better XBOX Soundtrack support

Discussion of XBMC4XBOX development.
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filevans
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better XBOX Soundtrack support

Post by filevans »

hello all

althought xbmc does play wma if you point it to the TDATA folder where you have your xbox soundtracks, it isnt very user friendly

all games bar none that use custom soundtrack only use xbox soundtracks (wma) and not mp3, so basically if you want mp3 too you have to have your music library on your hard drive twice

it would be very helpful if xbmc had an option to convert your mp3s and store them in the xbox soundtrack db as wma, and it was more user friendly to access them, displaying them something like msdash does with at least simple album title and track numbering

otherwise just reading the soundtrack database without the convert option, that would be the next best thing

at least then you could browse your xbox soundtracks in xbmc better then, title of album, track number, as at the moment you can only see gobbledegook, like album folder 00000 and song number 0000000ae.wma which are always out of order when listed by filename, you have to list them by date to get them in the proper track order.

thanks for listening
NOTTHESAME
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Re: better XBOX Soundtrack support

Post by NOTTHESAME »

I think some1 would have to dig into the bios of the default.xbe ot in the c files this would be great to use mp3s in gta sa this way no double albums but we need someone experience , u onow i never thought of asking wat u asked try to ask it over at emuxtras.net i been busy may be later on thisvweek ill catch to see what we can do
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mrmajikbus45
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Re: better XBOX Soundtrack support

Post by mrmajikbus45 »

So basically, you want xbmc to automatically convert your mp3's to wma files? The answer to that is probably never going to happen. You should use your PC to convert your mp3s to wma files before you FTP them to the xbox.


However, having the wma files that are already stored be viewed properly is something that could be considered.
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fxmech
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Re: better XBOX Soundtrack support

Post by fxmech »

Is there a way to look this up like freebase does? At least back in the day, ripped CD data was able to make id3 using just the basic song length and track count data. We can do a similar lookup for albums ripped via MS dash, then?

The other problem is manipulating the file structure and properties around the DATA folders. Can wma hold id3 properties? How does the Xbox expect tracks to be named? Can we rename files or folders?

There are some tricks to working with TDATA and UDATA I have seen referenced, but it's been nearly 2 years since I've read anything on it.

And I'm all over here, but given the limitation of the space of the E partition, maybe there's a solution in a 'data manager' that can appropriately ID content found in the Xbox data, swap in & out the desired tracks, make mp3's conform to the expected values, etc.

Of course a lot of my ideas are out of XBMC's scope, but putting a more human friendly face on is something I'd be happy to see. Worst case scenario is to get some kind of utility like ToDDS on the PC end of things.

I've come across some good music on the Xbox hard drives I've backed up, problem is for me I have no easy way to get song or artist titles, much less the proper track orders...
ted209
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Re: better XBOX Soundtrack support

Post by ted209 »

I wrote a tutorial on xbox soundtracks a while back. I've still got it somewhere so will try to dig it out when I have access to my pc.

My approach is:
1) convert tracks to wma on your PC (I used foobar2000 with a wma command line encoder).
2) copy them over to your xbox using Xbox Soundtrack Manager

This way you're using the latest compatible WMA9 encoder and you can choose your own bitrate. Also, soundtracks aren't limited to a CD's length (for example I've transferred double CDs as a single soundtrack). Your soundtracks will be tagged, so XBMC4XBOX shows artist,track, etc. You can also use foobar2000 to normalise the volume of tracks while converting.

I also created a minimum bitrate (10Kbps) silent track of 30 seconds to "boost" performance in racing games where I don't want music. For example, in Forza, you can only minimise soundtrack volume (you can't turn it off), so I select my silent track which should use less resources. I can't say I've noticed any difference, but it's a neat trick!
RevenantUK
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Re: better XBOX Soundtrack support

Post by RevenantUK »

I'm going to look into this renaming track stuff soon. Going to FTP my music folder over to laptop and work from there. There is a ST.DB file which I presume is Sound Track Data Base so that will be my starting point. Get plenty of tools on laptop and can also code a little too ;)

Will post here and on TheIsoZone too. Only 2 xbox sites I use often enough.
Wish me luck.
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