iWeber

Play MP3 on your XBOX 360

December 3, 2007 – 2:08 pm

If you have a large collection of music in mp3 format sitting on your computer, or perhaps archived to cd, then you can now stream this music from your PC directly to the XBOX 360 console. Check out these easy steps on how to set it up in Windows Vista. 

Step 1: Locate Your Music

a. Open up Windows Media Player on your computer and click Library -> Add to Library

b. Click Add to find and add all of the folders where your MP3’s are located. This step may not be necessary if your MP3’s live in one of the default folders, for example C:\Users\YourName\Music is already added. To add more folders click Advanced Options

Step 2. Share Your Music

You can share your MP3’s with any computer on your network, including the XBOX 360. To share your music:

a. While Windows Media Player is open click Library -> Media Sharing

b. Check the box labeled ‘Share my media to’ and then locate your XBOX 360. Click on the XBOX icon and click ‘Allow‘

(NOTE: If your XBOX 360 does not show up in the list, make sure it is turned on. If you have multiple networks, make sure the XBOX 360 is sitting behind the same switch/router as your computer)

Now that your computer has been told to share with the XBOX 360, go to your gaming console and browse to the ‘Media’ tab. Browse to ‘Music’ and select ‘Computer’. Your PC should show up in the list and you can now stream all of your saved music directly to the XBOX.

I must point out that you cannot play music that you’ve downloaded from iTunes since those music files are DRM encoded. At the time of this writing Apple would not release the rights to Microsoft for decoding unless MS paid them an outrageous amount of money.