... browsing, downloading and playing with items in Xbox live.

Extending the experience: Media Centre

I built a Windows Media Centre 2005 (repaired an old fried motherboard). And tested the interface between this the 360. Amazed to see you get the full Media centre console on the 360 when you have a machine to connect to (across you network). You can only stream video in WMV format at present. But you can find an app on the web that will allow you to convert divx to wmv on the fly.

Tested streaming video, images and music from one side of the house to the other. Easy to config and use and impressive interface/image quality.

Basically transform you 360 into much more that a gaming machine. You can do music and images only connecting to extender on an XP machine. But to make full use you need windows media centre 2005.

Combining the power of the 360, with Xbox live and the media centre options; Sony really have their work cut out for them. As there is so much more to Microsoft's machine than playing games.

In all, a great "home entertainment system". Great for gaming, online play is easy and solid, god support for music, images and other media (particularly is you own a media centre PC). Only downside: just don't be surprised when you are using your gaming console for a lot more than just games.

What I would have liked to see:

The biggest omission is the ability to browse web pages. Granted, doing such with a controller or remote with an on screen keyboard would have been a pain. But considering the experience is dependant on you already owning a PC (to get full potential), why not have the option of a 360 browser and the ability to sync your favourites sites from your PC? That way you don't have to type your www.mywebsite.com just browse a list and update as you wish.

The limitation of media extender to just music and images is a sadly lacking. They should provide some way of copying video to and from the 360.

The ability to benchmark your machine to insure it is running 3 cores etc etc. A simple benchmark app would do the trick.

Support for more formats like Divx, mpeg4 etc. I Know Microsoft is saving money by not including these codecs. But imagine using a PC that would only play WMV movies?

High Definition:

The image quality on a standard TV is good, but to make full use you really need a High Definition television. the 360 has become the "killer app" for high def tv's; meaning more high def tv's are being sold now, purely to use with the 360. Think 32 "" + screen on your PC and you get an idea of the difference it will make (and you can also plug your pc into one).

DVD player:

The movie player is very impressive player all brands of DVD's without a hitch. Easy to manage interface and excellent image/sound (this is also a progressive scan unit for improved image quality). Only pity, no multi region support.

Tips:

Did you want to download different Xbox live content? Go to system and change you locale to American and log out/on to Xbox live and away you go (you also need an email address with mail address in that location) . Different demos and trailers.

Xbox Live arcade:

A strange addiction indeed. The ability to play older arcade games that use little or none of the power of the worlds most powerful cons...more

Video Game Backup Software

...ing about software that copies or backs up video games is their speed: some take hours to copy a DVD, but some others take less than forty-five minutes. Most video game backup software companies offer online services with good discounts on prices. Many video game backup software dealers provide free trails, which enable you to select the program that suits you best. Some versions allow you to copy one or two DVDs using their software before you buy them. installing and working instructions are generally p...more

Xbox 360 Repair Tips

...r repair many people have reported a wait of up to a few weeks for their machine to be returned and facing bills of up to one hundred and fifty dollars and in some cases the repairs are not even guaranteed. This is not very fair on the owner when most problems can be traced back to a design fault in the first place.

The consoles ability to dissipate built up heat has been severely criticized and the cause of most problems can be traced back to this issue, including the infamous 'red ring of death' where the norma...more

Xbox 360 Repair - Read This Before You Look For Xbox 360 Repair!

...e and there tends to be three different types. You normally know if you have this problem as when you put a disc in it starts making a loud crunching sound.

There really is no way to fix this problem and you will probably have to send in the console for Xbox 360 Repair but I have heard that if you keep your console horizontally then you can minimize the risk of this error.

...more

Yoga Mat 10