I just can't get it working. I have a Linksys BEFSR41 wired router, Vista Ultimate, and an Xbox 360 Elite. I can connect to the internet/Xbox Live without any problem from both. I cannot, however, get Media Center to recognize the Xbox 360 as an extender. If I run test media connection from the xbox, it can see the computer, but it can't connect to it. I've been working on it for about an hour and I finally got Media Center on Vista to see that the Xbox was connected, but I keep getting configuration errors whenever I try to set it up.

I've been through Microsoft's troubleshooting guides and tutorials and done countless google searches but I can't find a concrete reason as to why media center won't connect to the xbox. The only information I could turn up was that is could be my router. I don't have another router to try nor do I have a spare Cat5 cable that I could turn into a crossover cable.

Can anyone either confirm that this is a router issue or offer some advice?

Turn off the Windows firewall and see what happens.

Already tried it, nothing.

Well, I can tell you one thing, I had that exact router and it was an ever-living piece of crap.

Is UPnP on? I had to turn it off in my router because the PS3 likes to disconnect everyone from the WRT54G router if it's on.

UPnP is on, the troubleshooters I read on Microsoft's site said it had to be on for the media center to recognize the xbox. Just for the sake of trying, I just tried turning off UPnP, still nothing.

Looks like everything I've found about people having this problem has the same model router I have.... damn, looks like I need to find a new one.

<insert joke here about microsoft and plug & play>

<insert joke about brian ranting about microsoft when it's not microsoft's fault>

but microsoft made that damn linux based linksys router that's causing all the problems!

right guys?

Actually it's VxWorks OS, the BEF doesn't run linux.

I remember it being really easy to set up...

Try going into WMP's Options, Library, Configure Sharing, and see if you're 360 is there.

I could never get this to work either.

So I gave up.

It connected flawlessly to my XP MC 2005 PC. Did you ever get to the point where you have to enter the code for the extender on the PC? Are you connecting wired or wirelessly? My setup is wired and I use a different router.

I get connectivity.

Then my computer is all, HEY WE NEED A DRIVER. The xbox and my computer see each other. But they can't connect.

Try downloading the Zune player.

Or the Winamp Orb thing.

Stormtrooper, according to the dev team Media Center will work, but is no longer supported. They "strongly recommend" using Windows Media Player 11 or Zune software. Might as well just use WMP11, unless you have a Zune.

Check to see if the sharing service is running. Go to Start, Run, and type in "services.msc" without the quotes of course. Scroll down to "Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service", right click it and go to Properties, change the "startup type" to "Automatic". That's one thing a lot of people get stumped on.

Edit - Also, I thought I had read from someone that they couldn't stream DivX from Media Center, but they could from WMP11. Can't test it myself but just throwing that in.

Uhm, no they didn't.



That's because Media Center != WMP sharing.

Well, WMP Sharing works with my 360's media center extender.

I finally got it working after three or so hours last night/this morning. It seems that I have to have multicast filtering enabled on the router. Someting that was conveniently not mentioned on either microsoft's or xbox's website.

Spectrael are you talking about XBMC? Because the 360 is an extender for Media Center... It would be rather pointless for a Media center extender to not support media center.
Plus, i need to use Media Center for live TV recording, so WMP is out, unless the new one can read from a TV card, but even then, I got it working now, so it doesn't matter.

Thanks everyone.

No I'm not talking about XBMC. But you are correct. Information I had read used the abbreviation WMC, which I thought referred to Windows Media Center, but instead referred to Windows Media Connect, which I completely forgot about.

But tell me, can you stream AVIs (with DivX encoding) to your 360 through Windows Media Center? I recall some saying they couldn't, but hell they might of been talking about Windows Media Connect

I couldn't tell you at this point, I don't have any divx encoded videos on my computer (I don't have any media on the computer other than what I've recorded with Media Center off of live TV).

No it cannot, it's not part of the Media Center Extender system. They'd have to add support to all Extenders if they add it to the 360 on Media Center.

I really want a Zune now.

the Xbox and Zune both use the same points system.


