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Scenyx Sites Forums => Xbox-Scene Polls => Topic started by: XanTium on September 30, 2006, 02:09:00 PM

Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: XanTium on September 30, 2006, 02:09:00 PM
feel free to vote/discuss
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: CloakedHunter on September 30, 2006, 02:20:00 PM
Yes, and it's freaking awesome. Transcode 360 is magical.
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: mitch2025 on September 30, 2006, 02:22:00 PM
yea i use it. its awsome. i use VLC360 instead of Transcode360 though
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: ElGato on September 30, 2006, 03:44:00 PM
Both 360 and HTPC connected to same 32" LCD so no need.

This post has been edited by ElGato: Sep 30 2006, 10:45 PM
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: loose.unit8 on September 30, 2006, 03:59:00 PM
Is it as good / easy to use etc as Xbox Media Center on a modded xbox1?
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: dre74 on September 30, 2006, 04:08:00 PM
nope XBMC takes those duties.
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: avatar1976 on September 30, 2006, 04:39:00 PM
QUOTE(dre74 @ Sep 30 2006, 11:08 PM) View Post

nope XBMC takes those duties.


Well I thought that too until I found out with MCE2005 and a media extender you can make your home PC in your computer room, your digital TV set top box in effect.
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: The Reepr on September 30, 2006, 05:35:00 PM
I have to say, microsoft didn't mess up on the media functions of the 360, but it gets the shit kicked out of it by XBMC. Free source all in one media player that does everythng you wish it could do and more. It's an all in one. People use it as thier DASHBOARD. Now, let's see if 360's media center will have full customization, ability to edit features (I'm not saying to the extent of XBMC, but certain things should be changeble.) So cheers to all who agree with supporting X360 MC, but still choose XBMC because it certainly IS JUST BETTER. No opinion needed. [/rant]
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: RaFaMp on September 30, 2006, 05:48:00 PM
I'd use it, if i knew how to...
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: avatar1976 on September 30, 2006, 06:37:00 PM
Can you stream live tv out of media portal yet using xbmc, as soon as you can do that I'm going back to XBMC as my main system, aside from that major flaw xbmc is t3h r0X0Rs  jester.gif
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: Altima NEO on September 30, 2006, 08:11:00 PM
I dont have a media center pc. On top of that my PC is a loud, hot beast. It would be annoying to have it on while running the 360 (which is also loud and hot).
XBMC does everything I could ever want to do. I just use SAMBA file sharing on my mac mini, and its all good.
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: epsilon72 on September 30, 2006, 08:41:00 PM
My 360 will be used as a "media center extender" when the real Xbox Media Center can run on it.  Until then, I have no need to as my 360 and PC are hooked up to the same display.
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: BasicAir on September 30, 2006, 09:59:00 PM
I got my 360 at launch, didn't get XP MCE until a month ago. I must say that it's very, very good.

XBMC is great in that it plays basically -anything- but I must say that I think it's been overhyped. It's a great media player, but I still preferred (yes I sold my Xbox1) to use Avalaunch as my dash and I made my own custom INI/XML file for Ava so that the top link was "Games", second was "XBMC", etc.

I rarely used XBMC and I rarely use MCE on my 360 but it's very, very nice.

Sure MCE doesn't support a lot of video formats for playback, but with Transcode 360 it does! So I've watched some 720P/1080i movies using Transcode 360 on my PC and MCE on my 360 and it works like a charm! Excellent HD movie playback along with DD5.1 or whatever the file may be coded with for audio.

However, I do have complaints....

The biggest complaint I have is if I go to "Best of Web" in MCE on my 360, so I can catch all kinds of games/videos/trailers from the net (like Comedy Central's "The Stash" which is GREAT) but that feature laggs like hell.

Also, a lot of features in MCE won't work if you are using the limited edition "mini" media remotes like that one I got with my 360 since I got it at launch. So this means I have to use a controller to do certain things!

All in all MCE is great and I'm glad as hell I transitioned from XP Pro SP2 to XP MCE 2005 Edition. It's just a shame I don't use it more often....

Oh yeah, as far as Transcode 360 goes, sure it will let me playback HD movies from my PC in formats like .ts, etc., BUT you can't FF or Rewind. I heard with the better media remotes you can use a 30-second skip button but, of course, I have the mini limited edition media remote so I don't have that button. Even if I did, a 30-second skip still isn't as good as a real FF/Rew. That's not a big deal though, so I can live with that.

