Optimizing Media Center over a network
If you’re connecting an Xbox 360 to a new Media Center PC, Barb Bowman has some good advice in Optimizing Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, Xbox 360 and Media Center Extender Networks:
Microsoft recommends a wired network for best performance on a Media Center network. That’s where you get the high data rate transfers needed for streaming live TV from a Media Center PC to a Media Center Extender.
However, using a totally wired Ethernet network just isn’t possible for many of us. Your significant other may forbid wires in the living room, or your landlord won’t allow holes drilled through the walls, or you’re put off by the amount of work needed to run cables through the ceiling. That’s when you need to go wireless.
My experiences using Media Center Extenders and helping other users with network connectivity highlighted the need for a Media Center Extender wireless networking guide. With the introduction of the Xbox 360 and built-in Media Center capabilities and accessory wireless 802.11a/b/g adapter, many people will be setting up wireless networks for the first time. In this column, I assume that you have a broadband connection. Although connecting the audio and video components from a Media Center Extender to televisions or home theater receivers will be easy for most people, I’ll provide the basic rules for Media Center/Xbox 360/Media Center Extender networks.
This is really substantive advice, unlike so many articles that just skim the surface. For instance, extenders work much better over wireless connections using the 802.11a protocol. And you can get better performance by segmenting your network. And don’t skimp on security, either:
Be sure to use WPA-PSK as the encryption method for Extenders if at all possible because it provides far more security than WEP. Don’t let a sales person tell you that wireless security isn’t as important for devices as it is for computers. These devices are still part of your network and if you don’t use security or use weak security, you’ve provided an entrance point to everything on your network, computers with your personal data included. If you shop carefully, you’ll find gaming adapters and access point clients that support WPA-PSK.
These techniques also work with old-style Media Center Extenders.
WPA-PSK is easier to crack than WEP.
Not if you use a strong password. Read the author’s follow-up comment here.
I consider myself an edge case in most things media and I have yet to lose packets to my video stream from a PC to an extender. In a rather unscientific test, I was simultaneously downloading files from a server over WiFi, browsing a second machine via RDC and playing back video on my Xbox 360 acting as extender. Video never choked. The router and Xbox or on two different floors of my house on opposite sides of the house. I haven’t tried the same experiment with HD video, but I think issues people might see streaming SD content are over-rated.
As an aside, TV appears to look better on the Xbox 360 than it looks when I play it back direct from the Media Center to a television. Maybe that’s just my imagination, but it seems like some kind of filtering is happening before playback.
Jake, I don’t think that’s your imagination. I vaguely recall a post from someone, I think maybe Chris Lanier, who pointed out that the Extender video circuitry was cleaner than what came out of a standard display adapter. I’ll have to see if I can track that down.
MS is making more and more steps toward wireless products. I think this is both a good and a bad thing: good because.. well.. wireless is just easier and faster, bad because the technology is still young.