Xbox 360: Optional Media Update Guide (to play avi's etc on your Xbox360)

[Staple2]

I've encountered a lot of people who've had the problem with their Xbox 360 that when they try to play a video file it says that an update is required, but won't let them download it. I thought I'd just post the quick solution to this on an active forum, since it took me ages to figure it out and I'd just give back to the community

It seems that Video features (eg. Video Marketplace) are only available in certain regions (USA, UK, etc), but not in others. Therefore you cannot download the update needed to play video files (divx etc), and it simply gives you the "More Information" option when selecting to download it, yet you never really get to the actual downloading.

So to solve this problem just create a dummy account (does not have to be gold, just needs to be on live) and set the region/area to UK. Try to play an avi file in your video library and it should prompt for the update. Agree and confirm your download (optional media update etc). The feature should now also be enabled on all your other accounts no matter what their region is set to, which should finally allow you to play avi files off a flashdrive or whatever.

Hopefully this helps some people because I know, after searching through tons of forums for a solution, there are a lot of people with this problem.

[TheAvenged87]

Just read through this and could not think that I had any issues downloading the update...then I remembered that am already using a UK account. Hehehehehe...

[matt]

That's what I did to get mine to work. I'm pretty sure that the update is just codecs though, so I don't know why MS wouldn't make it available everywhere. It's not like it's content or anything

[steaksauce]

I was browsing the SA media place today and I saw the Optional media update is now available for SA.
You don't need to create a dummy account anymore, it should just apply the update on request now.

[Staple2]

Really? That's pretty good. This gave me a huge headache.

[matt]

Hey, that's awesome news. Too late for me, but great that MS thinks we should be allowed to watch videos now

[Staple2]

We still don't have Video Marketplace though

EDIT: Nvm, we do.

[cRashed]

I was browsing the SA media place today and I saw the Optional media update is now available for SA.
You don't need to create a dummy account anymore, it should just apply the update on request now.

Good shot.