Tinkering With Xbox 360 And Windows 7 Media Center And Pogoplug

Image via Wikipedia

Xbox 360 users can view their Windows PC‘s videos and recorded TV programs on their big screen TV by pairing up Xbox 360 and Windows 7 Media Center.  Xbox 360 can act as an extender for Windows 7 Media Center.  The process is pretty simple.  First, you need to fire up your Xbox 360, and then go to My Xbox.  In My Xbox row, slide over till you see Windows Media Center.  Enter the Windows Media Center using your Xbox 360 controller, and the paring process will begin.  Your TV will show 8-digit code that can be entered onto your Windows 7 PC’s Windows Media Center.

On your PC, open up Windows Media Center (i.e., Start >> Windows Media Center), and select Tasks.  Click on Add Extender.  You’ll see the Windows Media Center asks for 8-digit code.  Using the 8-digit code that the Xbox 360 gives you earlier, your Windows Media Center will begin the pairing process with Xbox 360.  On your Xbox 360, you can now navigate to Windows Media Center and view videos, listen to music, watch recorded TV shows, and watch live TV.

Things may not work smoothly if your Xbox 360 is not on the same network with your Windows 7 PC.  Strange firewall settings such as blocking local devices to have access to your Windows 7 PC may also prevent your Xbox 360 from viewing Windows Media Center’s contents.  Connecting your Xbox 360 to a router behind another router where your PC may not reside on the same router as your Xbox 360, this setup can also prevent your Xbox 360 to pair up with your PC’s Windows Media Center.

Having a Pogoplug?  You may be able to view videos and other contents from your Pogoplug using Xbox 360 if your Windows 7 PC’s Windows Media Center is able to recognize Pogoplug on your network.  I had my Windows 7 PC recognized Pogoplug, added the drives of Pogoplug to Windows Media Center, and I was able to watch the videos that resided on Pogoplug using Xbox 360.

Related articles

• XBox 360 Wireless Controller (edugeek.net)
• So 53% of Battlefield 3 Players On Xbox 360 Also Played Call of Duty [Battlefield] (kotaku.com)
• Microsoft’s Xbox 360 scores sponsorship deal with NFL (bizjournals.com)
• FREE Xbox 360 and Kinect for Christmas! (theresabloginmysoup.com)
• Pogoplug Mobile hands-on [Video] (slashgear.com)
• Halo 4 definitely in development for Xbox 360 (gamesradar.com)
• How do you delete your windows media center (wiki.answers.com)
• Download the Bing Bar to win an Xbox 360, Kinect for Xbox 360 and 5 Games of your Choice (community.microsoftadvertising.com)
• Pogoplug Mobile streams entire libraries of digital content to mobile devices (gizmag.com)
• What’s better PC Xbox 360 or PS3 (wiki.answers.com)