Will Xbox 360 kill Media Center? Nope

Michael Gartenberg | August 09, 2005, 02:05 PM

Great landing but wrong airport. Xbox 360 won't kill media center, it enhances it. It gives you a reason to want one for your next PC. The strategy is not Xbox as the media hub but rather Xbox 360 is the conduit to the media hub in the home according to Microsoft's vision. Namely, the PC.

Jason Dunn over at Digital Media Thoughtshad a post a while ago about his visit to Microsoft where he got his hands on the Xbox 360: A common question I've seen in our forums is how the Xbox deals with media. There's a 20GB hard drive on board that can be used for ripping CDs - there's a CD ripping client (I didn't see it though) that will connect to the 'Net and download track names - my assumption is that it will only rip to WMA and at a certain bit rate. The Xbox 360 will also have the ability to play photos and videos (WMV only I think) from external devices, so you can hook up your Zen Micro and play music off of it, and someone mentioned you could connect a USB thumb drive with videos and it would work. I don't know if you'll be able to copy over videos and photos from external sources - the Xbox 360 seems to be largely focused on being a conduit for content coming from another computer. On the plus side, however, you'll be able to install the Windows Media Connect software on any PC you have in the home, and the Xbox 360 will be able to access it. [eHomeUpgrade]