Watching video and audio streams is a smart and free way to access media. Whether it’s a live broadcast of your favorite TV-show or an internet radio channel, streams open new ways to receive rich content. Streams can be seen and heard on nearly anything connected to the internet, including mobile phones, computers, mp3-players and gaming consoles. Thanks to XBOX Media Center, watching streams on the XBOX is now easy as pie!
To watch audio and video streams on your XBOX you will need, as mentioned previously, the XBOX Media Center suite. Thus you also need a chipped XBOX – and hey, why not get a modchip to your XBOX? The stream you would like to watch needs to stream at a codec supported by XBMC – either it works or it doesn’t, you’ll notice! And also, you will need a working internet connection ;) !
Begin by getting the URL of the stream you would like to connect to. If your stream consists of an .pls or .m3u file, simply rename the extension to .strm and you’re good to go! If you just have the URL to the stream, whether it’s with an mms://, rtsp:// or http:// protocol, copy it into an empty Notepad window and save it with an .strm extension. Copy the .strm file to a place accessible by the XBOX – it can be on a shared computer inside a shared folder, on the XBOX harddrive or somewhere else.
Now, go into the Videos or Music menu (depending on what stream you want to watch) and open the file! If you can’t find it, click Add source, browse for the correct folder or share and press OK. If the stream is online and the codec is supported by XBMC, you should be looking at (or hearing) your first streamed show on the XBOX!
Below I have compiled a list of good stream-resources for the XBOX, if you’re out of luck finding streams that work for you:
- http://code.google.com/p/xbmc-strm-collection/ – a little collection of broadband (200k+) LIVE video streams that are tested and ready to use for XBMC
- http://www.op9.net/latest/194/xbmc-tv-round-vii-slimline – 407 streaming TV feeds from 90 countries around the world
- http://xbmc.org/wiki/index.php?title=HOW-TO:_Play_Internet_Streams – on the bottom of the page are a number of BBC radio and video streams
Good luck!
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