This post is for those possesed of the force ...

=============================== 

 From our matey Rich ......

Ive been spending much time this week trying to get all my HD content in a format which the 360 will play, so here is a summary of stuff. I wont expand on much, its really just a titbit mail, oh - and as I read somewhere this week - some things are best left disappearing up the ying yang - and they do - often with this stuff.

A couple of weeks ago MS released a Fall update which allows the 360 to play Xvid/Divx files.
Yesterday, Sony released v2.1 firmware for the PS3 which allows playback of DivX and VC1 (VC1 playback has constraints, as it does with DivX playback - looks like filesize, but nothing concrete yet)

360 HD file streaming/playback is best done using VC1 for video (otherwise known as Windows Media 9 Advanced Profile) / 6 channel audio is WMA3 (Windows Media Audio 10 Professional)

Best settings for the 360 to stream are :- Bitrate=6000000 (can be changed), Quality=100, Framerate=check source, Secs/KF=5, Res=Same as input, Use VBR Constrained, VBR Quality=100, MaxBitRate=10000000 (can be changed), Buffer Window Size=3000, Min/Max Complexity=Fastest, Multipass Encoding for the Video. Audio=384kbps, 48kHz, 5.1, 24bit CBR - not multipass.

The above are for files which need transcoding, not to maintain the best quality if transcoding from an HD-DVD source. The values should be much higher for those.

I started off transcoding MKV files (Mpeg4 AVC+AC3), this works well, but requires transcoding.
I cant remember exactly which method worked now - either :

AVS files are AVISynth (2.5) frameserver files.

movie.avs
DirectShowSource ("h:\wmv_working\TopGun\movie.mkv")
Crop (0,88,0,-88) (cos I dont want to encode black bars)

or

MKVExtract GUI to demux and

audio.avs
NicAC3Source ("h:\wmv_working\movie_Track2.ac3")

Use WMNicEnc to transcode audio / video separately and remux with Windows Media Stream Editor.
Takes about 6h on a 4Ghz P4 to transcode  a 1h50min 720p film. Retains the 5.1 soundtrack and looks damn good.

TS files are tougher - there is 2 ways. 1way is to convert TS (Mpeg/AC3) stream to DVR-MS format which can play from 360's media centre, but not from the dashboard. Use DVBPortal TS Converter. Works on Vista - ish. Remember to select the correct Audio Stream! its quick - Less than 7 mins, and plays well.

Otherwise transcode to WMV using DGIndex - Remember to replace DGDecode.DLL in AVISynth plugins Dir with that from DGIndex used.

Use the following
movie.avs
LoadPlugin("c:\Progra~1\AVISynth 2.5\Plugins\DGDecode.dll")
v = Mpeg2Source("h:\HD\Fiding.Nemo.1080i.DD5.1\nemo.d2v")
a = NicAC3Source ("h:\HD\Fiding.Nemo.1080i.DD5.1\movie.ac3")
AudioDub(v,a)

Use WMNicEnc to encode audio and video as above. - The reason I use this program is because it works. I have tried Procoder 3 and TMPGenc Express 4.4.0.234 both which you should pay for, both of which screw the audio channels up in their own special ways !

I have yet to do h.264 HD files, and although I have transcoded Nemo successfully to WMV, I have to sort out 1080i and work out how best to encode it to WMV. TSConverter did it well to DVR-MS. It is just finding the correct filters in AVISynth to deinterlace it or something. I dont really want to downscale the files to 720p nor do I want to upscale to 1080p. I'll perhaps use TMPGenc or Procoder to do that, but def leave the audo transcode to WMNicEnc.

I have no sync issues and maintain 5.1 sound - that was the object of the exercise. I didnt expect it to be this hard. Lots of lessons learnt.


Regards
Rich