How to play Videos on Xbox 360

There are two ways you can watch videos on your Xbox 360:



1. Download video from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Some of these videos are available for free while you may have to pay for others. Microsoft is in control of what videos are available through the Xbox Live Marketplace.



2. Stream videos from your Windows Media Center PC by using your Xbox 360 as a Media Center Extender. You are in control of what videos you want to watch, however there are restrictions on what kind of video you can playback. See below for more details.



Is there any way I can play my own videos WITHOUT a Media Center PC?.
No. Without a Windows XP Media Center PC, you can only play back the movies Microsoft offers in the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Do I need additional hardware/software to playback video on my Xbox 360?
Yes. You will either need the optional Xbox 360 Hard Drive to download/watch video from the Xbox Live Marketplace or you will need a PC with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center as your OS in order to stream video from your PC.



Does it support video streaming through Windows Media Connect?
No. There are video sharing capabilities built into Windows Media Connect, however, Microsoft has chosen to ONLY allow you to share Audio and Pictures through Windows Media Connect. You CANNOT stream videos through Windows Media Connect to your Xbox 360.



What kind of videos can I play using the Media Center Extender?
Microsoft Windows Media Video (WMV) 7, 8, & 9
- Maximum resolution of 1920x1080 (1080p) at 30 frames per second.
- Windows Media Audio Standard or Windows Media Audio Pro audio.
- WMV content may be Windows Media DRM-protected.
- Bitrates up to 8 Mbps.
WMV Image 1 & 2
- Maximum resolution of 800x600
MPEG-1
- MPEG-1 layer I and II audio.
MPEG-2, DVR-MS
- Maximum resolution of 1920x1080 (1080i).
- MPEG-1 layer I and II or AC-3 audio.
- Bitrates up to 19.2 Mbps.

Does it support avi? Divx? Xvid? Quicktime? H264?
No. The Media Center Extender in the Xbox 360 only supports playback of DVR-MS, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and WMV video.

How can I watch these other (avi, divx, xvid, etc) videos on my Xbox 360?
You have to convert these videos into the video formats the Xbox 360 Media Center Extender can playback. We recommend you to use Aiseesoft Total Video Converter (for Mac OS, choose video converter for Mac ) to convert all popular video formats to xbox 360 video and audio files perfectly with just a few clicks.



Does the Xbox 360 support direct video streaming through Windows Sharing/Samba Shares?
No.

Can I watch DVDs through the Media Center Extender?
No, you can only watch DVDs by using the Xbox360's DVD drive.

Can I use a DVD Disc Changer through the Media Center Extender?
No. This functionality is not available in through the Xbox 360's Media Center Extender. You can only watch one DVD at a time by using the Xbox360's DVD drive.

Will My DVDs be available on the XBox 360?
"No. We did not implement the ability to remotely play back a DVD from a MCE to an XBox 360 Extender so it did not make sense to make My DVDs available. I certainly understand how cool it would be if you could put your MCE and full loaded DVD changer in a closest and use XBox 360's to watch your DVD collection from any room wirelessly but this is something that's going to have to wait until a future release." - Matt Goyer - MCE Program Manager

Can the Xbox 360 play video off the Xbox 360 Hard Drive?
Yes, but only video downloaded from the Xbox Live Marketplace or preloaded on the Xbox, not your own videos.
Can you hook up an external hard drive to the Xbox 360 and play videos off that?
No.

Recommended Products for you:
DVD to iPod Converter for Mac
It's a specially designed iPod conversion program to Convert DVD to iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, convert DVD to iTunes on Leopard.
iPod Video Converter for Mac
It can convert MP4, MOV, 3GP, AVI, RM, MPEG, and FLV to iPod video with high output quality and various features.

The iPod Family(Part 1)

We're hard pressed to say the iPod family's fallen on particularly hard times, but being under such excruciating public scrutiny can take its toll on any dynasty; especially in a year like 2005, the family shaken to its core by so many tragic deaths. From the humble beginnings of the iPod that began the legacy so many years back, all the way up to the tragic loss of the iPod mini just yesterday, we felt it might be time to take a visit to the iPod family cemetary on this early autumn afternoon.


iPod family Tree

2001


The first generation iPod-October 2001 - July 2002

2002

The second generation iPod-July 2002 - April 2003
But a few mournful months after the passing of the 5GB iPod and the birth of the 10GB iPod, came a new 10GB iPod and the 20GB, which started at $499. Perhaps one of the least well-remembered of the iPod family, this iPod included the first non-mechanical (solid state) scroll wheel, though the center and circumference buttons remained tactile. Perhaps most groundbreaking was the official Windows support (via Musicmatch Jukebox, ironically), though the wired remote, calendar, and artist search were all significant as well. Eventually this iPod would undergo tattoos by Beck, No Doubt, Madonna, and Tony Hawk before being committed to history in April of 2003.

