I have been unable to connect my XBox 360 to my desktop computer to share music and photos. I was able to connect to my laptop without really trying, but for some reason the XBox can't see the desktop or vice versa.

I suggest you switch back to WMP 10. I upgraded and hated WMP11, using Windows Media connect is so much easier. If you uninstall WMP11 it will automatically go back to WMP10 or whatever previous version you had on there.

Scott make sure you are running windows media connect.

Evan - Both systems are running Windows XP Pro SP2. Both are running Windows Media Connect and both are running the same firewall with the same configuration. All 3 systems (2 computers and XBox 360) get DHCP from same source.

Anyone got it connected to media center 2005? I connected to MCE 2006 with ease and am streaming live and recorded tv from my notebook to the xbox like nobody's business (over a wireless network no less). Added a projector to it and I have a 60" display of the Simpsons. ;-) I can't find a way to do so with MCE 2005. I would love to do so if only for the music. I would guess that it would be the same software as XP Pro sp2, but so far no luck.

I also had a lot of trouble getting my 360 to see media on my other PCs.

Here was my set-up:
xbox 360
laptop with XP pro SP2
desktop with win2k where my media is all located

I had a mapped drive on the laptop to my media on the win2k machine and all the media was in the media libray on the laptop machine. When the 360 connected to the laptop it would see no media files.

Last night I found this program:
http://tversity.com/

I installed in on my win2k machine added a share for my music and pictures and now my 360 sees and has access to my media directly from my win2k machine. So much for the M$ requirement of XP Pro or media center.

BTW - My Wii can also access this media via the Opera browser.

I don't mind experimentation, but Microsoft needs to standardize on a place to find all the features that don't need to be big "CLICK ME!" buttons. Before, you could always search in the main menu bar that was in the same place on every application. Now, neither WMP, IE, Office, or Windows have matching interfaces. It's going to be frustrating for many users moving to Vista. I'll guarantee you that.

I agree. I absolutely hate WMP 11 and uninstalled it. I'm really not looking forward to Vista. I don't plan to upgrade to it for at least a year, after some of the bugs are worked out of it.

WMP11, IE7 and Vista are mostly moving to a menu-less interface but they are still fairly similar. IE7 directly uses Windows Vista's interface, where the menu is hidden and the top row is: back/forward, address, search.

If you want to use the menu in any of these three, just hit the 'Alt' key and the menu will pop up. WMP11's menu is almost identical to the last 4 versions of WMP ;)

Office on the other hand does away with the traditional menus completely, but the new ribbon interface is far more intuitive and includes even more features than before. Infact it exposes good features that some people never knew about *because* they were hidden under unintuitive menus, and makes so many other options simply more accessible with just one click. I'm happy to see Microsoft doing a bit of innovation in this area and I think the ribbon interface will be adopted fairly quickly in the Windows world.

It is a real shame that the transition from Windows Media Connect to WMP11 wasn't easier, but things like this do get missed occassionally. Personally, I use WMP11 for playing media on my PC but I use TVersity for streaming pictures, music and video to my Xbox 360, since TVersity has the added bonus of transcoding video on-the-fly to allow you to watch video that would be otherwise unsupported (such as divx/xvid).

@Joshua: I used to use my 360 with MCE 2005, but I'm not sure what you mean by MCE 2006 as there is no such product. Vista's "Windows Media Center" is the successor to MCE 2005, which does work beautifully with the Xbox 360. I was totally impressed that the extender can just use a whole new interface form the host with no worries :D If you need the ability to play other video formats with it, there is a recent release of Transcode360 that supports Media Center in Vista.

I've got things working now - although the performance was a bit slow. So I might give tversity a try anyway (since two of you recommended it).

Can someone please explain how exactly to use Tversity with my Xbox 360? I installed it but can't figure it out..My 360 sees my computer, I'm just trying to stream video that the 360 doesn't recognize, I was told that Tversity could fix that.

Thanks

Gary,

I'll walk you through it. I'm not sure what you're problem is, so i'll start from the begining.

You already downloaded Tversity so, check that one off.

