Casethan
This Is So Cool
I've taken my 360 to the next level.
So for the past couple of months I have been watching videos off my computer on my Xbox 360. This was wonderful and all but it came at a price. The 360 only supports Mpeg-2 and WMV files for some sick reason so I had to jump through many hoops to turn an .avi file into a WMV file. First I had to use a program to encode the avi into an mpeg because the other program I was using couldn't perform the task of encoding avi directly to wmv. So once I had my mpeg (a process that took almost 2 hours) I could start encoding that into a wmv using Sorenson Squeeze. Not only did this step take an ungodly amount of time (at least 9 hours) but it strained my aging computer to where I couldn't perform any other tasks on it besides that one without it lurching to a near dead-stop and produced files of over 1.5 gb in size for each step. Because this took so long and took up so much space, I was juggling the processes on mine and Shelby's computers. However, because Squeeze uses the same cd-key (ahem) it wouldn't allow the two programs to run at the same time on my network. So because of that, I had to unplug Shelby's computer from the router thus cutting her off the internet for hours at a time. This severely limited my opportunities to perform the encoding process.
And to kick a guy while he's down, for some unknown reason after I would transcode the avi to a mpeg, the audio became out of sync. This occurred on both computers and I never did understand why. I even uninstalled and reinstalled codecs, drivers, programs, and files but to no avail.
Once this began, I decided to scrap the whole thing and graduate to something better.
I got XP Media Center.
However, like everything else in our stupid lives, we have to work for sweet things. Installing Media Center meant a fresh install of XP and a clean wipe of my hard drive. I, um, borrowed a friend’s copy of Media Center but had to burn it onto a DVD. Now I'm a bit behind the times so I'm new to the whole DVD burning thing. I got some DVD-Rs and looked forward to the future. But wait, I needed DVD+Rs to burn this OS. Son of a.... So that delayed me a bit as I had to get some new discs but once that was done with I had to move all my files off of my computer. I've accumulated a lot shit it seems over the past few months so this took quite a while as I had to rearrange and juggle in order to get it all onto Shelby's computer and her laptop.
Time to begin installing! Almost there!
No, wait, my DVD-ROM drive is a POS and doesn't work anymore. Of course. Time to cannibalize Shelby's computer! So I have to open up her tower and yank out her drive and put it in mine. I unfortunately bought her the most awkward computer desk imaginable so all the cords running to the back of her tower are already stretched tight and the computer won't move an inch out of its enclosure. So I have to basically hang upside down and use an extraordinarily large amount of energy and muscle to unplug each cord.
Now to install! Oh, it fails and freezes up a few times for reasons unknown to me. Now it's about 3:30 in the morning so start it off one more time and go to bed. Wake up in the morning to find that it actually worked while I wasn't watching it! Huzzah!
Now I had to put Shelby's drive back in her computer after which I did the stupid thing of having too much confidence in my technical abilities so I attach everything and place it back in it's awkward cubby without testing it. The computer won't boot. It gets stuck on "Checking NVRAM..." Oh god, I've seen that before too many times. Do not tell me I fried her motherboard somehow.
My punishment for over-confidence is to hang upside down again and battle with the computer desk from hell.
Turns out I didn't push the IDE cable in far enough. Grr.
That was the worst of it though. Aside from Media Center taking at least an hour to add all my media to it's library, things start going smoother.
I download Transcode360, a third-party program that streams Divx and Xvid videos to the 360 and encodes on the fly. My god. It's awesome. I've only tested the start of Deadwood (pictured, obviously) but it works like a fucking dream. All I do is find the video on my Xbox, select it and choose "transcode" from the options. Bam. I'm watching it. And it even looks better than the files I was converting multiple times over. I would even call it DVD quality. And no out of sync dialog. YES!
I haven't even checked out it's functionality with pictures and music.
So all my problems are solved and I now have access to anything my heart desires. My life is streamlined, my hair's growing back, and I think I'm on the verge of curing cancer. All thanks to my 360, Media Center, and Transcode360. Life is good.
Did you read all that? No? Good, because you'd be a weirdo if you did. I just wanted to vent.
