XBOX 360 Vs WD TV Live

[BLASTO]

Hey Guys, I can get the XBOX 360 at an employee discount which comes very close to WD TV Live's cost.

If I were to choose between them, which one should I opt for? How is the USB playback capability of the XBOX 360 and HD playback in general? I was told that I can stream movies/music from my PC also.

So, What are the disadvantages of using XBOX as WD TV Live alternative? Does anyone know about the codec support etc?

Thanks in advance.

 

[TechHead]

Hey Guys, I can get the XBOX 360 at an employee discount which comes very close to WD TV Live's cost.

If I were to choose between them, which one should I opt for? How is the USB playback capability of the XBOX 360 and HD playback in general? I was told that I can stream movies/music from my PC also.

So, What are the disadvantages of using XBOX as WD TV Live alternative? Does anyone know about the codec support etc?

Thanks in advance.

The x360 has native support only for DivX movies. For all the other formats,you're going to need to set it up as an "extender" on your network, where your Windows PC will transcode and send across the MKV files to the XBox. Natively, the WDTV has far better codec support, but if you're willing to use the extender functionality, the XBox is a decent gaming device as well.

 

[dolfin]

Hey Guys, I can get the XBOX 360 at an employee discount which comes very close to WD TV Live's cost.

If I were to choose between them, which one should I opt for? How is the USB playback capability of the XBOX 360 and HD playback in general? I was told that I can stream movies/music from my PC also.

So, What are the disadvantages of using XBOX as WD TV Live alternative? Does anyone know about the codec support etc?

Thanks in advance.

X360 is a gaming device first. Surely you can stream videos from your PC, but that is not as convenient as playing it out of the box on WDL.

If you are getting X360 at the cost of WDL, its a better deal if your primary objective is to play games or you want to enjoy both the worlds. However, if you seldom play games and going to use it primarily for watching movies etc. its better to go for a media player like WDL.

 

[BLASTO]

The x360 has native support only for DivX movies. For all the other formats,you're going to need to set it up as an "extender" on your network, where your Windows PC will transcode and send across the MKV files to the XBox. Natively, the WDTV has far better codec support, but if you're willing to use the extender functionality, the XBox is a decent gaming device as well.

Hey TechHead,

Thanks for your inputs.. Few more doubts..

So, A HD MKV file be transcoded in realtime by the computer and fed to xbox 360 in the format it understands is what you mean? I don't mind what process happens behind the screen as long as Iam not required to 'convert' every MKV file I have to Divx HD or WMV-HD before feeding it to the 360.

What is the software to do this?

Also, How is it better than directly connecting the laptop to the TV everytime? Will there be any marked improvement to the PQ? I ask because, I dont see the XBOX doing any processing at all in the above process except for acting as a wireless medium between the laptop and TV. If it were the WD TV, the whole of the processing is done by the media players's chip which results in better PQ is what I read from the forum.

Also, Thinking about it, Iam not actually looking for an "extender" but a plug and play solution. This method still require me to switch on my laptop and all the other processes.. Only the step of directly connecting it to the TV is eliminated ?

Should I stick with media players then?

P.S: My major requirement as of now is not games but it is like "good to have".

 

[audiodelic]

go for a ps3 rather than an xbox 360.

 

[BLASTO]

go for a ps3 rather than an xbox 360.

PS3 is costly for my requirement..
Xbox 360 is also costly but Iam getting it cheap with employee discount which brings it down to WD TV Live's price, That it why thinking about it.

 

[mahiruha]

Well I don't find xbox 360 very useful as a media player. You can play files from your pc through network atleast it playes some demo1080p files I downloaded from micsoft website. It refuses to play any avi or divx files and says it needs to download an update I haven't tried using the update. The major drawback of xbox 360 is it can't play youtube files on tv unless you have a pc running windows media center which will let you use xbox 360 as a media extender where you can browse internet and play youtube videos. But I found the interface to be very clumsy. Xbox 360 is gmaing device and it is not very good at its duty as a universal media player. If gaming is not your priority you will do good with WD tv live. I also want to check its capacity to youtube videos.
Thanks.

 

[BLASTO]

Thank you guys for your inputs..

Xbox does not seem to be a competent media player.. Going for a dedicated media player..