XBOX One will not be Media Center extender

[jeonunh]

If the guide data stops being updated in Media Center, the XBox One won't be a solution.

Actually, this may be a saving grace to the lack of guide data in Media Center. The XBox One guide data will be coming from Microsoft based on your cable co. The XBox One will only send channel numbers to the Echo to tune to the appropriate channel for live TV. So, no guide data in Media Center needed. No Media Center at all needed, in fact, except to support streaming of live TV to the Echo.

Umm... But no more recorded TV. Without the recorded TV aspect I may as well just use a cable box.

[IownFIVEechos]

This is good for future proofing the device if we loose the tv guide in the future (last resort, no one wants $500 solution on every tv), but on the master tv in the house that everyone uses more often this could be cool. I would also connect a second echo onto a second hdmi port of the receiver so I could have a pure windows media center experience if I don't want to XBOX ON!.

Yes, who would want to use an Echo to watch live TV when you could use 2 Echos and an XBox One to watch live TV!

I plan to hook my Echo up to a HDMI splitter that strips HDCP, then into the XB1, and the XB1 into a Slingbox 500. This way the following will happen when I change a channel... Slingbox will receive a signal through the internet, it will translate into an IR command to XB1, which will send and IR command to the Echo, which will send a network command to the HTPC to change the channel.

Your welcome.

[kingwr]

If the guide data stops being updated in Media Center, the XBox One won't be a solution.

Actually, this may be a saving grace to the lack of guide data in Media Center. The XBox One guide data will be coming from Microsoft based on your cable co. The XBox One will only send channel numbers to the Echo to tune to the appropriate channel for live TV. So, no guide data in Media Center needed. No Media Center at all needed, in fact, except to support streaming of live TV to the Echo.

Umm... But no more recorded TV. Without the recorded TV aspect I may as well just use a cable box.

But how is the XBox One going to allow you to get to the recorded TV anyway? You will have to use the Echo remote to browse and play recorded TV. At that point the XBox One just becomes a glorified Input switcher for your TV. I guess this was my original point of putting an Echo through the XBox one.

[IownFIVEechos]

Same concept holds true for STB DVR's the XBOX ONE guide will only change channels; unless a STB has CEC and even then I don't know how that will work. I don't think the guide has the record options etc..

[IownFIVEechos]

Bottom line.

XBOX ONE = No Extender = NO Purchase!

XBOX OFF!

[barnabas1969]

If the guide data stops being updated in Media Center, the XBox One won't be a solution.

Actually, this may be a saving grace to the lack of guide data in Media Center. The XBox One guide data will be coming from Microsoft based on your cable co. The XBox One will only send channel numbers to the Echo to tune to the appropriate channel for live TV. So, no guide data in Media Center needed. No Media Center at all needed, in fact, except to support streaming of live TV to the Echo.

Well, most of us use Media Center to record stuff. Without guide data, Media Center is pretty useless for recording... unless you use it like a VCR and schedule channel/day/time recordings.

EDIT: I posted this before I saw that other replies existed.

[jeonunh]

Umm... But no more recorded TV. Without the recorded TV aspect I may as well just use a cable box.

But how is the XBox One going to allow you to get to the recorded TV anyway? You will have to use the Echo remote to browse and play recorded TV. At that point the XBox One just becomes a glorified Input switcher for your TV. I guess this was my original point of putting an Echo through the XBox one.

I guess that's my point. I don't think the pass through feature is very useful so I wouldn't use it. I hope in the future they allow direct tuner support with something like the HDHomerun Prime and an external hard drive for recording. Then they could come out with an Xbox extender for playing games and recorded content in other rooms. Of course, even with that the XB1 won't fill all my needs. Too bad.

[tarheel]

I'm not getting why one would purchase an Echo? Wouldn't hooking up your HTPC to the Xbox one and using an IR receiver be cheaper? Is it because your computer is far from the TV? Help me understand as I am very interested in using the Windows Media Center and Xbox one together. My work around is to leave the live tv on in windows media center and use the ir receiver to get signals from the xbox one blaster. To access recorded tv and other media center functions I would use the hippo remote app.

[barnabas1969]

I'm not getting why one would purchase an Echo? Wouldn't hooking up your HTPC to the Xbox one and using an IR receiver be cheaper? Is it because your computer is far from the TV? Help me understand as I am very interested in using the Windows Media Center and Xbox one together. My work around is to leave the live tv on in windows media center and use the ir receiver to get signals from the xbox one blaster. To access recorded tv and other media center functions I would use the hippo remote app.

If the XBox One works with the Echo (we don't yet know if it will work), then it will work with the HTPC directly too, because they both use the same IR commands.

[agdev01]

@IownFIVEechos: If the guide data stops being updated in Media Center, the XBox One won't be a solution. If you have no guide data in Media Center, then you won't be able to schedule recordings based on show titles, etc. If Microsoft stops providing guide data for Media Center, then the solution will be to use one of the third party providers and software that already exists to update the guide data.

except MS doesn't provide the guide data directly, instead they get the information via zap2it. In essence there already is a third party providing it.

[MinistryOfMagic]

@IownFIVEechos: If the guide data stops being updated in Media Center, the XBox One won't be a solution. If you have no guide data in Media Center, then you won't be able to schedule recordings based on show titles, etc. If Microsoft stops providing guide data for Media Center, then the solution will be to use one of the third party providers and software that already exists to update the guide data.

except MS doesn't provide the guide data directly, instead they get the information via zap2it. In essence there already is a third party providing it.

