Gear: Microsoft Brings TV to Xboxl

Monday, October 18th, 2004

From Gear: Microsoft Brings TV to Xbox:

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.

Any PC running Windows Media Center Edition 2005 can serve as a hub of sorts for the device, essentially acting as a media library. Pop in the Media Center Extender disc in your Xbox along with the infrared receiver (the same as included in the DVD playback kit) and you’ll have access to the complete media library on your PC.

Videos and music can be streamed to your living room from anywhere in the house you can manage to run a network connection to. The package comes with a full-blown remote and the mentioned receiver for easy browsing through your media from your couch.

Not only will the Media Center Extender allow you to view your saved content, but it’ll allow you to control the central PC, so you can set up TV recordings or music downloads from the convenience of your living room.

The unit will retail for $79.99 and will be available on November 15th.

Interesting — particularly if you own both an Xbox and a Windows Media Center PC — but it doesn’t get around the central “issue” of a Media Center PC: that you have to keep your PC next to the cable box in order to record anything. And if your PC is already right next to the cable box in order to record TV, then it’s already right next to the TV for playback.

Leave a Reply