Rich Fiscus
25 Feb 2008 4:00
With the increase in new content at Afterdawn over the last year, we've had a hard time keeping you informed of the resources we have available in our Guides section. In order to let you know what guides are available I'll be writing a weekly update telling you what new guides have been added, and occasionally talking about existing content. To kick things off here are some highlights of what we have so far this year.
We've added several guides aimed at helping Xbox 360 and PS3 owners playback video from various sources on their consoles. Since many containers aren't supported on the Xbox 360 these guides focus primarily on moving the video to supported containers like MP4 and AVI. Our lone PS3 entry gives instructions for moving the contents of MKV (Matroska) files to VOBs that can are supported by that console.
Ever since the Fall update (2007) for the Xbox 360 console, support for a wider variety of video content has been added without the need of Windows Media Center Edition. This article discusses some of the Xbox 360's multimedia capabilities as of January 2008, and shows some brief results we had with the console while trying to play back video files of all types with many different streams and settings. This is not a guide for Streaming and it does not involve the use of MCE.... (Read More)
This article we will take content from the MKV (matroska) Container and store it in either the MP4 or AVI container, depending on the type of video and audio we are dealing with. Why do this? The Xbox 360 console does not support the MKV container directly.... (Read More)
TS files are transport stream files and are found widely on the Internet. Sadly, the Xbox 360 chooses to ignore .TS files when present on a DVD-R disc or any other direct method for playback. If you have a TS file with H264/AVC video with AC3 audio (will work with MP3 also) then this page can help you to take the H264 stream and place it into the MP4 container so it will be recognized by the Xbox 360 console..... (Read More)
OGM is a container that can store video, multiple audio and multiple subtitle tracks. It has many advantages over AVI and so has been used widely online to distribute and share certain content. OGM is not directly supported by the Xbox 360 console, but luckily the video and audio you generally find in OGM is easily stored in another container.... (Read More)
This quick guide will teach you how to take High Definition MKV files with x264 video and AC3 audio and play them on the Sony PlayStation 3.... (Read More)
If you have a computer running Windows XP Media Center Edition (including earlier versions upgraded through Service Pack 2) and you're a Netflix customer, you may have found that you can't use their Watch Instantly streaming video service that's included with your monthly subscription. If you try to watch a movie you'll be greeted with a message that you must upgrade Windows Media Player (WMP), which will be followed by an error when you try to do so. As the error explains, versions of Windows XP MCE prior to 2005 aren't compatible with WMP 11.... (Read More)
As digital television (DTV) has gradually become standard in many parts of the world, TV Capture has gone from a hobby enjoyed by a small group of hardcore enthusiasts to something easy enough for the novice to figure out. However, once you have your favorite TV show on your computer in the form of a TS (MPEG-2 Transport Stream) file you may not be completely done.... (Read More)
Matroska (MKV) files have become a popular container for storing various types of video and audio, but perhaps most commonly AVC video with Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio. The primary reasons for this are the need for a standard container more adavanced (with better cross-platform support) than AVI which can handle streams from different sources equally well.... (Read More)