SuMeRiaN
03-22-2007, 04:52 PM
Early today I planned on writing a long review of my experiences streaming content to the XBOX 360. Many of us had high hopes moving to Vista's WMC (Windows Media Center) for the first time and putting Windows Media Connect and WMP11 (Windows Media Player) behind us. The fact is WMC does not allow you to listen to music while in games and view images and movies from the Dashboard. WMC center only works with the extender in the 360's DB. After booting the extender, takes 90 seconds, you no longer have access to the DB.
I needed music in my games so the only option I was left with was WMP11. After hours of testing I learned WMP11 lacks a few crucial elements I needed that could be found in Windows Media Connect and WMC. Not all of my media resides on the computer running WMP11 and WMP11 does not support sharing media from network shares.
The whole idea of running 2 different applications to share the same media with a single device just seemed pointless to me. I understand WMC has some amazing features I have not discussed. I simply wanted to point out if you are moving to Vista and WMC do not expect to listen to music in your games unless you enable sharing through WMP11. (providing your music resides on that machine)
I thought all was lost for me since 90% of media is on a linux box running samba until I found http://orb.com/download_orb (Thanks MN). I have been using the application for about an hour and I am amazed. This applications allows for the sharing of many more audio, image, and video formats then anything MS has to offer. Orb even allows DIVX and XVID to be shared. MOST importantly (for me) Orb allows you to share media located anywhere on the network with your 360.
If anyone is interested in sharing media with the XBOX 360 do not hesitate to ask. I have alot of experience with all of the MS apps, many of the 3rd party apps, and Vista/XP.
My first thread :)
I needed music in my games so the only option I was left with was WMP11. After hours of testing I learned WMP11 lacks a few crucial elements I needed that could be found in Windows Media Connect and WMC. Not all of my media resides on the computer running WMP11 and WMP11 does not support sharing media from network shares.
The whole idea of running 2 different applications to share the same media with a single device just seemed pointless to me. I understand WMC has some amazing features I have not discussed. I simply wanted to point out if you are moving to Vista and WMC do not expect to listen to music in your games unless you enable sharing through WMP11. (providing your music resides on that machine)
I thought all was lost for me since 90% of media is on a linux box running samba until I found http://orb.com/download_orb (Thanks MN). I have been using the application for about an hour and I am amazed. This applications allows for the sharing of many more audio, image, and video formats then anything MS has to offer. Orb even allows DIVX and XVID to be shared. MOST importantly (for me) Orb allows you to share media located anywhere on the network with your 360.
If anyone is interested in sharing media with the XBOX 360 do not hesitate to ask. I have alot of experience with all of the MS apps, many of the 3rd party apps, and Vista/XP.
My first thread :)