Windows Media Center Extender for Xbox reviewed
By Donald Melanson 
posted Dec 21st 2004 3:02AM
posted Dec 21st 2004 3:02AM
Windows
Media Center Extenders have been on the market for a few months now, but they're a bit pricey if all you want to do
is watch some recorded shows on the TV in the bedroom. Microsoft's come up with a brilliantly simply solution
with the Media Center Extender for Xbox. The software add-on does just what you expect — lets you use a your Xbox
to view Media Center content on any TV. But the real kicker is that it only costs around $70, meaning you can get
it and an Xbox for less than the cost of some standalone Media Center Extenders. And you can't play Halo
2 on those other extenders.
[Via Designtechnica]
EXCEPT that you still have to pay full boat for the Media Center OS and install it on your computer. Give me a $50 Xbox mod chip and the completely free XBox Media Center program that reads data off of your non-Media Center PC any day. And if you're afraid to install it yourself, you can get a pre-modded Xbox for hella cheaper than a Media Center PC, Xbox Media Center Extender, and Xbox to run it on.
Not to mention the fact that you can drop in a much larger HD in the modded box.
Microsoft really missed the boat here. They could have made something that simply interfaces with Windows Media Connect (available on all XP boxes) but instead they took the grrredy road and made it MCE compatible only. Shame on you MS, not everyone can go shell for a new PC just to get MCE. YOU FAILED IT.