Using the Xbox MCE Extender as a DVR?

[Hi Ho]

Does anyone here have experience using the Windows Media Center Extender capabilities of an Xbox to record and watch TV? I have always had satellite TV and I have never had a tuner card in my PC. I use MCE on the Xbox to watch and listen to content on my PC hard drive over my network and it works great for that.

My local cable company is looking slightly more enticing offering all the channels they have (minus premiums) and cable internet for $86/month. That's less than I pay for Dish alone. The big caveat is they don't have as many HD channels (though that may be changing) and their cable boxes/DVR's suck.

If I could use a central Media Center PC and use Xbox as a client it would be awesome. I would get the Ceton CableCard quad tuner.

How well would this work? How does it work having multiple extenders and users sharing one PC for recording and viewing content on 4 tuners (recording conflicts?).

If anyone has any experience with this your input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Does anyone here have experience using the Windows Media Center Extender capabilities of an Xbox to record and watch TV? I have always had satellite TV and I have never had a tuner card in my PC. I use MCE on the Xbox to watch and listen to content on my PC hard drive over my network and it works great for that.

My local cable company is looking slightly more enticing offering all the channels they have (minus premiums) and cable internet for $86/month. That's less than I pay for Dish alone. The big caveat is they don't have as many HD channels (though that may be changing) and their cable boxes/DVR's suck.

If I could use a central Media Center PC and use Xbox as a client it would be awesome. I would get the Ceton CableCard quad tuner.

How well would this work? How does it work having multiple extenders and users sharing one PC for recording and viewing content on 4 tuners (recording conflicts?).

If anyone has any experience with this your input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Yes, With some my assistance and advice my manager went thru the process and got it working. he used same tuner - Cenon Quad.
He has 3 xboxes around the house and all of them can watch live tv (different channels) WMC default is pretty bland, but there are plenty of add-ons for it0

 

[jinjuku]

Yes, With some my assistance and advice my manager went thru the process and got it working. he used same tuner - Cenon Quad.
He has 3 xboxes around the house and all of them can watch live tv (different channels) WMC default is pretty bland, but there are plenty of add-ons for it0

Silicon Dusts' HD Homerun is available for pre-order: $249.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Silicon Dusts' HD Homerun is available for pre-order: $249.

Ceton Quad tuner priced lowered to $299
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815706001

 

[Hi Ho]

Thanks for the replies! It's good to know that it works quite well. I'm still not sure I will do it. I like my Dish DVR and I get all the channels I watch in HD including Showtime for $88/month. I would only get a fraction of the HD channels with the cable deal and it would cost more for Showtime plus there's the up front cost of the tuner card.

I'm thinking out loud now. I may just stick with Dish and pay the extra $35/month for internet separately.

It would be nice if the WMC integration that Dish was working on would come to light but that does not seem likely at this point.

Media Center DISH Network tuner is on hold indefinitely

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Thanks for the replies! It's good to know that it works quite well. I'm still not sure I will do it. I like my Dish DVR and I get all the channels I watch in HD including Showtime for $88/month. I would only get a fraction of the HD channels with the cable deal and it would cost more for Showtime plus there's the up front cost of the tuner card.

I'm thinking out loud now. I may just stick with Dish and pay the extra $35/month for internet separately.

It would be nice if the WMC integration that Dish was working on would come to light but that does not seem likely at this point.

Media Center DISH Network tuner is on hold indefinitely

I heard that Dish DVRs integrates quite nicely with Google TV

 

[Hi Ho]

Wow I Googled this subject and found my own thread! I'm jumping ship and just ordered a Ceton InfiniTV 4 PCIe from Amazon for $199 and I have my cable TV hookup scheduled for Thursday. This will be a huge experiment in an attempt to save money and, incidentally, get AMC back.

I will be installing the tuner in my main desktop PC and using the Xbox as my DVR. From what I can find this setup works quite well so hopefully everything works out.