Can’t play MP4 files on your XBox 360?
Posted on May 4, 2009 at 5:24 am
The XBox 360 is an annoying game console. After first giving me the blinking red ring of death error, which forced me to return it to Microsoft, it has not stopped playing MP4 files after the latest system update!
Firstly, it took quite a bit of time to figure out how to stream MP4 and video files to the Xbox 360 using Windows Media Player, but once I did, it was great because I could watch my movies, TV shows, etc without a problem.
Then came some system update in April and now my XBox 360 doesn’t see MP4 files anymore. It just says “No videos found’” whenever I go into a folder with MP4 files.
Anyway, after wasting more of my time, I was able to figure out how to get my MP4 files playing on the XBox 360 again! For anyone out there with the same problem, I hope this helps you.
Play MP4 files on XBox 360
Step 1: The first thing you want to do is delete the current monitored folders in Windows Media Player.
You can do that by going to Tools, then Options and clicking on the Library tab. Now click on the Monitor Folders button. Go ahead and delete everything from the list except for the defaults.
Step 2: Now you need to stop the Windows Media Player Network Sharing service. You can do this by going to Task Manager and killing two processes (wmpnetwk.exe and wmpnscfg.exe) or you can go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services, right-click on the WMP Network Sharing service and choose Stop.
Step 3: Now that the network sharing service is stopped, we have to delete the entire Windows Media Player library. Note that this will not delete any of your actual media files, it’ll just delete the index that WMP creates.
Navigate to the following location and delete all files that end with .WMDB
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Media Player
Step 4: Now you have to rename all of your .MP4 files to .AVI. Not sure why this has to be done or why it works, but it does! So any MKV files you converted to MP4 will need to be renamed to AVI. Note they do NOT have to be re-encoded, just renamed in Windows Explorer.
Step 5: Now go ahead and open Windows Media Player and go back to the Monitor Folders dialog. Go ahead and re-select the folders that contain the videos you want to stream to the XBox 360.
Let WMP go ahead and re-create the database library of your media collection.
Step 6: Once it’s done, go to the Services console again and this time right-click and choose Restart on the WMP Network Sharing service.
That’s it! Now you should go to your XBox 360 and browse the folders again. Hopefully, like me, you will see your MP4 files, which are again playable!
Also the thing to note is that whenever you add more videos to your folders, you will have to do this whole process again! It’s a royal pain in the butt, but that’s the only way I could get it to work. Enjoy!
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Thanks for the tip! I didn’t have to stop the service or rebuild the wmp library, I just renamed the file extensions from .mp4 to .avi and was able to play them on the 360 right away. Not sure if it makes any difference but I could play the mp4 files in WMP with the Vista Codec Pack from Shark007 installed (not sure if this is possible without the codec pack).
Cheers!
Awesome TUT!! Thanks man!
I did follow step by step … but I get the same ” No videos Found “..
What a really pain in the butt this is.
Re the XBOX 360 no longer playing MP4s after the latest update. The cure is to simply rename the file .avi, and then it works perfectly.
LISTEN TO JOHN BARTELS.
Fricken genius man. This whole time, all you had to do was rename it as a .avi? I feel like a fool.
Rename to avi, as John says.
How can such a constant source of frustration have such a simple answer? Each time I move apartments at the start of the college semester, I have attempted the pie-in-the sky dream of being able to view my 100+ gb of video magically from my pc to my xbox, and each one ending with only 4 episodes of frisky dingo and heartbreak. This year, after many hours spent, a splitter or 2 downloaded, and a couple of trojans for my trouble, i decided the only logical resolution was my fist through its taunting ring of judgement, when suddenly, like some deus ex machina from a horrible movie, i stumble upon john bartels unassuming post, and learned my 3 year battle could be won with 3 letters. You are my webitizen of the year. I am off to go watch venture brothers on a screen larger than my microwave now.
DON’T BOTHER TRYING THIS!
This doesn’t work on Windows Vista or Windows 7…
Why does Microsoft make it such a pain to play videos on the stupid XBox 360! Why!? I mean is it really a big deal to let people play AVIs, MP4s, etc? Geez
According to http://support.xbox.com/support/en/us/nxe/gamesandmedia/movies/videofaq/viewvideoplaybackfaq.aspx
mp4 is supported?!
you need to show the file extensions in vista. go folder options, view and change file extensions so they are visible.
