I recently bought an Xbox One and I love it so much! The games are awesome and the Xbox Live service is sweet. But that isn't where it ends, outside of playing games, there are many other things you can do. For example, you can use your console to stream videos, music, and pictures from the computer to your TV. But how to do that? There are a few different ways you can go about streaming your video to the Xbox One.
The Xbox One allows you to stream video content with the help of Windows Media Center 10, Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 computers. The streaming process is fairly simple, so long as both devices reside on the same network, either via wired or wireless connection and make sure to keep the Xbox One on.
Play games installed on your Xbox console, including Xbox Game Pass titles, to any compatible Android or iOS device. Currently excludes backward compatible titles from Xbox 360 or Original Xbox. Xbox Wireless Controllers accompanying the Xbox Series X and Xbox One X, Xbox Elite Wireless Controller. Microsoft's Wireless Display app uses Miracast to create a connection between a PC and the Xbox One, and you can cast to the Xbox using the winkey + P combination. There are different latency modes. With Lightstream, Xbox creators can add overlays, alerts, different scenes, and more to their stream without needing to invest in a streaming computer or capture card. A Lightstream plan is required to use the integration, and plans start at $8/month. Unlimited streaming through this integration is included in any Lightstream plan. Stream media to your Xbox console from a computer To stream media from your PC: Start the Groove or Movies & TV app on your computer. Select a song or video that's stored on your computer. First things first: In order to stream Steam games to an Xbox One, you'll need a gaming PC with Steam installed, an Xbox One and a router.
On Windows 10
1. Cast to Device
This is the easiest way of streaming video files from your Windows PC to your Xbox One. To do this, first, make sure that your Xbox One is listed as a Device on your computer. Windows computers have a feature called Cast to Device which lets the PC play a video straight to another device. In our case, you need to right-click the desired file in File Explorer or Windows Explorer and use the 'Cast to Device' menu to select your Xbox One. Now you can check to see whether the video is playing on your Xbox One, if it doesn't work, you can choose to use the alternative methods below.
2. Open With the Films & TV App
Windows 10 includes some great built-in apps for playing video, these third-party apps can be used to stream content to your Xbox One easily.
So first up, locate the video that you want to watch on Xbox One. Then highlight the file and right mouse click, in the context menu, choose 'Open with' option and select the 'Films & TV' app.
Next, the video will open in the app and starts playing automatically. Pause it and click the '..' button in the bottom right corner of the player.
At last, select 'Cast to Device' and wait for loading the list of devices. The Xbox One device will be listed, select it to stream to your Xbox. Then you can check to see if the video is playable on your Xbox One.
3. Set up A Shared Library
If the above ways cannot stream your video to Xbox One successfully, here is another solution which is capable of getting this job done. All you need is to follow the steps in a few clicks.
Stream Pc To Xbox 1
First of all, access the Control Panel and go to 'Network and Internet > Homegroup > Choose homegroup and sharing options'.
On the next window, click on the 'Create a homegroup' button.
Then you will be asked to choose files and devices you want to share and set permission levels. In our case, you only need to set 'Shared' permission to Video. You can also share pictures, music, documents, printers & devices as needed. If the shared files you do not want any users to see, just remember to set up the password to protect your Homegroup. Once you are done, click 'Finish' to finish the process.
Stream Xbox To Mac
Now it's time to add your videos to the homegroup. Open 'File Explorer' and navigate to 'This PC > Videos'. Next, in your Xbox One, open the Media Player app from the 'Games & Apps' menu. You should see a folder labeled with the name of your PC. Open it and find your video files. Then you can try to play it on your Xbox One.
On Windows 7 & 8
Go to 'Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers'. Then click 'Add Device' to find your console and click on 'Add this device'.
Find the video on your local computer, simply right-click the file and select 'Play To' option, and then choose your Xbox One.
The Windows Media Player will pop up, which will stream the video to your Xbox One.
On Windows 8.1
In Windows 8.1, Microsoft changed 'Play To' to 'Play' and the way to access it from the Device charm and pane. Even so, But you can still follow the steps below to complete this task:
Navigate to 'PC & devices > Devices'. Make sure your Xbox One is listed, if not, just click 'Add a device' to select the Xbox One from the list.
Open your Xbox Video app and start to play the video that you want to stream.
To open the Windows Charms Menu, you can use the keyboard, the mouse or touch. Keyboard: press the Windows key + C. Mouse: go to the bottom or top right corner of your screen, and then move your cursor up or down to access the charms. Touch: swipe from the right edge of the screen towards center.
When the Charms Menu pops up, select 'Devices > Play'. Then you will see your Xbox One is listed. click on it and your video will be streamed to Xbox One.
Your PC and Xbox One are now linked, just try the above solutions to stream your videos or other files straight to your console.
