Looking forward to my retails version of Vista Ultimate arriving this week along with the wireless networking adapter for my XBox360 and Exploder Media Center for XBox as well.
Going to have a pretty nice media center running at home at the end of all the installations.
Does anyone know if I need the Exploder media center or do I just need Windows Media Center?
I just modded my Xbox and installed Xbox Media Center on it. Stopped any need for my media PC.
This was on the Exploder website.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Windows Media Centre software is REQUIRED for this product to function. This is the fully-functional Windows Operating system and NOT Windows Media Player (included with Windows XP). Please ensure you have Windows Media Centre running on your PC before purchasing this product.
I just modded my Xbox and installed Xbox Media Center on it. Stopped any need for my media PC.
I’ve done this too, the latest version of xbox media center is pritty fantastic actually, playing everything from img or iso dvd’s across the network to mpg and avi… oh and music playlists / images etc. I’ve not even botherd upgrading the hard drive but I may well do that next.
Sorry to go off topic juggy, sounds like you have some nice toys to play with there 
[QUOTE=Peige;363702]I’ve done this too, the latest version of xbox media center is pritty fantastic actually, playing everything from img or iso dvd’s across the network to mpg and avi… oh and music playlists / images etc. I’ve not even botherd upgrading the hard drive but I may well do that next.
Sorry to go off topic juggy, sounds like you have some nice toys to play with there 
[/QUOTE]
Speedo put me onto it. Not sure what XBMC version I’m using. It was on Slayer’s 2.7 install disc. Only reason I upgraded HD was so I could put discs on it and not bother digging them out of a pile of PS2 and Xbox games.
I guess it may work with Ultimate because after all, Ultimate does have the MCE stuff.
Thanks for the info. I’ve decided against the radically overpriced Wireless Adapter and gone for an el cheapo Gigabyte AP that i’ll use in bridged mode.
[QUOTE=drezha;363703]Speedo put me onto it. Not sure what XBMC version I’m using. It was on Slayer’s 2.7 install disc. Only reason I upgraded HD was so I could put discs on it and not bother digging them out of a pile of PS2 and Xbox games.
I guess it may work with Ultimate because after all, Ultimate does have the MCE stuff.[/QUOTE]
Lets just say that if it doesn’t work I will be very bleak:(
Is it even neccessary to use the Xploder to get audio and video streamed over my network?
depending on the format, I convert all my vid’s etc to WMV, it can take a while, especialy .mkv & .ts files, but means they can stream direct to the 360.
You need xploder to transmit other file types, another proggy is transcode360, it hasn’t got it’s own interface it’s just an inbetween, it’s free, and is in the process of being re-vamed for Vista.
Best program for using a 360 as a media centre is TVersity. This will transcode anything which the 360 is not capable of playing itself, and supply access to the other files too.
TVersity also completely removes the need for Windows Media Centre :).
Transcoding any SD media should be no problem. HD content will require a little buffering (start the film, pause on the xbox and let you pc buffer 5 minutes or so, then continue), just to stop any stuttering.
Main annoyance you will notice (which is a fault on the 360s side) is there are no folders when viewing videos through a 360, instead it’s just one long list. Perfectly bearable, just one of those silly things that shouldn’t be there.
Is your 360 on live? 
[QUOTE=Speedo;363729]Best program for using a 360 as a media centre is TVersity. This will transcode anything which the 360 is not capable of playing itself, and supply access to the other files too.
TVersity also completely removes the need for Windows Media Centre :).
Transcoding any SD media should be no problem. HD content will require a little buffering (start the film, pause on the xbox and let you pc buffer 5 minutes or so, then continue), just to stop any stuttering.
Main annoyance you will notice (which is a fault on the 360s side) is there are no folders when viewing videos through a 360, instead it’s just one long list. Perfectly bearable, just one of those silly things that shouldn’t be there.
Is your 360 on live? :)[/QUOTE]
Thanks fo rthe help, I have heard of Transcode360 which is what I’ll be using.
360 isn’t live yet and even when I do I must pretend that I’m in the UK as there is no signing up from SA:(
I should be online later tonight. I’m getting a 40 meter Cat5e cable in the meantime. I’ll give PGR3 a bash first up.