Words of Wisdom about the Xbox Media Center Extender

The Xbox Media Center Extender is a really cool piece of software. If you're running Windows XP Media Center Edition, it extends it on to your Xbox. Using the XB MCX, you can watch live TV, play music, videos, radio, and pictures just as if you were using a real MCE PC.

Anyway, it says it requires 802.11g, 802.11a, or wired ethernet to run. My wireless setup uses 802.11g, and let me tell you, the XB MCX ran like such crap it was basically useless. Live TV was choppy to the point of being unwatchable, videos were useless, and the whole UI was unbearably awful. Apparently 802.11a is supposed to be leagues better, but I'm not about to upgrade all my WiFi equipment just to run the XB MCX.

So, I wired the living room into the office with about 10 meters of cable (luckily we have the apartment configured to where you can't see any of the wiring). It made a huge difference -- it became useful!

Now I'm loving it. Using the Xbox like a virtual TiVo is super cool. While MCE was fun to use from my desktop, having to burn recorded shows to DVD and carting them into the living room was a real hassle. Now, it's like the MCE PC is sitting right in the living room. It totally rocks.

If you are running XP MCE, have $70 to spare for the XB MCX kit (which includes a remote, IR eye for the Xbox (which allows allows for DVD playback), and software), and have 802.11a (which the manual says is "great" compared to "fair" for 802.11g) or wired ethernet, check it out. If you're using 802.11g, don't bother. It's useless. Otherwise, it's a very cool piece of software.