Howto stream music, pictures and movies to an Xbox 360 with Linux
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One of my favorite features in Windows that became a factor in switching to Ubuntu was XP’s multimedia syncing capabilities with the Xbox 360. Call of Duty 4 is better with The Strokes playing in the background, pictures look nicer in high-definition and torrented avi’s belong the big screen. Having tried just about every method out there, this is the best way to stream media from a Linux machine.
First you need to download a program called TwonkyMedia. It’s a 30-day trial, but go with the manual .zip file. Trust me. Extract the archive to your favorite install directory (I just made it a hidden file in home) and you’re ready to fire up your server.
You’ll probably want Twonky to turn on with the computer, so you will have to make it a startup program. In Ubuntu go System -> Preferences -> Sessions and click Add. Think of a clever name and enter in the path to the archive you just extracted adding /twonkymedia to the end. In my case, it looked like this.
You can either execute that command or wait and restart your computer. Twonky is now running and it’s time to set it up. Click here or open twonkyvision-config.html in the install directory.
Now all you have to do is enter in the paths to the directories you want to stream on the Sharing page. Press rescan and everything should be working. Power up the Xbox, connect to the computer et voila! Streaming stuff.
TwonkyMedia also makes it possible to stream your MP3s to a PSP using RSS feeds.
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Also see:
Thanks!
How do you delete files? I have icons and such in my pictures and sample stuff in music.
That probably means you’re streaming your entire home directory. Go to the Sharing page in twonkyvision-config.html and set it up so /home/you/Music shares music, /home/you/Pictures shares pictures, etc.
Cool, but I want this to last longer than 30 days lol, maybe ill buy it.
The trial doesn’t expire
LOl funny, Though I don’t think it starts when I log in, ive got it in the startup programs and all.
Are you sure? Check System Monitor. It runs in the background, so there aren’t any icons or anything to let you know its on.
Hey! Great post! I want to translate it to spanish so I can post it on my blog. What do you say?
No problem, just link back if you don’t mind.
Great post! Let’s just hope the trial period doesn’t expire =)
This sucks, there aint no file setup.html nore is there are fiel called twonky-config.html, linux rules, windows double-click install sucks, let me do some terminal commands weeeeee
Thanks so much, I have been searching for quite a few hours tonight. Both 360’s in my dorm can now stream videos and music from my ubuntu server. Of course my ability to connect my vista machine with samba remains to fail. Thanks though!!
o my balls this rox
hey dOOdes.. i am just trying with twonky but i cant get my xbox 360 to find it. is there a trick?
Hey. I tried all that but the config.html as well as your link are dead. Any ideas? If I use the sh script they offer is that going to mean i have to purchase a licence? If it works, I don’t mind!
Are you sure Twonky is running? That is likely why the links are dead. Execute the path to /twonkyfolder/twonkymedia and try clicking on the config files in the folder.
If that doesn’t work, I would try the sh script like you said.
Woah, quick answer, much appreciated!
I tried that still no joy. So I downloadd the sh script and executed in terminal. I got the following output:
soban@Linux-Box:~/Desktop/Exes$ chmod +x twonkymedia-i386-glibc-2.2.5.sh
soban@Linux-Box:~/Desktop/Exes$ sudo ./twonkymedia-i386-glibc-2.2.5.sh
[sudo] password for soban:
./
./RevisionHistory
./Linux-HowTo.txt
./radio.m3u
./twonkymedia.sh
./licence-en.rtf
./cgi-bin/
./cgi-bin/cgi-jpegscale
./cgi-bin/jpeg-jpeg.desc
./plugins/
./plugins/itunes-import
./plugins/itunes-import.plugin
./plugins/shoutcast-import
./plugins/shoutcast-import.plugin
./twonkymediaserver
./twonkymedia
./resources/
./resources/arrow-left.gif
./resources/arrow-right.gif
./resources/arrow_test_small.gif
./resources/attention-small.gif
./resources/cart.gif
./resources/cds-noupdate.xml
./resources/cds.xml
./resources/clients.db
./resources/cms.xml
./resources/comingsoon.gif
./resources/config-content.html
./resources/config.gif
./resources/config-head.html
./resources/config.html
./resources/config-menu.html
./resources/description.txt
./resources/empty.gif
./resources/favicon.ico
./resources/folder.gif
./resources/head-background.jpg
./resources/help01.html
./resources/home.gif
./resources/index.html
./resources/left.gif
./resources/mb-config.gif
./resources/mb-headerBG-kachel.gif
./resources/mb-header-logo.gif
./resources/mb-music.gif
./resources/mb-music-sel.gif
./resources/mb-photo.gif
./resources/mb-photo-sel.gif
./resources/mb-radio.gif
./resources/mb-radio-sel.gif
./resources/mb-video.gif
./resources/mb-video-sel.gif
./resources/mediabrowser.gif
./resources/mediabrowser-sel.gif
./resources/menu-background.jpg
./resources/msreg.xml
./resources/music.gif
./resources/music-sel.gif
./resources/nocover.jpg
./resources/photo.gif
./resources/photo-sel.gif
./resources/platform-specific-menu-grouping.js
./resources/radio.gif
./resources/radio-sel.gif
./resources/record.gif
./resources/right.gif
./resources/rss.gif
./resources/shoutcast-genres.txt
./resources/status.gif
./resources/status-sel.gif
./resources/stop.gif
./resources/strings-chs.txt
./resources/strings-cht.txt
./resources/strings-de.txt
./resources/strings-en.txt
./resources/strings-es.txt
./resources/strings-fi.txt
./resources/strings-fr.txt
./resources/strings-it.txt
./resources/strings-jp.txt
./resources/strings-ko.txt
./resources/strings-nl.txt
./resources/tri-blau.gif
./resources/twonkyicon-120×120.jpg
