Configuring XBMC to play back your media is something that can seem from its description to be somewhat complex. It really isn’t. What I’m going to describe in this article is the process of:
- Exposing your media in a way it’s safe for the Xbox to obtain
- Setting XBMC up so that it can see it as you want it
- Getting it playing
XBMC has been in development for years, and this means that the functionality for connecting to media is very extensive. The main method I am going to use for exposing your media – mp3s, avis, movs, flvs and so on – is SMB.
SMB (also known as CIFS) is Windows’ network file sharing protocol, which has become fairly standard across operating systems. XBMC is built on samba, an open-source implementation of the protocol; samba is available on most Unix systems, including Linux and the *BSDs, and is built into Mac OS X. You can share your media in the same way as Windows users by using Samba and a configuration client for any of these operating systems.
I’m going to describe here the best method for a Windows system to have it sharing to XBMC. Because I am here running Vista, that’s where the screenshots are coming from; the method however is much the same.
So what you first need to do is create a user account specifically for the Xbox. This should be “user” or “limited” level, and should be password-protected; Windows does not allow accounts with no password to connect over a network.
- On Vista: Go to Control Panel, then User Accounts – click “add or remove user accounts” and get past the administrator prompt, click the “Create a new account” hyperlink (below the current user list) and then create an account called something like “xbox”. You can then go into that account and create a password; this can be anything you like.
- On XP: the procedure is somewhat similar. Go to Control Panel, then into User Accounts, click “Create a new account”from the task list,and create it as a Limited account. Create a password.
An extra note is required here regarding Vista and XP. Vista makes it very easy to see whether your firewall is allowing file sharing through – go into the Network and Sharing Center (screenshot on link; easily accessible from Control Panel) and if the File Sharing green light is “on” then it’s working. If it’s not, it is possibly because one of your networks is public, which can also be seen from the same window; click “Customize” next to the troublesome network then set to private to make it work. Note that if your main network is private but a public network is in operation at the same time (an irritation that happens with me when I have VMware installed) it’ll cut off file sharing full stop.
If you have Simple File Sharing on in XP, when you share your first directory it’ll warn you about firewall settings and set them for you. Else, you’ll have to go into the Windows Firewall Control Panel item and make sure the tick next to Windows File Sharing in the Exceptions tab is on.
Sharing an item is really fairly simple. XBMC works best if you have your music and video content sorted into different folders, which don’t technically have to be different shares – I always liked it like that, though, it makes things simpler. You simply go into the directory which is the base of your collection – if you’re using the Windows idiom, “My Music”, or simply the folder in which all your music is stored in folders below, right-click anywhere in the white space of the folder as so:
Click “Properties”. This opens a dialog box with multiple tabs; the one you want is “Sharing”.
The procedures here differ between XP and Vista. On XP, the first time you go in here (assuming simple file sharing) you’ll see a blue underlined security warning – click on it, then select “Just enable file sharing”, and after that sharing a folder is a checkbox away. On Vista, within the Sharing tab there is a “Share…” button – click it. This brings up the following dialog box:
Type in the “Xbox” user (or whatever you called it) and click “Add”. This adds it to the list; switch the permission level (by clicking on it) to “Reader”. Click “Share”.
Repeat the procedure for your folders with video, photographs, or anything else that XBMC is good at doing. Now, we proceed to actually configuring the Xbox.
So you’ve booted XBMC as per the previous guide, and have it up and running. I’m assuming here you’re on the standard Project Mayhem III skin; the look and feel of XBMC360 is somewhat different, but you should hopefully be able to find the correct locations regardless. Go into “Settings” and then into “Network”. On the SMB Client tab, you enter the username, password and workgroup information you set up earlier, using your controller or DVD remote to enter the information from an on-screen keyboard. (This saves lots of such typing.)
Once you’ve left this, go back to the main screen. Let’s begin by configuring the music. Go into the Music section of XBMC and make sure “Library Mode” on the left is unchecked. You’ll see the default list of sources – things for accessing iTunes shared libraries, mostly irrelevant stuff.
