Microsoft is set to release their Release Candidate of Windows 7 to the public within the next week or so, which of course means it’s already out there if you look for it.
One of the coolest new features of Windows 7 is the highly revamped method of media playback, and a new version of Windows Media Player. WMP12 will include support for many more codecs right “out of the box” which means you no longer have to mess around with community codec packs. As you know, these can be a headache to manage. Now with Windows 7 and WMP12, you can easily play an XviD AVI file immediately. Want to play an MP4 video file? Yup, that too. Even Apple’s MOV files will work right away, without having to install the buggy, bloated, poorly designed Quicktime player.
For gamers who use their systems to stream media, this also introduces a huge advantage. No longer will you have to install special REG files to ‘trick’ Windows into streaming video to your PS3 or XBOX 360. And no longer will you have to use UPnP media servers like TVersity that transcode video, severely reducing quality and cause unnecessary CPU load on the server.
Nope, all of this should ideally work out of the box. That’s why we obtained an advance copy of Windows 7 RC from Microsoft, and put it to the test! We tested streaming capabilities of both the XBOX 360 and Playstation 3. The 360 streams video with both UPnP (using the dashboard to browse files) as well as Microsoft’s proprietary Windows Media Center Extender format, so we tested it both ways. The Playstation 3 streams through UPnP.
We tested the following video formats:
- AVCHD (.M2TS) – a standardized video format based on Blu-Ray, created by Sony and Panasonic. It uses h.264 for video, and AC3 5.1 for audio. This is the format most commonly used by HDTV camcorders.
- MP4 – This container format is natively supported by both the 360 and PS3. The most common codecs used are h.264 for video, and AAC for audio. We tested both 2-channel and 5.1-channel AAC audio.
- MOV - This is esentially identical to MP4, but sticks around thanks to Apple. Anyone who has used Quicktime software knows how much it sucks, so adding native support to Windows is truly great. Since it usually contains the same MPEG-4 codecs as standard MP4 files, you can usually just rename the file to .MP4 to get it to work with players that haven’t paid for the Quicktime license.
- Xvid/DivX – Both consoles added MPEG-4 Part 2 support with system updates. XBOX 360 uses the XviD codec, while Playstation 3 uses the proprietary DivX Pro codec. Both are functionally identical.
Read on for the results!
Windows 7 RC Media Streaming to XBOX 360 & PS3
| WMP12 | XBOX 360 UPnP | XBOX 360 MCE | PS3 UPnP | |
| AVCHD (h.264 w/ AC3 5.1) | OK | Does not play | OK | OK |
| MP4 (h.264 w/ AAC) | OK | Does not play | OK | OK |
| MOV (h.264 w/ AAC) | OK | OK1 | OK | OK2 |
| Xvid/DivX | OK | OK | OK | OK |
| 1 = Only works with stereo AAC audio 2 = Must rename file to .MP4 | ||||
As you can see, video streaming support is already very good with Windows 7 and Windows Media Player 12, with a few caveats. MOV file support only seems to work when the audio is in AAC format (and in certain cases, it must only be in stereo). I think this should be fixed by the time Windows 7 goes gold. Clearly, XBOX 360 will require a dashboard update to properly support WMP12, but they have a lot of time to work that out before Windows 7 is released to retail. Hopefully they can work things out before that time comes.
[...] 2: We have tested Media Streaming capabilities with Windows 7. Streaming just got a lot [...]
[...] We have tested Media Streaming capabilities with Windows 7. Streaming just got a lot [...]
On Wednesday, Warner Home Video announced that it would replace up to 25 HD DVD-format discs, the now-defunct high-definition format championed by Toshiba, and trade them in for Blu-ray versions, for a shipping and handling charge.
this is great news for anyone who has brougth dh-dvds, and wants to buy a playstation 3.
or is thinking of one…prehaps? jus saw that on another site, helpful?
this new windows 7 looks the business dont it, with a new core i7 pc could do down a treat.
best pc of the moment, get the aceraspire revo, for £249, from play.com, ridicoulous pc for the price. small box the size of a wii.hdmi output. suk it.
get a new i7 pc with windows 7 in a year or 2 when there all setled down with a few patch fixes…updates….etc….
