I have researched several forums, but have been unsuccessful in finding the 'best' way to view content thru Media Center on my X-360. It seems that the far majoity of users out there are encoding to .avi format and are viewing media on external hard-drive connected directly to the 360.
I am looking to do something a bit different.
I will first explain that my Media Center PC and my Xbox 360 are on a wired network that is also shared by other PC's in the home - as well as a standard Xbox. The Xbox 360 is connected via component video cables to a TV capable of 1080p resolution. The end-result I am looking to acheive is having my DVD collection backed-up on a Network computer...so that video files are accessable from any PC on the Network...and also (viewable) on the 360. I would prefer to store any video files as .WMV's so that I don't have to worry about codec compatability issues. Size of the resulting video files is not a major concern, but I would like to keep a full-length movie to about 1.5Gig (if possible). My bigger concern is video quality. I would like a the resolution to be at least 480i/p, or 720p. I am stateside...so I am using the NTSC standard.
Now, I have tried various software solutions - but keep running into various problems.
For testing, I used my copy of The Office (BBC) 'The Complete Second Series'. Once I have an episode stored as a .VOB file, I am using 'Encode360' to convert the file to a .WMV. I have converted to a 848x480 output ratio, and am encoding @ 3500kbp. Audio is being encoded @ 160kbp. The resulting video file is about 700Meg, and produces a watchable picture thru Media Center. In scenes with a lot of motion - I can see some distortion - looking like 'scan issues' - I would like ot be able to correct that - as many of the movies in my library are action intense.
The other issue that I have been unable to correct is .VOB combining. When I attempted to encode a full length movie, it only encoded the first .VOB file. I have read that DVD Shrink will allow you to create a single .VOB - but I have not been able to figure-out how to accomplish it.
Any help that can be offered is appreciated - I don't mind testing different encoding methods...but it is getting VERY time consuming/frustrating wating for files to encode only to find the resulting file does not work properly.
I am looking to do something a bit different.
I will first explain that my Media Center PC and my Xbox 360 are on a wired network that is also shared by other PC's in the home - as well as a standard Xbox. The Xbox 360 is connected via component video cables to a TV capable of 1080p resolution. The end-result I am looking to acheive is having my DVD collection backed-up on a Network computer...so that video files are accessable from any PC on the Network...and also (viewable) on the 360. I would prefer to store any video files as .WMV's so that I don't have to worry about codec compatability issues. Size of the resulting video files is not a major concern, but I would like to keep a full-length movie to about 1.5Gig (if possible). My bigger concern is video quality. I would like a the resolution to be at least 480i/p, or 720p. I am stateside...so I am using the NTSC standard.
Now, I have tried various software solutions - but keep running into various problems.
For testing, I used my copy of The Office (BBC) 'The Complete Second Series'. Once I have an episode stored as a .VOB file, I am using 'Encode360' to convert the file to a .WMV. I have converted to a 848x480 output ratio, and am encoding @ 3500kbp. Audio is being encoded @ 160kbp. The resulting video file is about 700Meg, and produces a watchable picture thru Media Center. In scenes with a lot of motion - I can see some distortion - looking like 'scan issues' - I would like ot be able to correct that - as many of the movies in my library are action intense.
The other issue that I have been unable to correct is .VOB combining. When I attempted to encode a full length movie, it only encoded the first .VOB file. I have read that DVD Shrink will allow you to create a single .VOB - but I have not been able to figure-out how to accomplish it.
Any help that can be offered is appreciated - I don't mind testing different encoding methods...but it is getting VERY time consuming/frustrating wating for files to encode only to find the resulting file does not work properly.
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