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Xbox 360 - Media Center Details Emerge

May 17, 2005

More details seem to be emerging at E3 regarding the Xbox 360’s integration with Windows Media Center Edition 2005, as well as sharing content from non-MCE XP systems.

Windows IT Pro has an excellent run-down.

The Xbox 360 MCX will include the full Media Center user experience and not the stripped down version seen on today’s Extenders. That means you get the full fidelity of the Media Center experience, complete with animations, transitions during photos slideshows, and so on. For many users, the Xbox 360 MCX will even look nicer than the default UI on a Media Center PC, a first for any Extender.

If you don’t have an XP-based Media Center PC, Xbox 360 will use Windows Media Connect technology to interact with the digital media content on your XP-based PCs over your home network. This experience won’t be as rich as the Extender experience, but will instead use normal Xbox 360 menus via its “Access Music or Photos” interface. Additionally, you can use this interface to interact with CD audio or photo disks, music you’ve ripped directly to the Xbox 360 hard drive, music stored on attached MP3 players, or photos stored on attached digital cameras.

One of the more surprising details seems to be native support for the PSP and iPod — you’ll be able to access music, photos and video (in the case of the PSP) by plugging the device into a USB port on the Xbox.

Interesting that it has all of this, and they’ve still been dithering over whether to offer support for last-generation Xbox games. It’s almost like more thought has been put into what drives demand for video and music users than what gamers want…

Hmmmm

(via Digital Media Thoughts)

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Written by User ImageChuck Lawson · Filed Under Tech 
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