EPT![[image loading]](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m43/theobsessed1/starcraft.jpg)
I will start off with an apology for those that came into this thread hoping to find a way to watch Starcraft on live television (like cable or satellite, etc), because this guide is for watching downloaded video files already on your computer!
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Introduction
Hello TL~ I am theobsessed1 and I am here to write you a guide on how to watch any video, or more specifically, StarCraft:Broodwar matches on your TV! I have been a TL.net member for only a few months, and barely have over 100 post counts. However, I have been reading through the several strategies, interviews, and other wonderful resources TL has to offer for at least a year, and have finally decided to join in the fun recently. I hope that this guide will not only win me a beta key(s) but also contribute to the community!
Watching SC and other things on my television has proven to be a hugely satisfying experience compared to watching it on a lame 17" monitor while sitting in front of my desk. My TV isn't all that great either, so for those of you who do have nice TVs this might be an even greater experience so be sure to let me know how it goes!
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Getting Started
Okay let's get straight to the contents. This very beginning part of the guide might make a lot of people give a huge sigh, so I am very sorry. The fact is that for this method of watching Starcraft to work, you will need the following:
- XBOX 360
- Router
- Computer with Windows XP/Vista
- Television
- TVersity software
- *MAYBE* :: XBOX Live Membership / USB Flash Drive / CD or DVD
Yes, you do need an XBOX 360 for this method to work. If you don't have one, I am sorry that you don't because I really recommend the console. Lucky for me, my friend has gotten one for me on my birthday which you can go to my blog to read about a little bit.
The TVersity software is required to stream files from your computer onto a server so that you can play it from your XBOX 360! The software is available for download here:
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http://cdn.download.tversity.com/TVersitySetup_1_6_0_0.exe
Here are the system requirements for TVersity:
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- Pentium III 700 Mhz or better (Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz with support for Hyper Threading is recommended)
- 128 MB of memory or more (512 MB recommended)
- 50 MB of disk space (At least 1 GB of free space is recommended for cache area of transcoded media)
- Windows XP or Windows 2000
- DirectX 9.0 or higher
- Windows Media Player 9.0 or higher
- Audio enabled on the computer running the software
- Flash version 7 for the GUI (MSIE version 6.0 required for full GUI functionality, other Flash enabled browsers such as Firefox will have most but not all of the functionality.)
- 128 MB of memory or more (512 MB recommended)
- 50 MB of disk space (At least 1 GB of free space is recommended for cache area of transcoded media)
- Windows XP or Windows 2000
- DirectX 9.0 or higher
- Windows Media Player 9.0 or higher
- Audio enabled on the computer running the software
- Flash version 7 for the GUI (MSIE version 6.0 required for full GUI functionality, other Flash enabled browsers such as Firefox will have most but not all of the functionality.)
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Setting up your TVersity Software
Once you have gotten all the requirements listed above, you may now follow the steps below to get started!
1 Download TVersity if you haven't already, and download the required codecs for the types of videos you want to watch. Specifically, for StarCraft VODs that AREN'T live, you would want either .flv which plays flash files from Youtube or other online streams, and .avi which is for higher quality videos that you can download from the TL VODs section. These file types aren't codecs, they are just formats, so you want to get the actual codecs which I believe are Flash Player, DivX, and XviD. For you lazy people, the download links are listed below. You can test your codecs by trying to play a certain video with that required codec on Windows Media Player 10 or 11 (I do NOT recommend anything below 10).
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2. Install the TVersity software and set up a server. It is fine to install everything using the default settings on the setup file. Once you are done installing and have opened the program, this is what you should see on the startup menu.
![[image loading]](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m43/theobsessed1/ss1.jpg)
The media server should already be running, but in case it isn't, go ahead and click the dialogue box-looking icon on the top left next to that + sign and select "Start Sharing". Now you should be connected, so go to the Library. On the left list, click File System>Files>Folders and add a new folder by clicking Add Item on the right.
![[image loading]](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m43/theobsessed1/ss2.jpg)
First, make sure the type is Folder at the top, and then click Browse and go through your computer and select the folder that has the videos you want to play on TV. I put all my videos that are compatible with the XBOX 360 (.flv and .avi mentioned earlier) into a separate folder so I can watch these any time I want. This is convenient but it's completely up to you. Once you've located your folder, name that folder something specific like I have, so that it's easier to find on your XBOX later on. Also, press Advanced and select transcode when needed, but leave the rest as blank as they are not necessary.
You are now done setting up your TVersity software and server!
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Setting up your XBOX 360
You now want to set up your XBOX 360 so that it can connect to your PC or server to play multimedia (There is a Windows Media Center or something like that available already but the TVersity method supports more file types!) If you've already connected your XBOX to your computer before through a router to play music or other videos, you can skip to step #2, but if not, you probably want to read from the first step.
1. For people who have never set up their XBOX to be linked with their computers, start up your XBOX and go to the settings. Next, click Computers. Make sure you aren't connected to any other Windows PC or Media Center software and scroll to the Media option, click Music, and click Computer. If it asks if you've already installed Windows Media Extender software, just click YES because you are working with TVersity already.
2. If you've set up your home network (XBOX to router to PC) properly, then you should be able to go to your Video Library on your XBOX and notice a new menu called TVersity on Computer or something like that. Click that and go to the folder you created earlier. It should be like TVersity > Folders > (Folder you made earlier).
