media sharing question (PC to XBOX360)

[squeakypumpkin]

I am able to share media from my PC to XBOX360 using WMP11 (on XP) but ... only files that physically reside on the PC HD can be accessed! I can add files on a NAS device to my WMP library, and play them on the PC, but they are not visible to the Xbox. I have a portable USB HD that I hook up to the PC ... again can play the videos on the PC but they also don't show up on the Xbox menu.

Is there any way to access anything other than files on the internal host PC drive? Seems logical that adding to Library in WMP and then sharing the Library to Xbox360 would be all that's required but apparently not. Does it work differently with Media Center Edition?

[benniemc]

Can't share from Network shares.

TVersty may do it.

TVersity Home

[ron_coleman]

i stream from my pc and external hd. tversity is decent software.

[squeakypumpkin]

I assume you mean sharing external HD via TVersity only, not with just WMP 11? I had Tversity running at one point but the transcoding was slow on my media 'server'; now that XBox supports more formats, I wonder if TVersity is 'smart' enough to not transcode if it doesn't need to? ie it would just access it (from the external or mapped network drive) and serve it up to the XBox?

You would think that the end to end MS solution ... Windows XP (or Vista), WMP 11, XBox and even Windows Home Server ... would all work together to allow all media on the home network to play thru any extender (eg the Xbox) ... any insight on their plans? I'm thinking about upgrading to Vista Premium system with digital TV tuner/CableCard support. The idea would be to be able to use PVR capability to record tv, dowload movies e.g from Amazon or whatever, access tunes, photos ... and be able to play them on my home theater system. The need for all media to be on the same physical/internal drive seems like a limitation.

Also has anyone tried using Zune vs WMP as the server app? ... does it work any better for accessing 'non-local' files?