Questions about X360?

[devilswin99]

Good Evening,

I have been on the fence about getting a 360, but I have a question. Does the 360 have a TV Tuner card in it to record programs off television, and does it or will have Windows Media Center? I know this is low level questions for this forum. Thanks!

P.S. Do you think the GPU will go to 65nm?

 

[Platon]

Good Evening,

I have been on the fence about getting a 360, but I have a question. Does the 360 have a TV Tuner card in it to record programs off television, and does it or will have Windows Media Center? I know this is low level questions for this forum. Thanks!

P.S. Do you think the GPU will go to 65nm?

It does not have a TV tuner card so no you can not record programs of the TV, at least for now. However, you can connect it to your PC if you have the windows media center center edition or XP and stream music, movies and pictures from there...

 

[iceberg187]

Good Evening,



P.S. Do you think the GPU will go to 65nm?

It is/should be in production now

http://www.digitimes.com/bits_chips/a20070430PB208.html

Sources at equipment makers were cited by a Chinese-language Commercial Times report as saying that the Xbox 360 will be equipped with a 65nm-made Xenos graphics processing unit (GPU) in the fall and that corresponding foundry partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) will see benefits.

The paper cited the sources as saying that an engineering version of the 65nm-made Xenos has been sent out and production will start in May. TSMC projected sales contribution from 65nm would amount to 5% during mid-2007.

On a separate note, TSMC announced the introduction of 65nm-made embedded DRAM in March. Embedded DRAM is one of the two dies that comprise the Xenos. In the 90nm version of the Xenos, embedded DRAM is manufactured by NEC.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Good Evening,

I have been on the fence about getting a 360, but I have a question. Does the 360 have a TV Tuner card in it to record programs off television, and does it or will have Windows Media Center? I know this is low level questions for this forum. Thanks!

P.S. Do you think the GPU will go to 65nm?

Doesn't have TV tuner. Doesn't have Media Centre itself, but can work with a MCE PC, and can also run some media itself through a different interface. Will get 65nm GPU and CPU and anything else they can shrink and save money on, probably in the not too distant future.

If you're not in any rush, I suggest you wait for a price drop. It should be soon (though soon is an ever moving target!) and should include 65nm tech so hopefully will be more reliable.

 

[rekator]

Doesn't have TV tuner. Doesn't have Media Centre itself, but can work with a MCE PC, and can also run some media itself through a different interface. Will get 65nm GPU and CPU and anything else they can shrink and save money on, probably in the not too distant future.

If you're not in any rush, I suggest you wait for a price drop. It should be soon (though soon is an ever moving target!) and should include 65nm tech so hopefully will be more reliable.

Probably for Halo 3…

 

[sevanig]

If u get a ps3 u can install Linux, and I have heard u can use a usb hdtv tuner card... But ur interested in a 360 though

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Good Evening,

I have been on the fence about getting a 360, but I have a question. Does the 360 have a TV Tuner card in it to record programs off television, and does it or will have Windows Media Center? I know this is low level questions for this forum. Thanks!

Its does not have WMC nor does it have a tuner card.

However, it does let you stream stuff from windows based pc's (and even more stuff rom WMC)

 

[Shifty Geezer]

However, it does let you stream stuff from windows based pc's (and even more stuff rom WMC)

What content can you play directly on the XB360, and how easy is it to transfer stuff? You can play iPod music straight from an iPod over USB, right? Can you access USB storage with movies and music, and copy them to HDD to play?

 

[tcrews]

What content can you play directly on the XB360, and how easy is it to transfer stuff? You can play iPod music straight from an iPod over USB, right? Can you access USB storage with movies and music, and copy them to HDD to play?

You can't copy anything to the HD other than ripping music from CD's directly on the Xbox DVD drive. Then again....why waste the limited space on the internal drive when you can stream everything.

You can stream mp3s, .wmvs and .jpgs from anything (CD, DVD, USB key, USB drive, Windows XP running WMP 11). You can stream other file formats using a program like tversity as long as your PC has the appropriate codecs.

Windows Media Center PC's (2005 and up) give more options.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

You can't copy anything to the HD other than ripping music from CD's directly on the Xbox DVD drive. Then again....why waste the limited space on the internal drive when you can stream everything.

Primarily because that requires two boxes to do one task. If you have a home media setup, it's great to be able to stream stuff. If you haven't, such as a student in digs or a kid in their bedroom, one box that does your media would be more convenient.

 

[Rainbow Man]

You can't copy anything to the HD other than ripping music from CD's directly on the Xbox DVD drive.

Great post mate thanks a lot! One learns stuff here every day.

Do yhou know anything about streaming to PS3? it's supposed to be able to display WMP11 playback like the 360 I believe but I can't get the PS3 to detect my PC..
Peace.

 

[rekator]

Primarily because that requires two boxes to do one task. If you have a home media setup, it's great to be able to stream stuff. If you haven't, such as a student in digs or a kid in their bedroom, one box that does your media would be more convenient.

Just put a usb HDD (or mp3 player) on the 360 and you can play mp3, wmv, some mpeg4, h.264 (.mov) and don't use the 13 Gb of the 360 HDD.
For mpeg4 and H.264 you need updates (automatic) via xboxlive .

