Shola's Home Gadgets

I recently bought a XBox 360 console to use as a Media Center Extender, as I quite loved the idea of my family having arm chair access to our complete ripped CD collection, our ever increasing collection of digital photos that would never otherwise see the light of day, as well as access to the few DVDs we had and our home videos which I had shot.

With Media Center Edition 2005 firmly established as a favourite easy to use HTPC application, and me having a fairly new windows XP machine in the study, and not wishing to shell out £800 or so to get a living room acceptable HTPC, using the XBox 360 as an extender to my current PC which I would need to install MCE 2005 Edition on seemed a good choice, and Google seemed to have many references to the increased use of the XBox 360 as a media hub in the house.

Having had access to a Liteon 5025 PVR/DVD recorder over the last 12 months or so, I knew that our family had no use for a PVR, so I wouldn't be using MCE 2005 for live TV or recording. It wasn't until I started adding all the bits and pieces together that I realised how far from the £210 commonly quoted price this new media hub was going to cost.

Not being a gamer, and to cut costs, I decided on buying the Core system and building on that.

XBox 360 Core System £210
HD Component cable (to complement my new LG RZ37LZ55 HD Ready LCD Television) £20. Joytech sell a cheaper version.
You will need a VGA cable to connect the Xbox 360 to a computer monitor, the cable included with the core system can be used to connect it to a CRT TV, but for a better quality signal you will need the RGB scart cable.

Xbox 360 Universal remote console £20. Even if you buy the premium pack, the included remote does not have the complete features provided by this remote.

XBOX 360 wireless adaptor £55 (I needed this since I didn't have a wired network point near my TV, and wasn't in a position to run one). For best performance, your MCE 2005 PC should be connected to the wireless access point via a wired connection.

A digital optical cable to allow me output 5.1 surround sound from the Xbox 360, as the HD Component cable only outputs stereo (I haven't checked if this is Dolby, but guess it is).

One annoying thing that I recently found out was that you need a storage device to be able to download updates to the Xbox 360 via Xbox live, contrary to the press release that was sent all over the place by Microsoft when the much anticipated Spring Update was released in June. So here I am with a XBOX 360, and I can't download the latest firmware to the console because I don't have a memory unit or Hard drive. Obviously Microsoft still thinks the XBOX 360 is primarily a gaming console and the media hub facilities where just an after though. I haven't bought a storage device or memory card yet, as I don't think I really need the spring update yet!

Finally I have had to pay £72 to get a legal copy of MCE 2005 to run on my study PC, and this had to be a fresh installation, as MCE 2005 will not upgrade Windows XP Home Edition.

Now I have everything to connect my XBox 360 to my TV as well as allow it to act as a MCE 2005 edition extender, does my family now get the full MCE 2005 experience from the sofa? NO.

I will be explaining in my next post what a let down the XBox 360 as a MCE extender is.

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XBox360 as Media Extender
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