You know...

I am getting more and more jealous.

Now if S1 would make an extender with the smooth flow of the X360 without the noise I would buy one in a heartbeat. :)

I mod my 360s as they go out of warranty but that only does 1 of the 2 (the other has a 3yr warranty)

---

My VMC setup:
(2) Xbox360s
System 1 -
Dell XPS410 (2.6Ghz C2D, 2GB Ram,Nvidia 8600GT, Blu-ray internal, HD-DVD external (X360 drive), (2) Vboxx DTA150s (OTA HD), 1 HVR-1150 (OTA HD) and Dish Network

From looking at HP's marketing materials, their new extender seems to do the animations.  Pricing is a bit difficult to justify though - $350 for a device with no DVD?  xBox range...

On that note (and off-topic - sorry), just how noisy is the xBox as an extender?  I need a new media center with CableCard support, and am considering the Dell option - which in my case necessitates another extender.  My current media center's noise bugs the heck out of me.  S1 (who I'm also looking at, along with VM, Cannon, and Okoro) claims I won't be able to hear theirs from 8 feet away - a claim I pretty much believe.  What of the xBox, assuming it is inside an A/V cabinet?

---

-Tom

tsmith:

From looking at HP's marketing materials, their new extender seems to do the animations.  Pricing is a bit difficult to justify though - $350 for a device with no DVD?  xBox range...

On that note (and off-topic - sorry), just how noisy is the xBox as an extender?  I need a new media center with CableCard support, and am considering the Dell option - which in my case necessitates another extender.  My current media center's noise bugs the heck out of me.  S1 (who I'm also looking at, along with VM, Cannon, and Okoro) claims I won't be able to hear theirs from 8 feet away - a claim I pretty much believe.  What of the xBox, assuming it is inside an A/V cabinet?

It bothers some people more than others. I don't have a problem with it and don't notice it unless I'm watching something with the volume turned down lower than I normally have it. Mine is not in an A/V cabinet...if you put it in there I wouldn't think you would have a problem. Just make sure that cabinet is well ventilated.

Also, I saw something that stated the 360 Arcade may be going down to $199 on September 7th. You might want to try and hold off for that!

---

My Media Center Blog

Subscribe to my RSS feed

tsmith:

From looking at HP's marketing materials, their new extender seems to do the animations.  Pricing is a bit difficult to justify though - $350 for a device with no DVD?  xBox range...

On that note (and off-topic - sorry), just how noisy is the xBox as an extender?  I need a new media center with CableCard support, and am considering the Dell option - which in my case necessitates another extender.  My current media center's noise bugs the heck out of me.  S1 (who I'm also looking at, along with VM, Cannon, and Okoro) claims I won't be able to hear theirs from 8 feet away - a claim I pretty much believe.  What of the xBox, assuming it is inside an A/V cabinet?

HPs Extenders has the same guts as the Linksys and D-Link.  Animations are the same.

---

Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

Chris - Moderator:

tsmith:

From looking at HP's marketing materials, their new extender seems to do the animations.  Pricing is a bit difficult to justify though - $350 for a device with no DVD?  xBox range...

On that note (and off-topic - sorry), just how noisy is the xBox as an extender?  I need a new media center with CableCard support, and am considering the Dell option - which in my case necessitates another extender.  My current media center's noise bugs the heck out of me.  S1 (who I'm also looking at, along with VM, Cannon, and Okoro) claims I won't be able to hear theirs from 8 feet away - a claim I pretty much believe.  What of the xBox, assuming it is inside an A/V cabinet?

HPs Extenders has the same guts as the Linksys and D-Link.  Animations are the same.

Respectfully disagree Chris. Yes, the guts are the same, but they did some magic on their MCX interface. Not sure how, but definitely their MCX UI is cleaner & more 3D looking than the D-Link/Linksys devices which look like static 2-D images. Still not in the same league as the Xbox360, but as close as i've seen.

---

Mike Garcen
TGB Moderator | MissingRemote Editor/Reviewer| Microsoft MVP - Media Center
My MCE Setup

I'd still say it is same expecting noting that our minds might be playing tricks on us.  I'm not sure how much of the MCX code HP gets to edit themselves, so I'm not really sure they can do much on the software side of things.  Maybe the different is in the Extenders NICs (not sure if they are all the same chipset)??

