Media Center Extender and Transcode360
You can also use the Windows Media Center interface on your Xbox 360 to stream video from your PC, and if you've a TV tuner, you can also stream that! In practice, we found a few oddities compared to WMP11 streaming--one extra MPG file would play, but a whole raft of XviD/DivX files we previously had no problems with refused to play. There is, however, an interesting way around this.So let's set up the Xbox 360 as a Media Extender. On your Xbox 360, go to the Media blade and select Media Center. Then on the next screen Windows Media Center, write down the eight digit setup key it gives you. Return to your PC.
Vista will tell you that a Media Center Extender has been found, specifically, the XBox 360 Extender. Click the "Yes" button when asked if you want to set it up now, and Media Center will load.
If you've run Media Center already, you'll need to go to the tasks section and choose "Add Extender", then skip the next paragraph.
If you've not run Media Center before, you'll be prompted to run a setup routine and answer a few more questions--don't worry, it's all very straightforward. When you get to the Optional Setup screen, choose Set up Extender, then click Next twice.
You'll be prompted to enter the key you wrote down from the Xbox 360. Enter it, then hit Next.
Hit next again, and you'll reach the Extender Media Settings--choose "Yes (recommended)" here, so the 360 can see your media files on the PC, and browse folders as well.
Click Next, and the PC will start setting up the Xbox 360 as a Media Extender, while the console loads Media Center interface and prompts a few more personal options. You don't even need Media Center active on your PC to run it on your Xbox, so have fun!
Transcode 360
You can run unsupported videos through your Media Center Extender by installing Transcode 360.First, grab a copy of the K-Lite Codec Pack and install in your PC. For most people, all the default options should be fine. This ensures compatibility with a large number of video and audio formats.
Next, install Transcode 360 and select automatic setup. Go to your Xbox and load Media Center. Select the problem video file that won't play and hit More Info button on your remote, or X on the control pad. Select More, and then Transcode. It'll take a little while to respond as it buffers, but your movie should soon play. We had reasonable success with everything except mkv audio, although the quality of the video seemed to suffer a little.
