Here's how to increase your Xbox to PC streaming quality beyond Very High settings

Reddit users have found ways to increase their Xbox to PC streaming quality in the past, but one Reddit user, kaczorws, recently compiled the directions and provided the Xbox App mod script to do it.

The full thread can be read here, but I’ll list the directions below and summarize the gist of it. I highly recommend reading the full post on Reddit as it provides more details into the process. Note: It appears the only way to stream with higher bitrates is through the use of a LAN cable connection.

Essentially, the bitrate when streaming peaks at around 25mbps, with an average of 15-20mbps. With the modifications that kaczorws provided, they found that they can reach bitrates of 60mbps. Unfortunately, this is still a little too much for an Xbox to handle. Kaczorws discovered after some testing that you can maintain a bitrate of 30-35mbps without running into any errors and still make it look better than the default Very High settings.

Tweaking some values in the settings.json file will yield higher bitrates. The default is set to 12,000,000 but changing it to 70,000,000, for example, gives bitrates between 30-40mbps. The following are directions on how to attain this:

Xbox App Mod Script

https://github.com/kaczorws/xboxappmod

(Direct link to download: https://github.com/kaczorws/xboxappmod/releases/tag/v1.0)

This script (written in PowerShell) does the following:

1. Modifies the Windows hosts file to prevent downloading latest version of Xbox App config by Xbox App (makes a backup first)
2. Modifies the actual Xbox App config file (makes a backup first)
3. Launches Xbox App and waits for the process to end (you can actually start playing at this step 🙂 )
4. Once Xbox App is closed, reverts the changes of hosts file and config file (by restoring backup files)

Xbox App config file (settings.json) values are modified within Very High profile settings (GAME_STREAMING_VERY_HIGH_QUALITY_SETTINGS).

Script uses its own config file (config.xml) so you may customize its values which will then be applied to hosts file and Xbox App config file.

Please refer to the Readme file of the script on how it works, prerequisites etc.

The most important things:

1. Download the script
2. Modify config.xml with desired values (I would leave default “Quality” and “Resolution” and only change the “Framerate” to correct one but feel free to experiment on your own – just remember to monitor the bitrate)
3. Set Windows Execution Policy to Unrestricted (see “Prerequisites” section of Readme file)
4. Run “start.bat” file.
5. When streaming starts, remember to change to ‘Very High’ profile.
6. Enjoy Xbox streaming in better quality! 🙂

Directions provided  by kaczorws