1.8GHz.
 
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