WMV, the Apple Mac and the Xbox 360
A few days ago the Xbox 360 had a firmware upgrade to allow it to play WMV files from CD,s DVDs, USB devices (but not my iPod), and streaming over a network. Yes, it’s WMV, not DivX, but it’s a start.
Now, the problem for Mac users is that WMV is a bugger to encode. I bought VisualHub, but OOTB it doesn’t encode WMV that the 360 can read. So, after some experimenting and use of an AV Mac at work, I’ve got a solution that is simple (but possibly not cheap).
You need 2 things -an exporter and a WMV codec.
- Get Quicktime Pro – it lets you save and export movies to many formats (but NOT WMV by defaut)
- Get Flip4MacStudio, which has a WMV codec
With those 2 installed, it’s a doddle -open the video clip you want, then it is a simple matter of Export, pick WMV and press Save.
Hopefully those nice people at Flip4Mac will give me a license for advertising this feature. You will. Won’t you?
November 7th, 2006 at 3:36 am
Interesting use for Flip4Mac Studio. Sounds perfect for Mac/360 owners. Nice idea to try and get a license for promoting this….qualify that….what are the numbers? …..users you could reach with such advertising, and what is the projection of people that would actually make the purchase?
November 13th, 2006 at 5:47 am
Not an elegant or cheap solution, and time consuming too. Hopefully the Connect 360 guys will support transcoding videos on the fly to WMV. But what a shame! Xbox should’ve had native support for MPEGs at least. We’ll have to see what Apple’s unreleased as yet iTV will bring.
November 13th, 2006 at 9:52 am