For Windows Ultimate or Home Premium Vista users, Windows Media Center will be the most commonly used solution for extending your PC’s media to the Xbox 360. Assuming you have the network requirements fulfilled, with a computer running Windows Vista Ultimate or Home Premium, and Windows Media Center 11, you should be able to stream photos, music, and video to your Xbox 360 in a matter of minutes.
After you connect the Xbox 360 to your home network, you must navigate the Xbox’s Dashboard tabs to the Media Section. Here you will select Media Center to begin the connection process.
Quick Tip: You can have your Xbox 360 connected via a wireless network as well. It should work, although the connection may not be good enough for a HD quality picture on your TV.
Click Media Center from the Xbox 360’s dashboard Media tab.
Select A on the controller to begin setup.
If your console connects via a wireless network, then you may receive this message. Otherwise you will see screen 4.
Write down the setup key. Return to the PC you are connecting.
Open Windows Media Center on the PC. It may take a few moments for the program to recognize the Xbox 360 on the network. If you have trouble, review the network troubleshooting section of this guide. Once the device has been recognized, a dialog appears to extend Media Center with the Xbox 360. Click Yes.
As described in this opening screen, you may need to configure your network to allow audio and video to be streamed.
Type the Setup Key when prompted.
At this point, the setup program will attempt to alter Windows Firewall settings for you. Click next to allow the wizard to open the necessary ports.
The extender setup installs drivers and configures settings for the Media Center during this step. It will take a few minutes to complete.
The Network Performance tuner informs you if your home network can handle HD Quality streaming or standard TV quality. We recommend running this test to see how well your setup works.
In this example, the Network Tuner identified a problem on the home network. This is likely due to the wireless connection from the console to the PC. For best performance, use a Wireless A router or a standard Ethernet connection.
The Network Tuner test can display a bar or graph view of your network’s performance. The graphs illuminate a meter that tells you the quality you can stream across the network.
You can now choose whether or not the Xbox 360 will see folders as they exist on your computer. We recommend using this setting so you can easily find the files on your Xbox the same as you would on your computer.
When you finish the setup, you can return to the Xbox 360. The screen should now have all the Media Center functionality. You can begin browsing Recorded TV, your MP3 collection, or look at a slideshow of your pictures, all from your Xbox 360.
