Installation

I have to hand it to Microsoft – the included documentation is excellent for the casual user. There's a setup guide pamphlet and a separate document specifically for any home networking issues.

For our Microsoft Windows Media Center Extender setup, we used a wired network. The system can also utilize a high speed 802.11 a/g network but we did not get a chance to test this feature out. 802.11b wireless networks are not recommended for transmitting high quality video content from your MCE system. The IDEAL scenario is having a wired connection – however if you want to use a wireless network, it is best if your Xbox is connected wirelessly and your MCE PC is connected via a wired network.

For our setup, the Xbox was connected to the router via a wired connection. The actual setup of the Extender software consists of two parts – setting up the Xbox and setting up the MCE PC.

Xbox installation

We placed the Media Center Extender for Xbox disc on the disc tray of the Xbox console. Once the Xbox reads the disc, the Extender software loads up and starts looking for any Media Center Edition 2005 PCs on your network. You do not have to specify the machine name at all. If it can not connect to a Media Center PC on the network (either one does not exist or one has not authorized the Media Center Extender device to connect as of yet), then it will display the following screen with a setup number.

You will need this setup number for the PC installation of the Windows Media Center Extender Setup software.

MCE installation

At this point, we go to our Media Center PC and place the Windows Media Center Extender Setup software inside our DVD drive. The following screen is displayed on the PC:

The most important step is entering the setup key provided by the Media Center Extender for Xbox disc. This associates the Media Center Extender with this particular Media Center PC.

Here are a couple of more screen shots:

The Media Center Extender enables document sharing and also remote access features on your MCE PC. Now we're ready to look for the Xbox:

Back to the Xbox

Once everything is setup, you will see that the Xbox is ready to connect to the Media Center PC. Remember, if you want to start up the Windows Media Center Extender on your Xbox, you will always need to insert the disc into the Xbox. One would think that Microsoft would simply copy the contents of the disc to the Xbox hard drive but nope - this isn't how it works. You'll need that disc handy if you ever want to use the Extender software on your Xbox.

There are several consequences to this design decision. If you find yourself using a Media Center Extender system a great deal, then you are probably better off with a standalone hardware device. The standalone Media Center Extender hardware devices start up quickly and offer better response times than the Media Center Extender for Xbox software. If you don't see yourself as a regular user of the Media Center Extender, then the Xbox solution isn't a bad one if you can afford to wait for the system startup times.

Once you're up and running, here's what the screen looks like:

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