For those considering using an Xbox 360 as a media extender with your Vista
Ultimate PC here is my experience. Microsoft did a real nice job on the
integration of Xbox & Vista. To get things figured out, I set up the Xbox
and Vista PC in the same room so I could see both machines during setup.
Both were connected to my Linksys Cable gateway / switch via 100meg E-Net. I
connected the Xbox to the TV using the included Component / Composite video
cable (yellow) and the RED & WHITE audio cables. With this set up, on a
standard TV the video quality was as good as normal TV - text was pretty good
but not what you get with a Plasma display. I set the TV to the appropriate
input, turned on and logged into the Vista Machine. I turned on the Xbox,
it came right up, and I followed the intuitive instructions to use "Media
Center". Xbox then displayed the 8 digit code which by now the Vista PC was
already asking for, having detected the Xbox automatically - I entered the
code and Vista started a setup sequence. (Note, I did not download the Xbox
set up for the PC as instructed - Vista already seemed to have what it
needed.) One small bump was that the Xbox interrupted the Vista setup by
automatically downloading and installing an update. Once I restarted the
process following the update it went right thru.
The "Xbox found" message also popped up on my 2nd Vista PC and I just
clicked to ignore future messages.
The bandwidth tool in Xbox shows all green (full support including HDTV
across the 100Meg LAN.
You can run media center using the included game controller - but the $30
Xbox Media Controller is much better for use with Media Center. The Xbox
Media Controller is not included with the Xbox. One short coming of the Xbox
Media Controller is that it can only be programmed to control one additional
component - the TV. As long as your sound and video both come from the TV -
that is fine, but if you have a separate audio system this controller can't
handle a TV/Display and an audio system - a major miss for an otherwise fine
device. For $99 Circuit City had the Logitech Xbox Media Controller which
appears to offer a better solution for controlling multiple devices.
System response, for example changing channels, pause recorded TV etc was
the same as if done directly on the Media Center PC.
These comments are based on the Xbox 360 system with hard drive ($399). The
Vista PC rrc2 build 5744 a 3.2HT P4 CPU, 2 gig of RAM and SATA stripped
drives. This machine has a user experience score of about 3.
One final though on the Xbox - the Xbox itself has a nice small foot print -
unfortunately it has an external power supply that is literally the size of a
brick and uses a proprietary connector so it would be hard to locate it far
from the Xbox. The Xbox also does have a fan but it is very quite – in fact
I had to put my ear to the case to hear it.
I would like to hear from others who may have been down this path and found
/ resolved issues or came up with creative things for the media center
application.
.
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