Having Media Center On Your Xbox 360 Enabled: Priceless

Never before have I truly thought the Xbox 360 was worth the $400 price tag. I have thought it was well worth it up to now, but now $400 almost seems like a bargain. Yes thats right, I said bargain. For years I have been looking for a solution to be able to play my huge archive of videos stored on my computer on my TV. Anything from AMVs, anime, TV shows, random internet videos, movies, and more. Well as long as they are in the WMV format (thank god almost my entire collection is), then the Xbox 360 has you covered. Quite some time ago I before I got my 360, I tried to setup Media Center Edition on my desktop computer, and without knowing that you are not able to upgrade any version of Windows (Home edition in my case) to a Media Center Edition copy, I completely crashed my Windows. I didn't lose any files, but I can now no longer boot to that drive or re-install any form of windows (even Home) without formatting the hard drive. Luckily I made a backup Windows on my D drive just incase, so now for the past months everything has been running off my slaved D drive. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. Last night I realized that the problem was that you need to install Media Center fresh from format, and I thought of my laptop. I never kept anything on it that wasn't on my desktop. I did a quick backup and begun formatting and soon installing Windows XP Media Center Edition. After my terrible laptop kept erroring, such as the CD drive just not responding once it asked for disc 2 and stuff, it took me about 2.5 hours to get the Media Center installed. Then once I got it running, it took about another hour until I got the network setup right and for the 360 to recognize my laptop. I nearly fell asleep using my laptop, so I called it a day and began working again this morning. Finally after getting all the new Media Extender software setup, and my 360 to recognize my laptop, it was ready to fire up the Media Center on t he 360. Now my setup is a Netgear Super G 108MBPS router, wirelessly connected to my laptop with a Super G card, and wired to my 360 and desktop. So there should be no problem playing back any videos, right? Wrong. Even using a 108MBPS wireless connection (which stays about 40MBPS standard), the Media Center was very laggy, even in the menu and playing SDTV videos. So now I have my laptop folded up next to my desktop and connected through wires. Now Media Center runs perfectly smooth, and all my videos, even HD ones, play perfectly. I have it setup so I can control my folders on my laptop with my desktop, so I can add or delete videos anytime I want without opening the laptop, and my 360 can access them anytime. After all the work setting it up, the reward is well worth it. It's never been easier to watch any video off my computer on my TV. This is much easier than trying to deal with video outs on computer and messing through crazy settings. I search my entire laptop hard drive with my 360 and instantly add any folder to the mix. It's perfect. I don't even have the entire Media Center experience, as you can also watch TV, and have the 360 act as a full DVR. I just wish it could play more codecs such as a DivX or XviD, so I'll just have to stick to converting videos still to WMV. If you want to watch videos from your computer on your TV, and you have a 360, get Media Center Edition NOW. Even if you're low on cash, I'm sure there is some way you get a hold of it...... (DON'T LOOK AT ME! ;) ). Going through the setup is well worth it, and really shows why you should have an Xbox 360.

Oh How We Have Grown

Ever since the early July 7th 2005 launch of Following Revolution, my site has grown leaps and bounds. Back in the early days I would normally get around 20 or so hits a day, with occasional big spikes around big times in the games industry. During the craziness of SeriousGamer when I set out to sift out the truth, once my blog got a link on the Revolution Rumor's blog, we spiked to about 300-400 visits a day, although it only lasted for about a week, slowing down to 40-50 hits a day. My next big break was The Tokyo Game Show. With great coverage on the Revolution controller, along with a huge album of pics with high rez snaps from games such as Sonic The Hedgehog and Metal Gear Solid 4, the blog jumped to abouta steady 200 a day if I can recall correctly, although lasting only for about two weeks. Yesterday marked a new milestone for Following Revolution which was the announcement of the DS Lite. I made sure to stay close on the news going through different news sites finding all the important information about it, and bringing it to one place for our viewers. After I made the video of the DS Lite model, I finally got my link on Joystiq, an extremely popular gaming blog which I read about 20 times a day, and submit tips to all the time. This is the first time a tip has ever made it onto their blog, and since the launch of the story about 5 hours ago, I have received around 1400 visits and counting. My visits only count from the homepage though, and Joystiq only had a direct link to the story page. This means those 1500 people actually went to look further into my site and going to the homepage. From the mass amount of visits gained by the Joystiq post, it now accounts for about 10% of all visits Following Revolution has had since the July debut. This just shows the kind of great content we offer and the interest in can spark in many. Since the launch I have also hired a new blogger for the site earlier this month, Siggy, who you have heard in the podcast. He's only had one post so far, and he won't post much, but some is better than none. We have also launched and set up a popular podcast featuring me and my 2 friends, Zan (Schiz0id) and Henry (Siggy). For any newcomers, just believe people with what they say about the site. We don't have many hardcore fans of the blog, but with who we do have, such as Lynx stating just how awesome we are, I believe we can attract many more hardcore fans. Just to assure you, Following Revolution isn't going away. The Following Revolution Podcast isn't going away. I will try my best to provide the most important of information along with special exclusives you can't get anywhere else. Come on everyone, spread the word, let's ALL FOLLOW REVOLUTION!!!

Full Auto Demo On Xbox Live Marketplace

Earlier today, Sega unleashed it's demo of Full Auto on the Xbox Live Marketplace for the public to play. I downloaded the demo expecting a very good game, but my thoughts were mixed. One of the first noticeable things was the frame rate. The game never runs at a smooth 60 fps. Once in a while in a thin corridor/tunnel the game will reach 60fps, but back into action and you'll be steady 40fps area, with drops to 20 I would say. Hopefully this will be addressed in the final version. The graphics are nice, but I'm expecting much more out of an Xbox 360 only title. Next was the action. If action racing was a bit hit with Burnout, why not pop on some weapons? It should be better, but I find it not to be. I originally loved the idea, but it's very distracting to try and aim a weapon while trying to drive at high speeds and avoiding obstacles. It's just too much. Having your car as the weapon in a game like Burnout 4 is much better, as you're only focusing on one thing to control, your car. Full Auto is nice, but no where near to what I was expecting.