Since the fall update that gave the 360 support for h264 many users end in disappointment when they find that the 360 doesn’t support the most commonly used HD container Matroska or .mkv video files. The only way to be able to do this is converting the matroska video to WMV HD which of course the xbox support. I read a few guides with a lot of steps, instructions and a lot of software to download, I read the steps and skip a lot of them just testing and testing I find out the the best solution using only 2 programs and 2 maybe 3 steps.
This conversion retain the full resolution of 720p or 1080p and digital sound up to 7.1
Programs needed
* mkvmerge GUI
* TMPGEnc Xpress (cost $99.00)
* TMPGEnc Xpress WMV HD profiles (dont needed but easier if you dont want to make one yourself)
A. Start mkvmerge and open the .mkv file, we are going to extract the video from the .mkv container
(I found that sometimes its better if you extract the audio too, don’t bother with the subtitles because the xbox don’t support it, except if is embed it in the video)

first add the video, second select the track you want to extract I select the video, third set the output file rename the file because it will replace the original I usually add the word video to the file name. for the audio to the same deselect the video track select the audio and rename the output filename to audio.
B.
1. Start TMPGEnc Xpress select Source -> add file and select the video part you extract from the .MKV (you will need to change the filetype to all files so the mkv files appears in the dialog)
2. do the same for the audio part (if you didn’t extract the audio you can use the original .mkv file in the audio part).
3. check the setting framerate 23.976
4. aspect ratio 1:1 (Squared Pixel)
5. display mode progressive
Press OK

Press Format

if you download the profiles browse and select it accordingly to the source video 720p or 1080p

Press Encode

Start the encoding

* remember that for breaking the 4gb filesize limit on the fat/fat32 external HDD for use on the xbox 360 you will need to format the hard disk to +hfs, for more info and instructions read here
* this post assume you have the necessary codecs
- like Windows media video 9 VCM here
-Windows media encoder here
- matroska pack codecs here
Posted in Articles, Tips and Tricks
Tags: 360, 4gb limit, hd matroska in 360, hd movie in xbox 360, hd video in xbox 360 external storage, matroska, mkv in xbox 360, mkv to wmv, wmv, wmv-hd, xbox
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