Run Windows MCE Applications on Xbox 360

BlueMoon writes "A user of the GA-forum found out the Media Extender on the Xbox 360 allows to stream Windows MediaCenter applications over network on your Xbox 360 console. While the applications themselves will run on the MCE PC, it'll stream the interface/input to the Xbox360/PC. Simple MCE apps like those modified browsers to pull down news stories, stock quotes, sports scores etc., as well as several internet radio clients worked fine. Mini-games like a Tetris clone and some card game crashed, but then again ... that seems to be a normal behaviour for the 360."

Comments

HDTV, and how I helped MS lose money

[dada21]

I'm a big MCE supporter. Yes, I have tried MythTV (5 different installs) and Sage and every other variety over the years. MCE passes the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor), crashed only once in the past 4 months, and can handle nearly unlimited tuners. No, there is no hardcore cable HDTV support (except for unencrypted channels which is all I get anyway). The third party support is awesome and all my add-ons are bulletproof.

I will be buying an X360 to replace my Xboxes which currently run as extenders. I have less than 10 games (most bought used). If MS is losing money on every X360, then they'll lose 3x that with my units.

I am more interested in HDTV support and multichannel sound on the X360 extenders, as well as how well the actual video quality is. My Xbox extender's output is pretty bad (noise, gamma modifications and other weird issues). I'm waiting for the rush of X360's to purchase them used if possible, as I did with my Xboxes.

Re:HDTV, and how I helped MS lose money

[CastrTroy]

You're a little off. If he doesn't buy one, then they don't have to produce it. If they lose $160 on every box they sell, then they lose that much when he buys it. If he buys 10, they lose $1600. If he doesn't buy any, then they don't need to produce any, and therefore don't lose any money. The only time they would be losing money, from him not buying, is if they couldn't sell the unit at all. Which doesn't seem to be the case.

Re:HDTV, and how I helped MS lose money

[Chr0nik]

No, your just not participating.

If someone really wanted to hurt them(sony, nintendo, listen up).

They'd buy like 10,000 of these, and pay some heavies to get linux running on them. Then sell them on some auction site, or craigslist, "pre-hacked for your convenience." for $20 over retail a piece. In this way, profiting off an xbox console that can't be used to play the games microsoft is gambling on to make them their money. All that loss, no possibility of regaining it.

Re:HDTV, and how I helped MS lose money

[fishbowl]

In other words, the belief is based on speculation. The actual manufacturing costs aren't disclosed. It's in the company's interest to make the consumer *believe* it's losing money, or that it's losses are higher per unit than other consumer devices in the bracket, but it might not even be true.

Or if it is true that the company takes a $126 loss per unit, does that actually mean what the typical consumer thinks it means?

What's the wholesale, pre-tax, pre-import-duty cost on the Xbox? What's it's insured value at the warehouse? Are the per-component, per-unit-labor, and per-unit packaging and transportation costs really disclosed to the public? Why would they be?

Who benefits from a widespread belief that you're "sticking it to Microsoft" if you buy an Xbox and not buying any games?

The possibilities are endless!

[casualsax3]

Imagine (once a solid Xbox emulator is released) playing Starfox for Snes9x on your Xbox on your PC on your Xbox 360!

Source missing

[-pms-mistletoe]

Where is this story "via"? I've only seen it on one blog today.. where's the credit..

Exploits lurking to execute unsigned code?

[flowerp]

So, quick, write some exploit to inject code into the xbox using some buffer
overflow in the remote desktop code. Does this sound feasible?

Hopefully this UI code does not run in a sandbox (for example as managed code) as some form of type/range checked byte code. That would pretty much spoil the fun.

Why?

[Voltageaav]

The TV out on my Media Center computer works just fine. No crashes at all. Why don't you just use that?

What is abnormal about a system working?

[FerretFrottage]

Agreed....in almost week of ownership, no crashes, artifacts or other "normal" behavior. Maybe I just jinxed myself or maybe I just have an abnormal box. Really out of all the 360's sold and in use today, how many are having problems? 5%, 10%, 50%, 100%!!!

Now I do have some beef about the how MCE and the 360 don't seem to work with mapped drives (this includes both Windows and linux/samba shared drives) or external drives connected to MCE. The 360 still has a lot to learn from XBMC.

How it works

[BillBrasky]

For those wondering, it's an extension on the RDP protocol used by Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection. Audio and Video are sent in sideband channels: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url= /library/en-us/medctrsdk/htm/mediacenterextenders. asp

It'll come

[Namarrgon]

That would mean making a PowerPC-compatible version of Windows

What do you think the Xbox 360 is running right now?

If I want the MCE options I'll pay for them.

Indeed. I fully expect to see a USB2-connected tuner box (with matching styling) with a software disc (possibly installable) that allows local recording & playback. What better way to also sell larger add-on HDDs?

Doubt it'd record TV shows while you're playing games - but it would while you're watching TV of course. I can imagine it might be popular with college students or those with limited space.