There are a number of different methods for sharing your movies, music, and pictures to your Xbox 360.

The easiest method is to use an external USB hard drive (or pen drive) that is formatted to either FAT, or FAT32 (the file system can be changed by using a program like Partition Magic).  With the recent dashboard update, the 360 can now play DivX/Xvid files.  Just hook up your external drive via any of the USB ports on your 360, and select your media from the media blade on the dashboard.

Other methods involve using your PC to share your media, obviously you’ll need your computer and xbox 360 networked together.  I won’t cover connecting the systems together, as Microsoft have already covered this subject.  However, I will warn you that your choice of firewall is very important.  ZoneAlarm is what I use, and I’ve found that it works perfectly for media sharing.

You can use a number of programs to share your media from your PC: -

1. Windows Media Player 11 (Tutorial)
2. TVersity (Tutorial)
3. The Orb (Tutorial)
4. Transcode 360 (Tutorial) (Windows XP MCE only!)

At present, reports are hitting the net that the WMP11 method no longer works.  If you can’t get WMP11 and your 360 to communicate, then I suggest using TVersity.

Update: Elle recently wrote an article about media sharing in her blog. (09/01/08)
Update: I have tested WMP 11 using Windows Vista, and this method currently works. (17/02/08)