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Microsoft Bringing TV to Xbox
grazzy writes "Microsoft is set to release its Windows Media Center Extender for Xbox mid-November. The device will allow you to view recorded and downloaded media content stored on your PC via your Xbox.""
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have a TV tuner, and PVR software on my XBOX than just playback.
There are enough media players out there (such as the GoVideo 2730) able to play anything Universal Plug & Play provides, that making my XBOX another player is, frankly, dull.
Design for Use, not Construction!
simple: I have every episode of simpsons, south park, family guy, aqua teen, Star Trek TNG, Star Trek DS9, all at my fingertips. 2 clicks, from the comfort of my recliner, and I can watch any one of hundreds of TV shows, no commercials, pause when I need popcorn, and best of all its awesome quality and will never wear out or get scratches like a DVD.
Now, to order another 300 gig drive.....
No I didnt spell check this post...
With XBox 2 around the corner, it seems to me that Microsoft is firing the first salvo in the upcoming Media Center wars. Sony and Microsoft both want to be the entertainment hub of the living room - video games, TV, music, movies... all in one.
I guess M$ has an advantage in that they control the desktop, but I think they're making a mistake by releasing XBox 2 so early. The hype simply isn't there the way it would be if they waited for Sony, and once the PS3 does come out, everyone will be comparing spec's. By releasing now, they're locking in at a lower specification level.
Surprisingly, Sony's answer, the smaller PS2 doesn't even have a hard drive. I guess this means they're not seriously pushing the PS2 as an entertainment appliance.
Nintendo, in contrast, is holding out until the PS3 release date for their next generation system, but pushing their DS handheld now in it's place. Since Nintendo has a reputation for good handhelds, they can gain some foothold here and convert people who want handheld to console compatability (which I suspect isn't that many people).
Well, maybe you don't have the hard drive space, but others do. Many people have ripped their video and/or audio collections to save on their computer. They can the toss the DVD/CD in a cabinet somewhere and forget about them. Want to watch a movie? Just scroll through the list like you were going to watch a PPV movie...just without the $4.99 fee. Want to listen to your favoirte CD? Just hit play.
With XMBC, you can also download CD information or movie information. Then you can sort by genre, actor, actress, etc. In the mood for a movie with Jim Carrey but don't know which one? It will tell you which movies you have that star him quickly and easily.
Getting Media Center Edition no longer requires purchasing a new overpriced system. Some references:
c ription=32-102-311&depa=0
c ription=80-100-851&DEPA=0
... $589 &loc=101&sp=1
9
t =438918&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&
MCE 2005 OEM (Software) - $140
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?des
MCE 2005 Remote - $40
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?des
Xbox MCE Extender software (includes remote - is what this whole article is about)
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=1038520
LinkSys MCE Extender (standalone/wireless) -
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=1038266
HP has one too also can't find it for sale yet
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/product?produc
If you've modded your box already and hooked it up to your PC, then you can already do this. My sister-in-law was competing at the Hawaii Ironman this past weekend, and IMNorth America has a streaming video feed set-up at the finish line, that most folks would watch on their PC. We watched it on our tv, and saw her finish her race (and recorded it for her).
I just want the PVR functionality (and more streaming stations with higher quality video). Then I can cancel my cable. Mwahahaha!
"Content's a bitch."
This is a stroke of marketing genius. In retrospect, obvious as hell. Sony and Nintendo can't be far behind -- they'd need a partner, though.
Xbox media center extenders have been around for a LONG time before xbmc. I just knew people would think they were ripping them off. They were at CES last year and i've seen them along time before that.
It would piss me off because I hear about xbox media center and think microsoft finally released it.
we'll see how it fares on the *major* protected media content: live TV. After all, wouldn't want a hack to block advertisements on TV like we do in Firefox.
I have a feeling the tests we've seen so far will seem quaint in retrospect.
"Remember back in the day when you could chip a game console and only get a threatening letter?" said one inmate to the other.
actually read the article and realize that this gives you TV PVR capabilities which no modchip can do. Unless you are using XBox+Xebian+Mythtv for Xbox PLUS Mythtv running on another computer with tv card.
Uh.... this is an additional piece of hardware. You also need a Media Center PC.
a luation/devices/xboxextenderkit.mspx :
Yes, you do need a Media Center PC. I'll give you that. However this XBox Extenders is wholly software:
From http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/ev
Media Center Extender for Xbox is a packaged software product from Microsoft that runs as an Xbox game. With a wired or wireless connection to the Media Center PC, the Xbox console now allows you to enjoy the digital entertainment media from the PC when and how you want.
Basically, they took the Xbox Media Center functionality, rewrote or fixed it up to work only with Media Center 2005's protocols, and are selling it with a remote. Making a standard non-hacked XBox into a Remote Media Playback device to work with the Media Center PC.