To modify the sources list you need to access the XBMC equivalent of the right-click menu; whilst being in the actual sources list. This is accessed by the white button on a standard Xbox controller/controller-S or the “TITLE” button on the official DVD remote. It looks somewhat similar to this:
You can do all sorts of pruning to the sources list using this menu. What you want, however, is “Add Source. Here click on Browse, which gives a “Browse for New Share” file selector; select Add Network Location. This gives you.
You might be able to find your host by clicking “Browse” here, but if you can’t (my current XBMC crashes out when browsing with an ‘invalid share’ error, although this may be because the machine that’s hosting it is running a Windows Server 2008 beta version) you can enter in the IP address or friendly name manually. Select “Server Name” (as shown above) instead of Browse and you can type a name in, or select “IP Address” and it gives you a dialog box to enter an IP into. Add your username and password, click OK, and on returning to “Browse for New Share” a smb://[name] source will appear. Click on it and it should show the shares on your machine:
So you select the appropriate share, click OK, and then click OK at the next dialog and it adds it as a source. You should now be able to browse around the source in real XBMC.
The procedure for videos and so on is exactly the same. I like to add multiple sources for video as a method of reducing button pressing, so the music videos directory within the main video share is a front-page source, as is the TV directory and so on. You may do things differently, of course. Remove the old sources to irrelevant things like the Xbox’s own drives – you can easily recreate them if required – and the interface becomes even simpler and easier to use.
At this point you should be able to select any media file from within the XBMC interface and play it. In the next part, I’ll go over the media library features of XBMC, and through getting the best picture out of your Xbox. Hopefully, that’ll be coming a lot sooner than this one did.
As always, feel free to tell me in the comments if I’ve messed something up or made the description too hard or whatever and I’ll endeavour to fix it. Thanks all.
F L I C K E R I N G / F R A M E 
This is the best explanation of how things are working that I have come across so far.
However I fear I have either an older version of xbmc on my xbox or ….
I do all of the things you have put down here but the vista os still does not see my share.
I am fine on XP and I have set up a user as you said and shared the folder to that user and tried the ip address as well as the name. Incidently I need to get the ip address of my vista box because ipconfig on the vista box has moved to a new display mode?
Just says nothing can be displayed this could be because the network is not connected…
Am downloading latest copy to see if that is different but i think i will need to go to some other option, maybe an addon at the vista level….
Getting your IP in Vista is much the same as it is in XP:
Open a command prompt (click Start, enter cmd into the search box, press ENTER.)
Type ipconfig /all.
No administrator rights or anything needed on my system, but if it says it needs admin rights you can always escalate on the command prompt (right click on the search result for the command prompt instead of just pressing ENTER or clicking and select “run as administrator”.) You can also get IP addresses from the Network and Sharing Center, which it’s useful to go to to make sure your file sharing stuff is working correctly anyway.
If you have an older XBMC than January 2007 – including the stable 2.0.1 – you’ll see that sort of connect failure error instead of your Vista shared content. It’s very likely that updating to the newest T3CH copy (link in part one) should help get it working; you should do so anyway, it’s a lot better at decoding certain fairly common formats, including Flash video. Please post here if you continue to have problems; I’ll see.
Great blog, very comprehensive and a great point of reference.
I’m not sure if you’re aware but the creation of an additional ‘xbox’ account under Vista is unecessary – assuming you’re not bothered about user specific privilages :D . One can simply enable sharing for ‘everyone (in this list)’ in the ‘File Sharing, Choose people to share with’ stage of the process and then follow the rest of your guide substituting the ‘xbox’ account details for the primary user name and password.
I am, as it happens, but I think having a separate user account is extremely useful for other purposes – allowing for custom shares and so on and sidestepping certain Windows security features that would normally bite Average Family-type Windows users. I used to use a blank account when I used XP, but switched to this format because it’s just easier than fiddling with the depths of Windows file sharing in Vista.
Thanks for the comments, by the way; much appreciated.
hello, Very nice guide sir. I want to ‘Add Source’ to another music folder within the current music folder on my xbox but when I select the drive and press the white button, I don’t have “Add Source” in the context Menu. Could you help me figure out why “Add Source” is not appearing?
