Windows 7 Meets XBox Media Center Extender

Chapter 1: Windows 7

I've always been an early adopter of new versions of Microsoft's operating systems. I had Vista installed the month that it was released, and although it never really caught on as a corporate replacement for the old, reliable Windows xp I've enjoyed using it for last couple of years with very few complaints.

Now comes Windows 7 this year and the tradition continues. I had a chance to do the upgrade to Windows 7 Business about a month ago, shortly after it's release. And even though it didn't seem to have very many new features or capabilities over Vista, the installation went smooth with no major problems.

Chapter 2: A bit of networking...

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. I've been pondering purchasing either a Netflix Roku, or a new BluRay DVD player with network capabilities so we could stream Netflix movies to our TV without having to wait for discs to arrive.

Regardless of the selection of hardware, I knew I'd need to run CAT5 cable from the router in Justin's room, to our TV in living room. I took stock and found I had enough cable, and just needed a couple RJ45 jacks to do the install. Long story short, I drilled a few holes in the walls and floor, crawled under the house and ran the cable, bought a 2-jack panel for Justin's room, and used his old wall plate in the living room to finish a nice, clean network extension.

Chapter 3: Choosing the Hardware

Now the research began. I knew we wanted to do Netflix thing, and I needed to choose between the follwing applicable solutions:

1) Roku, going for about $100 it just did Netflix. It would get the job done but how boring. The DVD players did other neat stuff like YouTube and Pandora playback.

2) Network Bluray players, namely by Samsung and LG were my first choice. Going for $150-$300, they'd give us BluRay capability, Netflix access and a few extras like YouTube or Pandora depending on the player.

3) We already had an XBox 360, and I knew XBox Live had a Netflix client avaialable. I was only luke warm on the desire for being able to play BluRay movies, and $50/year for XBox Live was very attractive compared to $150-$300 for a BluRay player.

Bottom line, $50 for XBox Live was the cheapest solution to get Netflix content streaming to our television, so that's what I went with. Who'd know just how cool it would really be...

Chapter 4: XBox Live

It was a quick setup plugging the XBox into the new network jack, updating the Xbox to the lastest version of the dashboard, choosing a new gamertag, entering billing information before we were rolling on XBox Live.

I quickly found the NetFlix client available for free download and install under the Video Marketplace menu, and had 'A Christmas Story' streaming on the TV with "Ooos" and "Ahhs!" from the family only about an hour after starting signing up for Live.

Chapter 5: Media Center Extender

The next day, still excited about the new family toy, I started exploring the other options available in the XBox 360 Live dashboard and came across "Media Center". I was moderately familiar with Media Center from playing around with it on Vista, but having very little use for it at the time.

I wasn't expecting the Windows 7 Business installation I'd recently done to have Media Center as part of it, but decided to check anyway. Come to find out it did. So, after checking out the client on the XBox, I was given a 6-character code which would authenticate the XBox with the Media Center software on the computer. So I jotted the code down, went to the computer, and opened a browser to the xbox.com/pcsetup setup site, ran the installation, entered the code and had the link setup.

I then opened Media Center, and ran it's setup. This allows you to tell Media Center where you keep your personal photos, music, and videos. With Windows 7, this actually adds these folders your 'Libraries' which appears to be a new indexing feature with Windows 7.

Finally, returning to the TV and launching the Media Center Extender, I had access to 1) play slide shows of my photos, 2) play and search music, and playlists (which is a bit slow and cumbersome when you have a large music library), play home videos (with our digital HDD camcorder, all our home videos are already in MPG format on the computer), and of course play any downloaded videos or media from the Internet.

So for a total of about $65, that $15 for a network wallplate, and $50 for Live, I not only can play games online with others, and play movies from NetFlix, but now I NEVER have to wait to encode or burn a DVD to play on my TV. This has already saved me countless hours! So if you're at all tech savvy, and have an XBox 360, and a Windows PC with Media Center on it, this is a very cheap way to enhance your TV viewing capabilities.

Chapter 6: The future

We've been enjoying the Netflix and Media Center extenders for a couple weeks now and I've make a couple changes to the setup.

First using your XBox controlller in lieu of a remote control has a couple disadvantages. First, you have to turn the controller on every time you want to change what you're watching, fast-forward, rewind, etc. This means that the XBox controller is left on for very long periods, which in turn means you start going through batteries a lot quicker. Solution: for $20, you can purchase the XBox IR remote control which uses an normal IR signal rather than the active radio connection that the conroller uses, which saves batteries, is always 'on', and has very clear buttons for doing common operations like loading Media Center, fast-forwarding, rewinding, etc.

Second, using your XBox as a Media Extender, you'll quickly learn that the 360 is REDICULOUSLY loud. This is due to both a loud stock fan, and a loud DVD drive. After some research I came across the Talismoon Whisper fan, which I just purchased online for about $20.

Please note, that during the process of replacing your stock fan, it does void the XBox warranty. I'm not particularly worried about it, as I've recently already voided the warranty after repairing a red-ring of death using the 3-penny heat-sink replacement, and overheat reset 'trick'. Which are beautifully, and very clearly documented on YouTube.

So happy holidays and I hope this helps someone with their decision on Media Center setups. It was a lot of fun doing the setup.