This guide was originally written by Toby
Introduction
My
main reason for using Transcode 360 is the ability to watch movies
(movies I have backed up to hard drive and watch through the Vista
Media Center) on my Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 is a Media Center Extender
device, but it does not support playback of ripped dvds (.vob files),
Xvid, Divx, and other formats for that matter. It does support WMV. I
could transcode movies into WMV to watch them on the Xbox 360. I prefer
to skip that step - it takes too long and will use up more space.
WebGuide option
Before
using Transcode 360 (referred to as TT from now on) I used WebGuide.
WebGuide is accessible through the Media Center interface on the
extender device. We had problems though. Even though the server and
extender are both connected to a 100Mbps LAN, trying to watch the movie
on the extender at 8Mbps (Ultra) quality level always led to skipping
and other issues. We would then try to watch the movie at 2000Kbps
(High) and even then we would eventually have some kind of problem
while watching the movie (usually freezing or skipping). Also, the
quality level was awful when watching on a large screen.
Transcode 360 option
Next
I explored TT as an option for watching movies on the extender. At
first I had some problems with TT and gave up on using it. But, the
inability to watch movies on the extender was a major loss. Later, I
again tried TT and this time was able to get it working. Below I will
try to describe briefly how to get TT up and running with My Movies and
Xbox360.
These instructions are for Vista MCE 32-bit Since I use
Vista Ultimate 32-bit, Xbox 360 as extender, My Movies 2.42 and 2.44,
and Transcode 360 1.6.3 I am limited to my experiences with the given
versions. I will not have information on XP MCE, or other versions of
these apps.
How you should already be setup I will assume you
have a Vista MCE running My Movies. You have movies ripped, and added
to your My Movies database. Using My Movies on the MCE box, you can
successfully watch ripped DVDs.
Transcode 360 download
On
the Vista MCE machine, install Transcode 360 Version 1.6.3. Since the
transcode.co.uk website has been down for weeks, I have an alternate
location the file can be downloaded from:
http://www.transcode360.be/Transcode360Vista1.6.3.zip
(keep in mind I've only tested this with Vista 32-bit). In case that location is no longer available,
here is an alternate download location.
Installing Transcode 360
During
the install the first decision you will need to make is 1) to run as a
Service 2) to run as a tray app. I recommend choosing Service. Click
Next. On the next screen you decide whether to run with local system
permissions, or run service under dedicated accounts permissions. I
recommend choosing the first option (if you want to change this for
network file access we will do that later). Click Install. When the
install finishes choose to manually reboot later. Click Finish.
If
you will only be accessing movies stored on the Vista MCE machine,
follow the instructions in the paragraph below titled registry update.
If you need to access movies shared on another computer follow these
steps: click on Start>Right click on Computer>click on
Manage>under Computer Management at the bottom click the triangle
next to Services and Applications>below click on Services>in the
right pane scroll down to Transcode 360 Transcoding Service>right
click on Transcode 360 Transcoding Service and choose
Properties>click the Log On tab>put a dot next to 'This account:' In the first box type a username that is an administrator on the MCE
machine, and is also configured to have access to the other computer. In the next to
boxes type the password. Click Ok. Now follow the instructions in the
paragraph below called registry update.
Registry update
I am providing a batch file that will do this change for you, or you can manually do it.
To do this automated, download this file
to your computer. Browse to where you saved the file, double click on
it. Inside you will see the TT_Network.reg file. Double click it. When
prompted, choose 'Run'. On the 'sure you want to continue prompt choose
yes'. You http://www.transcode360.be/Transcode360Vista1.6.3.zip here is
an alternate download locationtype a username that is an administrator
on the MCE machine, and is also configured to this file should then get
a message that the keys or values were successfully added.
To manually do this, browse to C:\Windows and double click regedit.exe. Next expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software and click on Transcode360. In the right pane double click on InstallationType. In the Value data box remove the existing value and
type in Network. Click Ok. Close the Registry Editor window.
Whether you did auto or manual go ahead and reboot the computer.
Update Mencoder.exe
After
the computer reboots we want to update the version of the mencoder.exe
used by TT. On the Vista machine you may want to enable viewing file
extensions for this part. It will make things easier. To enable
extensions go to Control Panel>Folder Options>View Tab>uncheck
the box next to 'Hide extensions for known file types'. Click Ok.
Now
go to My Computer and browse to C:\Program
Files\Transcode360\Wrappers\MEncoderTranscoder folder. Right click on
the file mencoder.exe and choose rename on the menu. Rename it to
something like mencoder.exe.old.
Go to http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html
and get the latest version of MPlayer for Windows (you do not need the
GUI version). At the time this is being written the current version is
MPlayer 1.0rc2 Windows. The download is a .zip file. Save the .zip to
your computer. Open or extract the .zip when the download is done.