Thanks,
Reki
Well for me the journey has not been so good. I downloaded the latest copy from T3CH, but I have a feeling I am doing something wrong at a more basic level. I am running vista Home premium. For a start I cant ping my xbox from the vista machine. Havent got the error code with me, but it is a bit obscure. Then from the other side, the xbox, the best I have managed is connection refused. I have shut my firewall down on vista and it doesnt make any difference. I can use my crossover cable to connect to my XP box so that is not an issue. My xbox has a fixed ip address and i can ping that from xp. The private network in vista is connected to the xbox but it is almost as if the basic comms between the 2 is not happening. I can connect my vista box to my xp box and that is fine. If i ping my xbox ip address with the cable unplugged then i get destination host unreachable. When I plug the ethernet in and ping again, from vista I get a ping error code, so it is as if the ip is recognised but something further down the track is not working. will post the error I get from the ping when i get home
reki: You can only add sources to the root screen, not within other folders. If you’ve set a music screen as your favourite so it comes up immediately, you’ll need to go back from there. Note that sources lists are separate for music, movies and pictures, so you need to set up separately for each; if all else fails, it’s stored as an XML file in the XBMC UserData folder that you can FTP across and edit manually.
chris harte: Check your subnet masks, IP addresses and so on on both ends – there’s something very odd going on here. Maybe set both within 192.168.0.number/255.255.255.0.
I would like to say that this has been the most well articulated step-by-step manual to connecting SMB shares from xbmc that I have come across. That being said, I continue to have problems.
Setup:
XP Pro SP2
All Antivirus off
Sharing enabled
Xbox wired to belkin router (wireless router)
PC connected wirelessly
setup the user account for Xbox
found my IP
After all this I get “Invalid Computer Name”
All help appreciated.
Hmm. This is an odd one, and problems with SMB can be somewhat intractable and weird. I’d suggest:
* Checking your workgroup and computer name (Start>Control Panel, System, first tab); set it up in XBMC, on the same page as you set up the xbox/(password) place. (And it does need to have a password.)
* The Belkin router will, unless configured not to do so, give out different IP addresses every time your machine is started depending on order; look up the online manual and see if there’s functionality to fix IP addresses (“static DHCP”) to a particular network card’s “MAC” address.
* Try accessing the machine from its IP address rather than its name. For example, open a command prompt on your PC and type in “net view \\192.168.whateveritactuallyis”; it should show a list of shares if everything’s working.
Try these and see if they work; if you’re still having trouble, I can go through some of the in depth, less obvious stuff. Thanks for the compliment.
I too have this problem it is extremly annoying. I wish my toshiba had full XP compatibility, because Vista is a Mule.
I’ve never had any serious problems with Vista, but as mentioned get your XBMC up to date through T3CH. Any 2007 version will do, and they’ve added some neat stuff since then too…
Excellent guide! Vista & XBMC have been singing on my wireless WRT54G network for some time, but your guide was refreshingly helpful when doing a fresh install of Xbmc.
I have really enjoyed this guide so far. Very well done.
When will part 3 be ready?
Regards,
hubgar
Inquisitor, help!!
I’m in the same situation as HarryJ… here’s what I have going on:
XP Pro sp2
Antivirus off
Sharing enabled (both on a C:\Pictures folder, and for an external USB drive attached to the PC)
PC wired to Netgear router (wireless router)
Xbox wired to Netgear router (wireless router)
setup a user account called ‘xbox’ with password ‘xbox’
setup a static IP on my PC
If I run fsmgmt.msc, and it shows all my shared folders properly
I am able to ping my xbox’s IP from my PC
But when I run “net view \\192.168.0.137” (my PC’s IP addy) it tells me that the network path is invalid.
However, if I run “net view \\vanier” (by PC’s name) it works and shows me the shares
So I must be doing something wrong if my PC doesn’t recognize itself on the network right?
In any event XBMC can’t recognize the PC either through IP Address or Name (and I even tried editing the Sources.xml file.. no luck)
Please help!
