Am I missing something (codec support for XBox360)

[paradilly]

Hi All,

While Im stoked about the fall update adding support for third party codecs (Xvid and Divx) which is working excellent for me so I can stream straight from my vista box with no transcoding I am a little confused as to why theyd add this support via dashboard but not media centre.
I understand that media centre is effectively a different program but Im just a little perplexed why theyd add support for the dashboard but not Media Centre, especially when Media Centre is something MS are trying to push.

I know this is a little whingy on a small point but I have TV setup through media centre, it would be really nice for me to be able to swap between encoded media and Live TV through the same UI without switching to dashboard. Does anyone know any workarounds (without transcoding which I feel is a bit of a waster of resources/power) to acheive this, or failing that, anyone heard any rumours of support for encoded files through Media Centre?

Thanks very much for any replies, sorry if this question has been asked before or obvious... Ive had a good search around the net but virtually all articles refer to transcoding in the days before the fall update so reading up is not particularly easy.

[Lethal]

I didnt think it mattered if you were using Media Center or Vista because the codex update is downloaded to your Xbox 360. The PC OS is just a tool to stream the file to your 360.

[paradilly]

Thanks for the reply!
Ill check again later but the issue seems to be that the encoded videos dont actually show up in the library when you add them to media centres library, Im sure if you connected to the media centre PC from another device (media centre extender onto a TV for instance) they wouldnt show up either. I think the issue lies in the fact that media centre doesnt recognise the encoding/filetype so ignores them as valid video files. If this is the case then would a media centre update via Windows Update be required so that media centre presents the files to an extender?
It just seems funny that they (MS) would fully support the files through xbox dashboard but not in media centre (especially since media centre is a dedicated product for media files whereas dashboard is just like a simple addon) it wouldnt excatly "sell" media centre for me if I was buying a product especially for it (i.e. XP mce 2005). The only reason I have media centre is cos I have vista ultimate.

[Lethal]

Put the files in your shared folders. "Shared Videos" And make sure you are connected to your PC through the 360. The console will see all the videos in the folder whether it can play them or not. It will simply say its unsupported if it cant play the video.