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sgx.saint

sgx.saint

sgx.saint

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Hey.

Was hoping some of you Home Cinema guru's could assist me with the purchase of some hardware.

At the moment, I have a PC, Xbox 360 and HDTV (720p - 32"). I regularly stream video and music from my PC to my Xbox 360/HDTV.

However, as you probably know, the 360 doesn't play a large proportion of the HD video formats i.e. x264.

So I am looking for some quality and effective wireless hardware which will stream HD video, music and photos from my PC to my HDTV.

Answers on a postcard please! :)

Edit: A friend has suggested the Archos TV+. Opinions?
 
roadie said:
The XBOX does play x264 etc through Windows Media Center. You can even make it play MKV! Upgrading to Windows 7 on the PC might be an option so you can use WMC.
Click to expand...

I do have Windows 7 and WMC.

Does it play x264 out of the box? Plus, could you link me up on how to play MKV?

How does it handle playback, smooth?
 
Guest2 said:
Do it. Not sure what the live does over the standard WD HDTV but ive bought one for me and got my mum & dad one for xmas. It works great, especially on hd stuff. The remote is good too
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Aye, I've heard good reports.

Only thing that concerns me is the lack of control over aspect ratio, you get two choices, normal, which I guess is 4:3 and widescreen.
 
Sharpz said:
I would also recommend this, only had the WD HDTV rev 1 a few weeks and love it, only problem ive had with it is reading DTS files, but it played fine through our 5.1 system, theres lots of converting tools for this so its not a big problem. :D also i think WD TV Live has coding for DTS plus other things...
Click to expand...

Can you plug the WD Live into any old wireless router via ethernet, and then stream media from your PC?
 
From what I have read, and understand in general, I see no reason why you can't connect it via ethernet to your wireless router.

Be good to get a positive confirmation of that though prior to purchase! :)
 
roadie said:
Surprisingly it is DivX who have made WMC compatible with MKV. This allows you to stream MKV files from your PC to the WMC Extender on the Xbox. Just install the component that allows you to do this within DivX package in the link provided and AC3 Filter and you're away!

I have played back ~4Gb 720p MKV files with no issues. x264 is supported natively.
Click to expand...

Sweet, so in reality, I don't really need to purchase any additional kit to play HD video, as my PC and Xbox 360 will do it already.

I guess the only issue would be my wireless G network. Was thinking of investing in a homeplug kit. Anyone have any experience of using them, and in the above context?
 
So, just so I understand.

I download the DivX codec package, and aslong as I have WMC installed, then when I use WMC on the Xbox, I'll be able to play MKV and X264 files?

On that note, does WMC come with Windows 7 - Home Premium?
 
So, I take it that WMC/PC is transcoding/converting the video on the fly before transmitting to the Xbox, as the Xbox cannot play MKV for example natively?
 
roadie said:
Yep, that's right.

When using the normal video library in the Xbox menus, the Xbox is doing the hard work. It can play x264 files natively, but only if they are accompanied by stereo soundtracks.
Click to expand...

So do you loose any quality by doing it this way, and does it take longer to say buffer before being transmitted to the Xbox?
 
Aye, that sounds quite niffty.

I've actually ended up buying the WD HD Live TV in the end, as I felt it was the best all round solution.

I've had it a day now, and so far I'm very impressed.
 
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