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[olyscott8]

Hi All,

I thought I would add some details here in my challenge of playing 720p HD MKV files on my XBOX 360.
 
This is not a foolproof method! During my time at my PC downloading multiple programs I eventually found a fairly simple way of getting MKV files to stream from my PC to my Xbox 360 via a wired network.

I have not tried this using a wireless network (which I personaly think would be too slow for streaming 720p HD movies). My brother has successfully taken my guide a step further by using networking mains plugs that use your home electrical wiring as a high speed network. You will need to buy the high bandwidth plugs to get a decent streaming rate.

Okay, an MKV file is usualy an MP4, AVI or other movie format with a posh outer wrapping. Think of it as an AVI with a Divx wrapping. The MKV is just the container and it's that container that the Xbox 360 can't read (YET!) it can't read it because the guys at Microsoft have not included the MKV codec in the 360 Dashboard updates.

Now recently, and to everyone's joy, we got a Divx/Xvid/MP4 update to the 360 dash! This has now allowed us all to play our Divx files on our Xbox 360s. This can be done by either streaming a Divx movie from a PC  networked to your Xbox 360 or by burning it to a DVD+-R disc and popping it in the Xbox 360.

So the only way to play an MKV file is to convert it to one of the above formats (Divx/Xvid or MP4).

The best way I have found is to use a program called GOTSENT. This nifty program does not re-encode the MKV (which can take hours even on a good PC). GOTSENT uses a few other programs to split the MKV into its seperate audio and video parts (lets say an MP4 video file and and AC3 sound file). Once done GOTSENT will use another piece of software to convert the AC3 (which the Xbox 360 won't support) into an AAC audio file (Which it will support). Another bit of software then converts the MP4 video file to the correct type of MP4 file and joins these two files back together into one MP4 file the Xbox 360 will read!

Sounds easy right? Well it can be! My brother installed GOTSENT and the required AC3 FILTER software and the HALLI MEDIA SPLITTER software. He ran GOTSENT and selected "Bourne Ultimatum.mkv" selected split on 4GB (You have to do this for large MKV files as the XBOX 360 will not read anything over 3.99GB) and hit the convert buttton.

Twenty minutes later he had 2 file called "Bourne Ultimatum 01.MP4" and "Bourne Ultimatum 02.MP4"

To view these on your 360 you need to set up file sharing in Windows Media Player 11 and share a folder where your movies will be stored. I reccommend using an internal drive for storage as I had some problems streming from my external firewire MYBOOK. Once you have your shared folder set up and your computer is connected to your Xobx, you should be able to browse to your MEDIA BLADE and choose VIDEOS and you will see your shared folder.

Now drop your MP4 files into that folder and...I CAN'T SEE THEM!!! I hear you cry. For some reason WMP11 does not like the MP4 suffix. just change this to .AVI and you'll be able to see and play the files.

TO BE CONTINUED...