With Tverysity, if you're trying to stream Divx/Xvid files you're gonna need FFDShow. You can get it here: http://www.free-codecs.com/...

Make sure you download FFDShow before the next step, because if you do them backwards it can cause some playback issues.

Now you need some codecs, (without these you will get error messages on the 360 when trying to play your files) download this codec pack:
http://www.free-codecs.com/...
(i use the 2.83 BASIC pack)
______________________________________________

Now, if you haven't disabled sharing in WMP you need to do it now. In WMP11 click "Library", go to "Media Sharing" and disable it.. If you're using WMP10, i think you do it through your Media Connect program.
_______________________________________________

Open Tversity. Click the "Advanced" tab, and "Start Sharing". Hit the big "+" icon and add your file.

Your 360 should see the file now, though you might have to go to "Computer"(in the purple blade on the 360) and disconnect from your old connection manually.

When you go to Videos, a Tversity connection should appear.
____________________________________________________

Now, it's all about optimizing your TVersity settings so your video runs as smooth as possible..

I'll check back....let me know if you need anything else.

Ive done everything you said by the book with tversity but whenever I play the clips from my cpu on the 360, it either makes my 360 freeze or disconects from my cpu... Is their a way to fix this problem...

Under Settings in TVersity go to the Transcoder panel and scroll to the bottom and uncheck "Decode the media as fast as possible without taking into account its bitrate". Now it should only use as much CPU time as needed rather than the 100% that it would have used otherwise. If you are still having CPU related problems you might need to play with some of the other settings on than panel to see if you can sort it out (perhaps lower the resolution and the quality, and use less compression). Hopefully the first step wil work for you though :)

Sean,

Yes, but let me elaborate.

Tversity doesn't actually start converting your movie file until you hit "PLAY" on your 360. (That's why it takes a minute for your movies to start) If you have a high resolution setting and high res. video it's gonna take longer to convert and you're probably gonna get the freezing issues.

A lot of people deal with this by starting their videos before they actually want to watch them and pausing or stopping the video. (Even if you stop the video, it's still transcoding on your PC as long as TVersity is still running/sharing) This way it gives the transcoding a "head start" so you don't get the freezing issues. But be aware that if you still have the high res. setting its gonna take longer to transcode and you may actually catch up to your conversion point.

Try setting your Max Video resolution to something lower. (Go to Settings/Transcoder.) I have mine set really low at "480 x 360" I don't really notice too much of a difference in the quality, or at least not enough that i care. You might be able to get away with a bit of a higher setting depending on your PC.

I still start my videos 10-15 mins before i watch them, and i don't really get freezing issues too often, but when i do..i just pause for 5 mins and i'm right back to streaming video.

Hope this helped.

If you're interested i can tell you how you can save the transcoded .WMV version of your AVI/Divx files so that you don't have to convert a second time if it's something you will be watching again.

I have tried Zune, windows media player 11, to stream music, all I want is music to my 360. Xbox 360 tech support couldn't help me, maybe some one here can.

My xbox has never connected to my computer, all the correct ports on the firewall and router are open per all 360 requirements. My router is wired no wireless period.

So my 360 can't see my computer and my computer doesn't see my 360. I have XP SP2.

Any suggestions, I have been on the phone with xbox 360 tech support for the last three nights about 4 hours a night and nothing.

Help

I assumed you checked your firewall?

firewall has been turned off and I actually had a dell tech remote my computer to make sure that the operating system and the firewall was not casuing the problem.

Thanks

Yes - upgraded to WMP 11 and then the XBOX 360 just wouldn't find my Media Centre PC, even though I had expressly allowed WMP 11 to share with my XBOX 360. I uninstalled WMP 11, but that didn't work. I just used system restore to get back to the days before WMP 11 and PRESTO it works fine.

AVOID WMP11 if you have an XBOX 360.

Yeah Ive never been able to connect to my pc either. Ive tried all of the above but the xbox just doesnt recognise a computer connected!

Did you work it out Chad??

Chad, have you tried upgrading your routers firmware? I have a netgear DG834g, this solved my problems.

