Streaming via external hard drive (Alt for Mac)

[Rivals]

Thus far, using Rivet for streaming has worked really well. I get 200 slots on Xbox and I can select from my entire library of mp3 sounds in real time. Editing events is easy too. If I don't like the volume of a clip, I can't edit it in Garage Band on my computer and it is automatically updated by Rivet. All wireless, no delay in any of my events thus far.

[Rivals]

So, day three of steaming Stadium Sounds through a Mac via Rivet. I stated that my m3u files were worthless in a previous post. I was TOTALLY wrong. You not only have to create playlists on iTunes for streaming to work on Xbox, you have to make sure those playlists are loaded there by clicking the m3u file. I loaded a bunch of my clips by just clicking the mp3, but they weren't playing in the Xbox music library. I realized the clips that didn't work didn't have an m3u file in the same folder.

It gets better. I have about 176 files in my NCAA Sounds folder with 176 matching m3u files. All have a corresponding iTunes playlist that is recognized by Rivet. All work in my Xbox library. Only about 20 seem to work in the game!!! Oh, the joy. This seems to be an EA issue. The 100 slots is an EA issue. I thought it was an Xbox HDD problem, but only 100 events out of my 176 show up in the game's selection menu, while all show up in my Xbox library. I'm gonna double check some things, but if this is an EA issue... why bother?

[mtoo22]

I have done everything you said. Yet when i go to preview sound, I got nothing in game, only when i listen to it with the xbox media player

[Rivals]

I have the xbox media player working great, but getting those clips to play in the game consistently seems next to impossible. Very frustrating. I have more than 200 files all working fine in the media center correctly with no delay whatsoever. Unfortunately, there's all kinds of lag with this game, and when streaming sounds, it just gets worse. Freezing, crashes... you name it. But tonight I played a game of USC at Oregon State without any custom clips. Wow, what a sad state the audio is for this game. I thought I was in church. I think I would have more success if I could circumvent iTunes in this process, but I really don't see a way. And because you only get the first 100 clips to show up in game (don't know why) you have to think or your toes to get a full selection of songs. I just put an "x" in front of any playlist that is not in my top 100 because they show up alphabetically. It's come to that.

[Rivals]

Quote: Originally Posted by mtoo22

I have done everything you said. Yet when i go to preview sound, I got nothing in game, only when i listen to it with the xbox media player

Yeah, that has happened to me on a few occasions. Let me track my steps for everyone else who may be interested in this. All five of you.

I first built my playlists in one giant folder called NCAA Sounds. I named every song/event with the school name_song title_event.mp3. Then I created a folder for each school within that giant folder. That helped me break things up.

After I got my mp3 files in order, I began building my m3u files library in each school folder. For my Alabama_Bammy Bound_FG.mp3 I created a Alabama_Bammy Bound_FG.m3u file in that same folder. The m3u file is simply a text file with the name of the mp3 inside of it saved with the extension m3u. I saved all of my files as Latin 1, which is a Windows codec for m3u. You can also add in directives to you m3u files, but I don't think that is necessary. Just remember that the text inside the file is mp3 and the text is saved as m3u.

So, got my mp3 and m3u library built in my NCAA Sounds folder, which I keep on an external hard drive. You don't have to do that. I do it because I don't need all of these files on my hard drive.

Here's is the tricky part that got me. If you are using Rivet or Connect360, you have to now build MORE playlists in iTunes. These program do not allow you to grab music files from just any old folder. I even tried switching my source folder for iTunes so that it would go to my external hard drive. That did not work for me. I also tried making an alias NCAA Sounds folder. Did not work either. So you're basically stuck using iTunes in this process as a middle man.

In building your playlists in iTunes, REMEMBER to load each song/event by clicking your m3u file. That is what tells iTunes where to get the file to play it. I screwed this up thinking I didn't need those m3u files I created and started clicking the mp3 files so they would play in iTunes. They won't even get to your 360 that way. I know there's a better xml script that would cut through all of this m3u nonsense, but I'm not versed in xml, which is the file type iTunes uses for its playlists.

So hit that m3u file, watch it load in iTunes and then save the track as a playlist. Load your one song/event per list and then truncate them into conference folders to reduce the eyesore in iTunes.

You can begin to check in with Rivet to see your playlists build. Just go to preferences, music and see all of your playlists listed. I only have music selected and the selected files option selected. NOTE, if you have an unchecked playlist in the middle of your event playlists, the game with stop playing the song/events after that point. Meaning, if you have playlist "A" and then playlist "B" is unchecked, playlist "C" will not play. You pretty much have to delete the playlists you don't want the game to see via iTunes. That or just stick an X in front of the title so it appears last on your Rivet preference plane.

Jeeez... what else? Once your iTunes lists are finished, close Rivet out and re-open it. Then go to your Xbox and start it up. Go to my Xbox, music library and saved playlists. Your playlists should be there. Test a few out because if they don't work here, they will not work in the game. If they work here, they should work in the game. Of course, as I type, mine are playing fine in the dashboard, but I'm getting error messages when I attempt to pull them up in the game. If only some work, check back on the unchecked playlist issue or the method in which you loaded each event into iTunes.

mtoo22, your issue is the same as mine. I'm still trying to figure out why the game recognizes files one minute and not the next. Why do the files play clearly in the media center, yet lag and freeze the game at times? I don't know. It's been a lot of trial and error for me. It was worked perfectly on occasion. I had Alabama playing home against Tennessee and the atmosphere was improved 100-fold with Stadium Sounds added. There's a lot of dead air in this year's game that needs to be filled.

I'll keep checking in with anything I figure out. Please do the same.

[rynecandy]

I used Playback ($15) for both my 360 and PS3. On the Xbox it just streams the music straight from my Mac, but on my PS3, I stream the music files to my PS3 (can play in menu but not game) and then copy it to the hard drive (in order to play in the game)