WinXP MCE upgrade or wait for Vista Ultimate?

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HeavyB

Senior member
Oct 28, 2000
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I am gearing up to integrate my Xbox 360 with the new C2D system I recently built and would like to use the media extender capabilities on the Xbox360 to stream TV shows, pictures, music, etc from the new PC. I got in on the deal for a free copy of Vista Business which does not have all of the media bells and whistles that Vista home premium or Vista Ultimate have. To upgrade from Business to Ultimate would cost about $100. I could just get WinXP MCE for about the same price. I was going to wait to install Vista for awhile to let some of the initial glitches get worked-out. What path would you recommend to do to better integrate my desktop PC with theXbox360? I don't yet have a DX10 compatible card and don;t plan on buying one for quite some time, either.

Cheers,
HeavyB
 
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SEAL62505

Golden Member
Oct 8, 2000
1,764
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I am not sure if this is the best route for you, but you could buy MCE 2005 for around 110 at newegg. It comes with Vista Home Premium upgrade (Vista MCE). Then you would have 2005 MCE until Vista is stable and you could upgrade at that time (or dual boot the two)...
 
Aikouka

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Well, if you do go with MCE, you'll want to use Transcode 360 as the X360 is limited to WM content and MPEG2 content only from Media Center machines. There's also a Transcode program for normal Windows XP installations, but I forget the name and URL. I know it was featured on DailyTech a couple weeks back.

So depending on which is cheaper for you (MCE is only like $110), go with that and the free transcoding solution.

Also, I originally tried this, but transcoding isn't perfect. I ended up just using my Multimedia/File Server directly on my HDTV and it works just as well. My MF Server does have MCE on it, but after about 3 days, the MC program died and just flickers when opened... not so nice :(. It also had a huge problem with hang-ups (I presume it hung while trying to peruse and create thumbnails). So, I just navigate with my ATi Remote Wonder and view the files in MPC :). It may take a little bit longer, but at least I have freedom of codecs and programs that don't mess up.

I also tried that free Media thingy-ma-bob (the name escapes me at the moment), but it doesn't support codecs like Media Center does (MC uses whatever your PC can play) as this one requires codecs of its own from what I could ascertain.
 
H

HeavyB

Senior member
Oct 28, 2000
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Just realized this thread could/should(?) be in the OS forum. Sorry for the confusion.

Cheers,
HeavyB
 
C

CVSiN

Diamond Member
Jul 19, 2004
9,289
1
0
Originally posted by: HeavyB
I am gearing up to integrate my Xbox 360 with the new C2D system I recently built and would like to use the media extender capabilities on the Xbox360 to stream TV shows, pictures, music, etc from the new PC. I got in on the deal for a free copy of Vista Business which does not have all of the media bells and whistles that Vista home premium or Vista Ultimate have. To upgrade from Business to Ultimate would cost about $100. I could just get WinXP MCE for about the same price. I was going to wait to install Vista for awhile to let some of the initial glitches get worked-out. What path would you recommend to do to better integrate my desktop PC with theXbox360? I don't yet have a DX10 compatible card and don;t plan on buying one for quite some time, either.

Cheers,
HeavyB
Click to expand...

why upgrade? after the last update and WMP11 you can stream anything that WMP can play...
dont even need MC anymore..
I have it and i dont use it anymore now that the 360 can stream video without it..
 
Z

zixxer

Diamond Member
Jul 6, 2001
7,326
0
0
personally I recommend having a dedicated pc just for MCE stuff (whether vista or mce..) even if you're not a moron and don't get spyware

That being said, your 360 doesn't care if you have mce or vista.
 
R

Robor

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
16,979
0
76
Originally posted by: CVSiN
why upgrade? after the last update and WMP11 you can stream anything that WMP can play...
dont even need MC anymore..
I have it and i dont use it anymore now that the 360 can stream video without it..
Click to expand...

You can connect a 360 to a PC running XP rather than MCE? Sorry if that's a stupid question. I've got a 360 but never tried connecting to my PC's with it. :confused:
 
H

HeavyB

Senior member
Oct 28, 2000
370
0
0
Originally posted by: CVSiN
Originally posted by: HeavyB
I am gearing up to integrate my Xbox 360 with the new C2D system I recently built and would like to use the media extender capabilities on the Xbox360 to stream TV shows, pictures, music, etc from the new PC. I got in on the deal for a free copy of Vista Business which does not have all of the media bells and whistles that Vista home premium or Vista Ultimate have. To upgrade from Business to Ultimate would cost about $100. I could just get WinXP MCE for about the same price. I was going to wait to install Vista for awhile to let some of the initial glitches get worked-out. What path would you recommend to do to better integrate my desktop PC with theXbox360? I don't yet have a DX10 compatible card and don;t plan on buying one for quite some time, either.