 

[Cheezdoodles]

What content can you play directly on the XB360, and how easy is it to transfer stuff? You can play iPod music straight from an iPod over USB, right? Can you access USB storage with movies and music, and copy them to HDD to play?

You can plug ipods straight into the USB and stuff like that, but you cannot transfer it to the hdd.

Currently my laptop, with the help of WMP11 (free) and transcode 360 (free) im streaming HD quality divx to the X360

You just need a regular Windows Xp or Vista.. If you got WMC you can browse the internet and do some other stuff aswell

 

[tcrews]

Primarily because that requires two boxes to do one task. If you have a home media setup, it's great to be able to stream stuff. If you haven't, such as a student in digs or a kid in their bedroom, one box that does your media would be more convenient.

I don't have a "home media setup", I just have a PC (or two) that are there. They don't have to be dedicated for streaming or anything.....

Since typically you'll have the PC to obtain the .mp3s, .wmvs an .jpgs.......just stream from them. My two pcs in my computer room are attached to my router and my 360 in my living room and my 360 in my bedroom can access either one whenever I want to view a video, listen to some music or view some pictures. I switch back and forth between my WinXP and WMP11 and W2K and Tversity easily enough. Since everything is networked it just makes more sense to access my two terrabytes of storage vs. my 120gig and 20gig drives on my 360s.

I leave my PC's on 24/7 and I can still use them for other purposes while streaming (downloading files, burning CD's or DVD's, browsing the internet...whatever). I've not noticed any affect (slowdown, etc..) on my PC's while streaming.

 

[tcrews]

Great post mate thanks a lot! One learns stuff here every day.

Do yhou know anything about streaming to PS3? it's supposed to be able to display WMP11 playback like the 360 I believe but I can't get the PS3 to detect my PC..
Peace.

sorry, don't have a PS3 but I'm sure it's very similar to configuring for the 360. You have both on (PS3 and PC) and on the PC open WMP11 and go to the tools/options/library tab and configure sharing..... You should "see" the PS3 in the sharing section ("share my media to:") and choose the PS3 to allow it access to your shared media. Add some folders that contain things you are wanting to stream for monitoring in WMP11 and that's it.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I don't have a "home media setup",
...Since everything is networked it just makes more sense to access my two terrabytes of storage vs. my 120gig and 20gig drives on my 360s.

I leave my PC's on 24/7 and I can still use them for other purposes while streaming.

That counts as a home media setup in my books! By that I mean server(s) providing content around the network, even if those 'server(s)' are just an ordinary PC. If it's a base for data and the data is passed over the network, that's what I meant by a media setup. One library of all your content.

As the XB360 can use USB HDDs (thanks rekator for that clarification), that makes it viable as a standalone single-box solution. You can download to PC and transfer to USB HDD for use with XB360, without needing a networked solution.

 

[Rockster]

As the XB360 can use USB HDDs (thanks rekator for that clarification), that makes it viable as a standalone single-box solution. You can download to PC and transfer to USB HDD for use with XB360, without needing a networked solution.

Why introduce the extra step of copying to the USB HDD? The only reason I can come up with is not having a network connection to the 360, and if that's the case, you're already missing half the experience anyway (online play, marketplace, arcade, messaging, etc.).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Why introduce the extra step of copying to the USB HDD? The only reason I can come up with is not having a network connection to the 360, and if that's the case, you're already missing half the experience anyway (online play, marketplace, arcade, messaging, etc.).

You can have a network connection to the internet without a connection to the PC, and even if you have, you may not want to have to have a PC running simultaneously. That would be my situation with an XB360 or indeed any other media service. I'm not happy having a whole PC on just to stream content from an HDD in it to another device. That's a silly waste of electricity IMO. I'd choose a 5 watt external HDD over a 200 Watt PC any day! That might be different if you had a home-wide network serving several people, but it's not ideal for everyone. And heck, 50% of people don't want to go online with their XB360's anyway! They may not even be networked up. If all they want is the games and some occasional media playback, a network connection might be considered overkill.

 

[Rockster]

You can have a network connection to the internet without a connection to the PC, and even if you have, you may not want to have to have a PC running simultaneously.

You are right, if you turn your PC on/off all the time and have to physically move the internet connection between the DSL/Cable modem and the PC and XBox, a USB drive is a great solution. I have chosen the convenience of always available network connections and rarely turn my PC off when I'm home, so streaming is nice. Call me lazy. I enjoy the simplicity of being able to download some new songs, walk into the living room, and jam out to them playing Forza 2 or Pac-Man CE.

 

[AzBat]

I don't think the rest of you explained the part about TV support completely. The Xbox 360 is a full fledged Windows Media Center Extender and can directly access Windows Media Center over a network. So if your Windows Media Center PC is setup to record TV(with Vista or XP and a supported TV tuner), then yes, you can stream your TV content to your Xbox 360. If you're going to do this for HDTV content, then I would highly suggest a wired network as a wireless network could be problematic because of some bandwidth considerations.

Tommy McClain