My favorite feature of windows 7 is the “play to..” feature where you can be on your pc and remotely control what is being played on your xbox (when it is MCE mode)
see here for more details if you are interested: http://on10.net/blogs/nic/Windows-7-Play-To-feature-turns-your-PC-into-a-Universal-Remote-Control/
Totally was pumped today to see that streaming to the 360 worked as you’d expect with Windows 7.
I have installed Win7, and won’t look back to Vista anymore! It will cost me a re-install when the RTM comes out in (? late summer 2009?), but that’s a small price. Sure, 4 hours will be burned when that happens, but Win7 rocks the box!
“On Wednesday, Warner Home Video announced that it would replace up to 25 HD DVD-format discs, the now-defunct high-definition format championed by Toshiba, and trade them in for Blu-ray versions, for a shipping and handling charge.”
Why would anyone do this? There is a fee involved of $5 plus $7 for shipping. That’s $12 per movie!!! The movies themselves are not that much better on Blu ray either. Some support a bit better audio format but the picture transfer is the same. Seems like a complete waste of time and money to me when HD DVD’s still work on HD DVD players people own.
You only pay the shipping cost once, so it isn’t $12 per movie unless you are only replacing 1 movie. It is only $5 per movie after the first one.
@LevelHead
So that they can WATCH those movies! Duh…. (what a retard) Why else would you do that?
Why not ask why people try to convert ATRACs to MP3s? So they can listen to them! duh
You forgot Matroska (.MKV). That’s a pretty big omission currently.
Something else will still be needed if that doesn’t work, including things as softsubs.
If you’re going to test something like this, please be a little more thorough.
Is Windows Media Center Extender able to stream anything that WMP can? What about the things it can’t do right in 7.0.7000?
Did you test soft-subs? What about chapters? Variable frame rate encodes? Anamorphic scaling? What’s the A/V/S sync like – is there lag?
I’ll be doing much more detailed tests when Windows 7 final hits retail. Subscribe to our RSS to stay up to date!
Stop right there, lying troll. Matroska, the horribly named Russian made container format known as MKV, is NOT a pretty big omission. It caters primarily to animay fans who only use it because so many other crappy animay titles are in the same format. Because it’s also a free/open format, it’s a favorite among FOSS zealots and Linux trolls. It is not a format in wide use outside this grubby circle. It is not a format used among other large file sharing communities. It’s not a format you will see embraced elsewhere. Period.
Don’t underestimate mkv or the fansub fans – tens of thousands of people watch new releases when they come out. It’s a more tech-savvy group then the typical consumer, more likely to take advantage of streaming features, and that’s why you see so many requests for mkv support.
*pats* Calm down. I’m interested in reasoned discussion, but not argument.
If you wish to objectively test the relative prevalence of media containers in large-scale file-sharing communities, go and search something like TPB. By all means, independently verify my results there:—
AVI containing XviD video and MP3 audio is the most common, followed by MKV containing x264 video and AAC audio (often used for HD video, and much of the TV/Blu-Ray stuff). WMV is the next most common, followed by MP4 and MOV which are relatively rare, AVCHD and TS (M2TS) is very rare (except in anime raws and from camcorders); OGM is extremely rare.
So, MP4 definitely seems to be rarer than MKV in the wild, and even WMV (though, obviously, WMP supports that already!).
I don’t expect to see native Matroska support in Windows at any point in the next few years. WMP and WMC is very, very conservative with its codec support (which is why it’s newsworthy that it’s beginning to work with more stuff).
And (just like MP4) MKV is easy to support at a basic level, but very hard to tick all the boxes for, and in fact almost none of the software manages absolutely everything. Things like ordered chapters (MKV), softsubs (MKV/MP4), styled softsubs (MKV/MP4), Blu-Ray alpha-bitmap-overlay softsubs (MKV/MP4), anamorphic scaling (MKV/MP4) and variable frame rate (MKV/MP4) make things immensely more difficult.
I’d like to see 7’s MP4 container support stress-tested, as there are no doubt many difficult parts of it, like these, that will get overlooked.
Disregard what Yonah said about MKV files, besides AVI, MKV is the most wide-spread format at the moment. Perhaps the newbies shouldn’t post on here (Yonah). Learn before you post answers, or other retards might believe what you say.
How about those Matroska (MKV) files? Will they also stream through WMP12?
What about MKV, the only one anyone REALLY cares about?
MKV isn’t supported by PS3 or XBOX 360, so there’s really no reason (or way) to test it. Windows 7 hasn’t added native support yet either, so they’ll have to be converted (not transcoded) to MP4.