This Is So Cool
I've taken my 360 to the next level.
So for the past couple of months I have been watching videos off my computer on my Xbox 360. This was wonderful and all but it came at a price. The 360 only supports Mpeg-2 and WMV files for some sick reason so I had to jump through many hoops to turn an .avi file into a WMV file. First I had to use a program to encode the avi into an mpeg because the other program I was using couldn't perform the task of encoding avi directly to wmv. So once I had my mpeg (a process that took almost 2 hours) I could start encoding that into a wmv using Sorenson Squeeze. Not only did this step take an ungodly amount of time (at least 9 hours) but it strained my aging computer to where I couldn't perform any other tasks on it besides that one without it lurching to a near dead-stop and produced files of over 1.5 gb in size for each step. Because this took so long and took up so much space, I was juggling the processes on mine and Shelby's computers. However, because Squeeze uses the same cd-key (ahem) it wouldn't allow the two programs to run at the same time on my network. So because of that, I had to unplug Shelby's computer from the router thus cutting her off the internet for hours at a time. This severely limited my opportunities to perform the encoding process.
And to kick a guy while he's down, for some unknown reason after I would transcode the avi to a mpeg, the audio became out of sync. This occurred on both computers and I never did understand why. I even uninstalled and reinstalled codecs, drivers, programs, and files but to no avail.
Once this began, I decided to scrap the whole thing and graduate to something better.
I got XP Media Center.
However, like everything else in our stupid lives, we have to work for sweet things. Installing Media Center meant a fresh install of XP and a clean wipe of my hard drive. I, um, borrowed a friend’s copy of Media Center but had to burn it onto a DVD. Now I'm a bit behind the times so I'm new to the whole DVD burning thing. I got some DVD-Rs and looked forward to the future. But wait, I needed DVD+Rs to burn this OS. Son of a.... So that delayed me a bit as I had to get some new discs but once that was done with I had to move all my files off of my computer. I've accumulated a lot shit it seems over the past few months so this took quite a while as I had to rearrange and juggle in order to get it all onto Shelby's computer and her laptop.
Time to begin installing! Almost there!
No, wait, my DVD-ROM drive is a POS and doesn't work anymore. Of course. Time to cannibalize Shelby's computer! So I have to open up her tower and yank out her drive and put it in mine. I unfortunately bought her the most awkward computer desk imaginable so all the cords running to the back of her tower are already stretched tight and the computer won't move an inch out of its enclosure. So I have to basically hang upside down and use an extraordinarily large amount of energy and muscle to unplug each cord.
Now to install! Oh, it fails and freezes up a few times for reasons unknown to me. Now it's about 3:30 in the morning so start it off one more time and go to bed. Wake up in the morning to find that it actually worked while I wasn't watching it! Huzzah!
Now I had to put Shelby's drive back in her computer after which I did the stupid thing of having too much confidence in my technical abilities so I attach everything and place it back in it's awkward cubby without testing it. The computer won't boot. It gets stuck on "Checking NVRAM..." Oh god, I've seen that before too many times. Do not tell me I fried her motherboard somehow.
My punishment for over-confidence is to hang upside down again and battle with the computer desk from hell.
Turns out I didn't push the IDE cable in far enough. Grr.
That was the worst of it though. Aside from Media Center taking at least an hour to add all my media to it's library, things start going smoother.
I download Transcode360, a third-party program that streams Divx and Xvid videos to the 360 and encodes on the fly. My god. It's awesome. I've only tested the start of Deadwood (pictured, obviously) but it works like a fucking dream. All I do is find the video on my Xbox, select it and choose "transcode" from the options. Bam. I'm watching it. And it even looks better than the files I was converting multiple times over. I would even call it DVD quality. And no out of sync dialog. YES!
I haven't even checked out it's functionality with pictures and music.
So all my problems are solved and I now have access to anything my heart desires. My life is streamlined, my hair's growing back, and I think I'm on the verge of curing cancer. All thanks to my 360, Media Center, and Transcode360. Life is good.
Did you read all that? No? Good, because you'd be a weirdo if you did. I just wanted to vent.