So what do you need?

The biggest two things you need is an Xbox 360 and a PC running Windows XP Media Center Edition. This article is written from the perspective using Media Center Edition 2005 but what is written here should apply to the 2004 edition of the operating system. If not, please send us feedback and tell us what we need to know so we can tell the Windows Media Center 2004 users what they need to know.

You will need also a wired network connection or if you must a wireless network. We will go into detail about wireless later in the article. A nice accessory you might want to consider is the Xbox 360 Media Remote. This remote gives you functionality you can’t get from the game controllers. Still for most things the game controller works fine.

To start the setup process you can simply click the Windows Media Center button on your Xbox 360. It will give you some additional on screen instructions and provide you with a Connection ID number. That number you need to write down as you will need it later when you install the Media Extender software on your PC.

You will need to download the Windows Media Extender software from the Microsoft Xbox 360 site. Go to www.xbox.com/pcsetup. Here you will see an onscreen wizard that will ask you whether you have Windows Media Center 2005, Windows Media Center 2005 Roll-up 2 or Windows XP Service Pack 2. Select the one that is appropriate, download and run the installer.

The program once installed will install the necessary software and run a wizard that will attempt to mate your Xbox 360 to your PC. If you follow the on screen instructions you will be told that you need to follow steps on your Xbox 360 to get the Connection ID that you need in order to mate your PC to your Xbox 360. This is a one time set up process that seems to take a long time. Be patient. It is working despite what it might look like on screen.  At some point you will be asked for the number that appeared on your Xbox 360. Enter it—and it will attempt to connect for the first time. If it is successful then you will have mated the Xbox 360 to your Windows Media PC.

So you want to use a wireless network right?

Many of us do for various reasons. The biggest reason is the convenience of using wireless. You won’t have to run Ethernet cable to your home theater, which is certainly a great advantage. That said you might find that you will have to upgrade your PC wireless network in order for the experience to be watch able.

Most typical wireless networks use the 802.11b/g standard. This network runs at 2.4 GHz and while generally useful for simple data applications streaming video is a significant challenge. This is because there are a variety of household electronics and kitchen products that also live on the 2.4 GHz band. Things like cordless phones; microwaves just to name a few! They don’t even have to be your cordless phones or microwave ovens. It could easily be neighbors! Yes, 2.4 GHz signals can travel a significant range.

So while you may get your Xbox 360 to connect via a 2.4 GHz connection you will find that the video you stream will be jerky and very hard to watch. No one wants to see the error message in the upper right hand corner of your Xbox saying “Network Congestion”.

There is a solution and while it is not full proof it will work better than the 2.4 GHz network. You can install a dual band network that operates at both 5.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz the 5 GHz band uses the 802.11a standard which happens to be fast enough for video! Further most portables and microwaves are not running in this frequency range so you have a much clearer signal area. Finally the 5 GHz band goes a shorter range so the neighbor cooking a hot pocket is not likely to take down your network!

There is actually a great video that Microsoft provides from the Xbox Live Marketplace. It explains not only the concept behind the Windows Media Center PC and the Xbox 360 but goes into an explanation that visually is easy to understand. The video adds one more point that I am going to explain and elaborate on.

The key to making the 5 GHz network operate is to isolate the Xbox 360 from the 2.4 GHz network. Further the Windows Media Center PC should be hard wired to the dual band router so that you reduce the amount of transmission traffic. If you went wireless from the Windows PC to the Xbox 360 you would use double the bandwidth. The PC would be broadcasting wirelessly to the router and the router would be broadcasting to the Xbox 360. What you want is to have the Windows PC broadcasting via an Ethernet cable to the router and the router to broadcast wirelessly to the Xbox 360. This is the key!

Once you have the network set up you want to use the Utility that is provided with the software you downloaded to tune your network connection. This tuning comes from adjusting the channel the router is using so it has the clearest signal. If you’re lucky you can tune your network to a channel that will allow HDTV level broadcasting. If you succeed in doing this and can keep the signal in this ranger in the tuner program for a reasonable period of time you’ll find you have a clean network and you can stream video from your PC with nary a care and few if any network congestion errors.

This program is located in Accessories -> Media Center -> Media Center Extender Network Performance Tuner.

So now you have things set up. What can I do?

Well the next time you enter the Windows Media Center you will see a user interface you probably have seen on your PC if you have used Media Center on the PC. You can watch live TV, you can watch recorded programs from live TV or you can from your PC download content that we have cataloged here at ChannelGuide 360!

Read: How to use the Channel Guide