Xbox 360 supported video/audio formats
Speaking of game console, Xbox 360 is one of the most popular ones. It can bring you a total games and entertainment experience. It is the center of your games and entertainment universe. Your whole family can watch HD movies, TV shows, live events, music, sports, and more across all your devices. However, every multimedia device has its own limited video and audio formats and codec. So what video and audio formats does Xbox 360 run?
To solve Xbox 360 formats incompatibility issues while watching videos, this guide focuses on the best audio and video format for Xbox 360 so that you can have a hassle-free video enjoyment on Xbox 360
Tip: If you want to get more information on how to enjoy media on your Xbox 360or other game console, check out this page.
What Video/Audio Does Xbox 360 Play?
| File extensions | Containers | Video profiles | Video bit rate | |
| AVI support | .avi, .divx | AVI | MPEG-4 Part 2 (Simple Profile and Advanced Simple Profile) | 5 Mbps with resolutions of 1280 × 720 at 30 fps |
| H.264 support | .mp4, .m4v, mp4v, .mov, .avi | MPEG-4, QuickTime | Baseline, main and high (up to level 4.1) | 10 Mbps with resolutions of 1920 × 1080 at 30 fps |
| MPEG-4 Part 2 support | .mp4, .m4v, .mp4v, .mov, .avi | MPEG-4, QuickTime | MPEG-4 Part 2 (Simple Profile and Advanced Simple Profile) | 5 Mbps with resolutions of 1280 × 720 at 30 fps |
| WMV (VC-1) support | .wmv | ASF | WMV7 (WMV1), WMV8 (WMV2), WMV9 (WMV3), VC-1 (WVC1 or WMVA) in simple, main and advanced up to level 3 | Video bit rate: 15 Mbps with resolutions of 1920 × 1080 at 30 fps |
You can play video content on Xbox 360 with different ways. For example, you can play video from a USB 2.0 FAT32 removable drive, from optical media, and by streaming from the Zune software, Windows Media Player 11, or Windows Home Server. So under different conditions, Xbox 360 has different requirements on audio-vidoe streaming. The following table shows you the detailed info.
| Scenario | Supported codecs |
|
From USB storage device to Xbox 360 Dashboard video player |
WMV (unprotected), |
|
From Windows Media Player 11 to Xbox 360 Dashboard video player |
WMV (protected) |
|
From the Zune software to Xbox 360 Dashboard video player |
WMV (unprotected) |
|
From Windows Home Server to Xbox 360 Dashboard video player |
WMV (protected) |
|
From Windows Media Center to an Xbox Media Center Extender |
WMV (protected) |
What’s more, Xbox 360 may have some special need for certan video container or codec. Below are some Xbox 360 audio-vidoe streaming FAQ and some solutions to help you get a better video entertainment on Xbox 360.
Q1: What are the details of Xbox 360 Audio Video Interleaved (AVI) support?
A1: The Xbox 360 AVI support details are:
File extensions: .avi, .divx
Containers: AVI
Video profiles: MPEG-4 Part 2, Simple and Advanced Simple Profile
Video bitrate: 5 megabits per second (Mbps) with resolutions of 1280 x 720 at 30 frames per second (fps)
Audio profiles: Dolby Digital 2 channel and 5.1 channel, MP3
Audio max bitrate: No restrictions
If you happen to meet AVI playback issue on Xbox 360, you can refer to this specific tutorial: Xbox 360 Won’t Play AVI Files, Solved!
Q2: What specific features of MPEG-4 Advanced Simple Profile does Xbox 360 support?
A2: Xbox 360 supports Bidirectional Frames (BVOPs), Interlaced Frames, Quarter Pixel Motion Compensation, Global Motion Compensation, and MPEG Quantization.
Q3: Does Xbox 360 support 5.1-channel AAC?
A3: No. Only 2-channel AAC is supported. If you want to play a 5.1-channel video on your console, you will have to encode it to WMV with WMAPro 5.1 audio or use the AVI container with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
There is a guide to present you how to enjoy 5.1 sound on Xbox 360.
Q4: Why don’t some of my older versions of DivX files play?
A4: Since Xbox 360 only supports MPEG-4–compatible codec implementations, it can’t play video files older than DivX 5.0. If you have some DivX files, you can follow the guide to play them on Xbox 360.
Q5: How can I get Windows Media Player 11 to stream MPEG-4 Part 2 and H.264 to my console?
A5: By default, Windows Media Player 11 does not support MPEG-4 Part 2 and H.264. Your first option is to install a third-party MP4 DirectShow decoder to import MPEG-4 Part 2 and H.264 files into your library. When they are in your library, they can be streamed to your console, and they can be played from Windows Media Player 11 on your computer. An alternative approach is to rename all of your mp4 files to have an “.avi” file name extension. This will enable Windows Media Player 11 to import them into the library and will allow them to be played on your Xbox 360 console. To enable the playback of these files on the computer, you will still need to install an appropriate decoder on the PC.
Q6: Does Xbox 360 run DVD? Which DVD can be played on Xbox 360?
A6: see Xbox 360 DVD Drive Specifications table;
| Disc capacity | 1 |
| Progressive scan | No (for DVD video) |
| Playback formats supported | Playback formats supported: DVD-Video, DVD-A, CD-Audio (Red Book CD), Xbox Game media |
| Playback formatsnot supported | DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW, CD-R, CD-RW, CD-ROM, CD-I, CD-Recordable, Video CD, SACD |
| Multi-angle viewing | Yes (with applicable discs) |
| Subtitle | Yes (with applicable discs) |
| Multilingual support | Yes (English, Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean) |
| Surround-sound output | Dolby ® Surround Sound, Dolby ® Digital 5.1 (with supported games and media), and DTS Digital Out (DVD Movie Playback only) |
Tutorial you can refer to: How to Stream and Play DVD on Xbox 360 console
Q7: How do I create WMV, AVI, H.264, and MPEG-4 content? What encoders does Xbox 360 support?
A7: You can create this content by using one of the many third-party applications that are available. Xbox 360 supports many popular encoders. Specifically, for encoding to WMV, you can use Microsoft Expression Encoder or Windows Media Encoder.
Related Software:
1. Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate is a professional video transcoding tool that can help you convert any unsupported video and audio to Xbox 360 compatible ones. Not only it can convert any unsupported video to Xbox One supported video formats like MP4, AVI, WMV, as well as the audio file format supported by Xbox One like MP3, but also you can save yourself a lot of time with the preset profiles for each version of Xbox gadgets, making it stand out from the crowd similar software.
2. Not all DVDs can be played on Xbox 360 due to different DVD region codes (learn DVD region codes) and it is also a pity that Xbox 360 can’t play Blu-ray. Pavtube ByteCopy <review> is such a tool with the capacity of ripping DVD to region free for Xbox 360 and decrypt Blu-ray to Xbox 360 and the Xbox One generation.
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