Xbox 360 and External HD

I know that I can use an external on my 360. I tried to plug in my western digital to the front port but for some reason, it wasn't showing up when I went to the option on my dashboard.

Do I have to do something to the external so that it will show up? Also, if I wanted to run a movie file off of my external, I have to have it in windows media player format correct?

One more thing, I have a 1080p LCD but my laptop can't handle HD. If i put it on my external then run the external through my xbox (play the movie), I WILL get 1080 P resolution correct?

Thanks guys.

If the drive is formatted with the NTFS file system, it will not work, it has to be formatted with the FAT32 file system. I learned that the hard way as well.

+k foafy.

[quote6f0ac1a632="TFOAF"]If the drive is formatted with the NTFS file system, it will not work, it has to be formatted with the FAT32 file system. I learned that the hard way as well.[/quote6f0ac1a632]

So all I have to do is reformat it then correct?


Thanks guys! )

I converted my 500 GB external HD to the FAT32 format so that it can be recognized on my 360. I converted a movie from .mkvurl==http://=http:///url format to .mp4url==http://=http:///url format and it is about 4.3 GB. When I dragged that file from my local disk to my external, it STILL says that it is too large for the external.

What did I do wrong? Any suggestions?

4.3GB is too big, it's 4 gigs max for a file on FAT32.

Also, I think max filesize for the 360 to play is 4 gigs for anything other than wmv.

[quote52d01bf007="hehehhehe"]4.3GB is too big, it's 4 gigs max for a file on FAT32.

Also, I think max filesize for the 360 to play is 4 gigs for anything other than wmv.[/quote52d01bf007]

i did this

http//forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=610799

This worked well but I haven't tried to play a .mp4url==http://=http:///url formatted movie larger than 4 GB. We'll see.

[quote4141355bc8="zr2152"][quote4141355bc8="hehehhehe"]4.3GB is too big, it's 4 gigs max for a file on FAT32.

Also, I think max filesize for the 360 to play is 4 gigs for anything other than wmv.[/quote4141355bc8]

i did this

http//forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=610799

This worked well but I haven't tried to play a .mp4url==http://=http:///url formatted movie larger than 4 GB. We'll see.[/quote4141355bc8]
Yeah but as you know he was doing a workaround to play wmv. I don't think you're going to be able to play an mp4 file of over 4GB.

[quote87f3c41d1e="hehehhehe"][quote87f3c41d1e="zr2152"][quote87f3c41d1e="hehehhehe"]4.3GB is too big, it's 4 gigs max for a file on FAT32.

Also, I think max filesize for the 360 to play is 4 gigs for anything other than wmv.[/quote87f3c41d1e]

i did this

http//forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=610799

This worked well but I haven't tried to play a .mp4url==http://=http:///url formatted movie larger than 4 GB. We'll see.[/quote87f3c41d1e]
Yeah but as you know he was doing a workaround to play wmv. I don't think you're going to be able to play an mp4 file of over 4GB.[/quote87f3c41d1e]

You're right I can't. I am looking into converting .mkvurl==http://=http:///url to .wmv.url==http://=http:///url I was reading a little and one person said that it does not lose quality and others said that it does. I am going to try to do the conversion that I found here

http//www.riverpast.com/en/support/tutorials/convert/mkv/wmv.php

If the quality is shit, I am thinking about streaming it from my laptop to my 360 and play the .wmvurl==http://=http:///url file through WMP 11. If my laptop can't handle Blueray 1080P, will I have any issues with the streaming to my 360?

I wouldn't do that mac hfs+ trick because there might be compatibility problems down the road. You have to install that mac program to use the drive from your PC right?

I wouldn't enocde to WMV either, whenevr you re-encode something, there is always quality loss and it will take a while.

I'd recommend you try xenonmkv to make the MKV files into MP4, it just changes the wrapper mostly so the process is quite fast and there shouldn't be any quality loss. Only thing, is it will crop files to less than 4GB due to the limit. You can then stream these files to your 360 or play them from external drives (I think).

[quote2a0b72fd8c="hehehhehe"]I wouldn't do that mac hfs+ trick because there might be compatibility problems down the road. You have to install that mac program to use the drive from your PC right?

I wouldn't enocde to WMV either, whenevr you re-encode something, there is always quality loss and it will take a while.

