Best Video Format for XBOX360?

[Newstuart]

Hi guys, im after a little help if possible

I have just built a htpc to act as a wmc server serving 4 xbox slims with live tv and my dvd collection.

I have my movies in various formats (.mkv.mp4, video_ts, m4v) and they are all playing in a fashion on the extenders but no fwd / rwd and seems to freeze up quite often. I am using sharks007 codec pack on the htpc and media browser for the interface

It would be a big job but what would the best format to convert my entire collection of 400 or so films to that will play nice with the xboxs and whats the best software to use ?

[lithium630]

I like WTV. FF/RW will work perfectly. It can handle mpeg2 or h264 so you will not have to transcode all the video, just a container swap. I use VideoRedo. It's a little expensive but it's the best program I have found. Just open the video and save it in the new format. Dvrmstoolbox is free but it is far more complicated.

[fventura03]

handbrake is the best for converting video

i dont convert anything... what I do is use PLEX and its DLNA server to browse into from my xbox and it transcodes on the fly and has no issues at all.

[Silversee]

If you are using MediaBrowser, you should find lots of helpful information in their knowledgebase. Start here: http://community.mediabrowser.tv/permal ... o-problems

I don't use any third party codecs or any add-ins (just the native Movie library support in Media Center). I also do all of my own encodes (from discs I personally own) and never user torrent sites, so I don't have to deal with random mkv and divx file types.

Using Handbrake and AnyDVD I encode H.264 to .M4V (MP4) containers with 2-channel AAC Dolby Surround audio mixed down from the highest resolution discreet surround track--this plays back on nearly everything. For future proofing, I add a secondary discreet surround Dolby Digital audio stream, either pass-through (DVD) or down mixed (Blu-Ray).

However, the surround audio track cannot be used on Microsoft devices, because the MP4 container standard does not really support AC3 audio (it's the reason Apple invented its own proprietary M4V extension). Using VideoRedo, it's easy to re-mux the M4V (MP4) file to either WTV or M2TS containers which will play back on Extenders with full surround audio.

[newfiend]

I like WTV. FF/RW will work perfectly. It can handle mpeg2 or h264 so you will not have to transcode all the video, just a container swap. I use VideoRedo. It's a little expensive but it's the best program I have found. Just open the video and save it in the new format. Dvrmstoolbox is free but it is far more complicated.

I agree with this ^. WTV would be the best container for a Media Center PC and Xbox Extenders. You get native FF/REW in that container.
VideoReDo is great for converting the files... Many people who use Media Center recommend it highly. http://www.videoredo.com/en/index.htm
newfiend~

[Motz]

I personally convert all of my MKV files to M2TS container and convert DTS to AC3. I wrote this guide a long time go:
http://thedigitalmediazone.com/2010/10/ ... h-mkv2vob/

[staknhalo]

I convert my discs into MP4/M4V. First I rip uncompressed with DVDShrink or DVDFab, and then convert to MKV using MakeMKV. Then I use MediaInfo to get the average bitrate of video and sound settings from the MKV. I then convert the MKV to MP4/M4V using HandBrake with the settings I got from MediaInfo. This allows for quality ALMOST up to the original in converting to MP4 (there will always be some loss). For example, one of my TV show episodes that is 1.41GB after making into an uncompressed MKV, is shrunk to 1.35GB after becoming a MP4. It's a tedious process, but I do it for cross platform compatibility. The end results work native in Windows 7, iTunes, iPod Touch, and my Android phone. That was the main reason for doing so. I loose FFWD/RWND capabilities in WMC as well; but I use the chapter button on the remote to just skip 30 seconds. I heard Media Control will allow for FFWD/RWND on MP4 and other formats, but haven't looked into it yet.

[lithium630]

Why are you using dvdshrink when MakeMKV can rip the disks?

[bmblank]

I was wondering why you were making mkv when handbrake will go from uncompressed straight to mp4/m4v...

[staknhalo]

Why are you using dvdshrink when MakeMKV can rip the disks?

I only use DVDFab when DVD Shrink can't bypass the copy protection. Then I'll rip the full disc in DVDFab and then put it through DVD Shrink. I do this because I like to cut the credits using DVD Shrink out of the movies/TV shows. I don't ever watch credits and it saves space. Can't do that with MakeMKV or even DVDFab. Only DVD Shrink :/

I was wondering why you were making mkv when handbrake will go from uncompressed straight to mp4/m4v...

I need to make it a MKV first so that I can get the average video bitrate of the entire show/film within the MKV file by using Media Info. If I did it straight from disc I would have to run Media Info on each individual VOB file and then average out the bitrate for myself. Doesn't make sense to do it that way.