---

Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

i have absolutely no idea HOW they did it, and i've tried prying the info out of them, but they're solidly shut :-)

---

Mike Garcen
TGB Moderator | MissingRemote Editor/Reviewer| Microsoft MVP - Media Center
My MCE Setup

Continuing the off-topic discussion concerning extenders, has anyone looked at the Niveus EDGE?

MSBob:

Continuing the off-topic discussion concerning extenders, has anyone looked at the Niveus EDGE?

I was able to test it and works great; however, it is outside of my budget.  If I could justify the cost I would go with all Niveus HTPCs

---

.:: Vista Ultimate x64 :: Antec Fusion :: Corsair HX520w :: ASUS P5E-VM :: Core2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz :: 4GB RAM :: 128GB SSD System\Apps :: 1TB\5TB Data :: LG GGC-H20L BD/HD DVD :: HDHomeRun x2 ::.

tsmith:

From looking at HP's marketing materials, their new extender seems to do the animations.  Pricing is a bit difficult to justify though - $350 for a device with no DVD?  xBox range...

On that note (and off-topic - sorry), just how noisy is the xBox as an extender?  I need a new media center with CableCard support, and am considering the Dell option - which in my case necessitates another extender.  My current media center's noise bugs the heck out of me.  S1 (who I'm also looking at, along with VM, Cannon, and Okoro) claims I won't be able to hear theirs from 8 feet away - a claim I pretty much believe.  What of the xBox, assuming it is inside an A/V cabinet?

Mine's pretty loud.  Louder than when I had an HTPC in the living room, especially after I replaced the stock heatsink & fan.  The HTPC was almost whisper quiet, and the 360 hums pretty good.

I have a dell xps 420 cablecard system....

The thing doesnt make noise..... its alot quieter than the 360 anyway.  The video card I chose was the ati 2600 (one up from the default 2400).  I imagine if you got the 8600 it would get noisy.. I have that card in another box and the fan is fairly loud.

In any case.. Id suggest wait and see if the 420 is loud enough to bug you... I doubt it will be.  If it is you can always get the extender later.

jhale83:

Also, I saw something that stated the 360 Arcade may be going down to $199 on September 7th. You might want to try and hold off for that!

Wow, I’d buy another Xbox 360 as a dedicated extender if the Arcade dropped down to $199.

 

---

i7 920 | ASUS P6T Deluxe | Triple-Channle DDR3 3x1GB | MSI GTX260 | Seagate 750GB | OCZ 600W Stealth X | LG GGW-H20L| XBox 360 | XBox 360 HD DVD Drive | HDHomeRun | Hauppauge HD PVR | Vista Home Premium

Yes, I'm contemplating buying one to replace my DMA2100 when/if this happens.   

---

My Media Center Blog

Subscribe to my RSS feed

I just don't want to reward MS for not allowing MKV, MPEG-4, etc playback.

---

My VMC setup:
(2) Xbox360s
System 1 -
Dell XPS410 (2.6Ghz C2D, 2GB Ram,Nvidia 8600GT, Blu-ray internal, HD-DVD external (X360 drive), (2) Vboxx DTA150s (OTA HD), 1 HVR-1150 (OTA HD) and Dish Network

S1Digital:

Just an update - we will probably begin shipping all Media Centers with TV Pack (Fiji) this week. MABrown will most likely have the first Media Center with TV Pack in the world (from my understanding) :).

I'll update The Green Button special page on our website during the week with the new options (for example four tuners).

Note, and thanks to Mabrown for pointing this out, you can use both CableCard and unencrypted QAM tuners at the same time. I didn't actually know that. It's very cool. You get a single channel guide (no more 1000+ range for ATSC channels) and all the sub channels are where they should be! So you get something like (I'm just making this up, but you get the idea):

02 - CBS

03 TNT

04 - NBC

04.1 - NBC 2

04.2 - NBC 3

So you can have four CableCard tuners and then four ATSC or QAM tuners (HDHomerun anyone?) for eight channels. Please note that we have not tested eight simultaneous recordings, but I think Mabrown will be testing that for us soon?

This is EXACTLY the functionality that I wish VMC already included.

Jeez, I wish MSFT would release this to current users...