Xbox One, announced in May 2013, is the third generation of video game console from Microsoft. Like its predecessor Xbox 360, Xbox One is built from the ground up as an all-in-one entertainment hub for playing games, watching live TV, video clips, browsing photos, chatting on Skype, etc.
It will be a great visual feast to watch videos on Xbox One. In consideration that you might run into Xbox One formats incompatibility issues while watching videos, this guide focuses on the best audio and video format for Xbox One so that you can have a hassle-free video enjoyment on Xbox One.
Tip: If you want to get more information on how to enjoy media on your storage devices, check out this page.
Which Are Xbox One Supported Video/Audio Formats
The Xbox One support multiple video formats like these:
| File extensions | Containers | Video profiles | Video bit rate | |
| AVI support | .avi, .divx | AVI | MPEG-4 Part 2 (Simple Profile and Advanced Simple Profile) | 5 Mbps with resolutions of 1280 × 720 at 30 fps |
| H.264 support | .mp4, .m4v, mp4v, .mov, .avi | MPEG-4, QuickTime | Baseline, main and high (up to level 4.1) | 10 Mbps with resolutions of 1920 × 1080 at 30 fps |
| MPEG-4 Part 2 support | .mp4, .m4v, .mp4v, .mov, .avi | MPEG-4, QuickTime | MPEG-4 Part 2 (Simple Profile and Advanced Simple Profile) | 5 Mbps with resolutions of 1280 × 720 at 30 fps |
| WMV (VC-1) support | .wmv | ASF | WMV7 (WMV1), WMV8 (WMV2), WMV9 (WMV3), VC-1 (WVC1 or WMVA) in simple, main and advanced up to level 3 | Video bit rate: 15 Mbps with resolutions of 1920 × 1080 at 30 fps |
Stream Xbox One supported ContentsFor the video or audio file that is not in the Xbox One supported format list, obviously, the best way is resorting to a video converter for Xbox One to convert video to the format that Xbox One recognizes beforehand.
If you are looking to play those Xbox One supported contents on your shiny new console, you do have a few options.
Plug It In
Since the Xbox One has both and input and output for the HDMI you can actually plug your Xbox 360 (or PS3) into your Xbox One. Now, with your Xbox 360 plugged in you can stream your USB files, or whatever media you already have on your 360 through your Xbox One. Yup, it sounds a little ridiculous but does solve the problem.
DLNA
While the Xbox One does technically support DNLA, it will not automatically find a device to connect to. Basically, it acts as a receiver only, requiring you to actually send the files from you computer to the Xbox One. You will also need to install the proper Microsoft apps in order to play those files. For music files you’ll need to have Xbox Music installed, and for videos, Xbox Video. Both are free and can be found in the One Store. Now when you send a music or video file the Xbox One will recognize it and use the proper app.
Charms -> Devices -> Play
If you’re using Windows 8 or later, you can open the Devices Charm, tap Play, and select your Xbox One (which should show up if you’re on the same network) while in almost any modern app that’s currently playing a video. Notably, this even works for many flash/html5 videos when you’re using IE11.
Mobile
You can also stream media from your Android or Apple phone using an app. Note that some Android devices may be able to stream to your Xbox One by default. If not you can download AllCast Beta.
Make Xbox One-incompatible Files to Be Playable on the Game Console
Sometimes, movies and videos are unplayable on Xbox One, partly due to the files saved in the file extension like Tivo, MTS, FLV, VOB, MKV etc are out of Xbox One supported video and audio format list. The answer to this issue is to find the best codec for video playback.
Here the video codec transcoding professor Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate will be your best aid for video to Xbox One conversion. Not only it can convert any unsupported video to Xbox One supported video formats like MP4, AVI, WMV, as well as the audio file format supported by Xbox One like MP3, but also you can save yourself a lot of time with the preset profiles for each version of Xbox gadgets, making it stand out from the crowd similar software.
- Refer to this guide to learn how to Convert Videos to Xbox One Supported Formats
Play DVD/Blu-ray video on Xbox One
It’s a pity that the previous Xbox – the Xbox 360 on supports DVD. But this situation has changed on new Xbox One – it generates a DVD/Blu-ray drive. If you want to transcode protected Blu-ray/DVD into the audio and video formats Xbox One accepts, read this tutorial.
For more video tips about Xbox One, read Xbox One Column.
