[update] If you’ve updated your server hardware and now you can’t connect to your shared library from the 360/ps3 see the troubleshooting entry added 9/19/2008. I wanted to record how I was able to get WMP11 and media sharing (for use with my xbox 360) working on Windows 2003 since the instructions out there are pretty crap. It all stemmed from my fruitless efforts to get TVersity to transcode ALAC out to the 360. I swear I got it working once, but I’ve never been able to reproduce it. And I’ve monkeyed around so much, I’m not even sure I was using TVersity anymore. In the mistaken assumption that if the file could be played in WMP, that it’d be able to send it as PCM to the 360, I went down this road.

TVersity will share the same files that WMP11 will, but I’d consider WMP11 to be a more stable platform. Unfortunately, in my tests it also seems to be noticebly slower. The first time the 360 connects to the WMP11 library is painful. And then WMP appears to be buffering more of the movie than TVersity does, because you stare at black screen for ten seconds after you select it. I’ve still decided to use WMP over TVersity just because it follows folder organization. Tversity has the upper hand in that it is able to transcode formats that the 360 can’t natively play, but to do that you’ve got to have a fairly decent computer … which I don’t. So my primary concerning is just letting the 360 see my movies that I’ve already converted to WMV. Looks like if I want ALAC support, I’ll have to use Connect360 and switch back forth between connecting to my server and my mac.

There’s a great program called Encode360 that will convert just about anything to WMV to be played on the 360. Check out the main download page for all the pre-reqs. Go to the forums to get the very latest version and poke around for known problems. Don’t forget to set AC3filter to 5.1 output or you’ll only get 2 channel audio. And lastly, 5.1 only seems to work with 1-pass CBR; not ideal, but it’s better than nothing.

I make no guarantees about the security of this hack or the stability of the server after it’s installed. The files are all up-to-date compared to a working XP sp2 install, but for obvious reasons if there were a security risk discovered, windows update isn’t going to help you out.

And after all this, I’m now wondering if I could find a windows media connect 2.0 install package, would I be able to just install it using the win2k3 sp2 compat mode once I got ssdp and upnp working? Following that line of thinking, should I just ditch exchange and move the server to Vista to use Media Center? That opens up a whole new set of headaches.

Things you’ll need before you start:

1. Windows 2003 with sp2 installed.
2. XP service pack 2 installation disc.
3. WMP11 installation package. (download from Microsoft or, if it’s been removed, here)
4. XtraServices.inf and Main.inf files. ( here)
5. The following reg files: legacy_sspdsrv.reg, SSDPSRV.reg and upnphost.reg (grab all three here). These are the keys from the ssdp and upnphost services from a working wmp11 install on xp sp2.
6. Winrar.

Step 1: Installing the SSPD and UPNP host services

1. Unzip service_inf.zip from above and copy XtraServices.inf to %windir%\inf.
2. Copy main.inf to c:\ … this isn’t necessary but it makes it a lot easier to type the next command.
3. Open command prompt and type the following sysocmgr.exe /i:c:\main.inf
4. You’ll be presented with a dialog box for installing optional services; only select, ‘Universal Plug and Play’ and click Next.
5. When prompted for files, insert the XP sp2 install disc, click browse and navigate to the i386 dir.
6. Once the installation is complete run services.msc, find, ‘SSDP Discovery Service’ and, ‘Universal Plug and Play Device Host’ and change upnphost from manual to automatic.

You’ll now have the services installed, but they won’t start yet. Part of the registry entries will be created during the install but not all. I’m sure if you were to modify XtraServices.inf to include them all you could skip this next step.

Step 2: Importing Registry entries to get services working.

1. Unzip wmp11on2k3regpack.zip.
2. Double click SSDPSRV.reg and upnphost.reg to import them.
3. Run regedit and go to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root and change the permissions on this key to allow the current user write access. Leave open.
4. Double click legacy_sspdsrv.reg to import it. If you receive a permission error, go back a step and check permissions again.
5. Go back to regedit, refresh and verify that HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum\Root\LEGACY_SSDPSRV\0000\Control was created and that string value ActiveService with a value SSDPSRV was created.
6. Remove the permissions you set on \Root.
7. Go to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SvcHost and modify the string, LocalService to include upnphost SSDPSRV.
8. Reboot.

The first reg imports are mainly to add the proper dependencies to SSDP; I don’t recall if there are any additional strings or dwords that upnphost is missing, but I wanted to make sure it mirrored a working install. The final entry for svchost is most likely the critical piece. Before the entries for upnphost and ssdp are added, you’ll get an error message that svchost isn’t configured to serve them.