Xbox One Supported File Types:
The Xbox One Media Player app supports a number of file types and codecs for audio and video playback and image display. Here's a list of what the app supports, straight from Microsoft:
Music, Video, and Container Formats: 3GP audio, 3GP video, 3GP2, AAC, ADTS, .asf, AVI DivX, DV AVI, AVI uncompressed, AVI Xvid, H.264 AVCHD, M-JPEG, .mkv, .mov, MP3, MPEG-PS, MPEG-2, MPEG-2 HD, MPEG-2 TS, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, MPEG-4 SP, WAV, WMA, WMA Lossless, WMA Pro, WMA Voice, WMV, WMV HD
Picture Formats: Animated GIF, BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF
Extra Tips:
Actually, it is quite easy to stream Xbox One supported video formats through the above methods. However, not all formats are compatible with the Xbox One's current streaming services. I tried an RMVB movie format but didn't get it to read it. What should we do? Just have to wait the Microsoft extend the media format compatibility with future updates? That's not needed anymore. There's an easy solution we could recommend - VideoSolo Free Video Converter. It is the Xbox video converter that enables you to stream Xbox unsupported formats with just a click and enjoy all videos on Xbox freely.
I've been really enjoying my Xbox lately (when the family is asleep) as well as some fun Retrogaming on original consoles. Back in 2015 I showed how you can stream from your Xbox to any PC using the Xbox app from the Windows Store. You can pair your Xbox controller with any PC you've got around (either with the $20 Xbox Wireless Adapter or just with a micro-USB cable you likely have already). In fact, I often walk on the treadmill while streaming games from the Xbox to my little Surface Pro 3.
Then, a year later I did the inverse. I played PC games on my big screen using a SteamLink! Although they've been discontinued, they are out there and they work great. This little box lets you play PC games remotely on your large screens. I have a big PC in my office and I wanted to use the big TV in the living room. The game still runs on the PC but the video/audio and controls are all remoted to the Xbox. Plus, SteamLink only works with the Steam app running and is optimized for Steam games. It's a single task box and one more thing to plug into HDMI but it works well.
Fast-forward to today and I learned that Windows 10 can project its screen to an Xbox One AND you can use your Xbox One controller to control it (it's paired on the Xbox side) and play games or run apps. No extra equipment needed.
I installed the Xbox Wireless Display App on my Xbox One. Then on my PC, here's what I see upon pressing Win+P and clicking 'Connect to Wireless Display.'
Once I've duplicated, you can see here I'm writing this blog post wirelessly projected to the Xbox. It just worked. Took 5 min to do this.
If you're tech savvy, you may say, isn't this 'just Miracast' and 'hasn't this always been possible?' Yes and no. What's been updated is the Xbox Wireless Display App that you'll want to install and run on your Xbox. You may have been able to project your PC screen to various sticks and Miracast adapters, but this free app makes your Xbox a receiver for Miracast broadcasts (over wifi or LAN) and most importantly - now you can use your Xbox controller already paired to the Xbox to control the remote PC. You can use that control to play games or switch to mouse control mode with Start+Select and mouse around with your Xbox thumbsticks!
If I hit the menu button I can see how the controllers map to PC controls. No remote keyboard and mouse connected from the Xbox..yet. (and to be clear, no word if that will ever be supported but it'd be cool!)
To make sure you can do this, run DxDiag and save all information into 'DxDiag.txt.' Here's part of mine. There's nothing special about my machine. It's worth pointing out I have no Wifi adapter on this machine and it has an NVidia 1080 video card. Miracast is happening over the Wired LAN (local area network) in my house. This is Miracast over Infrastructure and it's in Windows 10 since version 1703 (March 2017).
When you've connected your PC to my Xbox and are streaming FROM my PC to your Xbox, you'll see this bar at the top of the PC side. There's three optimization settings for Gaming, Working, and Watching Videos. I assume these are balancing crispness/quality with framerate and latency changes.
Windows hard drive. Now let's take it to the next level. I can run Steam Big Picture and here I am running Batman: Arkham Origins on my PC, but played on and controlled from my Xbox in the other room!
Ok this is amazing. You run 'wireless display' on your Xbox. Then on your PC, just WinKey+P on your PC and connect to wireless display. This is Batman on my Xbox..RUNNING ON MY PC pic.twitter.com/pyxmHLe3fz
— Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) March 14, 2019I like that I don't need the SteamLink. I find that this runs more reliably and more easily than my original set up. I like that I can switch the Xbox controller from controller mode to mouse mode. And most of all I like that this doesn't require any custom setup, extra work, or drivers. It just worked out of the box for me.
Your mileage may vary and I'm trying to figuire out why some people's video card drivers don't allow this and then end up with no 'Connect to a Wireless Display' option in their Win+P menu. If you figure it out, please sound of in the comments.
Give it a try! I hope you enjoy it. I'm having a blast.
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About Scott
Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author. Drawing applications for windows.
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