The AV is not the problem (unless it has a firewalling component) so turning it on/off won’t make a difference. What I suspect here is a firewalling issue – your PC will know itself by “vanier” and so go through on the loopback, but it’ll try going over the network adapter for the IP address and hit the firewall. I would suggest looking in Windows Firewall and making sure that (a) file sharing is turned on in the exceptions list, (b) the firewall is on for all adaptors, (c) that netbios over TCP/IP is on (TCP/IP properties->advanced->WINS->default setting) and (d) you’ve not got a secondary personal firewall of the Norton/McAfee/etc type in the way. You can generally tell (d) by switching Windows Firewall off and trying again (make sure to turn it back on again afterwards.)
I also don’t recommend manually assigned static IPs when dealing with routers – most Netgears allow you to set up static DHCP based on your device’s MAC address, which is easier for everyone and everything concerned. On the DG834G it’s in Advanced/Lan IP Address/Address Reservation – set up your devices in there and switch to all DHCP on your machines.
If you continue to have problems, please post here. An ipconfig/all would be very useful.
Genius! Thanks sooo much!
It was the firewall, the media center just went from tie fighter to death star!!!!
I am also getting the eternal “invalid computer name” error. I can connect to the xbox via FTP from the PC with no problems. My Xbox can connect to the internet with no problems. I can’t, however, set up a network location on the xbox to recognize the PC.
My computer name is “HP-MCPC” (without the quotes, of course) and it’s IP is 192.168.15.103. I’ve tried this both ways and no luck.
The folder I’m trying to access at this point is:
C:\Documents and Settings\HP_Administrator\My Documents\My Videos\
Any ideas? I’m soooooo close!! (yet, somehow, still so far!)
Again, I’d check your firewalling – some AV programs (Norton especially) come with extra firewalls that exacerbate problems, so when you think File/Printer Sharing is unblocked in Windows it’s not in the other firewall, which you may have to switch into an advanced mode to be able to configure allowed servers and so on. Check that a “net view \\192.168.15.103” works on the PC in question itself, too (on the command line).
I don’t have any firewalls running, other than one that may be in the router… I have windows firewall disabled and I don’t use any other third-party firewalls. While I’m not familiar with the NET commands… I did as you said but it instructed me to use a different syntax… when I substitute the IP with the computer name [hpmcpc] it gives me the following:
Shared resources at \\hpmcpc
Mike’s HP Media Center PC
Share name Type Comment
——————————————————————————–
Divx Movies DISK
Edited Movies DISK
MIRO DISK
My Music DISK
Printer2 PRINT Konica Minolta Magicolor 24300DL
(and this continues to list all the shared resources on the computer)
So, what would you suggest now? (I really appreciate your help in this… it’s very cool that someone takes the time to help people with this…)
Hmm, so you’re obviously sharing but Windows isn’t putting it out any further than your machine. You’re XP, so there’s a few things to check: simple or non-simple file sharing? Is netbios enabled for your network adapter? Do you have a password on the account you’re trying to share with? Is the Xbox set to the correct workgroup, username and password? Can the Xbox even see a list of what’s on your machine (by just browsing to \\192.168.whatever in the file scroller)?
An “ipconfig /all” run (again from the command line) would be helpful for further diagnosis. These Windows file sharing problems can be pretty hard to get.
Thank you for this guide, it is the most kick ass accurate guide i have seen on the internet for the XBMC Kudos to you!!!!!!!!
Hi – thanks for putting this information together, I just wish it had worked for me, its driving me nuts!!
I run xp pro, and i have a xbox user setup on the pc with a password.
xbox wired to wireless router/modem
pc wireless to router/modem
on the router i can see desktop and xbox are connected
have added xbox ip as trusted in zonealarm, windows security/firewall is disabled
can ftp from pc to xbox, can see xbox via my network places on the pc, can access internet from xbox, but can’t smbs
net view on ip no good, but ok with computer name…
>ipconfig /all
Windows IP Configuration
Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : Desktop
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
Ethernet adapter Wireless Network Connection 2:
Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : NETGEAR WG311v3 802.11g Wireless PC
Adapter
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-14-6C-33-24-01
Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.3
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.0.0.0
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.1.1.1
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Sunday, 23 March 2008 11:05:55 p.m.
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Monday, 24 March 2008 12:05:55 a.m.
