Anyone tried using Windows Media Center for streaming?

[charlesr]

Got Windows 7 which has Media center in it. So instead of installing TVersity, I tried it. The 360 sees stuff and can play it, but quite frequently it pauses for half a second as if buffering, but it doesn't say buffering on the screen.

I'm connected via ethernet, so transfer rate is not a problem.
I tried turning windows firewall on and off but it makes no difference.

I can imagine it'll be easier just to turn it off and use TVersity....

[smouty]

What file types are you streaming?
Unsupported file types will be transcoded. For mkv files I can't rate divx7 highly enough which avoids the transcoding.

[charlesr]

Oh right. I'm using MP4s created with Handbrake's 360 setting (h.264, aac)

Shouldn't that just stream?

[huxley]

It should yes. I have a 360 connected to my htpc and dont have any lag or buffer problems.
Dont forget when you set up a 360 as an extender it takes a while to build a data library depending how much media you have, this runs in the back ground. (mine took about an hour)
On the 360 run the network tune option, that rates the network and should tell of any errors.

[charlesr]

Yeah. Thanks. I tried the network tune and it's all fine. Something weird going on...

How long does yours take to connect to Windows Media Center? It takes mine a few seconds to find it and then 15-20 to connect properly and display the menu.

If that's standard, then I'll be using TVersity which was instant and allows me to browse by folders on movies.

[smouty]

Are you browsing the folders from your PC or using the 360 as an extender?

[EvilBoris]

I always found media centre on 360 to be a bit iffy, sometime it would work perfectly then other times it would freak out and be all delayed and take 5 minutes to display contents of a folder.

I've got a weird feeling that the actual GUI is just a streaming video from your PC as it gets even slow and buffers and allsorts if I try to up the resolution

[charlesr]

Extender. Not tried it on the PC.

[huxley]

Ok With the HTPC sleeping from the time i hit the green button on my remote for the xbox it takes about 20 - 25 seconds.
With the pc awake it takes about 10 seconds.
When I first set it up it took about 30 seconds but it seems to have sped up with time, building a cache of thumbs?

[huxley]

ooops forgot about this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929707/

[charlesr]

I think I've got a normal ethernet switch.
I'll try with TVersity and see if I get the same problem. Then at least I know it's an OS/hardware thing (both of which have changed) rather than a media center problem.
Thanks for the tips.

[Lyris]

I tried using Windows Media Center to watch a video on my Xbox 360.

I gave up and copied the file to a USB stick instead. Ridiculous...

[smouty]

It has its uses and works well for me.
I have a win7 MC PC with a DVB-S/T card for HDTV and mediabrowser as a front end GUI.

Great thread here for more info that you'll ever need - http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1250607