Knowledge Base
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about setting up E2 Explorer, streaming from iDrive® E2, Xbox living room playback, supported codecs, and S3 credentials.
E2 Explorer leverages the standard HTTP byte-range request protocol (RFC 7233) supported by iDrive® E2 and other S3-compatible cloud storage endpoints. Instead of downloading complete 40GB or 80GB movie files or camera rushes, the player queries only the header index and specific video segments on-the-fly as you watch or scrub through your timeline.
Traditional cloud providers like AWS S3 or Google Cloud charge steep egress fees (up to $0.09 per GB) every time you stream or download media, in addition to $20-$23/TB/mo in storage and per-request API fees. iDrive® E2 costs only ~$4.00/TB/month, includes free egress up to 3x your storage volume, and charges $0 for API calls. For a 20 TB movie or project archive, this represents thousands of dollars in savings every year.
Yes! The Microsoft Store version of E2 Explorer is compiled as a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) package compatible with Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One consoles. You can launch E2 Explorer with your Xbox controller, browse your cloud bucket folders, and stream 4K movies directly on your living room television.
E2 Explorer supports virtually all modern video formats: MKV, MP4, MOV, WebM, AVI, and TS files. Supported codecs include H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), VP9, AV1, and Apple ProRes (422, 422 HQ, 4444). Hardware acceleration is utilized on macOS (Apple Silicon VideoToolbox), Windows (DirectX/DXVA2), and Xbox.
Yes, 100%. E2 Explorer connects directly from your device to your iDrive® E2 or S3 bucket endpoint over encrypted TLS (HTTPS). Your Access Key ID and Secret Access Key are encrypted locally using the OS secure credential store (Apple Keychain on macOS, Windows Credential Manager on Windows/Xbox). No authentication keys or file metadata ever transit any intermediate proxy servers.
Log into your iDrive® E2 dashboard at idrive.com/e2, navigate to the Access Keys section, click Create Access Key, and assign read/write permissions to your preferred buckets. In E2 Explorer, open Settings > Add Endpoint, paste your Endpoint URL, Access Key, and Secret Key, and click Connect.
Yes. E2 Explorer automatically parses embedded subtitle tracks (SRT, VTT, ASS, PGS) and separate subtitle files in the same bucket directory. Multi-language audio tracks and surround sound passthrough (Dolby Digital, 5.1, 7.1, Dolby Atmos) can be toggled on-the-fly in the player controls.
Absolutely. Production studios and YouTube teams can configure read-only or read-write access keys in iDrive® E2 for editors, colorists, and clients. Everyone using E2 Explorer can browse and review raw takes and finalized cuts concurrently from the same central bucket.
E2 Explorer uses multi-part chunked uploads with automatic retry logic. If the network experiences a momentary interruption, the application automatically retries the failed chunk rather than restarting the entire multi-gigabyte file from scratch.
Still have questions?
Our technical support team is ready to help you optimize your storage configuration or troubleshoot streaming issues. You can also reach out to our community on X.