Xbox 360 Media Server Setup

MAC OS

1) Download and install Nullriver Connect360 ($20 USD, www.nullriver.com). The download is a limited demo; you can only access up 100 songs, 5 photos, and 5 videos. It’s well worth the money to purchase the full license for $20 USD. For a more versatile, full-featured UPnP server app, check out Twonky Media ($39.95 USD, twonkymedia.com).

2) After installation, open System Preferences from the Apple menu, and click on the Connect360 icon.

3) In the Connect360 window, click on the Start button; once sharing is started, the button will say “Stop” and your Xbox should show up in the bottom pane.

4) You can share more than just what’s in your iTunes and iPhoto libraries. Click on the Settings button and then go to the Movies tab. Check the box labeled “Enable Movie sharing from:” and select a folder to monitor for video files. You can do the same for the Photo and iTunes tabs. Hit Close when you’re done.

5) On the Xbox 360, go to the Media tab and select Music, Pictures, or Videos. Then press the X button on the controller to change the source. Choose your computer from the list on the left — chances are it’ll be the only other option besides “Console” that’s not grayed out.

6) Once the Xbox 360 connects to your Mac via Connect360, you can browse and play all the media in your iTunes library or other folders (listed as “Unsorted” on your Mac.

You may run into the occasional file that doesn’t play, but Connect360 supports streaming of most common media types to the Xbox 360, including:

Audio
* AAC, Apple Lossless, WMA, MP3, WAV, AIFF

Video
* H.264, DIVX, XVID, MOV, AVI, WMV, ASF

Photo
* JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, RAW

Unlike with the Sony Playstation 3, you can’t copy files over your network to the Xbox 360’s hard drive, though you can rip CDs directly to the Xbox as 192Kbps WMA files. Just insert the disc, select Rip CD, and… let ‘er rip!