They're hitting this on all fronts. Note that they have stopped requiring Win XP/MCE to be bundled with PC's, and are selling it separately now. You can buy a Retail copy of MCE 2005. Then you can use this XBox software and/or individual set top boxes to wire the whole house up to use one MCE PC as the server for all the storage and such. It holds everything: Music, movies, pictures, and then it's all available throughout the home on one interface, with various types of boxes. Kid has an xbox in his room, you have a set top box in yours, main room has the PC running MCE, everything is wireless G, everybody can watch different things.
It's a good setup if they can make it work. People have been wanting this sort of thing out of Tivo and such for years, and Microsoft looks to have mostly beat them all to the punch.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
As I suggested before, if MS came out with a media player for Xbox that will function as it does on a PC (allow me to play DiVX/XViDS/Mp3s/etc.) I would run out and buy a copy instantly.
Instead, Microsoft puts out a Media Player that requires you to have a PC! That's absurd. If you already have a Media Centric-PC why would you want your Xbox to play your movies when your PC can do it just fine without the extra electricity.
Microsoft has dropped the ball on this one, so people like me who want to view movies from Xbox or over a network share will end up modding the Xbox and then opening ourselves to the new arsenal of games on Torrents and such. Thanks MS!
If everyone would stop the microsoft bash train and look for a second they would see that if you would update to SP2 and Media Center 10 you can download a update called Media Center Connect, which lets Windows Media Player 10 connect wirelessly to any UPnP device. Why is this cool? Because thats what they are doing to the XBOX. Making it a UPnP Device. Which means I can access my 250 gig hard drive that is full of TV shows legally captured with my ATI card and play them back at random without more wires. Its actually a cool little product. Media Center 10 will play every format you can throw at it but OGG, which no one uses, and AAC, which is the apple standard, but thats like 2% of the total digital media market. Get with the program people. Microsoft isn't that bad. I run Windows XP for weeks at a time, only to turn it off to upgrade a piece of hardware or something like that.
It's not a question of money! Don't you think this is WAY too many pieces to deal with. That's like buying a Tivo box in 7 pieces.
This is odd.. how does it fit in with Microsofts Next Gen system strategy. Who's gonna want a NeX Box which is confirmed to not have a hard drive, when they can have a full entertainment system with Halo 2 for less. That's going to have to be one heck of a graphics improvement, and I think that they're at point where huge increases in proccessing power will only result in a small improvement.
What bugged me was the code overhead. Still, I got to play Need for Speed just fine on it, which was quite a delight to me. And this is essentially what this pair that M$ is offering really is.
Having used Linux for a little over a year, and being a one-time (okay, STILL)OS/2 junkie it's been on my mind for a while: Why hasn't anyone developed a distro streamlined for the types of things M$ is doing. I would LOVE if I could choose to boot my SuSE in either 'work' or 'game' mode.
I mention OS/2 because that's one of the things IBM forgot, and it seems a lot of FOSS programmers are ignorant of too: computers are operated by PEOPLE. Sometimes people just want to plug in and go, others, like me, once we got it going we want to tinker and learn how it works. That is to say, I want to play right off the bat, but I also want to learn about how it all works when I get tired of playing.
While I appreciate many of the games I can get for Linux, imagine the power a unified 'game spec' OS could provide. No wasted daemon running and an API that ANY game programmer can aquire without costly license overhead! This would lower the bar for new game developers, and create a market wherein nobody would have to sign an exclusive development deal (SNES, X-Box, and PS-2 have platform specific titles).
I'm no programmer, but I'm sure this is possible. Pre-linking libraries, and/or a simplified gentoo-type build process coupled with a 'portage' or 'apt-get' type of utility could extend the life of the hardware.
And the icing on the cake? A solid REASON why America's (or any other country's) youth would want to buy a "build your own game console and save a bundle" book/kit to learn about computers and IP laws!
Kinda like the late seventies and early eighties all over again. :)
Seriously. It is.
This is why Microsoft was so eager to get X-Boxes into every home they could, regardless of the loss. Games? Pfah. They had the Media Center coming, and the X-Box was the way to get it into houses without having to sell PC's.
Microsoft's strategy for survival is clear and it is all-encompassing. Screw the OS; they want a piece of the DRM-sweet pie for every song, every film clip, every TV program, every movie played in the world on a digital box. Even if Linux eventually supplants Windows in some fashion, they will own the DRM of media files. They've been moving behind the scenes for years now, arm-twisting the music/movie/cable people into adopting MS DRM. It's in Longhorn, sure, but they aren't just settling for that. Longhorn is just a piece that fits into all the other pieces to come.