Step 3: Install WMP11

1. Open Winrar and then open Wmp11-windowsxp-x86-enu.exe and extract everything. I think you can just extract wmfdist11.exe and wmp11.exe, but I haven’t tested that.
2. Use Winrar to open wmfdist11.exe and extract.
3. Use Winrar to oepn wmp11.exe and extract.
4. Navigate to where you extracted wmfdist11.exe and right click on \update\update.exe, choose properties and then compatibility. Click, ‘Run this program in compatibility mode for:’ and choose Windows XP from the drop down.
5. Repeat for wmp11\update\update.exe.
6. Run wmfdist11\update\update.exe and the installer will start. Just follow the defaults.
7. When it completes, Reboot.
8. Repeat for wmp11\update\update.exe and Reboot when finished.
9. Run services.msc and verify that SSDP Discovery Service, Universal Plug and Play Device Host and Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service are all set to automatic and have all started.

You should now have a working WMP11 (the easy part) with Windows Media Sharing (the hard part) installed. All that’s left to do now is test that the Xbox 360 can see your server and play files from it.

Step 4: Setting up the 360 to play files from your server.

1. Run WMP11, and step through the first run wizard. Make sure to choose a store (URGE) during setup or the DRM files won’t be created. If you don’t install a store the DRM files aren’t created (or if you’re upgrading from WMP10, they’ll be the wrong versions) and the DRM reg entries aren’t created.
2. In WMP11, go to Tools\Options\Library and click, ‘Configure Sharing’.
3. Click Settings and check, ‘Allow new devices and computers automatically (not recommended)’. Just for now. You can go back and uncheck this later.
4. Unfortunately, because this is hacked together there are some strange permission issues. WMP11 thinks your personal folders exist in Documents And Settings\All Users. You can either copy what you want there (lame) or go to Options - Library - Monitor folder and switch to, ‘My folders and those of others that I can access’.
5. Disable everything you find there, and manually add the folders you really want monitored. Those folders will also need to be shared through explorer or the 360 won’t have permission to the files. My best guess is that WMP11 is just handing them off as network shares.
6. Go to the Xbox360 and go to the media blade. If you’ve shared music in your WMP11 library, select Music and then Computer. You’ll then get the pcsetup screen from the Xbox, select the connection dialog and then it will start scanning for upnp hosts.
7. It should find your computer running WMP11, select it and you’re done.

With a upnp host solution like WMP11, I’m pretty sure, that it can’t transcode formats that the 360 can’t natively play so you’ll need to stick to mp3, wma, wmv, h.264 and aac (un-protected). Also be warned that the first time the 360 connects to your library it can take quite awhile. This was what I was seeing that made me think TVersity was performing so much better. After that initial scan, connecting is just as fast.

Troubleshooting

• Problem:
• When checking SSDP service you get an error dialog to the effect that the service doesn’t exist.
• Solution:
• Recheck permissions on \Root, reimport legacy_ssdpsrv.reg and verify correct keys were created. Reboot.
• Problem:
• When trying to start either SSDP or upnp you get an error dialog about svchost not being configured to serve the service.
• Solution:
• Add ssdpsrv and upnphost to the svchost string in the registry and then reboot.
• Problem:
• Xbox 360 (or other WMP11) can’t connect to the shared WMP11 eventhough WMP11 on the server can see the 360.
• Solution:
• Check application event log and you’ll notice an error for the service mentioning that a client couldn’t connect because the DRM files are corrupt. Reinstall WMP11 and select to setup a store during first run (might also be able to setup a store after install and have it work; not tested.).
• Problem:
• 360 can connect to WMP11 but doesn’t see any files eventhough they’re added to the library.
• Solution:
• Make sure the files are also network shared. Additionally, you might need to add the shared folder to the list of monitored folders under, ‘My folders and those of others that I can access’ instead of, ‘My personal folders’. Not absolutely positive which one fixes the issue.
• [added 9/19/08] Problem:
• Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service indicates that it has started but xbox360/ps3 doesn’t see the shared library.
• Solution:
• Check system event log and you’ll have errors from WMPNetworkSvc event id 14344, couldn’t initialize and the windows media drm components might be corrupted. The fix is documented here on Microsoft’s site. Little did I know this is a normal occurrence with wmp11 that you’d encounter any time significant hardware changes to the system; it can also be triggered by bios updates. It’s easy enough to fix though. Make sure hidden system files are visible in folder options, go to c:\documents and settings\all users\ and rename the DRM folder (or delete if you want). Then go here and click update. Just restart the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service and it should be back to normal.