Stream videos to xbox 360 with patched ushare
Update 12/13/09
You can install ushare with apt-get or aptitude.
sudo aptitude install ushare
and to setup you can edit /etc/ushare.conf
sudo nano /etc/ushare.conf
The config file explains everything.
To run you can start the service.
sudo service ushare start
If you want to stop it, replace start with stop.
Just tried to see if xbox would see it and it didn’t, but that’s because the service doesn’t read everything in the config file, only the shares you specify. So if you run ushare -x, your xbox will see it, or you can try editing the /etc/init.d/ushare file.
sudo nano /etc/init.d/ushare
add the below under “CONFIGFILE=/etc/ushare.conf”.
USHARE_OPTIONS=-x
Update ushare 1.1
You can download ushare 1.1 from here. Packages for ubuntu 7.10 can also be found there.
Another update
This how to has been posted on digg, so I made a mirror, just in case my site goes down.
Mirror
Update
uShare has been updated, see here for info. You don’t need the patched version to do this anymore, just the latest version.
Finally a way to stream videos to the 360 without windows.
Note: you need the latest update for the xbox 360.
32bit package has been updated on 05/31/07, forgot to patch it before compiling it.
I’m having problems streaming video with my wireless B game adapter, so I’m getting a D-Link DWL-G730AP High Speed Wireless Pocket Router/AP – Retail, hopefully that will work better.
Thanks to KeithB from geexbox’s forum for releasing a patch. Also thanks to microsoft for making it possible to stream MPEG 4 files.
If the packages don’t work or you aren’t using ubuntu or debian, then you can download the patched source below.
Download ushare 1.0
32bit deb
64bit deb
The source code can be found here.
Download ushare patched: (Not needed anymore)
32bit deb
64bit deb
patched source
Mirrors:
32bit deb mirror 1 (By voidyourwarranty.us)
64bit deb mirror 1 (By voidyourwarranty.us)
pached source mirror 1 (By voidyourwarranty.us)
If you want your mirror on here, then send an email to info@vanvalkinburgh.org.
You also need libupnp:
Download 32 bit libupnp
Download 64 bit libupnp
You can also obtain libupnp here.
After you install it run the following command:
ushare -p 49153 -D -x -c /media/sda1/MyVideos/converted/
Change the folder path to the correct folder.
I made a share.sh file in my home folder with that in it.
share.sh:
#!/bin/sh ushare -p 49153 -D -x -c /media/sda1/MyVideos/converted/
To make it startup when you login go to System | Preferences | Sessions and add a new startup entry.
If you add a new folder or file, then you can go to http://localhost:49153/web/ushare.html and click refresh shares, you can also add shares.
ffmpeg: (If you have gnome, I provided a nautilus script, so all you have to do is right click the file, and you can convert it. You don’t need avidemux for this method.)
The compression is pretty good. One of my mpg files went from 365 MB to 98 MB. The videos look good too.
The below version of ffmpeg has aac support.
ffmpeg 32bit package with aac support
ffmpeg 64bit package with aac support
The below script is for gnome users, click the link, it has instructions.
nautilus script
If you go into synaptic you can lock the version of the package, so the annoying update thing will go away. Select ffmpeg and then click Package at the top and lock version.
The command for converting videos with ffmpeg is below:
ffmpeg -y -i input.avi -vcodec h264 -b 1000000 -acodec aac -ar 48000 -ab 160 -f mov output.mov
Convert videos to MPEG 4
I used avidemux to do this, so these instructions are for it.
I installed avidemux with automatix. I also installed “Multimedia Codecs” with automatix.
Change the following settings:
Video: Mpeg4
Audio: FAAC
Format: MP4
Save the file with a .mov extension, wouldn’t work with .mp4.
On my xbox it said I needed a media update, so I said yes, and then it said I already have it, but I downloaded it anyways. And the file played after that, the tv was black for some seconds, and then it started to play.
If the file isn’t playing full screen, then click A and click the right arrow key until it says display mode, and then keep clicking A until it says full screen.
Tips
Xbox 360 video playback faq
Things to try if the video doesn’t work.
In avidemux after you select the video codec, click filters, and click mplayer resize. If you don’t have a HDTV, then put in 480×480. If you have a HDTV, then you probably don’t need to change this, unless the video is to big. Look at the xbox 360 faq link above.
After you select the audio codec, click filters, and click resample to hz, put it 48000.
Change mixer to stereo.
If you can’t get avidemux to work, you can try ffmpeg.
Related posts:
Oh, maybe that’s the problem. It’s MP4 as the container it’s that.
