How to play and stream zune media to xbox 360
January 3rd, 2007 by 
Mike Recently we put together a small video just to show the overall speed and quality with which the xbox 360 uses the zune to play all media.
But we definitely didn’t go through the steps on how to do it. In this post I’ll explain step by step on how to play and stream all media with and to xbox 360.
Play zune media with xbox 360:
- Connect one end of the sync cable to zune and other end to USB port on you xbox console.
- From the xbox dashboard, select Media, then select Music, Pictures, or Video.
- Select your zune device from the list of available devices.
- Select your desired music, video, or pictures from your Zune device.
Streaming zune software media to xbox 360:
- Open the zune software on your PC.
- Click Options, Library, Media Sharing.
- Select Share my media.
- Check the media types you want to stream to your Xbox 360 console.
- Choose whether you want to Share with all Xbox 360s or only share with these Xbox 360s.
- If you chose to share only with specific consoles, click to check (share) or uncheck (don’t share) consoles in the list.
- Click OK to begin streaming media.
- From the xbox dashboard, select Media, then select Music, Pictures, or Video.
- Select Computer and select an item to play it.
Posted in Help | 
February 18th, 2007 at 10:24 am
This does not work, I have a zune, I’ve tried every usb port on the god damn thing and it doesn’t work.
April 7th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
I’ve been trying to connect my pc and my 360 together for 6 hours now and nothing works. The Zune software won’t work because when I set everything up and choose my #60 and hit ok nothing happens and and when I hit apply nothing happens.
September 6th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
hmmm i just simply try to stream music from my zune to my 360 and it plays..for about 15 seconds and then it stops and says the zune isnt connected….
October 7th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
Hi, I’m using Zune SOFTWARE to share my music from my PC to my Xbox360 on a cable network. I’ve sorted out all the sharing bit, all the music shows up on the 360, but when i try and play any song, it doesn’t play, and it just comes up with a sort of stop sign next to the song. CAN ANYONE HELP????
October 13th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
yea i have been trying to connect my zune to my 360 for a couple of weeks i have registered my zune its has my name on it but it wont play when i click the zune button on my media dashboard its ask as if its recognizing the device then the zune button un-highlights itself and i am no longer available to select it PLEAS SOMEBODY HELP !!! i thought this was “a simple plug and play” device! any suggestion would be appreciated!
November 8th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
On my first 360 I had no problem wth plugging and playin and viewin pics from my zune to the 360. I sold that 360 and I rebought a core system now I can’t even get it to recognize that i have it hooked up but it does charge my zune?????????
December 20th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
when i try and play a zune song on my xbox it wont play and a circle with a slash across itappears
January 5th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
All these sites keep putting out bogus info. Why does Microsoft itself address this issue. The Media sharing thing is not just simple operator error.
January 18th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
plug it into the controller port and it will work!!! I had the same problem in the beginning. It will show up on the list as the name of your player… not as a music player itself… Hope this helps!!
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:20 pm
. . . ok lets see here
- Windows media Center,DID NOT WORK
- Windows Media Player 11, HA NO!
- Zune, Did Not Work
Conclusion. . . I’d like to stab the person who told me to buy a xbox 360 in the leg with a plastic fork, THE TURD WONT STREAM MUSIC OR ANYTHING and it FREEZES UP ALL THE DAMN TIME!
March 9th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
I have spent 3 months trying to get this working and I doubt if it can work. I have a wireless network and now at least my XBOX can see my pictures but I am still having problems trying to see music on my second drive (where My Music is). Ironically My Pictures are there ans there is no problem!!!! I see no evidence that zune software streaming works and customor support is useless. They should just say ‘It wont work’ and then at leats I can say time messign around with this stuff!!!!
April 5th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Will someone please just acknowledge that there is a problem with the Zune disconnecting from 360 after 15-30 seconds of playing music or vid???? I can’t get an answer and it’s driving me mad. It worked great for 24 hours then this problem happened. I wonder if it’s a sharing issue? Someone please address it.
June 5th, 2008 at 8:14 am
Tried Zune and media player, couldn’t get either to work as the PC services required just wouldn’t start….No help on the internet so I tried Tversity….after ensuring the windows firewall is disabled it worked like a dream!! Music, video, images…all wirelessly…
So if you cant get zune or media player working I’d suggest trying Tversity (just google it).
Microshaft really need to address the fact that their media streaming is bug ridden and prone to problems.