Quote: “For gamers who use their systems to stream media, this also introduces a huge advantage. No longer will you have to install special REG files to ‘trick’ Windows into streaming video to your PS3 or XBOX 360. And no longer will you have to use UPnP media servers like TVersity that transcode video, severely reducing quality and cause unnecessary CPU load on the server.”
Quote End.
TVersity “streams” video without transcoding also… Basically WMP12 does half of what TVersity does then :)
I thought TVersity transcoded everything.. At least it did when I tried it a long time ago. In any case, it’s nice that everything is built in without having to use 3rd party apps. Having everything just “work” is nice. If you already use TVersity, great. If not, Windows will be able to do it for you :)
Just a few remarks concerning free replacement applications for the *revolutionary* (sarcasm, mind you) features Win 7’s WMP provides. These also work in XP or Vista:
1. For video playback just install the free Media Player Classic: Homecinema (google is your friend) and you won’t have to hassle with any codec packs, and it plays MKV too.
2. WMP also acts as an UPnP AV MediaServer just like many solutions out there. Being a UPnP server has *nothing* to do with transcoding as implied in the article. As a free solution one could use (XBox Media Center) XBMC player (Win/Mac/Linux) to stream to PS3 or Xbox or Win PC or Linux PC or…
oh yeah, it plays back audio and video too, so you may ignore 1. if you used this also for playback
I’m really shocked to see such a blatant advertising. You should recommend MPC:HC or XBMC instead of advertising for Microsoft.
I’m not “advertising” for anyone. I am just telling people that if they already have Windows installed, they don’t need to install anything. That is the only goal of this article. There are UPnP servers out there, some that transcode, some that do not. But Windows 7 will work, without having to install a bunch of codecs. That’s it. Use it if you want, or don’t. The point is, Microsoft is finally giving you a choice.
I’ve used tversity and WMP11 as UPnP servers. tversity only transcodes when the xbox/ps3 doesn’t support the codec directly. I really didn’t like either option because they both force you to build a library – you have to either scan each folder or file manually or designate a folder as a watch location where new files are added. Moreover, I could never keep it current – it was always a huge pain to get recently added files to appear on the ps3.
Which brings me to the best solution for ps3….ps3mediaserver (ps3mediaserver.org). It transcodes mkv w/subtitle support, lightweight, only takes up resources when you choose to run it. Instead of using a library it allows you to directly browse your hard drive contents – so you can pick out anything on your computer to play, and it works great. I recently built a new dual core pc and can play/ffwd/rewind HD mkv’s seamlessly. Check it out.
Yonah, what happened to you dude, did an .mkv file run over your newly born baby… or mayb a Linux user??? Mkv files are becoming very widely used for High Def video and there is bucket loads of it around. Not just for Anime or Linux users. I don’t use Linux and I certainly don’t watch movies on my pc. Currently I play HD movies through the WD TV and watch on a plasma tv. And I can’t think of a simpler way to do it, no big fat media pc required.
“And no longer will you have to use UPnP media servers like TVersity that transcode video, severely reducing quality and cause unnecessary CPU load on the server.”
As others have already said TVersity will only transcode the file if the target device for streaming does not support the format it is in. Otherwise it will stream it as is. You can also setup the transcoding however you like to minimize or eliminate any loss in quality of the transcoded media.
WMP12 is nowhere near as useful for streaming as TVersity is. TVersity also lets you easily stream video RSS and websites like Hulu – does WMP12 let us do that?
[...] some more great news on the Windows 7 multimedia front. As we reported last week, Windows 7 will have various video formats working straight out of the box, without the need for [...]
I’ve tried to stream to my ps3 I only get up the podcasts and the sample movies. But music and pictures work fine! Almost given up on trying to fix it.
I had the same issue as everyone else. My Windows 7 would not find my Xbox 360. This problem occurred on both Tversity and Media Center.
I tried many things to resolve this but the only thing that actually fixed my problem was in my router configuration. I have a Linksys router and I logged into my router config page via web browser. I then clicked “Security” I then set the “Filter Multicast” option to “ENABLED” I now had instant access to my media via my xbox.
Hope this helps some of you!