3. You should see the list of videos that are inside the folder you created before on TVersity. You can now view any of these on your TV through your XBOX. If you don't see any, then you might want to either:
- Refresh the folder on your TVersity
- Make sure there are videos inside that folder
- Restart your computer and XBOX 360
- Check to see if you've missed a step above
- Check your router or internet connection
4. When you play your video, it will take some time to open and load the content. You are not directly playing this from your computer, your files are hosted on your home server and are getting downloaded by the XBOX, so depending on your computer, internet connection, file size, and router, the speeds will vary. As with any other stream, you can PLAY your movie before the entire thing loads because it will download along the process. Make sure you've exited any unnecessary software on your computer to boost performance, and try not to download anything while doing this.
If you get an error message regarding a codec or format problem, the solution is listed at the bottom of this guide in the FAQ section.
You can now watch any video from your computer!
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Watching STARCRAFT on your TV
Okay, so now we have everything set up and now the best part of this guide, the StarCraft section. I am a player that likes to watch progamer VODs solely for certain builds, progamers, or matchups, because I don't want to sit in front of a desk all day watching videos. But now that it is playable on my TV, I can do things on my computer while watching VODs on TV, or just laying on my bed while watching them to sleep. So how do I get VODs? Read below.
Obviously TL has a huge selection of most, if not every VOD out there known to exist. They are usually high quality AVI files that might take awhile to download (worth the wait, of course), but for those who are satisfied with Youtube quality fast downloads, here is another solution! By the way, I am one of those impatient people who like to download from Youtube or other streams, but the quality of them on the TV is strangely fine or better than how it is played on my computer for some reason. This isn't confirmed but I think the quality adjusts to be a lot higher on the television. Dunno if it has anything to do with the XBOX graphics or television and whatnot. Anyway...
So to download VODs off of Youtube or another stream, there are a variety of options. I use Google Chrome because it is probably the fastest Web browser I've seen so far, so I will cover the Chrome steps first. I am not sure if these will work on other browsers such as IE or Firefox.
1. On Chrome, you should see the tool icon on the top right. Click that, and be sure "Always show bookmarks bar" is checked.
2. Right click your bookmarks bar, and click "Add a page".
3. For the name, put whatever. I used "Download Youtube". Doesn't matter.
4. For URL, which DOES matter, copy and paste this code:
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javascript:window.location.href = 'http://youtube.com/get_video?video_id=' + swfArgs['video_id']+ "&l=" + swfArgs['l'] + "&sk=" + swfArgs['sk'] + '&fmt_map' + swfArgs['fmt_map'] + '&t=' + swfArgs['t'];
5. Make sure this is going on your bookmarks bar for easy access, and not your other bookmarks folders.
6. Go to a Youtube video of Starcraft or whatever else you want to watch. Click HQ or HD to make sure it's playing in that form.
7. Click the bookmark you have just created and it will automatically start downloading the video on that page!
You can do this with several videos and once they are done downloading, just stick them in the folder you created for TVersity and you can play them on your TV! Yay, Starcraft VODs on big screen!
FOR OTHER BROWSERS:
For Internet Explorer, I used to use RealPlayer to download streams off of sites. Once you download and install RealPlayer, there is a thing that lets you mouseover on the video and it will display an option on the top right that says download using RealPlayer or something like that. If you select that option it will automatically download the video into the folder you specify and it will be in the .FLV format instead of a RealPlayer format so this is the same outcome as the Chrome method.
For Firefox, I have never really tried this because I never used Firefox enough but...
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https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3590
That is an add-on for Firefox that let's you download streaming videos apparently, so give that a try.
We are now done with everything! Whew.
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FAQ and other issues
My server won't host the files! /// XBOX doesn't see a TVersity option! etc...
I didn't mention this before because I wanted it's own space on this guide. If for whatever reason there is an issue with hosting stuff or detecting stuff on your 360, you may have to forward your ports (YAY!). Fortunately for me, I didn't have to, but you might be a lucky one. This is similar to the steps you must do to host on games such as BW or WC3.
Portforward.com does a great job of explaining this. I am not gonna post a guide on how to portforward. There happens to be another portforwarding guide(s) on TL.
But I will tell you: the port you must forward is 41952.
![[image loading]](http://images.tweaktown.com/content/1/0/1002_5.gif)
Should look something like that...
My XBOX won't play the video format!! OMG~~~~~~~
This is pissing me off too. SOME of the videos just randomly won't play. I don't know why, if it's the file name or I downloaded it in some weird other way but yeah. All my SC videos so far have been working fine because I know I downloaded them the same way each time. However, if for whatever reason it's not working, here are a few solutions:
This one isn't even a "do it if you want" thing. It's more of a requirement:
1. Get the XBOX Live update for your system so that it supports .avi and other formats. You will need an XBOX live account which was the *MAYBE* portion in the requirements at the top of this guide. If you don't have one, then you can use a USB Flash Drive or CD to transfer the update files over. For the guide on how to do this, go to
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http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/console/systemupdates.htm
These FAQ questions were only thought of by myself, so the true FAQs and issues should be coming up after I receive replies. I hope this works and I hope you enjoy! The guide may seem a little long but it really isn't a long process and it's completely worth it.
*I will add more screenshots and images for further guidance later when I have time*
Resource used for guide:
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http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1002/playing_divx_and_xvid_content_on_xbox_360_an_easy_guide/index.html