July 9th, 2008 at 2:11 am
Hi, I just downloaded the zune software and off the bat I was pretty lucky because I can stream my music and movies to my 360, but my pictures won’t show up at all, which is sad because I downloaded this software to get pictures on my 360 in the first place. I might just have to try media player…
August 7th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
I have been at it for 8 hours!!!!!!!!!!!! It doesn’t show up at all. I don’t know what to do somebody come on come up with an answer.
August 27th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
im tryin with windows 11 and when i check “share media to”… the box that is supposed to show all hosts including xbox 360, doesnt show any host. i have an ethernet cable goin from xbox to my pc nd my pc is connected to the internet. my xbox says my network is disconnected when i know it is not.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
You need to use a cross over cable if you are connecting directly to your PC; either build a cross over, or throw a switch/router/hub between the 360 and the PC.
September 20th, 2008 at 8:19 am
I had same issues as you guys ended up with wmp 11 and zune but couldn’t stream found it was my network settings. i configured my router gave assigned ip to xbox 360 (whilst still using dhcp) then put 360 into trusted zone on firewall. Made sure all folders with films music etc were shared folders and really important..imported these folders into my library (this bit will be in tutorial) I had looked into static ip but it looked like such a headache and this solution seemed easiest and you can just use all library this way rather than limited amount actually on your zune
September 26th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
I have Zune 3.0 software running on a Vista PC networked with my 360. I have enabled sharing with my 360 in the Zune software, but with a Vista PC you also have to allow media sharing with the 360 in Vista’s Network and Sharing Center. Now that I’ve done that, I have no problem playing all my music and seeing all my pictures on my 360. Most of my movies will play as well; however, it seems to be real picky about which files it will and won’t recognize. My biggest frustration has been with video Podcasts. I subscribe to Totally Rad Show and Diggnation in the Zune Marketplace. I get the large WMV files and they go to a specific folder on my PC. This folder shows up in my 360 dashboard, but the podcasts aren’t there. They were there at first, but now they are not. But if I go to Media Center through the 360 I can watch them fine, but then none of the movies that work in the dash will play in WMC. Ridiculous. All Microsoft products and programs and softwares should sync flawlessly together. It just shouldn’t be such a hassle. They need to incorporate the Zune software and Marketplace into the new Fall Dashboard overhaul. But that would make too much sense so I doubt it will happen. Good luck everyone.
March 1st, 2009 at 10:10 pm
cant get videos to play. all i get is an error code that says that my content on my portable device is protected and wont play. b.s.
June 10th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Yeah I’ve been having the same problem with trying to stream my media from my PC to my 360. The Zune software doesn’t work at all. I’ve done everything that the website tells me to do to get it to work and it still won’t work. For anybody looking for better streaming program try Vuze and/or Orb.
June 25th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
When i sync my computer to my xbox 3tittie everything syncs fine.. But when i bring it up on my xbox.. It wont bring up all of my songs. If someone will help my my email is andrew.496@hotmail.com
July 3rd, 2009 at 11:00 pm
I plug in my RCA mp3 player to my 360….and BAM! wouldn’t ya know it, it reads the damn thing and plays music just fine…but with out modding everything i can think of in the security settings, the Zune software, doesn’t show any of my media…and WMP 11 is a joke in itself…it’s funny considering all three products were made by Microsoft…but it (360) speaks RCA…what a scam
July 24th, 2009 at 11:54 am
I just wish like hell I had bought a PS3. I have been trying for days to get this Xbox360 to recognize my network with Vista, WMP11, XP, Zune, Windows Media Extender, anything. All that worked was TVersity which streams files by dynamically converting them to WMV, which is horribly annoying.
Why, when this thing is set up as a Windows Media Extender will it not utilize the codecs that the dashboard is using just fine? Presumably they DESIGNED this to play videos, yet they made it entirely non functioning. It’s like it was made specifically to be frustratingly annoying and illogically broken.
I’ve returned to using a chipped old-school xbox to play my network files, because like everything else it works better as soon as someone NOT from Microsoft designs the OS.
September 30th, 2009 at 5:00 am
friend had the same issue, i suggest you buy a small gig mp3 make a playlist on music you want to hear when you play xbox it should hook up with no problems.
October 10th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Mine works fine except for one thing, the xbox can’t find video podcast, how can i change the podcast to be viewed as a regular MP4 video file?
December 19th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Mine will play between 15-30 seconds as well and then the Zune seems to disconnect itself (or the 360 disconnects the Zune) and I have to try all over again. No solutions yet but I’ll keep looking.
February 27th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
We just came up on this issue and we cannot get it resolved. Tried the crossover cable vs. straight thru and nothing works. We did get media streaming without using the Zune PC icon located in the video and music area.