[raaaaaa]

I was wondering if anyone has gotten there hands on one of these extenders?
Media Center Extender Overview

Media Center Extender For Xbox


It sound like a great Idea, HP has one (out of stock) for 300.00 sound real nice. it beats buying or building a new HTPC.


IF you have an Xbox (which is the way I will go) you can buy a kit (CD and remote) and run the extender from your xbox.


that beats hacking it to do the same thing (well not exactly the same)


if any one has gotten the hands on one of these devices I would appreciate your opinions.

(sorry if it has been discussed already)

 

[Suntan]

First of all you need a Media Center 2005 enabled PC to hook up to. A regular PC to stream from does not work. Second, I highly doubt any non MS codecs/formats would be allowed like Vorbis, Xvid, .OGM, FLAC, etc.


The modded xbox does not have these limitations.


It would be nice if MS would just let you use the xbox for what it is, a small/cheap decent little PC.


-Suntan

 

[budiman]

Suntan:

I would like DivX / XviD playback capability as well on the XBox (via MCExtender), but from MS's company financial point of view, it doesn't quite work out.


Basically, the XBox hardware is sold at a loss, so they have to compensate via software/game licenses. Now, if MCExtender allows all media playback, a lot of people will buy the XBox just for that purpose (like you said, a small/cheap decent little PC).


You can make the argument that by selling XBoxes first, then people will eventually buy games, but no guarantees, right? If I can buy a $200 box that allows me to hook up to my MCE PC and playback everything I have in there, chances are, it'll be that box's main usage, not for playing games.


Then again, right now it does cost about $200 for an XBox + chip + media player, it's just not for the faint of heart .

 

[rlundy]

An Xbox can output 720p. Wonder if the Extender Game "Kit" will allow that sort of output. Would likely blow all the other extenders away if they're only built for 480i/p.


Nah, it would make too much sense.


Robert