Xbox360 Media Extender streaming - whats the point?

[autopilot]

Just wondering if anyone can explain the streaming of media from WinXP MCE to an Xbox360, and exactly what the point is?

Surely people with Media Centre PC's have them in their living room aready, whats the point in streaming media 20 inches across the room to an Xbox360? How many people with XP-MCE have the Media PC in thier study/bedroom/etc? Yet you can't stream movies and photos (or is that music) from a standard XP Pro/ Home PC. Would it not make far more sence to make it work from a normal XP machine rather than XP MCE?

Dont get me wrong, it's a nice feature and all that. Sure, both would be great, but given the option i would rather be able to do it from my normal XP PC. Whats the logic behind this? Do MS plan to make the Xbox360 work with Win XP Home/Pro at some point?

Or am i completely missing the point?

[Carlh]

I can see your point however its handy for me as I have a PC using MCE in one of the bedrooms and the 360 in the living room means I can stream from the PC to the xbox with no problems (apart from having to use either mpeg or wmv format)

[Deadlight]

My situation exactly. Without DivX or XVID support though it'll be of limited use...

[Odc]

My situation exactly. Without DivX or XVID support though it'll be of limited use...

It'll come......... I hope. Can you use XP Home Edition with the 360? I read somewhere that you can

[beanbandit]

It'll come......... I hope. Can you use XP Home Edition with the 360? I read somewhere that you can

Only for streaming music. You need Windows Media Connect installed to get it to work. Movies can only be streamed if you have MCE.

[Odc]

Only for streaming music. You need Windows Media Connect installed to get it to work. Movies can only be streamed if you have MCE.

Damn

[bertie]

Can't stream anything if you run X64!
Pretty shocking from Microsoft

[DR]

Yes but so many desktops are running Media Centre... so makes sense

[GuruJockStrap]

Only for streaming music. You need Windows Media Connect installed to get it to work. Movies can only be streamed if you have MCE.

Pictures can also be viewed as well.

[DR]

The only issue I have with media extenders and also xbox 360 is the mono audio streaming from it :|

[autopilot]

Yes but so many desktops are running Media Centre... so makes sense

How many compared to XP Home/Pro? A lot more people have XP Home/Pro, esspecialy on the PC's that are not in the same room as an MCE box. Not working fully with XP seems plain daft to me, but i guess MS just want to make more money from new Xbox owners upgrading to MCE, when XP Pro/Home would do fine with a free update. It will be interesting to see what trird-party solutions become available.

[DR]

How many compared to XP Home/Pro? A lot more people have XP Home/Pro, esspecialy on the PC's that are not in the same room as an MCE box. Not working fully with XP seems plain daft to me, but i guess MS just want to make more money from new Xbox owners upgrading to MCE, when XP Pro/Home would do fine with a free update. It will be interesting to see what trird-party solutions become available.

Walk in to any high street place and see how many PCs are running it.

I am not saying a lot more people dont have XP Pro/Home.

I know exactly why MS have done this - its a shift to make people have Microsoft as a critical part of there Digital home.

Why do it for free when you can make money?

[darrensen]

Correct me if i'm wrong but i think when Vista is out you can do the same with that?

So in theory it would make sense then. But for now you'll need Media Centre and 8 times out of 10 it'll be in the living room near your pc.

What what you need to remember is what if the Xbox is in the bedroom?

[Matt1eD]

This was very interesting

http://neopoleon.com/blog/posts/16823.aspx

[Vini]

i stream freeview through my Nova-T and use the xbox as a PVR. it was the simplist way to output to tv.