Unable to stream to Xbox 360

[ghether1 0]

I just started using Media Browser a few weeks ago, and I love it. When I saw it now supports DLNA I was thrilled...until I tried to play to my Xbox 360. If I try doing a play to from the iphone app, nothing happens at all on the Xbox. If I try from my web browser, the Xbox will appear to start playing the media, but then it remains on a black screen and nothing happens. After this, when I click "Remote" from the web browser, the Xbox is no longer listed, and in fact I have to restart the console before the server sees it again.

 

What the Xbox does when it starts to play the media depends on the media I'm trying to play. For example, one tv show actually shows the title of the episode in the corner of the screen before the screen goes black and nothing else happens. If I try to play a movie, my tv screen just sort of...flashes different colors.

 

In any case, nothing seems to play on the Xbox. I've attached a log file that shows the errors.

 

xbox debug log.txt

Edited March 22, 2014 by ghether1

[BC101 31]

I tested it today and it works great, for limited file types.

 

Almost all of my TV episodes are 720p x264 in mkv container (H264, AVC, AC3 5.1channel), very little xvid.

 

The few .avi (xvid MPEG4, 2ch MP3 audio) I have play fine.

 

The .wmv play fine.

 

The 720p x264 in mp4 container (H264, AVC) I have with AAC format audio (training videos) also works.

 

 

I wasn't sure if it was the mkv container or the ac3 surround sound that was preventing the xbox360 from playing the media.

 

I then tried this: ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c:v copy -c:a copy output.mp4 , by converting a few .mkv's to .mp4 container they were able to be played on the xbox 360 via DLNA.

 

Pretty neat.

 

Now to figure out if MB3 can automatically transmux (?) any supported mkv video to mp4 container by default when sending to xbox360 via DLNA.   

[ghether1 0]

Yes, after more work I'm finding that it is working for limited file types. The avi files that I have, as you said, work fine. My mkvs don't seem to work, and it's hit and miss with mp4s.

[Beardyname 195]

This is something that i think the dev's (maybe) can fix, but this means that for unsupported file formats the server will have to transcode the container first. I write maybe but hopefully it will be added in an future update.

[BC101 31]

Changing containers takes about 30 seconds. transcoding takes a LOT longer.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

They are working on better DLNA support. 

[Beardyname 195]

Actually as it is now transcoding is done on the fly so it will all depend on if your server can do it faster than you can watch it

 

also, I'm not sure how you mean with "changing containers take 30 sec" since I'm kinda sure you have to do some encoding for that as well. Anyhow the dev's will improve the DLNA feature as time goes on!

[BC101 31]

plumblum, read the first answer here: http://superuser.com/questions/472420/handbrake-settings-to-convert-mkv-to-mp4-while-retaining-the-original-quality

 

the "swapping" of containers from mkv to mp4 took ~30 seconds for a 2 hour movie on my PC. That's definitely not transcoding. It's called transmuxing afaik.

[Beardyname 195]

Huh why didn't i think of that since i know its totally possible to "mux" in for examples more subs or audio etc etc in an container. Anyways, hopefully the devs can figure this out for future updates.

[ghether1 0]

Even with latest update to the iphone app, I am still unable to stream anything to my xbox 360 by using the app. When I choose to play a video on my Xbox 360, nothing happens at all. This is the case for any video, including ones that I am able to play to the xbox by using the web interface.

[BC101 31]

the iOS app doesn't work right for streaming to xbox360. I use the Safari browser in iOS to stream to the xbox360 and it works great, if the container is mp4 and the video is h264. I haven't found mkv container to work. I haven't tried other codecs.