./resources/twonkyicon-120×120.png
./resources/twonkyicon-48×48.jpg
./resources/twonkyicon-48×48.png
./resources/twonkyicon-80×80.jpg
./resources/TwonkyMediaConfig.css
./resources/TwonkyMediaConfig_grouping.js
./resources/TwonkyMediaConfig.js
./resources/twonkymedia.gif
./resources/video.gif
./resources/video-sel.gif
./resources/webbrowse-back.gif
./resources/webbrowse.css
./resources/webbrowse-e61-back.gif
./resources/webbrowse-e61.css
./resources/webbrowse-e61-home.gif
./resources/webbrowse-e61-logo.gif
./resources/webbrowse-e61-next.gif
./resources/webbrowse-e61-play.gif
./resources/webbrowse-e61-prev.gif
./resources/webbrowse-e61-upload.gif
./resources/webbrowse-home.gif
./resources/webbrowse-logo.gif
./resources/webbrowse-mobile.gif
./resources/webbrowse-n95-back.gif
./resources/webbrowse-n95.css
./resources/webbrowse-n95-home.gif
./resources/webbrowse-n95-next.gif
./resources/webbrowse-n95-play.gif
./resources/webbrowse-n95-prev.gif
./resources/webbrowse-n95-upload.gif
./resources/webbrowse-next.gif
./resources/webbrowse-pc.gif
./resources/webbrowse-play.gif
./resources/webbrowse-prev.gif
./resources/webbrowse-settings.gif
./resources/webbrowse-upload.gif
./resources/website-bg.gif
./twonkymedia-default.ini
Created configuration file with content directory /home
`/usr/local/TwonkyVision/twonkymedia.sh’ -> `/etc/init.d/twonkyserver’
./twonkymedia-i386-glibc-2.2.5.sh: line 161: chkconfig: command not found
Starting server …
./twonkymedia-i386-glibc-2.2.5.sh: line 167: /usr/local/TwonkyVision/twonkymedia.sh: Permission denied
Installation finished
Any ideas? I appreciate you’re not official Twonky support so tell me to go figure if you want! I just wanna watch some avi on the 360 2night if possible!
Hmm, I’m really not sure about that.
The method I posted has worked on all the computers I’ve tried.
Have you extracted the archive to your desktop? What you posted seems to be a permissions error. Extract it to your desktop, open the folder, double click twonkymediaserver (that should refresh twonkyvision-mediaserver.ini and then double click the config html files.
If that doesn’t work, I’d try the forums.
Whoop! Got it installed, my Ubuntu install was screwy I had a lot of probs so I did a fresh install and have managed to install Twonky as you said. Will go and see if the Xbox works now, thanks a lot for this!
Not a problem
Wow that was the most painless experience ever setting up streaming to xbox!
Thanks
What kind of video does it stream?
avi, mp4, mov, wmv… everything else you can stream from Windows
Wow! Thanks for this info. I’ve been searching for days for a way to use my Xbox 360 w/ Linux (I’m running Mandriva). I kept ignoring TwonkyMedia though because it wasn’t free — so you’re sure the licence never expires?? Why would that be?
Not sure why, but the license hasn’t expired in the year I’ve used it.
Not to rain on any parades, but Fuppes does a flawless job of streaming (you can transcode if you want as well, though I have all my vid transcoding disabled).
here is a link to a mini-guide I set up:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=597650&page=5
Here is fuppes homepage:
http://fuppes.ulrich-voelkel.de/
And, it is completely free.
I have found that after sp1 on Vista, streaming is faulty now. Fuppes is smooth and flawless.
That actually looks fairly promising. Thanks for the tip.
what version did you use, beacuse I tried 4.4.5 and I had it expire on me.
thanks. maybe you should add a note to your howto that the user has to double click the executable “twonkymedia” to start the server and create the initial config file.
For some strange reason twonky will only find media files half of the time, any ideas why it does that?
My TwonkyVision license expired for some reason today…
I have installed the Twonky media server on my Ubuntu Hardy system by extracting the manual linux version into a folder. It seems to work just fine when using the interface from Ubuntu. I just cant figure out how to connect to it from my xbox. Do I need a modified xbox?
Would appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction.
Thanks
you’re the man
Hey, i followed this guide about 30-40 days ago it worked great, was easy and fast with no problems, but a few days ago i tried to listen to some music on my xbox that was on my computer and in the artists it just says your trial period has expired… WTF. would be excellent if you could tell me how to get it working again
Mine expired too!I would really love some help with that,any way we can bypass that trial?:P
Can i directly connect my pc to my xbox and use twonky? Ive tried but it keeps telling me on my xbox i need to set up media center blah blah.. and its saying no computer is connected. If so do i use a straight through or crossover cable, or do i HAVE to have a router to do this?
uhhh…. lol /bin ls -a …. look for .tv5 …. delete that restart your server… no trial… your welcome
Mine expired too, and I tried “just some help”’s tip of looking for the .tv5 inside /bin but I don’t find that file.
EZ way around the software expire……
buy it…register it…werx great!!!
I would buy it.. but you cant pay for the older versions.
Can anyone help me with installing this app on Mandriva? I have used Ubuntu in the past, but for some reason Mandriva is theo nly one I can get to work on my machine at the moment. I’m not used to using the rpm/urpm package manager… I just need to get this to work. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
By the way, if the program works, I will buy it. I just have to get it to stream to my 360 first. Thanks in advance.
Wtf – licensed software on linux.
Though, I have been searching for something which does orbs job for a long time. Good stuff.
Thanks your instructions are much better than the gibberish that you get from Twonkymedia’s site.