Forgive me for some n00b questions, but I just received an XBox 360 Elite for my birthday and was pretty psyched to load up some movies from my Mac.

I plugged in my USB drive with some Venture Bros. episodes but was disappointed to see that I could not transfer the episodes over to the 120gb HDD. Similarly, I couldn't move my mp3's over. Most of my music comes purchased as mp3, or downloaded as a long live set (hours), so the only way I could figure out how to move them over was by ripping those to CD and ripping that onto the Xbox.

Anyway, I've been mulling my options but I'm trying to see what everybody else is doing. I don't have Vista, and I don't want to keep my Mac on just to stream videos over (it's a laptop, and mostly stays in my bedroom). Should I consider purchasing a cheap external hard drive? Is there any resource or FAQ on this?

You know about Connect360, right?

http://www.nullriver.com/index/products/connect360

Why not keep the laptop running to stream? I stream stuff from my laptop all the time. Wireless home networking can be a beautiful thing. . . !

I read about Connect360 but I'd prefer something that allows me to take advantage of my 360's 120gb hd, and take it around to friends' places to watch all my stored movies, etc. Is there no way to move movies from computer to 360?

I read about Connect360 but I'd prefer something that allows me to take advantage of my 360's 120gb hd, and take it around to friends' places to watch all my stored movies, etc. Is there no way to move movies from computer to 360?

The XBOX drive is locked. You can only put things on that drive that is downloaded from XBOX Live with the exception of ripping CDs. Search the forum for USB Drive. I know there are people using them with the XBOX but I have no experience doing it.

The 360 media experience is really designed around streaming. Although you can use external drives and such, streaming is where it really shines.

120GB is a tiny drive. I have 2TB of movies, photos and music stored on hard drives in my house. I don't see why anyone would want to make the 360 a media center. As a media center extender or streaming media viewer, it works very well, however. And it works with pretty much any computer.

This is even more nOOb. I stream soccer games directly to my Sammy DLP. What do I gain going throught the 360? Picture quality due to better data transfer? Please clarify, thanks anyone.:confused:

I did say thanks didn't I?:(

This is even more nOOb. I stream soccer games directly to my Sammy DLP. What do I gain going throught the 360? Picture quality due to better data transfer? Please clarify, thanks anyone.:confused:

If you have a PC hooked up to your TV, there may be no reason to use the 360 for video. I have a PC with media center hooked up to my 60" 1080p TV, and it works much better than the 360 does for video.

But if my PC wasn't sitting right next to my TV, I might consider using the 360 as a streaming media device.

Much appreciated, I'll stay where I'm at.