The best and worst thing about the Xbox 360...

[Nick]

So me and the other half are discusiing our Christmas purchases, now that we've had plenty of time to get used to them and find all the niggly stuff out that the intial euphoria of having a new piece of kit helps you to overlook.

So she's happy with her 12 disk CD changer, (now refitted to her new car), I'm chuffed with my Sat Nav and we're both well happy with the camera but the star of the show has to be the Xbox 360.

Yes, I know this is unlikely coming from my wife, but she finds the Xbox 360 an absolute boon, though purely for anything other than gaming.

That's right, the Xbox 360's quality media abilities have won over one of the most non-technical people on the planet... my missus.

She loves the fact she can view pictures of the kids by streaming them over the network from my PC, opr listen to music we ripped to the PC aaaages ago on some now abandoned project of mine...

And, since installing MCE and a TV card, she's loving the fact she can run it as an extender and enjoy Freeview telly with all the PVR and extras she wants.

Me? Well I like it for all the above reasons too, but mostly I'm loving it becuase at last I've got a new bit of kit int he house that my missus isn't whinging about...

Now all I've got to do is persuade her that we really do need an HDTV an I'll be happy...

[johnny02004976]

the worst thing has to be the availability of them....im still waiting for mine

[Nick]

Oh yeah, I forgot about the worst thing...

The worst thing is it's pickyness over just WHAT it'll let you stream over the network...

So those movies we made of the kids doiung what kids do at various things like parties and sports day and all that, unless they're encoded as WMV files, we can't watch them through the Xbox 360... which is why my MCE PC is running like a dog with three legs right now as I re-encode the Christmas play, Christmas day and dozens of other clips into WMV format...

Who would've thought that an AVI could ever be contraband?

[Kaine (AoD)]

I would have thought the worse thing was trying to get her off it now ^ ^ good luck mate!

[vrykyl]

well if shes sold on the 360....and an hdtv is presented to her as an 'essential' bit of kit to make the most of her new favourite gadget..... you could be in business!

[Nick F]

Mate 75% of HDTV in the USA is targested towards women so just tell her that and I'm sure she will be keen.

[Junk Male]

and no mention of the Ipod connector .. .. .. .. ..

[Lee H]

LOL I'm just waiting for Nick to start looking for another Xbox360 as his Wife's taken over his first one

[Nick]

DON'T get me started about IPods... I got a Shuffle and she got all jealous, so I sorted her with an MP3 player... but Nooooooo... THAT'S not good enough! If it ain't got an Apple logo on it then it's not worth the bother as far as she's concerned.

Now, despite the fact that she makes my life a living misery with insisting the damn radio should be on all the time churning out amphetamine-hyped DJ dribble all her waking hours and despite her oh-so-nearly self-confessed total lack of musical taste, she still wants an IPod... Good gracious lord help me if she ever gets one as she trialed the MP3 player for two hours and walked around singing along to it then shouting at me becuase she couldnt hear her own voice over the dustbin lid banging that she calls music... If ever she gets a real IPod I'll be subjected to 6 hours of shrill warbling and even more yelling that she would like a cup of tea whilst she also catches up on Desparate Housewives, episodes of which now seem to occupy 90% of my hard drive.

See? Now you've got me ranting and, for just one pico second before that I was in that blissful state of a silent house with nothing but the sound of my keyboard prsses for accompianment...

[directhex]

DON'T get me started about IPods... I got a Shuffle and she got all jealous, so I sorted her with an MP3 player... but Nooooooo... THAT'S not good enough! If it ain't got an Apple logo on it then it's not worth the bother as far as she's concerned.

got a spare unopened shuffle right here on my desk, as it happens

[Zak33]

If it ain't got an Apple logo on it then it's not worth the bother as far as she's concerned.

/leaves