Connect360 - iLife Meets XBox 360
January 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I knew you could connect a Windows Media Center PC to your XBox 360 to extend the available content, but my primary machine at home is a Mac running OS X. This means all the fun media (movies, music, and pictures) is all on there. So after a bit of searching I turned up the absolutely amazing Connect360 by Nullriver Software.
So how exactly does it work and what does it do?
The iTunes integration allows you to browse and play your iTunes music by song, artist, album, genre or playlist. As expected, this allows support for listening to your iTunes songs while playing a game. It even updates your iTunes play count and play date for songs played on your Xbox 360.
In addition, Connect360 supports streaming of live Internet radio broadcasts by simply addind any station to a playlist
As for iPhoto, you can view your photo library, browse by photo album or watch a slideshow.
Any movies in your movie folder become available for viewing in full screen.
Connect360 supports the following formats:
MP3, AAC, WAV, AIFF and Apple Lossless for Music. For Photos, Connect360 supports: JPEG, RAW, GIF, PNG, BMP and TIFF. For video streaming, currently only WMV+WMA, AVI (DIVX/XVID), H.264 and MPEG4 files are supported (in MP4 and MOV containers).
On top of all this sweetness, it also does “automagic transcoding”. With this feature, it can do on-the-fly automatic transcoding of many formats so that you can enjoy even more content on you Xbox 360.
As for setup, you drop a new control panel on your Mac and this Connect360 software will automatically detect your Xbox 360 and in turn your 360 will automatically detect your Mac and the media made available to it.
The demo is free, and the full version is merely $20, so if you have this setup, try it out, you won’t be sorry.
Tags: aac, avi, connect360, divx, h.264, iLife, mac, media center, media center pc, media pc, microsoft, mp3, music, osx, pictures, video, xbox, xvid
iPod Video Guide
January 10, 2006 | 7 Comments
Digg just pointed me at this fantastic guide for the video ipod: The Last iPod Video Guide You’ll Ever Need. However, the guide is OSX central, so sorry PC folks…
It certainly holds up its claim with the following detailed sections:
Protecting Your iPod
Supported Video Formats
H.264 or MPEG-4: Which is better?
Watch iPod Videos on Your TV
H.264 to MPEG-4 Size Comparison
Testing for iPod Compatibility
Places to Download iPod Videos
Converting Videos with QuickTime Pro
Converting Videos with iSquint
If iSquint Won’t Convert Your Video…
My Video’s Sound is Out-of-Sync with the Picture
DVD to iPod Video with HandBrake
Optimizing HandBrake for TV Output
If HandBrake Doesn’t Properly Recognize Your DVD…
TiVo to iPod Video with Virtual PC
Tags: apple, digg, h.264, ipod, ipod guide, mac, macintosh, mpeg-4, osx, video, video ipod