2003

The third generation iPod-April 2003 - July 2004
This was the iPod—born of humbler pedigree—that grew up, provided for itself a higher education, and made its own way in the world. The third generation of the family rid itself entirely of mechanical buttons on its body, shed some of its baby fat around the waist down to 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.62-inches, and came forth at $299 for 10GB, $399 for 15GB, and $499 for 30GB. This was also the first iPod child to feature a remote connector and dock connector—which finally enabled USB 2.0. In September the 30GB iPod was priced at $399, and a 40GB model was released for $499.

Related theme:
The iPod family(part 2)
The iPod family(part 3)
The iPod family(part 4)
The iPod family(part 5)

Recommended Products For you:
DVD to iPod Converter for Mac
It's a specially designed iPod conversion program to Convert DVD to iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, convert DVD to iTunes on Leopard.
iPod Video Converter for Mac
It can convert MP4, MOV, 3GP, AVI, RM, MPEG, ASF and FLV to iPod video with high output quality and various features .

How to Remove DRM protection from iTunes

iTunes is a champion of music, video downloading services. The user-friendly iTunes makes downloading music, videos quick and hassle-free; however, iTunes purchased songs and videos will not run on any other media player except for Apple products due to digital rights managements (DRM) which limit usages of devices or files.
This is a tutorial to remove DRM protection from iTunes. Then you can burn the iTunes videos to DVD and convert the iTunes videos to other format files.

Part 1, Remove DRM protection from iTunes Music using iTunes + CD-R/W
Probably the most widely accepted method for stripping purchased songs of DRM protection is burning tracks to a CD-R/W then re-importing back into the iTunes library. A method guaranteed to free you of DRM madness.
Create an iTunes playlist containing your purchased songs.
Insert a blank CD-R or a CD-RW.
Burn the playlist to disk.
Re-import the songs after a successful burn.
Delete the original purchased tracks.

Part 2, Remove DRM protection from iTunes using software
1. Remove DRM protection from iTunes music and videos for free on PC.
QTFairUse. It can Remove DRM protection from iTunes music and videos for free.
QTFairUse(.) for ITunes will allow you to convert protected m4p format files purchased in the iTunes Music Store to unprotected m4a files, playable everywhere. It supports fully automated conversion of all protected tracks in your iTunes library.
It will confirm whether you want to convert all the files in your library. Press 'y' and Enter to do that. Next it will ask if you want to skip already converted tracks (e.g. from the previous run). Press 'n' and Enter to overwrite them, 'y' and Enter to skip. After that, the script will begin conversion of all files in the library. Converted files will have m4a extension and will reside next to their m4p counterparts. To stop the conversion in process, press Ctrl-C in the console window. You can also close iTunes.
If you want to convert specific m4p files, pass their filenames as the commanding parameter. You can do that by e.g. dragging and dropping the files on QTFairUse6.exe. QTFairUse6 will convert them and exit. You can find converted files next to the originals, with m4a extension.

MyFairTunes. It can Remove DRM protection from iTunes music for free.

2. Remove DRM protection from iTunes music on Mac.
The software I introduce:
FairGame It is a freeware to Remove DRM protection from iTunes music on Mac OS X. FairGame(http://seidai.50webs.com/Seidai%20Software_files/FairGame.zip)will convert the songs you bought on the iTunes Store to an unprotected format (using iTunes default encoder) and keep all the original metadata, lyrics and artwork. FairGame doesn't do lossless DRM stripping. It re-encodes protected AAC files purchased in iTMS into unprotected AAC file using Apple's iMovie software.
What you MUST DO (only once) to get FairGame to work:
enable "Access for assistive devices" in the "Universal Access" system preference
select "Place clip in Movie Timeline" in the "Import" preference of iMovie HD
Then you can simply
select some songs in iTunes
click on the "Process songs" button
then don't touch anything and wait until it's done...(FairGame is scripting iMovie's interface to process the songs, don't interfere)



Tips:
If you want to burn the iTunes video to DVD, Just follow these steps:
1. Get the iTunes video to computer. You need to transfer the videos to iPod or iPhone and then use free iPod manager to get the videos from iPod or iPhone to computer.
Here is a tutorial: How to get videos from iPod and iPhone to Mac and PC for free?
2. Use freeware to burn the iTunes video to DVD. Here are the tutorials:
How to convert iTunes videos to DVD on PC for free?

Recommended Products For you:
DVD to iPod Converter for Mac
It's a specially designed iPod conversion program to Convert DVD to iPod touch, iPod classic, iPod nano, convert DVD to iTunes on Leopard.
iPod Video Converter for Mac
It can convert MP4, MOV, 3GP, AVI, RM, MPEG, ASF and FLV to iPod video with high output quality and various features.