Cheers,
HeavyB
Click to expand...

why upgrade? after the last update and WMP11 you can stream anything that WMP can play...
dont even need MC anymore..
I have it and i dont use it anymore now that the 360 can stream video without it..
Click to expand...


I just realized this after doing some more research. Hopefully I can get a TV tuner to record shows and stream them to my TV using just XP without worrying about MCE or Vista. My mai uses will be browsing photo albums, using my MP3 library, and hopefully watching recorded TV shows. Using transcode 360 might be a big help with this as well.

Cheers,
HeavyB
 
R

Robor

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
16,979
0
76
Originally posted by: Robor
Originally posted by: CVSiN
why upgrade? after the last update and WMP11 you can stream anything that WMP can play...
dont even need MC anymore..
I have it and i dont use it anymore now that the 360 can stream video without it..
Click to expand...

You can connect a 360 to a PC running XP rather than MCE? Sorry if that's a stupid question. I've got a 360 but never tried connecting to my PC's with it. :confused:
Click to expand...

Bump... I would like to work on this over the holiday weekend so trying to get an idea of what I need now. Thanks for any help/pointers! :)
 
C

CVSiN

Diamond Member
Jul 19, 2004
9,289
1
0
yeh but if your content is already in wmv format you can just use wmp11 and allow the 360 access to your files and then from the media menu on the 360 select video and boom instant stream.
 
Aikouka

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Originally posted by: CVSiN
yeh but if your content is already in wmv format you can just use wmp11 and allow the 360 access to your files and then from the media menu on the 360 select video and boom instant stream.
Click to expand...

Just to mention, I don't think this feature requires WMP11, as I tinkered with that on my original WinXP machine (that's now my MCE machine), but I didn't have any WMV files to play (as all of my content is either .avi, .mp4 or .mkv). But it seemed like it'd work when I only had WMP9 (I don't think I upgraded to 10).
 
blurredvision

blurredvision

Lifer
Oct 19, 2000
17,860
4
81
Originally posted by: CVSiN
why upgrade? after the last update and WMP11 you can stream anything that WMP can play...
dont even need MC anymore..
I have it and i dont use it anymore now that the 360 can stream video without it..
Click to expand...
Seriously? Even DivX and XviD files? That doesn't sound right.....they wouldn't even show up on the 360 menu, would they?
 
secretanchitman

secretanchitman

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2001
9,353
23
91
i'd say just get windows xp mce from newegg (like one of the first couple posters said) that has a vista home premium coupon.

i would say ultimate isnt worth that pricetag.
 
Aikouka

Aikouka

Lifer
Nov 27, 2001
30,383
912
126
Originally posted by: blurredvision
Originally posted by: CVSiN
why upgrade? after the last update and WMP11 you can stream anything that WMP can play...
dont even need MC anymore..
I have it and i dont use it anymore now that the 360 can stream video without it..
Click to expand...
Seriously? Even DivX and XviD files? That doesn't sound right.....they wouldn't even show up on the 360 menu, would they?
Click to expand...

From my experiences, no they will not. You also need the Media Sharing software thing from Microsoft (I forget what it's called Windows Media something) if you want to run it from XP without a transcoder (not sure if you need it with a transcoder too, I doubt it).
 
blurredvision

blurredvision

Lifer
Oct 19, 2000
17,860
4
81
Originally posted by: Aikouka
Originally posted by: Robor
Bump... I would like to work on this over the holiday weekend so trying to get an idea of what I need now. Thanks for any help/pointers! :)
Click to expand...

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=5075

That's the article I mentioned earlier about Transcoding without having MCE.
Click to expand...
I just downloaded this program along with ffdshow, and got everything installed and the service is running fine. I checked router settings, everything should be good. But I've run into a problem....what in the hell do I need to do with my 360 to get it to see the videos I've added to the TVersity server? I see all my wmv videos, music, and pictures like always, but I don't understand how I'm supposed to access the divx encoded video file I added. Where do I go, what do I do?

EDIT: Just figured it out. You have to disconnect your regular media serving PC and reconnect to the TVersity server, which shows up as it's own computer/server in the list on the 360 (assuming it's hooked up right).

I was able to stream a decent quality 720x480 1.5GB Divx avi file that was about 7 minutes long with absolutely no hiccups over my 54g wireless connection. Beautiful!
 
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