When I try to view my movie files, they end up reversed and upside down, does anyone know a way to remedy this situation? If so, thanks in advance.

I too am trying to get my PC to see my Xbox360. Only bought it yesterday so am totally new to all this. Have WMP11 installed and set up all the ports as requested.

I have my 360 connected by the cat5 cable to my wireless router. My pc connects to the router wirelessly.
The 360 finds the IP address ok but doesnt see my computer.

Any suggestions, same as Chad ?

Thanks

i have a similar problem. have WMP11 running, and am streaming pics and music fine - that's great. however, when i look for videos (and i specifically placed WMVs in folders that i know it is reading since it detects the photo and audio files), none show up. is there some setting that needs to be dealt with just for streaming video?
thanks!

It's all doing my head in. My xbox can't see my computer (though once it blinked on for a microsecond then dissapeared, god knows what that means).

i've tried zune, wmp11, tversity and still i'm knackered. I've got a netgear router thingy, i've just bought a wireless thing for my computer as i thought that may be the issue (it's not). i tell ya, i'm just flumoxed as what to do?

my mate said it may have something to do with ip addresss being on automatic, no help to me though as i don't really understand what he means (or how to fix it).

i think i'm just gonna have to give up (or wait for microsoft to fix it, god knows).

anyway if anyone has a cure i'd be interested.

matt

Whoever recommended tversity, thank you! I couldn't connect to my media with Zune or with WMP11, but Tversity worked right off the bat. I appreciate it!

Ok if anyone is still reading this I have figured out why Tversity won't work with some Xbox 360's.

In Tversity go to

Settings/General/Home Network

Change the PORT: from the default to 2869, this is a port that the Xbox 360 looks on for media servers, once you set this port in Tversity, make sure you open it in your firewall according to your firewall manual.

Then follow the instructions above to connect to Tversity server on your Xbox 360, if you need a more indepth description leave a post and I'll make a step by step.

I have followed the step by step directions provided by Mike for using TVersity.

'll check back....let me know if you need anything else.
# Posted By Mike | 1/30/07 6:32 PM

My 360 still does not recognize my pc. Windows firewall is disabled and I have also included the DNS in Norton Secuirty for individual acceptance. The 360 did seem to pick it up once then I lost it again.

Can anyone help.

Paul

Go to the media blade and try to connect to your pc, when it gives you the
message that it could not find a pc select the connect ot another pc tab. The
360 should look for any available pc's. For some reason whe you download WMP
11 it changes the display name for your computer so the only way I was able
to get the 360 to see my pc was to use the connect to another pc tab and it
connected right to my pc.

i was just wondering why cant i transfer music from my computer into my 360 and save it to the hard drive why should we have to make cd and rip them in, there should be a way that we can sync it... does any one know how to save music to the hard drive itwont allow me to. if so can you help me out please

I was having the connectivity problem with my 360 also and the TVersity program worked. I also installed the FFDshow program, but none of my pictures or items will play on my 360. I can see the file, but it shows nothing or gives me an error. Can you help me?

AAARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!
I am going nuts trying to get my 360 to see my Vista-pc!
My Pc sees the 360 just fine, but the 360 just wont see my PC. I have oened all the ports for the xbox on my windows firewall and still nothing!
Please can somebody help me, I'm about to go insane!

Are you using WMP or tVersity? I have both working together at the same time but because of flaws in WMP I am using tVersity. Others in my family use WMP.

If WMP - Do you have sharing enabled and if so do you allow connections automatically?

Hi there. I've been working on this for the last week and have been having mixed success with it. I have tried MCE, TVersity, WMP11 amongst other things and have been struggling to get this all working.

I have removed all the software/crap installed in the process of geting this working and have only WMP11 remaining. I have set up the media sharing in this and i can successfully connect, browse and play/view all my mp3s and pictures. Great!

What i am still having difficulties with is videos. I have various movies and tv shows on my PC that i want to watch. Although i can see the folder on the PC through my xbox, whenever i check on of the folders i just get a message telling me "no video files were found" or something similar. The video files are definitely on the PC in the folders, and play in WMP11 on the PC without any issues.

