FRI: Community Ratings!
September 28th, 2008Thanks to Vimm of vimm.net, I am adding the ability to view “community ratings” to FRI. This means that if you simply want to play a new game that is good, just sort by community rating and select one from the top of the list. Inversely you could also easily select the worst game…
How to set up an Xbox 360 as Media Center Extender
January 31st, 2008Windows Media Center is great, but its usefulness can be limited if it can’t be viewed on a large screen, like a TV. Luckily, it is not only possible, but really easy to extend the Windows Media Center experience to a TV. That’s where Media Center Extenders come in. Aren’t those guys at Microsoft creative?
There are standalone extenders, and there are extenders built into TVs, but I’m going to use the Media Center Extender functionality that is built into built into my Xbox 360.
There are a few ways to initiate the setup, but the easiest way it to start Media Center on the computer which you want to extend, and then turn on the Xbox. Again, this is more of a demo than a tutorial, since the setup process borders on stupid simple.
The next step is to go to the "Media" blade in the Xbox dashboard and select "Media Center".
Then you see this message. And like it says, select "Windows Media Center" by pressing A on the controller or OK on a Media Center Remote. 
Next, write down this pass key and select continue. 
When you see this screen go over to your Media Center computer. 
Since you already opened Media Center, on the Media Center computer, you will see a message like this. Select yes. 
Select Next. 
Enter the setup key. 
Select Next. 
Select Next. 
Select Yes, unless you only want to allow the extender to be used for TV and online media, in which case select no. 
Select Next. 
If you have User Account Control enabled, which you should, select OK on the UAC window that pops up. Then wait for a moment as the settings are applied. At this point you can go sit in front of the TV. 
After a loading screen, of which I didn’t get a picture, Media Center will appear on the TV just as it does on the computer, introduction animation and all. 
I’m not going to go into the features now, as 95% of the features available on the computer’s Media Center are available through the extender. The transitions are the same and everything.
Next is tuning the network. Tuning the network gives you an idea of how fast the connection between the computer and extender is. If you go back to your computer you will notice this. Select Yes and click Next. Alternatively you can access the network tuner from the Xbox by going down to "Settings" and selecting "Tune Network". 
Wait a few seconds as it tests the performance of the network. 
It will give you a simplified explanation of what the network can handle. Click Next. 
Next it will let your visualize the network performance by either a bar or graph view. The graph view shows you more information. Select "Graph View" and select next. 
For the graph view, information flows in from the right, like the CPU monitor in the Task Manager. Here you can get a good idea of what your network can handle. When you’re done with that click Next. 
Now you get some options. Select Exit. 
Select Next. 
Select Finish to be brought back to the Media Center start menu. 
You’re done!
In case you were curious, here’s what the bar view looks like: 
And if you ever want to change the extender connection settings, you can find all of the associated Media Center Extenders by going to Settings under Tasks in Media Center, and then selecting Extenders. You’ll see something like this: 
Even though the tuning wizard says that the network won’t be able to handle HDTV, I have tried high-definition WMV files at 1080p, and they worked just fine. I assume this is because the HDTV streams are completely or nearly uncompressed, while WMV files are compact by comparison.
Something else notable is that the Xbox does not have DivX support through the Media Center Extender, so if you want to play any DivX movies, you’ll have to do it though the video option in the media blade.
You can have up to 5 extenders hooked up to one computer, and they all operate independently, so multiple people can use each one at the same time.
Finally, if you want to get back to Media Center on your Xbox, you can either go to the Media blade on the dashboard and select Media Center, or you can press the Media Center button on a Media Center remote.
Have fun!
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