Playing video files with xbox 360 video

No, there's no way to transfer video files to the Xbox 360 hard drive. The best way to play your video files is by putting them onto a USB drive and playing them from the built in video player.

Allo;

on the 360: My Video Apps -> System Video Player -> PC -> media file == does not play

on the 360: My Video Apps -> System Video Player -> Portable Device -> media file == plays just fine

(the "Portable Device" is simply a USB stick)

so it's the same player on the 360, same file, but two different "locations". Should play them both it seems... no?

The Xbox does not play VOB files. support.xbox.com/.../audio-video-playback

It may be that some of your files are unsupported, this page lists the specs of supported files:

support.xbox.com/.../audio-video-playback You will note that it plays MP4s just fine, it just depends on the MP4.

Hiya, bit long winded, but hope this helps!:

Supported File Types

The Xbox 360 supports AVI, WMV, MPEG-4 Part 2, H.264 and QuickTime movie formats. The file extensions included are as follows: .avi, .divx, .wmv, .mp4, .m4v, .mp4v, and .mov.

Video Playback

For video files with the WMV container, playback occurs at 15 Mbps (Mega-Bytes Per Second) with a resolution of 1920 x 1080. Files with the H.264 container have the same resolution, but are played back at 10 Mbps. For AVI and MPEG-4 Part 2 video files, playback
is 5 Mbps at 1280 x 720 resolution.

Audio Playback

The Xbox 360 supports WMA 7-9 and Lossless audio profiles for WMV video formats. Dolby Digital and MP3 profiles are supported in AVI formats. For MPEG-4 Part 2 and H.264 encoded videos, the console supports only two-channel AAC audio encoding.

Streaming Video

With Zune software, the Xbox 360 can stream unprotected AVI, MPEG-4 Part 2, H.264, and WMV video formats. Through Windows Media Player, protected and unprotected WMV videos can be streamed.

Streaming Tips

Download a third-party video codec package to expand the amount of video formats you can stream using the Windows Media Player. For better playback, convert video files into the more Mircosoft user-friendly WMV format using a third-party video conversion
program.

Source(s):

Video Playback & Audio Streaming FAQ for the Xbox 360