Newbie - Xbox360 go to option and why extra CPU usage?

[stargazer30]

Hi Guys,

I just started using PMS on Ubuntu 12.04. I have one PS3 but mainly in our house in the bedrooms the kids use there 360s to watch streamed movies. Can anyone answer.... (and I did try a search!)

1. Is there a go to option on the xbox to allow playback from half way through the movie, like they have on the PS3?

2. I've tested the software (v1.5) on 3 different PCs streaming to xbox and PS3, and in all cases when streaming to the PS3, PMS seems to fill the buffer no worries and the video is okay to watch, no freezing. The same movie streamed to the Xbox and the buffer can't keep up. So I can stream a 720p 3D MKV to the PS3 no worries. Trying the same file on the same PC to an xbox the buffer is slow to fill and once playback starts gets wiped out, the laptops CPUs are totally maxed. Reducing the transcoder settings as advised on here has little to no affect. Why the big difference between the two?

3. Last one and if needs be I can start a separate thread for this one. All PCs running ubuntu 12.04 and latest version of PMS. Tested on 2 different PCs, different file formats and XBOX and PS3. Same main issue, every 20 mins the movie will freeze completely. The only way to get it going again is to turn off the PS3/XBOX and quit PMS on the laptop and restart it. The PMS software doesn't crash, but the buffer is frozen like the streaming process crashed. Anyone seen this before?

David

[Val Killmore]

1). Simply put.....NO. If the video is transcoded, then no. There is no "go to " function like there is witht the PS3. Native files are capable of FF/RW and seeking thru 10 virtual chapters.

I have never been able to get the PMS Chapter option working with the 360 either. Perhaps give that a shot on your setup.

2). Because of the limited native support, both in containers, filetype, specific codecs, and number of audio channels, virtually every filetype needs transcoded to be played on a 360. And as muxing is not an option, there is no way to simply mux video and re-encode multi-channel AAC down to 2 channel. So, MP4's with multi-channel AAC audio require FULL video transcode, even if the video specs are in check, only because they exceed the audio channel limit (5.1 vs. 2 channel). And virtually every file type requires it. MKV, M2TS, multi-channel audio MP4's are all automatically forced to transcode even with out subtitles.

And transcoding video to WMV is far more CPU intensive than transcoding to Mpeg-2 like with the PS3. I can only suggest trying to dumb down the video quality settings. As well, you can do as I do. Start a movie, let it fill the buffer fully, then play the movie. Sucks, but it works.

The PS3 dusts the 360 in media playback performance and nearly every other aspect, other than gaming/selection/online playing, plain and simple. I could list the pros of the PS3, but my keyboard might wear out. And I own 2 360's and a PS3, so this is not a fanboy attack.

3). I would check this link first.
Beyond that we may need more info.

[Val Killmore]

To add.

The best way I have found to enjoy the 360 with video media, is to try your best to keep the files native.

My latest approach has been to look for movies with DTS, in MKV format. I then run that MKV movie/video thru XenonMKV. Generally a quick remux of the video, and a simple dowmixing of audio to AAC all done with one click.

It usually takes less than 10 minutes to 'reduce' an MKV w/DTS to a playable MP4 file w/ 2 channel AAC audio.

This way the original file is generally always playable on the PS3 with great sound, and a quick run thru Xenon, and the output file is 360 ready. You can also perform batch functioning with XenonMKV, so as to 'convert' an entire folder of MKV's if you wish. Really handy. It also can account for FAT-32 file structuring as well by splitting movies at the 4 GB mark, or what ever mark you wish.

I stick with this approach, or I look for DivXHD videos (perfect on PS3) and which seem to play fine on the 360 as well regardless of the audio channel count.

Or, of course, you can re-encode video to WMV with various external software, but this approach usually requires hours of encoding to work.

That's all I can think of for pointers for the 360 for now. All I know for sure is this is the last 360 I ever buy, unless Microsoft decides to broaden the supported format capabilities of the console in the future.