I'd recommend you try xenonmkv to make the MKV files into MP4, it just changes the wrapper mostly so the process is quite fast and there shouldn't be any quality loss. Only thing, is it will crop files to less than 4GB due to the limit. You can then stream these files to your 360 or play them from external drives (I think).[/quote2a0b72fd8c]

Thanks! Right now im using the mkv merge programs along with yamb. I extract the files using mkvextract, convert the .ac3url==http://=http:///url files into an mp4 folder and then use yamb to combine the extracted h246 file with the new ACC-LC audio file. In the end, I come out with an MP4 file that is playable on my external through my 360.

If the files are over 4GB, I can use Yamb to split them accordingly. As for the WMV, it sucked. Lol.

Sometimes though, i get issues with the audio of the final product. I downmix the channels when necessary and keep then accordingly.

Also, for a 1080P movie that I converted and split int 4 files (so that they could fit on my 360), I only had the last of the files (smallest one) that actually was playable on the 360 and it still had a rough time playing 1080P. Here are the Xbox Specs for certain files

Q What does the Xbox 360 console support for H.264?

A The Xbox 360 console supports the following for H.264

li File extensions .mp4,url==http://=http:///url .m4v, mp4v, .mov,url==http://=http:///url .aviurl==http://=http:///url
li Containers MPEG-4, QuickTime
li Video profiles Baseline, main, and high (up to level 4.1)
li Video bit rate 10 Mbps with resolutions of 1920 × 1080 at 30 fps. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second.
li Audio profiles AAC, 2-channel, Low Complexity
li Audio max bit rate No restrictions. See the question about max bit rate, resolution, and frames per second.

The files extensions comply with this description as well as the container (MPEG-4). My bit rate is 25.00 FPS usually with AAC 2 channel and i use h264 info to set it to 4.1. Is there a reason as to why the first 3 files of the movie were not working and the last one was? I can't figure it out.

I've been doing some reading on tech forums and still can't find a good answer.

shrug


EDIT Is there a simpler program that I can use to do all these conversions at once (split, recode audio and put it into a mpeg container or h.264)?

[quotec26c543cad="zr2152"][quotec26c543cad="hehehhehe"]I wouldn't do that mac hfs+ trick because there might be compatibility problems down the road. You have to install that mac program to use the drive from your PC right?

I wouldn't enocde to WMV either, whenevr you re-encode something, there is always quality loss and it will take a while.

I'd recommend you try xenonmkv to make the MKV files into MP4, it just changes the wrapper mostly so the process is quite fast and there shouldn't be any quality loss. Only thing, is it will crop files to less than 4GB due to the limit. You can then stream these files to your 360 or play them from external drives (I think).[/quotec26c543cad]
EDIT Is there a simpler program that I can use to do all these conversions at once (split, recode audio and put it into a mpeg container or h.264)?[/quotec26c543cad]
Yeah, I recommended xenonmkv above. It's one-click.

Thanks a ton man! First copy worked great. Now I just have to test it out on my xbox.

One thing though, when I use the program mp4box.exe, everytime a program like xenonmkv is finished with the file completion, I get a box saying "mp4box.exe has stopped working, windows is looking for a solution to the problem" but the file is fine anyways. Is there something wrong with Vista that is making it do this? I tried getting another file but I got the same error.



EDIT

Worked perfectly! Thanks a ton Hehehe

+k

Is there a reason as to why when I play a mp4 boxed 1080P movie on my 360 that sometimes it stops for a sec or so and then starts again? It's like it can't handle it or something. I never have that problem with 720P movies.

I have all my 360 settings set for 1080P. Am I missing something or is it just that the file is too powerful for 360 to handle?

Any suggestions?

[quotec3afdfdfa7="zr2152"]Is there a reason as to why when I play a mp4 boxed 1080P movie on my 360 that sometimes it stops for a sec or so and then starts again? It's like it can't handle it or something. I never have that problem with 720P movies.

I have all my 360 settings set for 1080P. Am I missing something or is it just that the file is too powerful for 360 to handle?

Any suggestions?[/quotec3afdfdfa7]

[quoteafd8a372a0="zr2152"]Is there a reason as to why when I play a mp4 boxed 1080P movie on my 360 that sometimes it stops for a sec or so and then starts again? It's like it can't handle it or something. I never have that problem with 720P movies.

I have all my 360 settings set for 1080P. Am I missing something or is it just that the file is too powerful for 360 to handle?

Any suggestions?[/quoteafd8a372a0]