What's interesting is that Microsoft will not be using ZAP2it for the TV listings data on the Xbox One, instead Interactive program guide vendor Rovi (Nasdaq: ROVI) said it scored a deal with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) to supply it with TV listings data for its new Xbox One gaming console, which hits retail stores on Nov. 22.

In addition to TV program schedules, Rovi said it will give Microsoft program reviews, celebrity profiles, program images and "rich descriptors" that can be used with the OneGuide navigation system that will run on the Xbox One.

[barnabas1969]

Yes, I know that Zap2It provides guide data to Microsoft (and Rovi provides the program reviews today in Media Center). That wasn't my point. My point was that the XBox One won't be a magic solution if the guide data stops being provided for Media Center. The guide data is necessary in Media Center for the purpose of scheduling recordings.

And, for those of you who don't know, you can get your guide data (right now) directly from a couple of providers (for a small fee), and import it into Media Center. So, if Microsoft stops providing guide data, there already is an alternative.

[jeonunh]

On a whim I decided to see if I would have any luck buying an XB1 through Amazon's last chance sale this morning and managed to get one. I somewhat regret the decision now that I realize I'm not very interested in any of the launch games, but I have a couple days to decide if I want to play with it or chuck it up on Craigslist. I think I'll mess around with it for couple weeks and try to sell it for what I paid before xmas.

In the meantime I'll have a chance to see if it's remotely worthwhile to integrate with WMC. I just read somewhere that all audio passed through the HDMI-IN is down-mixed into stereo. If that's true there is another nail in the coffin.

[RyC]

I just read somewhere that all audio passed through the HDMI-IN is down-mixed into stereo. If that's true there is another nail in the coffin.

Yeah that's terrible. I also read in a review it muddied up the picture, so I don't think passing through a 360/extender for WMC is going to be an acceptable option given the picture and audio compromises.

[Diverge]

I just read somewhere that all audio passed through the HDMI-IN is down-mixed into stereo. If that's true there is another nail in the coffin.

It's true for default settings. But a beta function is there http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-one/ ... ot-working

[NizZ8]

I posted some details of my WMC/XB1 Setup over in this thread... I'll paste them here to get people caught up on what you can do with WMC and XB1:

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=8&t=6412


Here are some updates i figured out with setting up my existing Win7 WMC Box (as an STB) through my XB1:

Here is what I was able to get working. When you setup your STB type in “Media Center PC” (or just Media) instead of Comcast/DirecTV/etc that is suggested you will be able to choose Media Center PC as your STB Device. From there you are can get the XB1 controlling your WMC machine through HDMI-CEC.

Setup:
WMC (hdmi) --> XB1 (hdmi) --> Vizio TV.
--Just adjusted the setup so that I separated out audio at the XB1 to push audio out over optical and now am able to get DD/DTS to my AVR.

From what I have found so far is if you leave your WMC box in Live TV Mode (or already tuned to a station) when you issue a channel command it’s taken and will change the channel. But say if you are in the start menu or a plugin like media browser it will not receive the channel change/etc properly.

I am liking the flexibility that this gives you with the combination of an WMC remote to navigate the WMC UI once you switch from Game/Dash/App/Etc mode to TV. I would love to see the XB1 have more control over the WMC box but this is a great start!

Looking forward to you guys getting your hands on this amazing piece of hardware, you are going to love it.

[bob_p]

Microsoft should have ported the extender software to XB1 - because it would have provided them the missing Recorded TV functionality, at least in the short term.

Longer term, with the exception of live events, Recorded TV will likely be replaced with cloud-based streaming. Comcast's new "DVR" doesn't have any local storage - everything is streamed from their cloud servers - and the same could be done with XB1.

But we're not at that point today - and supporting WMC extender would have been a relatively easy feature to include at launch.

[VistaVick]

I'm not really understanding the complaints about not being to record tv. The way the xbox one works with cable boxes and even htpcs is simply with hdmi passthrough. The xbox one no more allows you to watch tv than it allows you to record tv, because it relies on the cable box or tuner to do so.

However, because it is simply working like a video passthrough, if you already have a dvr or htpc that records, you can access your recorded programs and watch them on the xbox one, as you would on the dvr itself.

It is really a matter of setting up a universal remote like a harmony to control both the xbox one and the dvr/cable box like have you been doing all along. You may not be able to use voice commands for everything, but you can easily access recordings and do anything you are used to doing on your dvr.

[bob_p]

In order to use the XB1 with WMC - you have to have a second device present - either an XB360 or a WMC PC. And if it's really just acting as a limited functionality passthrough, what's the benefit of going through the XB1 vs. doing a direct connection to the TV or a receiver?

I've got 4 XB360's being used as media center extenders - if the XB1 was an extender - I'd probably buy at least one soon. Without the extender functionality, looks like I'll continue purchasing XB360's for any new TVs I want to support...

[jhoff80]

I asked this in the other thread, but I want to setup the One connected to a 360 as extender in the same room my HTPC is in. (I also game on the HTPC, and the lag is something I don't want to deal with there). The One would be used with the 360 connected for light viewing, and the HTPC would be used for more serious viewing.

Because of this, I need to set the 360 to ONLY be controlled by the 360 Media Remote, not the "Both Remotes" setting (which makes it react to the Media Center PC's remote as well).

Does the One's IR blaster setup control the 360 this way?