XBox 360 as extender

[kandrews32]

Hello, i am looking at getting a Xbox 360 for a extender in my bedroom.... I have a few questions though. I use my movies on my main media center in my living room, does the my movies function work with the extender. Also most of my movies are all Bluray ISO's as i understand i will have to convert all of them to MPEG2... is that correct. I also have a HDHome Run to pick up my local channels, Does that have full functionality? I also understand there is no internet TV and Netflix in extender which sucks. What i am really wondering is if this is a good option or should i just build a new media center.

Thanks!

[lithium630]

No internet tv and no netflix. I use PlayOn and VMCPlayit to watch online shows on the xbox. ISO's do not work either. H264 is a much better option than mpeg2 and works on the Xbox. You can put it in WTV, m2ts, MP4 or possibly MKV with some tweaks. Your HDHomerun will work just fine. I prefer xbox extenders over additional HTPC's. I like having one common guide and one storage drive for recorded tv. I like watching half a show in the livingroom and resuming it in the bedroom.

[Scallica]

What's the startup/bootup time of an XBOX 360?

The DMA 2100 extender takes about 20-30 sections to boot up.

[adam1991]

About the same.

I bought two XBoxen back in March or April, solely to do extender duty. I updated them and set them up to boot directly into MC. They work great.

[lithium630]

About the same.

I bought two XBoxen back in March or April, solely to do extender duty. I updated them and set them up to boot directly into MC. They work great.

I three xbox's and two linksys extenders. They both are pretty solid. I like the xbox's because the Media Center menu is much more smooth and because they can play h264 files in WTV. The linksys boxes use much less power though.

[adam1991]

How old are your XBoxes?

Newer ones use less power than older ones.

I turn mine off when not in use regardless, though. But I leave my HTPC on; it never sleeps. I figure I'm ahead of the game compared to my three ReplayTVs that were on all the time...

[lithium630]

How old are your XBoxes?

Newer ones use less power than older ones.

I turn mine off when not in use regardless, though. But I leave my HTPC on; it never sleeps. I figure I'm ahead of the game compared to my three ReplayTVs that were on all the time...

I have one slim and two older xbox's. The slim is definitely a big improvement as far as power, noise and heat.

[adam1991]

Good to know. I'm not a gamer, never had XBox before, but absolutely needed them to complete my whole house DVR build (screw the cableco equipment, they're WAY too expensive for WAY too little value).

But I've noticed when I put my hand over the top, there's still a decent amount of heat. I can only imagine how bad the older ones were.

[kandrews32]

ISO's do not work either. H264 is a much better option than mpeg2 and works on the Xbox. You can put it in WTV, m2ts, MP4 or possibly MKV with some tweaks.

What do you use to convert you ISO's?

[lithium630]

ISO's do not work either. H264 is a much better option than mpeg2 and works on the Xbox. You can put it in WTV, m2ts, MP4 or possibly MKV with some tweaks.

What do you use to convert you ISO's?

I use VideoRedo to convert to WTV h264 files.

[jonneal]

I use XBox 360's as extenders with great results. While you can't get to Netflix from within WMC on the XBox, Netflix is still accessible from within the XBox 360 dashboard.

As for blu-ray DVD's, I convert them to .mkv files, and then stream them to the XBox 360 using Shark's codec's (www.shark007.net). HD-recorded content works great as well.