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Thread: Xbox 360 Media Center Extender?

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    Xbox 360 Media Center Extender?

    Hi all,

    I'm going to build a Vista PC that will be in a different room to my main TV. I plan to use my 360 to stream content from my pc to my TV.

    I was wondering what exactly the Media Center Extender does on the 360? Has anyone got any screenshots or a link to a site that has screenshots?

    and.....
    Will i be able to set things to record to my pc from the Xbox 360?

    Many thanks

    Darren
    Last edited by darrensen; 08-02-2007 at 08:24 PM.

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    Basically it allows you to listen to music from your pc, view all of your pictures and watch videos (basically just wmv's I think). You can easily make other videos such as avi's work though using Transcode 360 on your pc.

    As for recording things, I don't know because I don't have a tv tuner. You'll have to get a reply from someone else about that.


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    I thought this would be the correct section to post or should it have gone in the OS section? (hoping for a good response...)

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    Darrensen, try these two sites for a bit of info:
    http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/x...nnectivity.htm
    http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/m...r/default.mspx

    I use Windows Vista Ultimate on my PC upstairs and have my 360 on the big screen downstairs, they're both connected wirelessly.

    Unfortunately I don't have a TV card on my PC (will be getting one on my new build though) I can comment on Media Centre in general. Basically, it's exactly the same as on your PC, only, you control it from the 360. So yes, you will be able to set things to record from your 360 (although I haven't done it myself, no TV card). I use it mainly for video, music and picture streaming, the extender from Vista doesn't half look nice on the big screen.

    You can also get a variety of programs and web based services that you can run through Media Centre so whilst on your 360 you can use those too. These vary from streaming BBC news (via the web) to Weather apps and more.

    Hope that helps a little.

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    Yeah, parm's right. Vista's media centre looks amazing on the 360! A she said, it is just a mirror image of the media centre interface on the P.C.

    Good for me, cause the PC is in the bedroom with the 19" monitor, xbox in the living room, so I can watch programs on the bigger screen.

    One thought though. i've had to go back to xp MCE because of a lack of tv card drivers for the 64bit vista. The 32bit seems to be ok for drivers though, soi if its 32bit, you'll be safe!

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    MacDaddy! darrensen's Avatar
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    I'm going to wait until July to move to Vista. Right now (as you'll see from my sig) i'm running a Mac, so i'm happy for the moment. But i really want to move to 64-bit Vista and get back into some serious gaming. I'll probably upgrade in June/July to Vista 64-bit, so i hope by then driver support won't be a problem.

    Good to hear that you can set things to record via the 360, with Apple TV you can't do that and that's really bad IMO. MS have done a great job with Media Center!

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    Hi I've got an XP based MCE machine with a internal dvb-t tv-card and wired home network

    and an xbox360 with a 19" widescreen monitor in bedroom

    also got transcode set on the pc

    over a wired network i really like what i get from the xbox360

    an nice tv with 14 day schedule - can set up recording and record a series too. Kisten to music, view my share pictures of the pc and transcode divx and xvid video!!!

    may get a dual tuner based tv card in the future

    really love what microsoft has done with mce

    oh you cant record off the screen of the xbox360 games and such you have to set up a video recorder or even a pc from the 360 to do that - if i'm understading you properly

    my telly just an old standard def and not widescreen
    but the 360 work brilliantly and you set up different (4) zooms for widescreen or standard screen tv

    if MS can sort out Hi-def downloadable stuff (tv & Movies) from the marketplace of the 360 here in UK
    that'd be awesome too

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    No more Mr Nice Guy. Nick's Avatar
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    To be honest, I wouldn't bother with 64 bit Vista...

    Vista itself, being a new OS is lacking driver and software support.

    Legacy for XP apps is pretty good but there are some glitches that make it a pain.

    The MC stuff through the Xbox 360 is pretty much exactly as you'd see it running MC on your actual PC.

    Of course, on a nice huge widescreen TV it looks luverly.

    Vista MC is far, far nicer than XP MCE and has some new featrues too, such as the on-screen mini guide, which lets you scan up and down the channels, and across to future shows without obliterating the screen.... very much like Sky.

    There's more control over how recording works and series record with everything right where you'd expect it to be, so if you have any recorded TV from XP MCE, just point Vista to that folder and you can access all that too.

    Music and picture streaming is pretty much faultless, though you can't select just folders within a folder... you have to have the whole root of the folder available too. What this means is if you have all your photos neatly stored in afolder with Pictures, any junk images stored in the root of pictures will show too...

    One niggle is Vistas networking, which solid as it is for PC work falls over sometimes when streaming, recording and then checking to update the guide.

    I've by no means got a weedy machine here and my network, large as it is for a home network (two switches, one wireless access point, one wireless gateway router and up to 10 devices connecting to it), wasn't under load with the Xbox 360 and Vista PC being wired to the same switch... yet Vista PC stopped streaming in the middle of Top Gear when it hooked up to get the guide...

    But if you're buying in July then hopefully MS will have sorted out various patches and bug fixes by then.

    Overall I like the feel and look of Vista and, after it finished indexing, it feels faster than XP... I just think that for anything other than a home machine that you can afford downtime on, to move to Vista now, like I did, was a bit premature...
    Quote Originally Posted by Dareos View Post
    "OH OOOOHH oOOHHHHHHHOOHHHHHHH FILL ME WITH YOUR.... eeww not the stuff from the lab"

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