Hey does this work like if i plug my MP4 player into my Xbox and i have the videos on my mp4? … well anyways hope someone answers this question
Just changing the file extension didn’t do the trick for me. It is strange that microsoft says it has MP4 playback when it doesn’t…
It’s still impossible for me to play some MP4 files…
I’ve never had any problems playing MKV converted to MP4 files, or DivX files. Last summer I did have to connect my 360 to the internet and ‘try’ to play the movies, then the XBOX asked me if I want to download the latest codecs, which it downloaded, and haven’t had a problem playing videos since then.
I don’t have my 360 networked at my new place, but I just copy any MKV, DivX, etc. files to a USB memory stick, and the 360 plays it off of there no problem.
Good job. Thought I was stuck there. MP4 files are playing fine now. Stupid XBox 360!
Steve
I am still having trouble playing MP4 files on my XBox! What am I doing wrong?
i did all that but somehow i cant get the mp4 file to show up in window media player folder to even change from mp4 to avi?
I play new AVI or MP4 videos for my kids all the time under Windows 7. This is what I do for the Xbox 360 to recognize the new files from my PC.
1. On my Windows 7 PC, I add the avi or mp4 files to a folder in my Video libary. Open Explorer, then on the left hand side, select Videos. It will show your Video Library. Select a folder and add your files to it.
2. This is the key. I START my Windows Media Player on my pc. Then select Videos on the left-hand side. WMP will then update your Video Library. It will take a few minutes depending on the speed of your PC. I have a slow PC so it takes about 5 minutes for my files to be updated to the WMP database.
3. I then go over to my XBOX 360 (no reboot necessary) and go to the Video Library section. I select my PC that has the WMP network sharing running and my videos then select the folder where my files should be located. It works for me every time!!
Thank you so much for this tip I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out why my Xbox (which plays mp4′s) wouldn’t play them remotely. You have my utmost gratitude my friend.
That was a lot of steps that you dont need. All you have to do is move your MPEG4 files out of your stored folder, rename the extension to .avi, then move them back into the folder again. Done
Hey Alan, I tried that before and it didn’t work for me.
Usually, I don’t have to go through my 3 steps unless I add in a video file that I want recognized immediately. If I can wait an hour or so then the file usually shows up on its own.
BTW this is only on Windows.
.MP4 files play just fine from Linux using uShare or miniDLNA. Same with .mov files.
Yet some how I did have my xbox 360 seeing .mov files but not anymore.
So lame how WMP shows them in the library but xbox does not see them.
So I have to rename all .mov files to .avi too for them to play form my windows machine. But again on linux xbox will see and play just fine .mp4 and .mov.
So it seems like some stupid bug on Microsofts part in Windows itself. Happens with xp through 7.
I just cant figure out how I had .mov showing up and not anymore. Odd!
yep when i first got my xbox and set up the networking, and file sharing crap, i had this problem with none avi extension files…i figured this out on my own, but it is very traumatic for the dear old xbox 360 which farts about and pretends sometimes nothing exists lol…its worser then a woman !!!
just get a PS3 and plug n play. Way easier than XBox.
I have Vista32 Home Edition.
I think I have tried everything now – I did every step (even if some say they aren’t needed) described in this tip. Stopped media sharing, deleted my .WMDB files, renamed my .MP4 files to .AVI, recreated the video library, restarted the network sharing.
Now my .MP4 files do show up in my XBOX360′s Video Library (earlier they did not even show up in the video list), but still, when I try to open any .MP4 files, I get
“Can’t play this content because it may not be supported.
For more info, go to http://www.xbox.com/support.
Status code: 69-80004005″
My MP4 videos do play OK in every imaginable video viewing SW on my Vista PC, though – WMP, Media Player Classic, Windows Media Center – so the right codecs must be on my PC.
What oh what am I missing?
I agree with the last poster, what am I doing wrong? Xbox says its not supported… wat tha! any help out there??!?!?!
I to have this problem however I have not used media player on my pc I have simply right clicked on each folder or drive hit select -shareand then select share with whole network for the desired media my main problem however is my 360 plays mpeg4 movies of flash drive but will not recognize via home network I require them in this format to work on I phone will changing file name to .avi stop I phone compatibility or do I need to copy all files and then change it this is not desirable as I have a tbyte of movies in this format
This actually works on Vista too!! All I had to do was change my .mp4 to .avi and it immediately started working on my 360. You do have to change the folder options to show file extensions first, but once you have that done, it’s as simple as changing the file extension!!!
Thanks a lot!!!
i have a windows 7 so those directions u gave above isn’t really helping. i love my xbox360, but this is more than a gaming system i want to enjoy entertainment on this. but it stops me from playing almost any codecs files. only avi works and sometimes avi won’t work wtf.. ps3 will play almost anything. anyways can u help me out