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Media Center + XBOX 360

sms720

By sms720
in Gameroom (Console/PC)

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sms720 Newbie

sms720

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Guys (& Gals!)

Although I am technical geek (I work in IT) I have not been following the current trend in Media Center PC's so I would appreciate some advice.

This is what I have in my house currently:

32" HD Toshiba LCD (built in Freeview tuner) in the living room connected to normal Aerial socket. We get all the Freeview channels.

Another 32" HD Toshiba LCD (built in Freeview tuner) in the bedroom connected to normal Aerial socket. Again we get all the Freeview channels on this.

This is what I would like to achieve:

Pause, Record and Watch Live TV from either room

Watch Movies and Listen to my music collection in either room.

View Photos in either room.

Be able to browse the web via the TV's in either room.

This is what I was thinking of buying:

Media Center PC for the living room with Wireless Network adaptor to connect to my existing wireless network.

XBOX 360 for the bedroom to act as an extender (again wireless).

I have some questions:

1. Should I be waiting for a Windows Vista Media Center PC? is it supposed to be much better, and if so when I are they out?

2. Does the XBOX 360 work with MCE 2005 and Vista MCE?

3. My wireless router is standard 54g is that fast enough to stream movies/tv?

4. Can I keep all of my media content on a NAS that is available on the network rather than on the harddrive of the Media Center PC?

5. Can you get MCE PC's with twin (or even Triple) digital tuners?

6. How do I get the best picture quality out of the MCE PC and the XBOX 360? (Both TV's have Component, SCART & HDMI connectors)

7. Can you control all the MCE capability via the XBOX or is it limited?

8. Can anyone recommend and decent MCE PC suppliers, I wouldn't know where to start looking other than someone like Dell!

Thanks

Simon

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Snail Newbie

Snail

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1. The 360+XP-MCE streams WMV, WMA, MP3, and AAC at the moment. Not sure what differences Vista MCE will make.

2. Not sure about Vista

3. G is fine for SD, but MS recommend wired for HD Video streaming.

4. There are a couple of solutions that allow streaming of Music from NAS, not seen any for video yet.

5. I've seen twin, not sure about more

6. 360 only supports VGA & component (or RGB for SD)

7. Yes with a Media Remote

8. No.

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TDiAvant Newbie

TDiAvant

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1. Should I be waiting for a Windows Vista Media Center PC? is it supposed to be much better, and if so when I are they out?

For the retail version you are looking at January, but most manufactures, will supply Vista, VIA a free of charge upgrade. The latest version will be better, but it’s the case of waiting for drivers. If you have all the drivers available for your system then go for it+++

2. Does the XBOX 360 work with MCE 2005 and Vista MCE?

It will work with both.

3. My wireless router is standard 54g is that fast enough to stream movies/tv?

Windows Media Center will not stream TV to the XBOX 360, it will do movies and audio. I’ve tested streaming movies using a belkin 54g router and it was not that good, it appeared to pause a lot and would not resume. I put a wired connection in and never had any problem after that.

4. Can I keep all of my media content on a NAS that is available on the network rather than on the hard drive of the Media Center PC?

YES, but I would not bother just buy a case that can handle 2-3 drives. You can buy 750GB drives so I cannot see the point of an external array.

5. Can you get MCE PC's with twin (or even Triple) digital tuners?

Media Center support 2 tuners, but you can hack Media Center to work with more. I currently run a PCI express “Terratec Cinergy 2400i DT Dual Freeview TV Tuner”, it works very well and the channel changes are very quick, compared to my old Leadtek WinFast DTV1000T. Forget about the HAUPPAUGE boards I’ve had nothing but trouble with them, and so have many other people I know

6. How do I get the best picture quality out of the MCE PC and the XBOX 360? (Both TV's have Component, SCART & HDMI connectors)

For the PC, I would use HDMI, with the XBOX360, I would use Component.

7. Can you control all the MCE capability via the XBOX or is it limited?

Using the XBOX360 remote It disables menus that you cannot use like TV etc, but is dose work very well.

8. Can anyone recommend and decent MCE PC suppliers, I wouldn't know where to start looking other than someone like Dell!

If you are IT savvy then build your own. I have built a few Media Center systems and they are very easy to build, for cases I use http://www.silverstonetek.com/ which you can buy from scan.co.uk.

Once you have decided on spec etc, spend a good few quid on buying silent fans for the PC, and get a quite power supply.

One question, what sort of sound system do you have?

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sms720 Newbie

sms720

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Thanks for taking the time to provide a detailed reply TdiAvant it is really appreciated.

I have a couple more questions if thats ok.

1. Can you watch recorded TV content on the XBOX?

2. Does the MCE have a decent EPG where you setup weekly recordings of the same program (the reason I ask is because my current HDD PVR does not allow this you have to set the recording manually every week!)

3. Are there graphics cards now that output HDMI?

4. In theory then you could put 2 of the Terratec cards in and record 4 channels at once?

As for sound system I don't have one yet it would just be going through the TV but I will be getting something decent in the future.

Thanks 169144-ok.gif

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Turrican Newbie

Turrican

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[ QUOTE ]

7. Can you control all the MCE capability via the XBOX or is it limited?

Using the XBOX360 remote It disables menus that you cannot use like TV etc, but is dose work very well.

[/ QUOTE ]

If thats the case then why do i have a 'Live TV' button on the 360's remote control?

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TDiAvant Newbie

TDiAvant

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1. Can you watch recorded TV content on the XBOX?

Yes, my mistake before, just going on my experience not fact. Make sure you network connections is good enough. Also make sure you have the latest updates for MCE and the 360, as I said my TV option was disabled, so I’m not sure if I was missing an update or there was a problem with my setup.

2. Does the MCE have a decent EPG where you setup weekly recordings of the same program (the reason I ask is because my current HDD PVR does not allow this you have to set the recording manually every week!)

Yes the EPG is very good, I set mine to record TV series like Top Gear and a few other, it’s never missed a program. EPG is updated via the internet.

3. Are there graphics cards now that output HDMI?

Not sure, I used a DVI to HDMI cable which works fine

4. In theory then you could put 2 of the Terratec cards in and record 4 channels at once?

Don’t see why not, but I’m not sure how many cards the hack would support, doing a quick search on the greenbutton should give you the answer.

For a graphic card I use a Nvidia Geforce 7600GT 256MB version, which is fan-less. For my Sony Bravia (KDL-V40A12D) 40” LCD TV I use a resolution of 1176x664. It can go higher but I get a lot of flickering on certain colours.

For Audio I use Creative labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2, and have connected it to my Sony surround AMP via SPDIF. I have configured all the decoders it to use SPDIF Pass-through, so that’s configuration changes in the sound card software, ac3filter (used for xvid, divx movie playback) and NVIDIA PureVideo Decoder (used for TV and DVD playback).

Hope this is of some help 169144-ok.gif

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