Recording TV with Xbox 360 as MCE Extender

LFCFan

Can someone tell me how well the TV recording fuction works using the 360 as a Media Centre Extender? For example, is it possible to record something from your Sky+ box to your PC through the 360? If so, is it straight forward or is there some mad way of setting it all up to work correctly? Thanks!

FrankGrimes

you need to have Media Center installed on your pc then connect the xbox to it either wirelessly or through a wired network. Then you just install an application on the PC and the xbox will connect to it (in reality setup will give you more headaches than this). When its set up you can use the xbox in the exact same way as the Media Center itself. If you know how to record tv using the Media Center PC you'll know exaclty how easy it is with the 360....if you don't know then you probably don't have Media Center installed so its not an option.

The xbox 360 site gives plenty of more info...Media Center rocks by the way

LFCFan

Trying to decide whether or not to invest in Media Centre. If I can use the Xbox360 to do all the same stuff, it may be worth it.

Julez

Is it worth splashing out about €100 on MCE?! How good is it while using it with the xbox?! Has anyone downloaded it as a torrent?! Can u get it workin or can u not get verified to get updates and stuff?!

Alnilam

Julez wrote:

Is it worth splashing out about €100 on MCE?! How good is it while using it with the xbox?! Has anyone downloaded it as a torrent?! Can u get it workin or can u not get verified to get updates and stuff?!

As someone who self built there own MCE pc, I'll give you these pieces of advice before you begin.

1) Check that all your hardware components are listed on the MS compatibility page

2) Check that all your hardware components are listed on "The green button" forums Compatibility list

3) save yourself the hassle and heartache and buy the OS, the IR kit and a tuner card kit from one of the many online vendors, if you do not have them already.

3) be prepared to pay for the Nvidia DVD Decoder, it's the best by far for media centre and you can't watch tv recordings with out a compatible DVD Decoder for some reason.

4) read this forum for advice

5) Check out Ian Dixon's Blog, Podcast and forum for the latest MCE news

6) Be prepared to be disapointed and have an extraordinary sense of achievment all at the same time, it's an MS product after all

Once you get it running and have gone through the pain of re-tagging your music collection and getting all the right album art images etc. everyone who sees it will be impressed, it really is that good

RuggieBear

Alnilam wrote:

As someone who self built there own MCE pc, I'll give you these pieces of advice before you begin.

1) Check that all your hardware components are listed on the MS compatibility page

2) Check that all your hardware components are listed on "The green button" forums Compatibility list

3) save yourself the hassle and heartache and buy the OS, the IR kit and a tuner card kit from one of the many online vendors, if you do not have them already.

3) be prepared to pay for the Nvidia DVD Decoder, it's the best by far for media centre and you can't watch tv recordings with out a compatible DVD Decoder for some reason.

4) read this forum for advice

5) Check out Ian Dixon's Blog, Podcast and forum for the latest MCE news

6) Be prepared to be disapointed and have an extraordinary sense of achievment all at the same time, it's an MS product after all

Once you get it running and have gone through the pain of re-tagging your music collection and getting all the right album art images etc. everyone who sees it will be impressed, it really is that good

QFT

That nicely sums up my experience with MCE. My opinion of MCE is that if you already have sky plus i wouldn't bother with it...but since i don't it's great.:)

Alnilam

here's a tip if you don't know it all ready Ruggie change your region setting in Internet explorer to USA and go into "online spotlight"

There's so much more to MCE than just being a jukebox and fancy VCR in one.

RuggieBear

Alnilam wrote:

here's a tip if you don't know it all ready Ruggie change your region setting in Internet explorer to USA and go into "online spotlight"

There's so much more to MCE than just being a jukebox and fancy VCR in one.

cool. i'll give it a go. have to admit i've been seriously underwhelmed with it since i set it all up and the over auto-misation had me pulling my hair out.

Alnilam

"the over auto-misation had me pulling my hair out."

Huh

RuggieBear

Alnilam wrote:

"the over auto-misation had me pulling my hair out."

Huh

well for example...things like the tv tuning was an utter pain. i'd much prefer to be able to input my own frequencies...instead i had mce make an utter balls of auto tuning repeatedly

Alnilam

ah ok, mce doesn't tune anything for me, I have a sky digital box that MCE changes the channels on with the IR thingy, It's pretty good, does miss the occasional channel change but by and large it gets it right, especially considering the amount of stuff that I record

LFCFan

I have Sky+ but it would be handy to be able to record stuff permanently off the box. e.g. I still have the Champions League final on my Sky+ box which I really want to keep forever so something like MCE through the 360 could be the way to do it among other things. Gonna install MCE in a dual boot config. and try it out. If it's good enough I'll stump up for a proper version.