Also this is the guide that I found that has more details on troubleshooting
Cause 1: Xbox 360 is not found on the network. If the Xbox 360 is not found on the network due to network setup or configuration, setup will fail. To determine if the network or network router is causing the issue, temporarily connect the Xbox 360 directly to the Media Center PC using an Ethernet cable. This cable does not have to be a cross over cable as the Xbox 360 is able to switch network modes and connect to the PC. If you are able to complete setup in with the Xbox and PC directly connected then review your network setup and router configuration.
Remember, the Xbox 360 console and Windows Media Center Based-PC must be on the same network. For additional network recommendations, tips and guidelines watch this video about connecting your Xbox 360 to your home network .
Cause 2: Secondary MAC address is configured on the Xbox 360. Media Center Extender setup will fail if a secondary MAC address is configured on the Xbox 360. When you have a secondary MAC address configured and attempt setup, you will end up with two devices listed in the Media Center Extender UI. This single device will have separate setup keys. Resolution is to remove secondary MAC addresses from the Xbox 360. Note* There may be a reason that you have configured a secondary MAC address on your Xbox 360. Before removing this address review KB article for a possible reason you have this configured. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817631
Remove the secondary MAC address in the System section of the Xbox 360 dashboard
1. Select Network Settings
2. Select Edit Settings
3. Select the Advanced Settings Tab
4. Select the Advanced Settings
5. Select Alternate MAC Address
6. Clear the MAC Address using the on-screen keyboard, then select Done.
7. Select Done to exit out of the Advanced Settings. If prompted, test the Xbox live connection.
8. Exit back to the system section of the dashboard.
9. Select computers, select Media Center, select disconnect
Return to the Vista PC and add the extender.
Cause 3: Multicast is blocked at router. Multicast is used by the PC and Xbox 360 to find each other over the home network. If multicast is not permitted on the network then setup will fail. If using a Linksys router, multicast behavior is set using the “Filter Multicast ” option in your router’s configuration interface (the router’s setup web page). In order for the Xbox 360 to connect to the PC this option must be Enabled to disable multicast support. (I know this sounds backwords but it is needed) After enabling this option, turn off the router, Xbox 360 and PC for a few minutes. Power up the router first. Then power on the PC and Xbox 360.
Cause 4: Problems with the Xbox 360 hard drive. We have found a few cases where the Media Center software cannot be launched from the Xbox 360 hard drive due to hard drive issues. Troubleshoot this issue by temporarily disconnect the hard drive on the Xbox 360 and re-attempt setup. If you disconnect the hard drive and are able to complete setup, complete the following to delete the Windows Media Center entry from the hard drive.
1.
1. Select “Memory”, select “Hard Drive”, select “Games”
2. Scroll down to “Xbox 360 Dashboard” and select it.
3. Select “Windows Media Center”, select “Delete”
4. When prompted, select “Yes” to delete the item
On the Xbox 360, Go to the System section of the dashboard
The software will be automatically downloaded from the PC the next time you start the Media Center Extender.
Cause 5: Driver is not found. During setup the Media Center Extender driver should automatically be installed. We have seen a few cases where the infcache.1 file that is used to install this driver has been modified and is now preventing the driver from being located. If you see a dialog that asks for a driver when adding the Extender then you are hitting this issue. In most cases, you will probably not see the dialog asking for a driver because Media Center is set for full screen. KB article 937187 will resolve the infcache.1 corruption and allow you to Add the Extender. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937187/en-us
Cause 6: Group Policy . Some domain policies prevent the Xbox 360 from connecting to the Media Center PC. To determine if this is the cause of your error, temporarily remove the Media Center PC from the domain, restart the PC and then try to add the Extender again. If the extender connects when the PC is removed from the domain, review your policies and try to determine what policy is preventing the connection.”
I realize this is not eactly aimed at the error codes you mention, but thought it might give you some areas to look into that might help in your situation.
In case you’d like to try it, my network is set up by just connecting a Linksys 5-port Gigabit workgroup switch directly to Qwest’s Actiontec M1000 modem. The xbox 360 is then connected by Cat 5 Ethernet cable to the switch. Windows 7 RC automatically recognized the set up and I was able to add the Xbox360 as an extender with no input other than the 8 digit Xbox360 code. There is no router firewall set up; I count on the individual PC’s to stop malware etc.
How can I connect my PS3 to my computer.
I just installed windows 7?
I second William’s comment. The 360 is no problem with Windows 7 (x64), but I’m not seeing how to connect to the PS3.