Today I connected new Xbox 360 to my Media Server via wireless adapter. I was absolutely positively surprised. Setup was quick and easy. Just enter WAP key, select server connected and bingo! I also tester wired setup, what was even easier. Just plug and play!
I have 42" Hitatchi 1080i HD plasma and my Xbox is connected to that via HD Component cable. It allows to exploit full 1080i capability of my plasma. A tad confusing is digital audio connection. You have to buy separate optical cable and it connect to the Xbox-end of the cable!
Xbox 360 functionality as media player:
- Plays music: Yes, MP3 and WMA
- Shows digital photos: Yes, at 1080i HD resolution!
- Streams video's from UPnP media server (TwonkyMedia): NO (plays only from Xbox Hard Disk)
Pro's:
- Very good graphical interface
- Super visualization during music playback
- Very good quality in photo slideshow, shows also large 10 Mpix JPG photos >3 MB size
- Very quick srolling in the lists (artists, folders, albums, etc..)
Con's
- Doesn't stream videos from 3.-rd party media server (TwonkyMedia)
- Doesn't support all sorting/grouping features of TwonkyMedia UPnP server. You have to scroll through all 300 artists + 400 composers, to find one. No useful index feature, TwonkyMedia provides.
- Messes up all artists and compusers. Xbox combines artists with composers, producing 800-artist long list, instead of true 300 artists. Not standard UPnP behaviour
Conclusion: Very powerful and aesthetical graphics and fast CPU raises Xbox to very high level among other media playesr, pitty not streaming videos.