I have been using my xbox via an old xp pc as i could not get the xbox past what I thought were security levels on vista. Finally last week in a fit of anger I removed the mcafee viurus software that came as a free 1 year subscription with vista. What a poisoned chalice that turned out to be. After I removed the mcafee and went back to the CA virus checker I used to use, it all started to work. I had previously stopped the mcafee tools but I am sure they leave something running that I hadnt checked. Should have gone through the process list and shut down anything to do with them. I posted my initial problem way up the chain in this area months ago. Now I can get back to the original next step to stream from youtube etc.
Excellent guide! I’ve been using XBMC to connect to XP for years. Now I am switching my media server to Vista and this helps the understanding! I’m still a little confused though. In my “Public” folder in Vista, shouldn’t I be able to connect from XBMC without any password?
Quite possibly, but it’s much more secure, and easier in the long run to do it by username/password on a folder-by-folder level anyway.
I went through part 1 and all is fine. However, I tried to get through part 2 and setup the shares and this did not work. I read through some of the posts and you had mentioned that it may be the version of XBMC that I was running (last stable version 2006) so I decided to download 12-2007 and upgrade. Now I find that I cannot connect via ftp; I haven’t changed any settings so i’m not sure what the issue is. I tried to ping the xbox IP, but it fails. Please help…what type of info do you need from me?
Hmm. Sounds like your Xbox network settings have changed. Go into XBMC->Settings->Network and make sure everything’s what it should be there (DHCP/static IP, connection information etc), and restart the box. Make sure your network cable’s properly in and showing up as connected on your router/switch as well.
Do you have an IP scheme or do you just get them through DHCP?
If all else fails, you should be able to force it to get an IP using a boot CD or the Microsoft dashboard. Please let me know how you get on.
I haven’t changed anything on the xbox and made sure network patch cable is attached. I am getting all through DHCP. Still no luck with ftp connection. I get the following error.
[19:45:52] Resolving host name “192.168.1.101”
[19:45:52] Connecting to 192.168.1.101 Port: 21
[19:46:13] A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond.
[19:46:13] Connect failed. Waiting to retry (30s)…
[19:46:13] Client closed the connection.
Can you see your current IPs on the XBMC diagnostics screen?
Fixed…just took awhile. I have XBMC singing…with your help of course. Thanks.
You sir, may have very well saved my xbox and a very large window from being broken. This is by far the easiest guide I have found. I’ve been using XBMC for about a week and have been wanting to use some of the cooler features. I may never leave my apartment again. Thanks.
PLEASE Help! I am stumped. I have xp connected to router connected to xbox. I can ftp no problem, I see the banner at the bottom of the screen stream, so I know I have internet on the Xbox. I can access my WORKGROUP and even see the shared files—however when I try to add them as a source I get “could not retrieve directory info. this could be due to the network being connected”(this is after a FRESH install of the latest XBMC–AFTER FTP userdata I am getting a similar error while trying to access the shared folder on the xbox. “remote share Could not connect to network server”) I have had this working in the past so I can’t understand where I am going wrong. I have username Xbox pass xbox on my pc with the folders shared. As I said, I SEE the folders I want to access through the Xbox-I just can’t access them. ANY help would be hugely appreciated-Thanks in advance.
Thanks a bunch for writing this guide. I’ve only just now been able to get sharing to work reliably after reading this. You’ve saved me a LOT of aggravation! :)
Hi. I’ve searched through so many guides and forums now, that I figured I had to ask if anyone could think of anything else that might stop the xbox from recognizing the workgroup and other computers on the network and the shared files on that network.
FTP works. Xbmc can access internet. Browsing for shares=fails.
I’ve tried with both Vista and XP computers
– this guide
– disarming windows firewalls and AV
– reinstalling xbmc
– smb//192.168.0.101
– smb//workgroup
– smb//workgroup/asus
– smb//workgroup/LG
-as well as all of the above with username and password.
The errors I get when trying to access the shares
“Invalid computer name” or “The connection was refused”
really appreciate the help.. but I’m skeptic to anywone having a solution to this. I’ve had share’s up and working with the same hardware before we moved and with slayers 2.7 but after the move shares stopped working so I figured I’d reinstall. tried the newest t3ch and am now on AID 4.3’s version.