Can anyone please help with this? Am i missing something or have i done something wrong?

Lazarus, the video files you're trying to watch on your 360, are they .WMV's by any chance?

Even if you can play the files in WMP, the 360 will only recognize files with the .WMV extension.

This is why you need to convert everything. It's a pain in the ass.

Thanks to all the help here, i can now watch and listen to my music, vids and pictures! it was a hard slog, but worth it in the end.

Cheers for all the excellent advice(especially the specific port opening, which seemed to sort my problem).

i would be interested if anyone knew how to save a converted .avi file to .wmv, as this will allow me full access to my library.

If im right i think you can only look at your pcs media on ur xbox if you have connected the pc to the xbox using the ethernet cable. i used wmp11 and internet connection sharing and it works fine. i can access my media and xbox live. i dont think you can access your media thru ur xbox if ur using a a wireless adapter on ur xbox or if u use ethernet to connect to router.

you might be able to use the xbox wireless adapter to connect to xbox live and then use and ethernet cable to connect to the pc.

If you want to connect your XBOX 360 to a wireless connection and don't feel like paying $100.00 for the adapter, all you have to do is run an Ethernet cable from your XBOX 360 to your laptop/PC that is connected wirelessly. Then go to control pannel and click on network setting, then click on LAN and click properties go to the advanced tab and select, "Allow other computers to connect through this computer." It worked for me and I've been using it since.

To Sync Xbox360elite to Window PC (XP2)/laptop,TVersity is best , not only now you can play all media files in your laptop on a TVscreen via Xbox, there is host of other things you can watch streaming through Tversity (youtube, Tvchannels etc....), i have to figure out still as how to save all the media and other files on xbox harddisk, such that i can get rid of them from my pc/laptop and that pc/laptop need not be on all the time.

TVersity users let me know how to save files on xbox after sync to laptop/pc using tversity software available here http://tversity.com/home

For those that didn't notice, the December Update over Xbox Live has enabled native support for divx/xvid :) I've stopped using TVersity, I just share my music/videos/pictures with Windows Media Player 11. It works extremely well.

Hi Justin Carter,

Can you share how you set up windows media player11 to share media on your laptop to Xbox. I have windows XP2 laptop and tried to sync via windows media player 11, although windows media player on laptop can see xbox but xbox cannot see my pc.
Can you give a step wise simple explantion ,currently iam able to share media via tversity and nero ultimate

This worked for me - found on another forum so no guarantees. I'm not good with settings but was able to follow the below and it worked first time.

Its basically a DRM (data rights management) problem. Steps to fix are as
followed:

Click start, go to run, type services.msc
go to Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service
double click it and hit 'stop'

then you will need to be able to see all hidden files and folders:
Open my computer window, and click on the tools tab at the top and select folder options, and click the view tab

Scroll down make sure show hidden files and folders is shown then scroll further down and uncheck hide protected operating system files(recommended)

then you must delete the DRM files in Windows Media center folder:
Click on My Computer, choose your harddrive (usually C:) click on documents and settings folder, then All Users Folder, and you should see DRM folder.
Double click DRM folder
Control and a to select all the files, then shift delete (to skip sending to the recycle bin), then hit yes, now close this window.

Go back to run, type services.msc and highlight Windows Media Player Network Sharing Services and right click and select start, this should fix the problem varify you are still sharing the connection via windows media player,
library tab, share media option, and that it still sees your xbox,

restart xbox: go to media tab and select music, choose computer it should
now search and (yes finally) find your computer

Have a nice day

This is old. But you are an idiot. Any one with half of a brain could figure WMP11 out.

Oddly I don't feel insulted. Maybe if you used a real name...

Simple solution, guys, make sure the content is in your My Documents- My Music/Pictures/Videos folder correspondingly. And make sure no firewall is blocking it!

call 1800-4-my-xbox. with the wmp11 you can store music and pictures on your xbox 360 hard drive without having to rip cds.

managed to get medi player 11 but cant seem to get media from pc to 360 can anyone help with some instruction please