I installed the Microsoft Spring ’07 Update, allowing the XBox 360 to play videos encoded as MPEG-4 Part 2 (xvid/divx) and H.264/x264. After fumbling around for countless hours, I found handbrake settings that work with the XBox 360.
Since all the terms thrown around become confusing (H.264, x264, xvid, divx, and MPEG-4), here is a simple breakdown:
MPEG-4 Part 2 is commonly referred to as xvid or divx, however, xvid and divx are simply codecs which implement this standard (reference).
MPEG-4 Part 10 is commonly referred to as H.264, and x264, QuickTime, and Nero Digital are some codecs which implement it (reference).
According to the Spring ’07 Update Playback FAQ and the December 2007 Video Playback FAQ, the following configurations are supported:
|
Extensions |
Containers |
Video |
Audio |
| H.264 |
.mp4, .m4v,
.mp4v, .mov |
MPEG-4, QuickTime |
10 Mbps @
1920×1080
30fps |
2ch AAC (LC) |
| MPEG-4 |
.mp4, .m4v,
.mp4v, .mov |
MPEG-4, QuickTime |
5 Mbps @
1280×720
30fps |
2ch AAC (LC) |
| WMV |
.wmv |
asf |
15 Mbps @
1920×1080
30fps |
WMA7/8, WMA 9 Pro (2ch, 5.1),
WMA lossless |
| AVI |
.avi, .divx |
avi |
5 Mbps@
280×720
30fps |
Dolby® Digital 2ch, 5.1ch, MP3 |
In other words, the XBox 360 will play:
- x264 + AAC audio inside mp4
- xvid + AAC audio inside mp4
- xvid + AC-3 audio inside avi
But The XBox 360 will not play:
- x264 + AC-3 audio inside anything
Additionally, the FAQ seems to indicate that the XBox 360 will play files in any of these containers: .mp4, .m4v, .mp4v, .mov, .wmv. However, at least with uShare, I’ve found that the XBox will only even attempt to play files ending in .m4p and .wmv. The XBox does seem to be flexible about the actual content of the file, however, for example, I have renamed some .avi files with the .m4p extension, and it happily plays them. This may be entirely due to the way that the XBox 360 interprets uShare’s MIME types.
The command line I use under Linux to encode videos for x264 with AAC audio is:
/usr/bin/HandBrakeCLI -i DVD_NAME.ISO -o DVD_NAME_x264_aac.mp4 -p --aencoder aac --arate 48 --encoder x264 --markers --format mp4 --two-pass --turbo
(note that the -p switch indicates that Handbrake should use encode the file anamorphically)
To encode using the xvid codec with AC-3 audio, I run:
/usr/bin/HandBrakeCLI -i DVD_NAME.ISO -o DVD_NAME_xvid_ac3.avi -p --aencoder ac3 --encoder xvid --markers --format avi --two-pass
(I append the encoding details to the end of the filename so that I can keep track of what does and does not work!)
So far, my results with AC-3 playback have been disappointing. It appears that this is due to the fact that AVI isn’t intended for streaming playback, and Handbrake’s AVI muxer is rudimentary. MeGUI is suggested for better AVI output.