I’ll rename to .mov and try again. Thanks
Hmm,
I have compiled ushare 1.0 and I am running it using the new -x switch. I go to my xbox : Multimedia / Music / Computer / Yes, Continue … Searching … “No computer found with multimedia sharing software”
ushare is running, listening on 49153 and the output on the console doesnt mention anything wrong. I can connect using a web browser to http://192.168.1.2:49153/web/ushare.html
Is tehre anything else I should check?
thanks
Are you running a firewall? If you are, then you need to open that port. So your xbox can see it.
Hey all,
I’m trying to install ushare with apt-get, I’ve added the repository to the sources.list file. When I issue a “sudo apt-get install ushare” in terminal, I receive this error message:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
ushare: Depends: libc6 (>= 2.6) but 2.5-0ubuntu14 is to be installed
Depends: libupnp2 but it is not installable
E: Broken packages
Anyone?
Thanks!
Are you using ubuntu or debian? If ubuntu, I don’t think their repository will work with ubuntu. If you’re using debian, you can try asking on geexbox’s forum.
http://www.geexbox.org/forum/index.php
you need to install the libupnp2 that is linked here, not the repository one.
by the way, my ushare is working (just a little lag) thanks “admin”.
It was the .mov issue you told me before
Hi!
I have ushare 1.0 running on my centos 5 machine, and my 360 connects to it successfully. However, when I choose a file and select ‘Play’, nothing happens. No error message, nothing. I know the file works, because I got it to stream from my MBP running Connect360. Whenever I start ushare, I get the following warning:
Warning: can’t parse file “NONE/etc/ushare.conf”.
As such, I have to set all of ushare’s options when I run ushare. I cannot figure out how to fix this error. I checked the file in /usr/local/etc/init.d/ushare, and it links to /etc/ushare.conf, where I definitely have a proper ushare.conf file.
This could all be related to problems I had getting ushare to run in the first place… I installed libupnp in /usr/local/lib, then installed ushare. It installed fine, but whenever I went to run it, it could not find the libupnp files, so I linked all of them to /usr/lib, and it worked.
I am new to linux, and I don’t really know what I’m doing, so if anyone could help me, I would be extremely grateful!
You compiled it yourself correct?
You need to re compile it:
make clean
./configure --prefix=/
Before doing anything like that, do I need to delete my current install?
Yeah you probably should, run make uninstall as root.
I’ve got my set up working, but want to run ushare as a daemon under arch linux. It loads and I can access it to load the web interface, but I can’t get it to autoload the xbox complient profile automatically. Is there something I can add to the ushare.conf file to get it to load that parameter?
Thanks a lot for the help. The xbox now plays the files it could previously see.
I am curious though as to what make clean does, as well as what –prefix=/ does.
make clean removes everything make compiled, and –prefix=/ tells ./configure where the etc, and other folders can be found. Before it was looking for the etc directory in NONE/etc, which doesn’t exist.
Ah. Do those commands work for the majority of packages?
I’ve run into another problem, although I believe it is an issue with libupnp rather than ushare. I am attempting to play a movie that has a file size of 3.65 gigs. When I select play, nothing happens, but if I attempt to play files sized around 200mb, it works fine. Again, I streamed the movie from my laptop to see if the problem was with the file.
I am now looking for info on libupnp’s handling of large files.
It seems I have libupnp 1.6.0 installed, and I did not configure it with –disable-largefile, so I am somewhat mystified as to why my movie will not play.
make clean and –prefix work with most packages.
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=841028&aid=1762783&group_id=166957
You might need to apply that patch.
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1762758&group_id=166957&atid=841026
The comments here make it seem as if this patch is already part of libupnp 1.6.0.
http://geexbox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8199&highlight=ushare
This is the forum post where I found a first mention of the patch. The problem the patch solves seems to be seeking past 2gb; the patch creator could play large files up to a point.
Alright, so after experimenting further, I have discovered that I have no idea what my problem is. I now have several 200mb files that were encoded the exact same way as the one that works, but they do not play. If I stream them from my laptop, they work fine. Wait – I just noticed that the file that works ends in .mov. I feel rather foolish now… I’ll see if that solves the problem.
OK, so all the files I encoded myself work fine when I change their extension to .mov. However, my movie does not, so I suppose I am stuck transcoding it. Anyway, thanks again for all the help. Even reading through the comment section here is incredibly useful.
Hmm, I seem to only be able to get my xbox to connect to ushare about 50% of the time. And then about %50 of the time it connects it will find an actual file list. Does anyone have it stable? I’d like to know if this is a problem with my network/firewall settings or just unstable code?!