Media Centre 2005 and XBOX360?

Silva

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Hi

Basically Im looking at buying a 360 not just for games but mainly to enable me to play HD content. Ive got a Pioneer 436XDE but up to now have had zero HD content to play on it, and sick of waiting for SkyHD and the PS3 Ive decided to opt for a 360. However Ive heard that you can only play HD content from the Xbox Live Marketplace at the moment.

I would be willing to purchase Media Centre 2005 for the PC if I knew I could stream HD trailers/movies/tv shows etc downloaded off the net. So firstly...

1...Is this possible and what types of files are playable?
2...Do u get any lag/slow framerates etc over an ethernet cable?
3...Can I run the Media Centre Extender in the background on the PC?

Thanks
 
I have the 506 and I had the same problem with the same solution :thumbsup:

You can play almost anything using transcode360.

You can play low quality HD even over wireless (54) but high quality needs a cable. I've never noticed lag with the cable but the Boss doesnt like the cable ....

Not sure what you mean, but you just need to turn the computer on and everything works no need to be in the media center.

To be honest the biggest problem is to found real hd content. If someone has some legal links I am interested.
 
You could try here

http://www.highdefforum.com/forumdisplay.php?f=15

They have links to certain sites that hold allsorts


So you can play .ts, apple encodes, wmv-hd, (sorry not sure of extensions yet as not used them :s) ? The 360 could cope with a 30GB Lord of the Rings for example?
 
You can play TS files, just install HDTV pump.
 
1) Yes you can stream HD; it will natively play WMV, WMVHD, MPEG-2 and you can add DivX, XViD, MOV etc. by installing extra sofware on the PC to allow transcoding, e.g. transcode 360.

2) You shouldn't have any problems with a wired connection, but wireless can be a little hit and miss.

3) When you use your Xbox 360 as a media centre, the only requirement for your PC is that it is on and it is still usable as normal while it is streaming. The Xbox 360 signs in as another user account, so from the PC end you wouldn't even know it was doing anything.

As hysys says, the biggest problem is the availability of legal HD content.
It is mostly only movie traillers etc.
There is quite a bit available on XBox LIVE too though, so there's definately some decent HD stuff to wet your appetite.

Also, don't forget the release of the HD-DVD drive for the XBox 360 later in the year - more HD for your viewing pleasure :thumbsup:
 
Cheers m8, what about all these tv series encoded into HD are these any good?
 
MOD: not sure if it is legal or not. If not remove my post.

Most of the TV series are not HD even if the title says it, there have been created from HD but encoded in SD. An average downloaded episode would be between .7 gb and .3gb, an HD episode would be 1.4 gb.

BTW if someone can tell me if downloading TV content is legal that would be great to know.
 
No, it's not legal

hysys said:
MOD: not sure if it is legal or not. If not remove my post.

Most of the TV series are not HD even if the title says it, there have been created from HD but encoded in SD. An average downloaded episode would be between .7 gb and .3gb, an HD episode would be 1.4 gb.

BTW if someone can tell me if downloading TV content is legal that would be great to know.
 
Isnt it legal under that "timeshifting" law? Where you can record a TV program to watch at your convinience?
 
No it isn't as you haven't legally had the right to receive the orginal broadcast.

RandomLee said:
Isnt it legal under that "timeshifting" law? Where you can record a TV program to watch at your convinience?
 
No it isn't as you haven't legally had the right to receive the orginal broadcast.

RandomLee said:
Isnt it legal under that "timeshifting" law? Where you can record a TV program to watch at your convinience?
 
Wouldnt that depend on what it is I'm watching?

Say for example, if I was to download last nights Eastenders because I missed it. I pay my licence fee and receive BBC One so would that still be illegal? Or old Top Gear re-runs? Plenty of sites do them and I had the right to receive the original broadcast.

Getting the latest episodes of some American series of a torrent site would be a different story, I know that. I dont care for any of them anyway... Lost etc.

Sorry for the thread-jacking by the way :devil:
 
you're still breaking the law, morally you may be "entiltled" to it, but legally you are not. Any download site not sanctioned by the copyright owner is illegal, as is it's content.

If you break a music CD, just because you previoulsy owned doesn't mean it's suddenly legal to download it from a non legal source.

RandomLee said:
Wouldnt that depend on what it is I'm watching?

Say for example, if I was to download last nights Eastenders because I missed it. I pay my licence fee and receive BBC One so would that still be illegal? Or old Top Gear re-runs? Plenty of sites do them and I had the right to receive the original broadcast.

Getting the latest episodes of some American series of a torrent site would be a different story, I know that. I dont care for any of them anyway... Lost etc.

Sorry for the thread-jacking by the way :devil:
 
Ah I see... thanks for clearing it up Mr Norks :)

So what's timeshifting all about then? Is that if you use a SKy+ box or VCR to records shows for viewing at a later time?
 
I believe so, there's caveats about personal use blah blah but to be honest I don't think the TV/ film companies really give a **** as most TV is saturated with adverts.

It's the adverts thing that make the film / TV companies "cross" about illegal downloads..normally the person posting the film / TV program strips all the adverts out.

Take Lost - an hour if you watch it on the google box...about 42 minutes or so with the adverts cut out..apparently :)



Did they ever remove the "musn't keep for more than 28 days" rule they had for recording videos of the TV...used to terrify my Mum the old bill would be kicking the door door to take away her Corrie tapes :)
 
1 question I forgot to ask

Does the 360 handle the playback of HD when streamed from a .ts for example as opposed to the PC running Media Centre 2005?

I ask this because I have a 2.5ghz Barton Athlon with 512mb RAM and at the moment cannot play anything hd direct off the pc without chugging

Also would I need to get hold of a "Update Rollup 2" for Windows Media Center Edition 2005 for it to work with the 360?
 
Silva said:
1 question I forgot to ask

Does the 360 handle the playback of HD when streamed from a .ts for example as opposed to the PC running Media Centre 2005?

I ask this because I have a 2.5ghz Barton Athlon with 512mb RAM and at the moment cannot play anything hd direct off the pc without chugging

Also would I need to get hold of a "Update Rollup 2" for Windows Media Center Edition 2005 for it to work with the 360?

The 360 will always handle the playback, its only when you start using transcode 360 to convert a DivX (or other format the 360 doesn't support) file "on the fly" that your pc has to work hard
 
Does the quality of a .TS suffer when displayed via the 360?
 

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