I'm gonna research this VLC 360 the dude above mentioned and maybe that will stream HD .ts (and other format) files but actually allow me to FF/Rew, which again Transcode 360 doesn't do!

Anyone without XP MCE is really missing out. I recommend everyone go out and buy/download/whatever XP MCE for their PC to use the Extender on the 360 to the fullest potential like myself and other friends. smile.gif
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: Yorper on October 01, 2006, 05:23:00 AM
Needs option for those that dont even own a 360.
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: NerdENerd on October 01, 2006, 06:32:00 AM
I have an XP machine hooked up to my LCD TV so no need. I tried XP Media Center but I thought it was crap. The software that came with my digital TV capture card is heaps better.
http://www.digitalno...live/index.html
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: SAN66 on October 01, 2006, 09:45:00 AM
I still don't own a 360  sad.gif

None of the games I want to play are coming out until the middle of next year, and I would sell my Xbox and buy a 360, but my main concern is that I want to play all the same video I can currently play with XBMC.

I don't want to load Windows on any of my computers and am waiting for a solution that will let me do video from my linux server or my mac desktop.
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: Rustmonkey on October 01, 2006, 01:38:00 PM
QUOTE(Stoke192 @ Oct 1 2006, 07:28 AM) View Post

I use my 360 to stream HD movies to my LCD via a MCE pc which is upstairs and it works flawlessly  biggrin.gif

I also use a modded xbox connected to the same pc to stream everthing else and again this works flawlessly.

All in all ....very happy with both machines.....infact they get more use as extenders than games machines  biggrin.gif



True dat, brotha smile.gif

I do the same thing - this way, you get the best of both worlds smile.gif
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: SAN66 on October 01, 2006, 02:42:00 PM
QUOTE(xsirxx @ Oct 1 2006, 04:38 PM) View Post

btw just so every1 is clear, if it hasnt been mentioned before, you dont need a media center edition pc to connect yer 360 to yer computer... just get connect.
http://www.xbox.com/...tup/default.htm


That is untrue. You don't need media center to stream music and pictures to your 360, using third party stuff you can do this from any system no matter what OS you're running. You DO need Windows MCE to stream video to your Xbox, and some third party plugins to get Divx and Xvid content on there. No one has yet to come out with third party software to do this outside of MCE.
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: -Spud- on October 01, 2006, 04:35:00 PM
Yes until the 360 can stream any video out of the box I see no need for an Xbox 360 plus MCE. XBMC provides all streaming needs bar HD video. MCE can do the rest. No 360 needed at all.

I think M$ requiring 360 owners to have MCE as well is just plain wrong. You should at least be able to stream wmv and hdwmv from any pc on your network no matter what OS. They just want us to fork out more money for MCE. It's unnessasary and promotes pirating IMHO. Bring on VISTA.
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: avatar1976 on October 02, 2006, 06:21:00 AM
QUOTE(NerdENerd @ Oct 1 2006, 01:39 PM) View Post

I have an XP machine hooked up to my LCD TV so no need. I tried XP Media Center but I thought it was crap. The software that came with my digital TV capture card is heaps better.
http://www.digitalno...live/index.html

Yes but some of us have girlfriends that don't like computers in lounge rooms  tongue.gif

QUOTE(Samy`D @ Oct 2 2006, 10:53 AM) View Post

I use it, and I think it f*cking sucks! please tell me if there's a way to fix it but it seems I have to wait about 20mins for all the thumbs to load when looking through any vids or anything, the whole time the system responds really jerkily and it takes forever to navigate anywhere...and for some stupid reason it wont cache the thumbs and it insists on doing all this loading every time I nav thru the directory. meanwhile, anything else that I access the same vids with over the same network loads the thumbs instantly...go figure...

I know what you're talking about, but to be honest it has never really bothered me all that much... I normally go on the file name anyway, I find thumbnails on videos to be about as useful as fly screens on a submarine, they normaly only show the first frame anyway (the black before the show starts).  Pictures on the other hand I could understand your frustration however I do not get the thumbnail lag issue with pictures, they normally come up pretty well straight away for me.  What kind of network are you accessing your XP MCE2005 machine through?


QUOTE(SAN66 @ Oct 1 2006, 09:49 PM) View Post

That is untrue. You don't need media center to stream music and pictures to your 360, using third party stuff you can do this from any system no matter what OS you're running. You DO need Windows MCE to stream video to your Xbox, and some third party plugins to get Divx and Xvid content on there. No one has yet to come out with third party software to do this outside of MCE.

