Stream Video to the 360 WITHOUT Crappy MCE
It looks like the latest beta version of Windows Media Player 11 will allow streaming video WITHOUT having to use Windows XP Media Center Edition. Does this mean that any files playable in WMP 11 will be viewable on my Xbox 360? Can I playback DivX or XviD?
Microsoft’s WMP 11 website has this to say:
The new Media Sharing feature of Windows Media Player 11 lets you enjoy the contents of your Windows Media Player library from anywhere in your home. If you have a home network (wired or wireless), you can use Windows Media Player 11 to stream the contents of your library to networked devices. For example, if you have an Xbox 360 or other digital media receiver (DMR), you can use Windows Media Player to stream music, pictures, and videos from your computer to that device.
As soon as I get home, I’ll be trying this out and see what it’s really capable of doing. If it will stream Mpeg4 video to the 360, I’ll probably dump iTunes as my music/media app of choice, and get everything set up in Windows Media Player 11. What’s really great is that this once again shows Microsoft’s willingness to work with what consumers actually want. Also, what impact will full WMP 11 interoperability have on Sony’s PS3 launch? It certainly ups the ante of what a home console should be able to do as far as streaming media is concerned.
| via Kotaku |
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I tried this last night. Audio and Pictures worked, video did not, since there was no option under “Video” to connect to a computer to get the media (like there was for Audio and Pictures). I tried “Media Center” but that doesn’t work at all without MCE.
Essentially, this does nothing that Windows Media Connect didn’t already do. This is just merging WMC with Media Player. The WMP 11 page is lying to us (for now).
I wish they’d get over this arbitrary limitation and just allow us to stream video to the 360. Technically, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be possible. They just want to “encourage” people to “upgrade” to MCE or Vista when it comes out (since that capability will be included).
I suspect this will be all set right when we get the fall dashboard update.