I can't seem to find any videos in the Media blade.  I find the music OK that way, but not video.  None of my video is on the same partition as Vista in the designated /users/%user%/Videos folder.  I have links/shortcuts for that stuff to a directory on a different volume.  Not sure what I missed to foul up the video part.  Got any ideas?

Another thought on the Xbox360 client and QoS on the PC.  The flat network i/o at 7Mbps is probably some kind of flow control between the XB360 and PC that is initiated from the XB360.  When you turn QoS off, that flow control appears no longer honored by the PC and it keeps on sending.  The long pause in the video, followed by a large loss of video, seems to be some kind of buffer overrun (on the XB360).

As evidenced by functioning Media blade and MCE2005, that buffer is probably not in the XB360's network interface or even in the network layer, but something higher (Transport, Session, Presentation, Application).  I believe pacer.sys works at the transport layer, so whatever level that buffer is on is either in transport or sends a flag down to it.

Now, that said, I don't see anything about pacer.sys that would indicate flow control, but that is what my tests show.  See http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg0306.mspx for an interesting article on pacer.sys and QoS.

 

I had issues playing back recorded HD programming on my 360 using both a dlink and linksys gigabit router.

The permanent fix for me was to enable flow control, which I understand dosen't work for you guys. But before that I had success when I would force my gigabit ethernet controller down to 100Mb.

Maybe try 100Mb...?

JH

That is good advice.  These things didn't work for me, but others may benefit from it.  I believe these can help a person who has a router with a buffer overrun.  I have been trying to find someone who could tell me whether or not switches even employ buffers.

More info on these methods can be found in Microsoft Knowledgebase article 929707.

In speaking to a Microsoft service desk representative, he mentioned a specific D-Link router that appeard to have a buffer overrun and that problem was fixed with these solutions.

An interesting fact to be gleaned from this exchange was that Microsoft support has access to a non-public portion of each knowledgebase article.

 

I tried all of the suggetions made so far with no success. I've even tried re-encoding videos to a simpler wmv profile and still no success.

 

One would think that Microsoft's Products would be compatible with WMV

Same problem.  2-3 glitches in WMV files often at the same place but not always.  Same videos have no problems through the non MCE interface on the 360.  Also, the skip forward/backward, fast forward/rewind resyncing is much faster through this interface too as someone else has mentioned.  This may have always been the case - I wouldn't know because I always used the MCE interface until I moved to Vista and these damn glitches started popping up!

 I really doubt its a networking hardware/software problem because these videos were absolutely rock solid with MCE 2005.  Not to say a workaround can't be found but its definitely something with the Vista extender software possibly on the PC side but likely on the 360 side.  In any case the software is part of Vista so the fix is more likely to come in a Windows update than a 360 update I expect.

If anyone gets this working please post here - this is driving me nuts!

As an update to this problem, I spent 2 hours on the phone with Microsofts Vista Tech Support. After trying a number of things (that I already did before I called), they referred me to XBOX Tech Support.

I have yet to call the XBOX team, but if anything comes of it I will post it here.

More details in this thread:

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/172951.aspx

I think this is a problem that the Vista extender team will have to fix.  I expect they will fix it - sometime between tomorrow and several months from now. 

In the meantime if someone does find a workaround please do post.

The only workaround I've found so far is to stream video using the Media Blade on the XBOX 360 rather than MCE. It' easy to setup and it's a decent temporary solution

So what I am really hearing is that there's no point in upgrading to Vista just yet!!!!! Would say I am surprised but then I would only be kidding myself wouldn't I !!

Sorry you are all having troubles, whilst I am watching .wmv hd on my 360 :), :(

DW

For me, the stuttering only happens with Quality VBR encoded files. CBR files are working fine, even upto 15.5 Mbps.

Sutt

The Sutt:

For me, the stuttering only happens with Quality VBR encoded files. CBR files are working fine, even upto 15.5 Mbps.

Sutt

Good input!

All the more reason to rule out the hardware and network.

The problem seems to be narrowed down to XBox360 software handling of VBR on Vista vs. MCE2005. 

This seems right.  I'm having the same problem and I encode everything using VBR.  I didn't have any trouble until recently, but I may not have been using it enough.  Either way, it's really annoying missing time (sometimes minutes) in my videos.  From what I've been reading this appears to be a problem with MCE and not the Xbox 360, correct?

Matt

The Sutt:

For me, the stuttering only happens with Quality VBR encoded files. CBR files are working fine, even upto 15.5 Mbps.

Sutt

Does anyone know if Microsoft has made any progress on fixing this yet?  It's weird that it works when streaming WMV using WMP11 Sharing but not WMC, you would think they would use the same technology.  This makes watching my library in MyMovies through my 360 Extender near impossible. 

Also, have we determined that this is an Xbox 360 specific issue, or is it a problem with Vista MC and all Media Center Extenders?  If it's with all extenders, then the problem is in Vista MC.  If it's just with the 360, then the problem is on the 360's end.

Also, is everyone who is having this problem using Transcode 360 on their machines?

Matt

As of two days ago mine still isn't working!...and that is after the "Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista x64-based Systems [April 2007] (KB905866)"

Last I heard only Xbox360 works as a Media Extender for Vista.

As to where the problem is, most people report everything worked perfectly under MCE2005 and with all other things being equal, the problem starts with the upgrade to Vista.  That would sure tend to point to Vista.  However, it is possible that the Vista implementation exposed some latent incompatibility on the Xbox360 and the problem is there.

I would sure like to hear a report on the same problem for Xbox360 Elite.

I now use the original DVDs and am no longer a self-appointed spokesman for Media Center (MC).  Without Xbox360 dialing in the 10-foot experience, I don't see much use for Media Center at all.  From 2-foot it is worthless and from 10-foot a dedicated PC in the A/V rack requires too much hand holding.  My wife knows how to work the TiVo and put a DVD in the drive.  I just about had her comfortable with MCE2005 when I switched to the slower-menu-navigating, forgets-where-its-thumbnails-are, automatically-mixes-up-videos-music-&-pictures-folders, and doesn't-play-the-kids-ripped-movies-anymore Vista Media Center.

My guess is that Microsoft doesn't want you buying and ripping DVDs.  Instead, you should be downloading all of your content from Xbox Live.  Hence, the bigger hard drive on the Xbox360 Elite.

 

 

Having the exact same problem.

It also happens on some of the files I downloaded from M$ own website. (HD Showcase)

So it's not just .wmv files I encoded myself.

Come on M$, we need a fix.

I never saw this coming before the Vista upgrade. Everything worked perfect on MCE2005. If I had known of this bug, I would of held out untill it was fixed.