Streaming from Windows 7 to Xbox 360
By Patrick Nelson
Microsoft makes it easy in Windows 7 to get media on to your television.
If you have an Xbox 360 hooked-up to your home network you can use it as a Media Center Extender.
Music, pictures, online media, live and recoded television call all be played and viewed. Microsoft includes all the software you need in their Windows 7 PCs, you just have to configure it.
Remove any Previous Connection.
If you used your Xbox 360 with an earlier Windows Media Center PC, like the XP version for example, you need to remove the existing connection.
On the PC, click Start, Windows Media Center.
Select Task, Settings. Select Extender.
Look for a reference to Xbox 360 Media Center Extender
and choose Uninstall.
On the Xbox, go to My Xbox and then System
Settings and then choose Computers.
Choose Windows Media Center and press the button labeled “A.” Choose Disconnect and press the “B” button repeatedly until you get back into the System Settings area.
Find your Xbox Key
The Xbox key is a unique code that the PC and Xbox use to find each other.
Select Windows Media Center on the Xbox. Follow the prompts to get through all the menus and eventually you will get to the code.
It’s an eight digit number and is called the Media Center Setup Key. Write the number down.
Configure the Windows 7 Media Center PC.
Go back to the Windows 7 Media Center PC and launch the Media Center again by selecting Start and Windows 7 Media Center.
Choose Tasks and Add Extender.
Follow the prompts until you are given an opportunity to enter the code that you wrote down.
Using Windows Media Center on the Xbox 360
When the Xbox 360 is used as an Extender in Windows 7, media appears very similar to how it looks on the PC.
Make sure that both devices are switched on and running.
Press Start in the Xbox dashboard and Windows Media Center in the Xbox will start.
You can also use the Xbox controller. Go to the Xbox
dashboard with the controller and choose the label Media.
Microsoft has a printable reference card you can use for
Windows Media Center controls on the Xbox.
It’s at the Xbox website. Just click here to get it. It will give you more granular controls (controls for rewind and fast forward for example).
What do you think of Windows 7 and the way it streams to XBOX 360?
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What Other Visitors Have Said
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Streaming from media center is laggggyy
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I tried to use my Media Center to stream music etc to my Xbox 360 and found that it was so laggy as to be unusable.
The wireless router is less than ...