STOP BEING SO ****ING CONVENIENT MICROSOFT.

I connect my Zune to the 360 all the time, and play music off it while playing games. I could have all my music on the windows machine and share it out, but the Zune's just more convenient to plug in the 360 (beacuse, you know, it also recharges it and stuff).

I just plug the USB end in the back and leave it on my xbox. That way, I can just plug it into my xbox after I get home, and easily sync with the wireless sync thing.

One thing: When I rip music into Microsoft's version of FLAC (I forgot what it was called), it plays choppy for some reason on the 360 :\
No one else seems to have this problem, so my best guess is, it's my zune.

I never tried plugging it into the PS3 yet. I wonder how that will go. Pretty smooth I bet, but still.

Well crap. Kinda useless for me to get XP Media Center edition then if I can't stream DivX. WMP11 lets you of course, but the interface is just crummy compared to 360's Media Center.

I used to connect my Zune to my Xbox but lately I have just been using the Zune software to share and just play music off my pc.

I have never seen the 360 setup as an extender to media center. Does this allow you to play videos from your PC on the XBox?

Yes.

Yup. But ya can't stream DivX/Xvid unless you use Windows Media Player 11, apparently.

AVIs can be streamed through the media center extender but I don't remember if I have streamed a DIVX encoded file. This is not done through an officially supported method but there is a plugin available that allows you to view AVI files. I found the method through google searching. Once you set it up you select the "More" option on the file you want to play and then then from there choose to begin streaming the file. It's done through some sort of on the fly process rather than simply streaming.

Confirmed tonight that you can indeed play DIVX encoded AVIs through the 360 when using it as an extender. You have to do your research on google. I honestly don't remember exactly which plugin I downloaded or where to find it. How mine works is you navigate to the file you want to play, push the "info" button on the remote, select "more", selct "start/stop the encoding process", choose "play the encoded stream". It works by streaming the file through Window Media Encoder. A quick search brought up another freeware possiblity called Transcode 360 (I think).

...

You're not playing DIVX. You're playing WMA files being encoded from DIVX on the fly by the Transcode software on your PC. It's not even close to the same thing.

I don't use the "Transcode" software but you can't really say it is not even close to the same thing. I sit in my living room and watch my DIVX file, streaming from the PC, on the TV. That's kinda close.

I'm simply providing some info for somebody who wondered if it was possible to watch his DIVX files through the 360. I think I succeeded.

Thanks :D.

I knew you could watch DivX on the 360 through WMP11, just didn't know about Media Center.

I'm going to be purchasing a computer in the near future and use it just for digitalizing my DVD collection, and I was wondering if I should get Windows Media Center or just regular XP.

But hell I don't really guess it matters, not like Media Center really costs any more.

You fail at technology.

You are not watching DIVX on your 360. You are watching WMA. How is this so hard for you to understand? Furthermore, you lose quality when you re-encode, and you have to have a PC fast enough to keep up with transcoding the damn thing live.

If you're so desperate to watch "LOL DIVX" on your 360, then just convert them all to WMA BEFOREHAND and then you have the exact same effect.

He speaks the truth.

oh, didn't know they did vxworks on them back then. so they went vxworks -> linux -> vxworks?

lame.

Fall update added divx support. You can stream divx from wmp11, play from usb drive, or from burned cd/dvd. doesn't work through media center extender.

I even tried using the VLC activex control in a web page, and then getting the page to display on the TV. I could see the text I added ("LOL I WIN") and the VLC logo came up for a bit, but then it just showed a white screen.

Probably had something to do with overlay, and I don't know how one would go about fixing that. Oh well.

That's because, as I said, the Media Center Extender functionality is a totally separate and unrelated part of the 360. It might as well be a different device. It has to keep the same MCE functionality of the MCE standards, so that ALL MCE devices work the same.

Before DivX support was added through WMP11 I tried converting video files to WMA but all I got was audio. Weird.

I understand and agree with all of that. Still doesn't change the fact that my point is you can navigate to the file and "play" it within the Media Center Extender. Don't understand why the subject is so contentious for you.