I’m stumped.
Help! I am a hardcore newbie. I have the soft modded xbox with xbmc. I have been successful at setting up the FTP process, i have even moved a movie from my laptop to my xbox. I am connected via crossover cable between xbox and laptop. I have Vista home on my laptop. I cannot however, get any of my files to share. I have followed all of the steps above and everytime i try to share a file it says “file cannot be shared” i tried setting up new user accounts and the files i was trying to share would not even appear on those accounts. The network must be fine as the FTP works fine but why can’t i share files and few them on my xbox?
this is the best very best by far guide to the XBMC thank you so much all the hours of head scratching have been for something.
thank you very much
You, sir, are doing God’s work. Thanks for the clearest explanation for enabling SMB shares with Vista and XBMC.
Hello There. I am very new to this. I thrased it out last night for about 5 hours and made progress but am still not there. Here is a summary.
– Error I keep getting is ‘invalid computer name’
– OS is Windows XP (Home edition)
– VP is Macaffe
– Connect XBOX to PC via dynalink ethrnet router (cat5e cable)
– Have created new user with account names as xbox and password ****
– Have setup folder to be shared on network
The stage I am currently at is:
1) When I go into the XBMC settings and network, I can see my network settings (IP, DNS number etc) so I know xbmc is talking to something.
2) When I go to add source location and click the smb// option it shows my PC work group “MSHOME” when I click on this stalls for a bit then returns ‘invalid computer name’.
3) When I add a new network source and enter computer name or ip I get ‘invalid computer name’
Being a novice on the PC I have a few clarification questions.
1) Which IP address should I use in the server location? (router, pc and where do I get this from)
OR
2) Which computer name should I use? (i.e full comuter name, computer location, account name?
3) Does the PC have to logged into the XBOX account for this to work.
These are just some ideas I had as to where i might be going wrong.
Looking for a magic bullet here.
Thanks for you time.
Hi there
I have read your articles with great interest regarding XBMC. I am a new user and am SO impressed with the software and the community! :)
One question that I have relates to optimizing XBMC for video playback using a NAS (Netgear ReadyNAS+ for me)
I have a 6TB NAS and a wirless router dedicated for the purpose of streaming my DVD collection which I have backed up using DVD Shrink. Great little program. Many of my old dvds get copied at 100% (no compression) and I set a limit of 4gb per movie to save disk space and allow playback on FAT32 drives (PS3 doen’t read NTFS for example) At first I was going to use PS3 as my video client. THEN I FOUND XBMC! It ROCKS!
What I need now is to find out how to connect my NAS (I created a mapped network drive and have selected that drive, Z: for me , and XBMC plays the video – sometimes with buffering and sometimes without.
My question – What is the MOST efficient means of making the wireless connection to the shared NAS? Is there any difference in selecting a new source as a UPnP source, SMB?, Mapped Network Drive??
And is there a way to fine tune wireless connection and playback. Sometimes there is a delay (albeit only 10-30 seconds) before playback begins. I hope to allow my two kids and the central TV access to the NAS and want to stream most efficiently. As well, what is the minimum PC required to run XMBC and get good perfromance (For example, will a netbook with 2Gig RAM and a nice video card suffice? I have tried one (the New Gateway) and it appears to run slower than my expensiive SOny laptop and periodicly hangs) Is this a function of netbook performance or the way in which I have set up my NAS connection
Any help appreciated!
Eddie
Thanks for the help Inquisitor
It took me a while but I got it running. Great stuf this xbmc. A good reason to
keep my old xbox running.
btw. I did all this steps with win 7. works pretty much the same. no extra troubles
and all the info is here. If it’s not working with finding your shares. just upgrade
your XBMC to the latest version. see the previous guide for instructions.
Once again thank you Inquisitor
With regards,: Peevb
Yay! This one is my favorite!!! :D
This tutorial is more up to date:
http://arturito.net/2011/12/03/how-to-configure-library-mode-in-xbmc-apple-tv-2g-movie-covers-title-genre-part-1/