Windows 8 Pro with media center pack unable to stream to xbox 360 media center...

roadie

roadie

roadie

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Hey guys,

I am having an issue with Windows 8 after recently upgrading from Windows 7. Essentially for some reason I am now unable to stream content (movies, tv shows and music) from my PC to my xbox 360, using the media center.

The files are able to play perfectly on the Windows 8 Media Center program on the PC so I know the files are good. I can see all the files in the Media Center on the xbox, but when I go to play them, the screen either get stuck at the "Buffering" screen or I get an error:
Video Error

Files needed to display video are not installed or are not working correctly. Restart Windows Media Center or restart the computer.
Click to expand...
Restarting both does not work!

I am even unable to play MP3 files in the media center on the xbox!

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you!
 
I recently installed Windows 8 and had some nightmares with configuring file sharing. Nothing was working, including stuff like PS3 Media Server.

Turns out that it was due to the fact that various Windows Services were not running. This was caused by some Samsung software which is designed to optimise SSDs by turning off indexing. Just one issue with that... Indexing is required to stream media.

First thing to check is that file sharing is actually enabled in Windows 8. In the Metro UI settings you can check this under sharing. If it's not enabled but greyed out then this means that the Windows Service is not running. Try going into Services and checking that the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service is running. If not, Start it. If you can't then check the properties and see what other Services it relies on under Dependencies and enable those first.
 
Thanks for the reply mate.

The Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service is running and is set as Automatic in the Services configuration area. Everything else I can find to configure for sharing is set to enabled too. However, there must be one thing I am missing, as I can't stream media the way I want to, to the xbox or my wireless enabled radio!

I can however play some things through the xbox System Video Player.

All my media locations are indexing enable too...
 
Is the Windows Media Center Extender Service also running and set for automatic?

Could try creating a Homegroup in Win 8 and enabling file sharing when you set it up.

To be honest, after spending hours sorting it so WMC finally worked for me I concluded that it was utter crap anyway. Doing it via Media Player or something like PS3 Media Server is smoother and that is the method which seems to work for you as you can navigate to files via the xbox video player.
 
I had similar issues getting media streaming to work when I upgraded a laptop to W8 at Xmas. Finally got DLNA streaming working to TV and Pure Sensia radio, from what I can remember there were a few things stopping it from working initially.

I could be wrong but from what I can remember it went something like this...

When you connect to your wireless router Windows gives the pop out charm bar option as to whether you want to share with that network. If you choose no to that I think it sets that network connection to Public which then stops sharing with that network which would be desirable if it were a public connection. You can check this in Network and Sharing Center as to whether it states public under the SSID name for your router.

I then made some changes in 'Network and Sharing Center' > 'Advanced sharing settings'. Think this was under the Private heading to turn network discovery and file and printer sharing on. May have been some settings under the All Networks section that I changed too.

At some stage I believe I went in to Control Panel > View devices and printers > Add a device, when I had Windows Media Player open and it found a Digital Media Player device with its name being the name of the laptop. When I added this to my devices Windows installed some stuff.

I also had an issue with Kaspersky as the firewall had the LAN connection to the router designated as Public rather than Local which I think was blocking discovery let alone anything else between devices.

I'm not sure whether similar is possible with WMC but the above might be some pointers that help.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I am really appreciative of the time you've taken to help!
Phonesis said:
Is the Windows Media Center Extender Service also running and set for automatic?

Could try creating a Homegroup in Win 8 and enabling file sharing when you set it up.

To be honest, after spending hours sorting it so WMC finally worked for me I concluded that it was utter crap anyway. Doing it via Media Player or something like PS3 Media Server is smoother and that is the method which seems to work for you as you can navigate to files via the xbox video player.
Click to expand...
I don't see a Windows Media Center Extender Service along with the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service. Only Windows Media Center Receiver Service and Windows Media Center Scheduler Service, both of which are to do with TV apparently.

A Homegroup is set up and running.

The xbox video player can't play all file types like WMC could under Win 7, hence my desire to get it running under Win 8. The xbox video player also seems to be lowering the resolution of HD files, but that is another matter!

thenewoc said:
I had similar issues getting media streaming to work when I upgraded a laptop to W8 at Xmas. Finally got DLNA streaming working to TV and Pure Sensia radio, from what I can remember there were a few things stopping it from working initially.

I could be wrong but from what I can remember it went something like this...

When you connect to your wireless router Windows gives the pop out charm bar option as to whether you want to share with that network. If you choose no to that I think it sets that network connection to Public which then stops sharing with that network which would be desirable if it were a public connection. You can check this in Network and Sharing Center as to whether it states public under the SSID name for your router.

