Xbox 360

 Ben Heckendorn over at Engadget has just posted Apparently this one is thinner and lighter and sports some essential upgrades. If you’re interested in (seriously) voiding your warranty then stay tuned to Engadget because he’s also working on an in-depth tutorial on how to build your own. Scary. 

Freeview TV, Vista and Xbox 360 - Part 2

My endeavors in getting my Windows Vista PC talking to the Xbox 360 have at last made some progress. After trying four different TV tuners I’ve finally struck one that works under Vista. To be fair technically the first three tuners also worked under Vista in the sense they had digital tuners in addition to their analog ones — and it was the analog portion that doesn’t work under Vista.
Anyway, the
is Vista certified and worked a treat.

Installation couldn’t have been simpler, I plugged it into a vacant PCI slot, booted Vista which then detected it, installed the appropriate drivers (no disc required) and was ready to go. I fired up Media Centre which promptly detected the fact I had a new tuner card and ran me through the tuning process. It even detected the dual tuner functionality and asked me if I wanted to tune both of them.

With this done I fired up the Xbox 360 in the lounge (which is connected wirelessly to my Airport Extreme wireless router), hit the Media Centre button on the remote that came with the Xbox and selected Live TV. It worked perfectly; I could record one channel while watching another, pause and rewind live TV all from the comfort of my Xbox 360 environment. The only thing missing is an EPG (electronic programming guide) so I could actually find out when my favourite TV shows were on. Who’d have thought the various TV stations in this country wouldn’t like us all to know exactly when they’re scheduling their content?

Getting back to the tuner, what the Hauppauge doesn’t have however is any kind of digital tuner, which means it’s no good for my Freeview aspirations. Fortunately the kind folk at Ingram Micro who’ve supplied the PVR-500 also sent through a couple of USB-based Vista-ready digital tuners which I’ll be trying as soon as Mr Sky-installer comes and puts a dish on the side of my new house.