Inside you will see a file called mencoder (mencoder.exe). Right click
on the mencoder.exe and choose Copy. Now browse to C:\Program
Files\Transcode360\Wrappers\MEncoderTranscoder and paste the file here
(Edit>Paste or right click and choose Paste). Now we have updated
the version of mencoder.exe we are using compared to the one that came
with Transcode 360.
Go to Start>All Programs>Transcode
360>Transcode 360 Configuration Utility. On the menu on the left
click on Advanced. Under Profile Name you should see Xbox 360 -
Mencoder. That's what we want. Some have solved problems with TT by
checking the box at the bottom 'Downmix multi-channel AC3 to stereo
MPEG audio'. I am running with that checked. Click Exit.
You may need Microsoft Hotfix
If
you run antivirus software on your Vista MCE machine you will want to
apply this MS hotfix (SP1 users should not need this hotfix). If you do
not, you may experience a problem with movies freezing when your try to
watch them on the extender. This hotfix is for Vista x86 only. Click here to download. If you want to see the MS KB doc it is here Microsoft Hotfix KB933049
Adding
Guest account to network movie folders and sharing themIf you will be
accessing movies from an extender(Xbox 360), we need to alter
permissions setting on the shared movie folders computer. The bottom
line is 'Guest' account needs to be enabled on the other machine, and
'Guest' needs to have Read (Read and List) to the movie folders. On
Vista Ulimate and Vista Enterprise Enabling go to Start>right click
on Computer>choose Manage>expand Local Users and
Groups>Highlight Users>in the right pane right click on
Guest>choose Properties>on the General tab make sure that
'Account is disabled' is unchecked. Click Ok.
In Vista Home Basic
and Vista Home Premium editions go to Control Panel > User Accounts
> Manage Accounts, and Turn on Guest Account.
To give Guests
access to the movie folders go to Computer and browse to the root
folder containing all of the movie folders. Right click the folder and
choose Properties. Click the Security tab. Click the Continue button
(if UAC is enabled). Click the Edit button. Click the Add button. In
the 'Enter the object names to select' box type Guest. Click Ok. Click
Ok again. Click Ok.
Share the movies folders, if not already, and everyone should have read.
Add the guest account the the movie folders. Give Guest account Read access.
I intend to come back and give instruction on the above two sentences.
If the above is not configured, when you go to Watch Stream on your extender, you will get a 'Path not found ' error message.
To
sum, enable Guest account, give guest account read to movie folders (do
this by giving read to the parent folder (or drive) and the permissions
will propagate down. Finally, share the folders so the UNC path matches
the path you specified for the movies in My Movies.
Testing
Bring
up your Xbox 360, connect to the Media Center, go to My Movies, pick a
movie and choose 'Watch Stream'. If you click Watch you will get an
error. So use Watch Stream. You should see 'Loading' for a short
period, and then you should get the spinning circle in the middle of
the screen. The spinning circle may stop spinning for a short period
before the movie starts. If the spinning circle stops and you wait, and
wait...and no movie, then something is wrong. The xbox may be frozen at
this point. I'll get into some troubleshooting below.
Troubleshooting
The two versions of My Movies I have used TT with are 2.42 and 2.44.
It
may be beneficial to disconnect from the Media Center on the Xbox 360
if the permissions changes were made while connect from the Xbox. I
always do this when I make a change so I can't really so if it is not
necessary. From the extender, close media center. Then reopen media
center on the extender.
Valuable information will come from the
TT log file. These are located at C:\Users\Public\Transcode360\LogsIf
you tried to watch a movie on your extender using Watch Stream in My
Movies and it did not work, look at the log file with the most recent
'Date modified' value. This should be the log created when you tried to
stream the movie.
The error message you get when you try to stream the movie is important. Depending on what happens, you may not get a message.
The
event viewer on the Vista MCE machine will also give valuable
information. Go to Start>right click on Computer>choose
Manage>expand Event Viewer>expand Applications and Services
Logs>Click on Transcode 360 Service>in the right pane events will
be listed. Looks for events that are 'Error' and 'Warning'.
Examples
The path [some path] was not found when trying to watch a network movie-> give 'guest' account access to the network folder
After
doing the above try to watch the network movie and get 'Transcode
failed transcode was unable to transcode the file [some path].
->
this could be that the service is running with an account that does not
have permission to the remote computer-> this could be the
mencoder.exe file is not updated
If in the log file you see:
*ERR* Transcoding error:*ERR* This codecs.conf is too old and incompatible with this MPlayer release! at line 6
->
you can delete the codecs.conf file located in the C:\Program
Files\Transcode360\Wrappers\MEncoderTranscoder\mplayer folder
If in the Event Viewer you have a message that includes 'Cannot open file/device.
'->it might be a permissions, network access, firewall type issue.
Make
sure your movies are stored in a separate folder for each movie. Inside
the movie folder there should be a Video_TS folder and within it the
movie files (.ifo, .vob). Transcode 360 looks for the Video_TS folder
and the movie files within. If the folder and file structure described
above is not used, the movies will not work.