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Millions of homes have an Xbox 360 sitting in the living room, but if you're only using your 360 to game, you're missing out. With some free tools and a little elbow grease, that compact, networked PC sitting under your television can offer a whole lot of useful media functionality. The fact is, your 360 is capable of so much more than just gaming. Let's take a look at a few ways you can get more from your Xbox 360. I'm a casual gamer who bought his Xbox 360 a solid two years after its release. I've built a dedicated DVR PC for my living room and am no stranger to incorporating computers with my home theater. Once I bought my 360, however, I've been able to get rid of my home theater PC, my DVD player, and even my cable box, so that my entire entertainment system runs through my Xbox 360. It's convergence at its best. The 360 is not perfect by any means, but it's the best multimedia device I've ever used. With that in mind, let's start souping it up. Turn Your Xbox into a Media Center Installing a dedicated home theater PC under your TV is overkill for most people, especially if you don't want a big, noisy PC in your living room. But if you've got a Windows computer capable of running Windows Media Center (that includes either Windows XP Media Center Edition or Vista Home Premium and Ultimate) and an Xbox 360 that's already in your living room, you can use your 360 as a Media Center extender. That means that you get virtually all ...
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Millions of homes have an Xbox 360 sitting in the living room, but if you're only using your 360 to game, you're missing out. With some free tools and a little elbow grease, that compact, networked PC sitting under your television can offer a whole lot of useful media functionality. The fact is, your 360 is capable of so much more than just gaming. Let's take a look at a few ways you can get more from your Xbox 360. I'm a casual gamer who bought his Xbox 360 a solid two years after its release. I've built a dedicated DVR PC for my living room and am no stranger to incorporating computers with my home theater. Once I bought my 360, however, I've been able to get rid of my home theater PC, my DVD player, and even my cable box, so that my entire entertainment system runs through my Xbox 360. It's convergence at its best. The 360 is not perfect by any means, but it's the best multimedia device I've ever used. With that in mind, let's start souping it up. Turn Your Xbox into a Media Center Installing a dedicated home theater PC under your TV is overkill for most people, especially if you don't want a big, noisy PC in your living room. But if you've got a Windows computer capable of running Windows Media Center (that includes either Windows XP Media Center Edition or Vista Home Premium and Ultimate) and an Xbox 360 that's already in your living room, you can use your 360 as a Media Center extender. That means that you get virtually all ...