Hi folks. Looking to get a 360 in the next couple of days and I'm wondering how all the media center stuff works. I understand you can hack the media bit so you can pull music/tv/movies in off other storage - but that perhaps this prevents you from going on LIVE?
...well.. I'm a nub. Can someone please enlighten me as to the available tweaks and adjustments possible and the interesting things beyond gaming (or sending back to MS hehe) that you can do with your 360?
I'd google, but I don't know where to start...
Nobody hacks the 360 except dedicated cut-off-your-nose pirates; it's not worth it.
You can use it to view photos, play music, and watch videos streamed across your network from any UPNP AV server, or use it as an Extender for Media Center. If you don't use Media Center for your TV (and in the era of CableCard, you don't), there's little reason to even look at the MCE capabilities, because the UPNP UI and capabilities are better and broader.
I put mine in a cardboard box and mailed it to Microsoft to be repaired. That was pretty cool.
Yup. You can play xvid, divx, and even some x264 and H.264 stuff straight from the 360 media guide. Works great.Originally Posted by mkozlows
I fried an egg on mine for breakfast the other day.
No, I didn't.
The original Xbox is the one you hack to gain all sort of cool new functionality (and a superior media center). Xbox 360 is much less hackable, but has video streaming built in. However, it doesn't support quite as many video formats as the hacked Xbox Media Center and has a clumsier UI.
Since they're not clearly explaining it...
If you have a XP Media Center or Vista Ultimate box, the media center stuff shares content to the Xbox360.
If you DO NOT have that... say, just plain XP, you can still do it. Install media player 11, share your library. Then go to the xbox and instead of using the fancier menu, you just go under "video" or "music" and hit (X) to select source. Pick your PC and you're browsing your shared folders.
It's really easy to do it with WMP11, but can you just share the directories?
I play Rock Band on it. Anything else is drowned out by the stupid WHOOSH sound the drive makes.
You can't browse directories that aren't shared through WMP11. So, no SMB file shares or anything. But the way I have mine set in WMP11, on the xbox I see folders and contents not just lists of mp3s and avis.
I had mine stolen...
If you have a Mac, you can do this with connect360.
If you use it to view movies off your hard drive like Aszurom explained, it doesn't make a WHOOSH sound since the drive isn't spinning, it's just streaming data off your computer.
Can you play music while at the same time playing games?
Yes. Using the same technique that Aszurom described, you can use WMP 11 to access all your music on your computer, and then stream it to the 360 using your Xbox Live blade while in a game.
I haven't played Geometry Wars with the original music since launch. Also, most SEGA games come with horrible music. So if you play Sega Rally Revo, for example, be sure to stream your own music.
Can you do it with just the 360 and a TV?
I used to be able to stream mp3s to my 360 from my PC using that sharing from WMP11. But it stopped working all of a sudden. The 360 can not see my PC, my PC can see the 360 (I can re-add the 360 as a shared device in WMP11) just fine though. Any ideas? It seems to be a not uncommon problem, judging by my googling.
olaf, it started working for someone in the other thread, so you might want to search around. I think this thread might have some answers for you.
Yes, you could, but that way, you'll have to rip music onto your 360 by putting the CDs in the drive and ripping them slowly. It's a slow process to rip a lot of music that way, plus you use up your precious 360 drive space. :) It is possible to use CD-Rs and CD-RWs though, so if you already have playlists that you've made with your mp3 collection, you can burn one disc, and then rip that onto the 360 drive, which saves some time over putting all the different CDs in there and ripping the tracks you want.
The last time my 360 started giving my PC the cold shoulder (or vice versa), I ended up fixing it by resetting my router to factory defaults (and then re-securing the wireless, etc)--after which it worked. I still have no idea what the actual cause was, though. Those are the most reassuring kinds of problems, aren't they? Heh.
Stream music, you mean? Yes, there's a blade in the interface specifically for it. You can also rip CDs to the 360's own hard drive if you're so inclined. You can even hook up most mp3 players to its usb connection and play them through that--remarkably, that works even with iPods. It's pretty flexible as an mp3 playing solution.
Yeah, playing divx-encoded video streamed from my Vista PC is pretty cool.
Mostly, though, I play games. I haven't played a game on my PC since Bioshock, and I kinda regret not getting that for the 360 instead.
Last winter I used it to heat my room.
This will be my first summer with a 360 and I'm probably not going to play it at all once the temp outside starts going above 90.
Same here. I was staying in a basement, and it got REALLY cold at nights. The 360 was a lifesaver. It still didn't heat the whole basement, but just the little area around the TV.
During the summers, I have a box fan that I keep next to the 360, blowing on it 100% of the time that its on. I never, ever, turn on the 360 without also turning on the box fan. *Fingers crossed*, no RROD for me yet.
Don't use the Media Center/Extender stuff as it (last time I checked) can't play divx files. Just use WMP11 to share your videos on the PC and then pick the "Videos" option from the 360's dashboard.
I use TVersity to stream video to my 360. It autoconverts formats that the 360 can't handle, so it's a bit better than WMP11.
You can also connect a usb drive to your xbox 360 with the media on it, and play them that way.
I've tried that, but found that the end result was flakier than using WMP11. It's also available on Mac, so might be a better alternative there (Connect360 isn't free, TVersity is.) And there's this "Orb" software that I really didn't like at all.
I just use WMP11.
This has never worked for me. I had sharing enable on the PC, I had the 360 scanning for it, and it simply could not find a "compatible PC". After about a half hour of trying I got bored and moved on. Completely unhacked 360 here.just plain XP, you can still do it. Install media player 11, share your library. Then go to the xbox and instead of using the fancier menu, you just go under "video" or "music" and hit (X) to select source. Pick your PC and you're browsing your shared folders.
Then again, mine is on the PC monitor so I don't really have an urgent need to play movies or music on it.
You probably changed some hardware component and the DRM key isn't valid anymore: http://groups.google.com/group/XBox-...941017ad4e2a4c
Aw come on dude, you did way more than that. Bust out the youtube link :)
Thanks for all this. Am going to fiddle with it soon.
Picked up a 360 today!
My LIVE id is TinyKiwiPirate, feel free to sign me up.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote