Streaming HD Video to an Xbox 360.

[TrueWisdom]

Hey everyone. I'm considering buying a Dell Dimension C521 with the following specs:

X2 3800+
1GB DDR2
nVidia GeForce 6150 LE

My goal is to stick Vista Ultimate on it, leave it on 24/7, and have it act as a media server for my house. Power consumption is one of my chief concerns with this machine, (well, that and price), but I would like to stream HD Video from the computer to my Xbox 360 in the living room. My question is, whose hardware takes the hit from the decoding, and, (if it is the server and not the X360), should I consider spending $50 to stick a discrete GPU in the C521 to help take some of the load off of the 3800+? I want to keep this machine as cool, quiet, and power-saving as possible. Thanks!

EDIT: It looks like the X360 handles the decoding. Can anyone confirm this? Thanks!

 

[ViRGE]

The 360 handles the decoding, but keep in mind it only decodes a select few formats. You need to transcode a lot of other stuff like DivX/XviD if you want to play it on the 360, and that will take processing power from the server.

 

[gramboh]

Is it expected that the Xbox 360 will be cracked and modable to support third party stuff like Xbox Media Centre for the original Xbox? I have XBMC running on an old Xbox and it has codecs for everything (only ran into a few files it won't play). I'd like to upgrade to a 360 to play HD stuff if possible. It's on a 100mbit LAN so it should be fast enough