Glad someone cleared that up, I'm so sick of people who don't own MCE2005 or an xbox360 telling me that I can just use media connect.  I tried it out back when I had just XP Home and it sucked I thought well if this the extent of microsoft's PC connectivity what's the point.  Then I looked into how to get a MCE2005 machine going and have never looked back since...
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: johnnyblaze513 on October 02, 2006, 09:06:00 AM
The Media Center Extender in my opinion was rushed out and not fully optimized. It uses resources from your PC instead of using the 360 itself to render graphics. The 360 simply allows you to display whatever you would be able to see on your computer, onto your tv. Also, the (supposed) Universal Remote for MCE is a pain in the neck, because all the bottom buttons on it have absolutely nothing to do with your xbox, but they are used to control your tv set. In my opinion, the volume button on that remote should control the volume your 360 is putting out

samfisher ph34r.gif
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: blaziantiger on October 02, 2006, 12:10:00 PM
I installed Vista RC1 just for the Media Center feature (cause I had XP Pro before) and the Media Center thing is kinda cool. But my antivirus software doesnt work with RC1 along with lots of other programs. and I cant uninstall it.... pissed
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: explosive2 on October 02, 2006, 01:31:00 PM
No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. wink.gif
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: BasicAir on October 02, 2006, 04:57:00 PM
QUOTE(blaziantiger @ Oct 2 2006, 07:17 PM) View Post

I installed Vista RC1 just for the Media Center feature (cause I had XP Pro before) and the Media Center thing is kinda cool. But my antivirus software doesnt work with RC1 along with lots of other programs. and I cant uninstall it.... pissed


ROFL.

No offense, dude, but you should have looked into Vista first before installing it.

As far as XP MCE being needed to stream video, yeah, I didn't want to upgrade to XP MCE but I did anyway. I got my "Windows Classic" theme back up and all my old programs installed with XP MCE so in all honesty I don't notice ANY difference with XP MCE than with what I had before -- XP Pro SP2.

Call me old-school but I like my Windows Classic (Windows 98-style) theme. I never liked the standard XP theme or custom ones. Besides, all those fugly novelty graphics just run down your system resources more.

Again, though, I am very, very happy with the ability to stream videos (both HD and non-HD) to my 360. The *ONLY* downfall is what someone already pointed out -- That your PC takes the processing hit, and not the 360. That sucks but it's not a big deal.

Everyone with a 360 and without XP MCE go buy/download/whatever XP MCE. Then get Transcode 360 (an absolute must). You'll love it. I don't have to worry about buying an HD-DVD player or Blu-Ray player now, because I can stream HD movies I get off the net right to my 50" DLP and in DD5.1 -- No complaints here! biggrin.gif
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: Jman232 on October 02, 2006, 07:35:00 PM
Windows just stinks. I have a intel mac so that I can boot windows(Vista beta2) and I dread everytime I have to boot to windows. I avoid it as much as possible. The xbox1 and 360 are so cool. But let me stream video through OSX darnit! Vista- same old crap, new glass. They'll probably charge for the extender capabilities. I think there will be five different flavors of Vista or so. Who wants a registry, .dll hell, and installations. Homebrew for 360 please so I can stream HD content from .vob, .dv, and .m2v over my network without Weenerdows. AHHHHHHHH! This is my only 360 complaint. Thanks....
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: Digital_sin on October 03, 2006, 07:21:00 AM
origirnal XBMC for the win!!
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: Maverick0984 on October 03, 2006, 10:33:00 AM
QUOTE(Jman232 @ Oct 2 2006, 08:42 PM) View Post

Windows just stinks. I have a intel mac so that I can boot windows(Vista beta2) and I dread everytime I have to boot to windows. I avoid it as much as possible. The xbox1 and 360 are so cool. But let me stream video through OSX darnit! Vista- same old crap, new glass. They'll probably charge for the extender capabilities. I think there will be five different flavors of Vista or so. Who wants a registry, .dll hell, and installations. Homebrew for 360 please so I can stream HD content from .vob, .dv, and .m2v over my network without Weenerdows. AHHHHHHHH! This is my only 360 complaint. Thanks....


If you think a microsoft product will ever work with anything else besides another microsoft product, then keep dreaming...

yes i know about the ipod being able to connect to it tongue.gif slightly different scale.
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: Jman232 on October 03, 2006, 04:01:00 PM
QUOTE(Maverick0984 @ Oct 3 2006, 10:40 AM) View Post

If you think a microsoft product will ever work with anything else besides another microsoft product, then keep dreaming...

yes i know about the ipod being able to connect to it tongue.gif slightly different scale.

I know. Maybe third party or something. I can get a program to run in OSX that does pics and music. Just want to stream HD. That's all. The best I have for now, is to run XPeeMCE through paralells or just boot into weenerdows on my intel mac. Crap is crap. M$ rules on xbox. Sucks in operating systems. Have fun in the land of Vista. You should see all the crap they ripped off from Apple. Steve won't release info on most of the new implements in Leopard coming out next year because he knows how it goes. They just want to be like apple because it's cooler, better, easier, blah, blah, blah. Oh yeah, I miss viruses, system crashes and spyware. I wonder if they miss me???? blink.gif
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: henmill on October 03, 2006, 09:27:00 PM
i would probably use it if i had xpmc.  till then, xbmc ftw!

edit, just read your post^^^couldn't agree more smile.gif
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: thejt on October 04, 2006, 03:30:00 PM
I cant believe someone said that XBMC is "Over Hyped".   Its so the opposite; still a very small percentage of Xbox owners know about the best thing to happen to Xbox.  So many people see my box and are blown away by the new found capabilities which I sometimes take for granted.

That ended when I got my 360 and realized how useless it truly was as a media machine.  Personally I think Microsoft is slightly retarded for not making the 360 at least half way close to being as good as a Xbox with XBMC.  No longer do I take my Xbox and XMBC for granted!  

Ive been in the IT industry for 15 years and never understood the role of Windows MCE.  To me its just another skew to make money from.  I am fully aware of the capabilities of MCE and extenders but I will never give in to the pressure to own both.  I do my computing on my computer and my media on my media center.  Sure they should be able to share content but they need to be able to stand on their own.

I expected Microsoft so slowly push improvements down the pipe that would build upon the media capabilities but so far I have been very dissapointed.  Hopefully with the speculative feature set that the PS3 will offer it will cause Microsoft to get off their butts and make the improvements that are so badly needed to make the 360 a serious contender in the media appliance arena.  Microsoft came close to owning my living room but they have left a hold... A VERY BIG HOLE.  One that could be filled by a PS3 or other non Microsoft device they dont do something about it.

I'm quickly getting tired of false promises and feature shortcomings when the capability of making something truly outstanding is there.  

Please microsoft... get a clue!  My Xbox 1 thanks you for your failures as it has avoided the dumpster for these reasons!
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: Martinchris23 on October 05, 2006, 01:23:00 AM
QUOTE(BasicAir @ Oct 1 2006, 05:06 AM) View Post

However, I do have complaints....

Oh yeah, as far as Transcode 360 goes, sure it will let me playback HD movies from my PC in formats like .ts, etc., BUT you can't FF or Rewind. I heard with the better media remotes you can use a 30-second skip button but, of course, I have the mini limited edition media remote so I don't have that button. Even if I did, a 30-second skip still isn't as good as a real FF/Rew. That's not a big deal though, so I can live with that.

I'm gonna research this VLC 360 the dude above mentioned and maybe that will stream HD .ts (and other format) files but actually allow me to FF/Rew, which again Transcode 360 doesn't do!


Obviously this is a little known fact....

You can play HD movies (.ts format) directly from the 360 MCE without any need of transcoding with excellent results.

Download HDTVPump and install onto your XP MC 2005 PC and associate .ts files with media player. Done.

FTR I still use my Xbox solely as a media player (XBMC), just due to the fact I don't need to switch on an extra PC just to transcode. If MS opened the MCE completely to allow playback of all movies as long as the codecs were installed, it would be a fantastic product.

Either that, or if XBMC can incorporate TV streaming from a nominated PC with TV Card...
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: SimonG156 on October 06, 2006, 06:30:00 AM
XBMC for everyhting on the NAS, TiVO for everything from the TV. Lovely. 360 won';t even show pictures if your My Documents/My Pictures folder is on a network drive! Absolute pile of sh**. And on a totally unrelated matter, why not Live/IM integrations. C***s.
Title: Do You Use Your Xbox360 As A Media Center Extender?
Post by: jagermike on December 12, 2006, 08:05:00 AM
do want to connect it to a media center