Transcode 360 Beta 3 Released
Published by runtime 360 April 15th, 2006 in TranscodingI’m happy to announce the release of Transcode 360 Beta 3, the newest version of the XviD / DivX playback solution for Xbox 360 and Media Center Extender devices on Windows Media Center 2005. Once more this beta release is provided in advance of the final release to encourage community feedback and to help us better understand the areas we need to focus on.
New in this release:
After a lot of painstaking testing we believe we’ve addressed the aspect ratio issues that affected Beta 2, and for the most part AV sync, playback choppiness and a couple of issues that should make for easier installation (notably MPEG2 codec co-existance). Additionally, Beta 3 also features support for subtitles.
To enable the optimum transcoding solution T360 now supports multiple transcoding engines: ffmpeg, mencoder and Windows Media Encoder plug-ins are provided. As I mentioned in my previous post, mencoder has been selected as the best candidate for our solution as it offers us lots of flexibility supporting a staggering 299 codecs. It is this then that we will be primarily focused on supporting.
If you have a little programming experience you’re welcome to create your own custom plug-in wrappers, or contribute to the project by improving on what we have. Full C# source code for the majority of the plug-ins is included as part of the distribution.
I’ll be taking it a bit easy now at least for the rest of the holiday. That said, I’ll pop into the forums over the next couple of days to provide answers to some of the frequently asked questions. The plan over the short term is to update the online documentation as its beginning to look a bit dated.
Finally I would like to thank my team of testers who’ve been working with me to iron out the bugs, as well as you the community for your support and generous donations. Many thanks! Happy downloading!
I really hope you enjoy this new release.
We worked quite hard fixing Beta 2 issues and adding new features that, overall, should make Transcode 360 a better experience.
It won’t be perfect but it is getting quite good.
One nice feature of this release is the “plug-in” configuration the Runtime made available.
Through this it might be possible to provide pre-beta 4 quick fix to issues that might be reported in the forum.
Just want to say thanks to all involved for all the hard work that you have done. Looking forward to trying this. Keep up the good work, and I hope MS are taking note, these features should have ben part of the 360 to start. They should send you a hefty donation runtime as the implementation of this program can only lead to additional sales of both the Xbox360 and Windows Media Center systems.
I also want to say thanks for providing this much needed tool.
I’ve just made a small donation as well.
Cheers!
I’m hoping some others take the hint too, just laid down $40 which is peanuts considering… c’mon guys, show a little support!
I have not installed Beta 3 yet but Beta 2 is awesome. It works perfectly on my Linksys Extender and XBox 360. It saves me having to manually transcode my Divxs for homewide viewing. I have made a donation. Thanks, keep it up.
Thanks guys - btw Greg you might want to create a System Restore Point and read the Known Issues thread in the forums first
Not trying to scare you but I think its generally pretty good advice when trying out new betas 
Well I just enjoyed 2 episodes of a certain TV series using Transcoder… at last I can sell my old XBOX as it’s now officially gathering dust! Been hanging on to it purely for XBMC fuctionality! So.. what to do with my XBOX sale proceeds? PayPAL it to you!! Thanks for helping uncluter my TV cabinet!
marcopolo007uk,
I am glad you enjoy transcode 360. Keep looking around for the next beta. We are fixing minor bugs and adding new functionallity.
Cheers!
Work great but on the xbox after 15 minutes it comes up with FINISHED, when it hasn’t then when I go to my PC I say mcmcoder had to shut down, any ideas ??