sixties keith wrote:got the same dropping of frame rate during the high motion scenes and duno why. i followed the guide to the letter and even found an mkv file as i wasent sure if a mp4 hd rip was suitable.
im currently running the 2nd beta version on my xbox but i tried the file on another xbox with the first beta with exactly same results.
My question is if this is really worth it? you spend time finding the sutable mkv rip (if there is one for what your looking for) wait for it to download and spend all day converting it on the computer. really? i just convert all my stuff to xvid (using Xilisoft Video Converter Ultimate) maybe not hd but the pic quality is 100% dvdrip and absolutly no droped frames looks even sharper on my other xbox with hd component.
Hi sixties keith,
I made this guide using XBMC some time back, not XBMC4XBOX. With that said I have been able to play videos using this guide under XBMC4XBOX using "Mplayer" (not the default player). I'm not sure why videos are experiencing frame dropping under your setup, but I do not experience them under; XBMC-8.10-FINAL-T3CH-PROPER & XBMC-9.04-BABYLON-FINAL-T3CH. As for XBMC4XBOX please see the discussion (above) regarding playback issues.
I also use a component cable for 720p video output which is why I wrote this guide as the standard "dvdrip" produced from a source DVD cannot compare with the quality produced using the method in this guide. I can visually see the difference.
You can use any MKV file with this method regardless if the total bitrate is 32,000Kb/ps, 12,000Kb/ps, 2,000Kb/ps or 500Kb/ps. The maximum bitrate (including the audio & video; which is what this guide takes into consideration) is 3,666Kb p/s. What really matters is the resolution of the source video. If you use a DVD Video disc the resolution will be less then 720p regardless of what program you use to convert it to XViD. If the source video is equal to or more then 720p then you will see a major visual difference (get closer to the TV if you need to). Some people swear that there is no difference between 1080p and 720p (regarding the resulution on its own; having nothing to do with the XBOX).
However, this doesn't matter if your output video drops frames during playback because the way XBMC address this is to "pause" and "skip" during playback of videos which it cannot handle (using Mplayer) and even "freeze" and/or "crash" the entire system.
As for the source video, I used the MKV container as an example as you can see StaxRip can easily handle a wide variety of video, audio and subtitle containers/formats. You can convert a Bluray disc dirtectly to XViD-HD. Your download time is based on your connection; so I cannot do anything about that nor can I do anything about how long it takes to encode due to that is based on your PC specifications. If your source video is less then 720p and/or has a total bitrate equal to or under 3,600Kb/ps then you need to adjust your video settings per the source video specifications. You don't want to increase anything if it is lower then these settings.
Once the initial template is created, using my setup, I can encode a 3 hour video file (source: 1920x1080, 7.1 DTS-Audio & Sub-Titles) to XViD-HD in under 2 hours or I can use StaxRip to create a DVD Rip in under 30 minutes which play fine under XBMC. Due to issues with XBMC4XBOX (read above) I've stuck to using XBMC-9.04-BABYLON-FINAL-T3CH as my main video player, but have both XBMC-9.04-BABYLON-FINAL-T3CH & XBMC4XBOX on the same XBOX.
Sorry you had problems using this guide. The only thing I can suggest is to make sure you use "Mplayer" for XViD-HD playback, try tweaking settings in XBMC4XBOX for video playback or install XBMC-9.04-BABYLON-FINAL-T3CH and see if that helps.
Is it worth it? For me and some thousand others, yes, totally!