I then made some changes in 'Network and Sharing Center' > 'Advanced sharing settings'. Think this was under the Private heading to turn network discovery and file and printer sharing on. May have been some settings under the All Networks section that I changed too.

At some stage I believe I went in to Control Panel > View devices and printers > Add a device, when I had Windows Media Player open and it found a Digital Media Player device with its name being the name of the laptop. When I added this to my devices Windows installed some stuff.

I also had an issue with Kaspersky as the firewall had the LAN connection to the router designated as Public rather than Local which I think was blocking discovery let alone anything else between devices.

I'm not sure whether similar is possible with WMC but the above might be some pointers that help.
Click to expand...
Yeah my radio is a Pure (Avanti Flow) too. Would be great to get it working so I can rock out in the kitchen! :cool:

My network is a Private network as displayed in the Network & Sharing Center and all sharing options are on. I can see my xbox in Devices & Printers, and 3 entries for xbox 360 Media Center Extender. I can't see the radio though.

I've no firewalls other than the Windows one running.

This is really driving me mad. Surely the whole point of a Microsoft ecosystem is that everything works together!
 
Not really got much more to suggest but is your PC wired to the router or wireless? If it's wireless, definitely consider using a wired ethernet cable instead. WMC really struggles to work properly unless the host PC is wired I think.
 
It's wireless, although the xbox is hooked up to the router via ethernet. Running the WMC connection tuner maxes out the graph in available bandwidth. My Pure radio is connected wirelessly.

All of the above was working perfectly under Win 7 which is the confusing bit.

I have posted on some Microsoft and WMC specific forums and really hope to get this sorted. Thanks for all your suggestions :)
 
Hmmmm, I don't believe it to be codecs, as WMC on the Windows 8 PC can play everything perfectly.

WMC on the xbox cannot even play MP3 files!

I'm using Haali Media Splitter...
 
Once the discovery part is working you may have to tell the PC that you wish to allow the discovered device to have access. I can't see it on my PC as I don't yet have the means to stream to my TV but I think in 'Network and Sharing Center' > 'Advanced sharing settings' > 'All Networks' > 'Media Streaming' is where it populates a dynamic list of devices on the network, like it did with an older version of WMP. Either here or when you click 'Choose media streaming options...' but somewhere there is a list of media devices that the PC can see on the network and you can choose to enable or not each one to have access and to which libraries. From what I remember of getting the Pure radio to work it didn't show up as a Pure radio device but instead just unrecognised.

Is the Xbox connected to Xbox Live?
 
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Yep, I have done all that through the Control Panel and WMP. The Pure used WMP streaming under Win 7.

Yep, the xbox is connected to xbox live, although just under a silver membership at present. That shouldn't matter when playing files across the network though...
 
Have you tried reducing the encryption under 'Network and Sharing Center' > 'Advanced sharing settings' > 'All Networks' > 'File sharing connections' ?
 
Also have you tried turning off password protected sharing?

'Network and Sharing Center' > 'Advanced sharing settings' > 'All Networks' > 'Password-protected sharing'
 
Well if you can see the files with the Xbox, then they are shared ok the 360 only needs read permission to the files, I don't have much experience on Win 8 MC because when I installed Win 8 I could not customise WMC like I could win 7 so went straight back to what works.

FYI I have 3 360's hanging off my WMC box and have used WMC for nigh on 10 years now, I know thats of no use. My next guess then is the Xbox needs a media update to bring in compatibility with Win 8, I think it's a 10-12 MB download usually but I don't know how you'd go about getting it manually. Normally xbox says a media update is required to playback this content or along those lines.

Have you tried playing back an MP4 or WMV file which xbox natively supports ?
 
I've not reduced the encryption from the default settings yet.

Have just changed the Password protected sharing setting with no change...

WMC on the xbox cannot play any files, even MP3! I can play MP3 & MP4 within the normal xbox media players. However, under Win 7 WMC was able to play everything I threw at it, including MKVs. I cannot play all my files under the xbox media players so want to get WMC working.

I am just a complete loss now...
 
Start a fresh, remove the Xbox as an extender, reboot PC - setup the xbox as an extender from the Xbox set up new connection.

Some things not right if WMC 8 can play files ok then this should transpire to the 360.

Any reason you changed to win 8?
 
I am trying the removal of the xbox and reinstalling it. Also installing Zune to manage my phone...

That's what I thought. If WMC on the computer can play files without issue, then streaming to the xbox should be the same.

I changed to Win 8 as I upgraded my parents from XP and enjoyed using it. Seemed like a bargain at £25...

The xbox has all the media updates. I've even tried deleting and reinstalling them...
 
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