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Setting Up Media Center with Windows Vista Ultimate and an Xbox 360

August 26, 2007 @ 12:44PM

Everything was working great, then all of a sudden - all my guide listings were gone. I couldn't find anyone else who had this problem, let alone a fix anywhere on the net. I played around with my current media center configuration way too much and, as is typical, I broke something. So, I'm choosing to rebuild everything from scratch and write the steps I took into a (hopefully) useful tutorial for others.

Let me give you an idea of what my setup is going to look like. I have a relatively powerful desktop that I no longer use as my main machine (although I sometimes wish I still did) that will be running Windows Vista Ultimate. The basic specs are:

I did a lot of research when trying to find a good TV tuner card that is compatible with media center. The Hauppauge HVR-1600 was the one that I came across repeatedly. The product page gives a better description than I ever could, but it has two coaxial inputs - one for a HDTV antenna and another for cable/satellite/etc. The external hard drive is what I'm going to be using to store recorded programs and act as storage for the live TV buffer. I figure this will keep the machine's main hard drive clean and running a bit faster.

I know a lot of people simply put their media PC next to their television and hook it up directly. However, I didn't want to buy a new case for my existing desktop (which would help it blend into our entertainment center) and I already have an Xbox 360 that adds enough cable-clutter. So, with that in mind, this machine will sit downstairs in my utility room, conveniently located next to my networking gear and coaxial cables (for television signal).

Upstairs, I have a Samsung 46" DLP television and an Xbox 360. The 360 is connected to my home's network via ethernet to a D-Link Xtreme N router, which sits right behind my television.

We don't subscribe to any cable or satellite television plan because my wife and I don't watch a lot of TV - just enough to warrant this sweet setup - so I bought an indoor Terk HDTV antenna. After some playing around with signal, I found the best place for the antenna was upstairs (we'll get to this later).

Express Setup Alright, let's get started. The first step is to install Vista Ultimate on the computer. I'm starting with a clean slate - no back-ups, no upgrades - just a freshly-formatted hard drive ready for Vista. Obviously, there are many tutorials (and included directions) for how to install Windows, so I'll let you do that on your own. Go through all of the steps of installation and meet me at the very first login screen.

Done already? That was quick. Unfortunately, there is usually some clean-up work to be done after a fresh OS install. This usually involves getting the newest Windows updates, installing drivers, etc. Go ahead and get all of this stuff taken care of. In my case, I need to find drivers for the network card and install 77.7MB worth of patches.

Alright, I'm done - how about you? I'm also going to disable that sidebar, it bugs me. Now you need to get connected to a television signal. Either plug in your cable line or antenna line to the TV tuner card. Once you've got that hooked up, fire up Windows Media Center. It'll start with a setup wizard - go ahead and select express setup.

Once the initial setup is done, go and configure your TV signal.

Antenna Signal Strength If you're using an antenna to receive your signal, you now get the chance to tweak it and see the strength of each individual channel. Depending on your antenna's location, this can be somewhat annoying. I initially had my antenna downstairs and got most stations up to 3 green bars. Once I moved it upstairs, the results were dramatically different. It also depends on your geographical location, antenna size, weather, etc. My advice is to play around with different types of configurations until you get the reception that you're happiest with. Note that you don't need a full signal in order to successfully view a station.

Now that you've got your television signal set up, you can change what storage medium you want to use for a live TV buffer and recording folder. Go to Tasks -> Settings -> Recorder. Here, I'm setting my external hard drive as the location I want media center to use. I also want recorded programs to use the best quality. Recorder Storage Options

At this point, you should be good to go and watch tv. Head back to the main menu and select "Live TV" to see how your stations come in.

In my case, the guide doesn't list all of the stations I know exist in my area. You can manually add these stations, but I don't know of a way to actually get guide listings for them (which really sucks). Anyhow, at least you can watch them. This is how you add additional channels: go back to Tasks -> Settings -> TV -> Guide -> Add Missing Channels -> Add DTV Channel and enter the necessary information for the station you want to add. A really great resource for finding available channels in your area is CEA's Antenna Web.

Now, the final step is to get the 360 to work with the media center PC. Flip on the 360 and head over the "Media" tab and select "Media Center". Xbox 360 Media Center Menu ItemIt will give you a pin number to use when adding the extender from your media PC. Now that you have this number, go back Media Center on your PC: Tasks -> Add Extender. Follow the wizard and your 360 will be ready to go!

If everything worked correctly, you'll be able to go to Media Center on your Xbox and watch & record television shows.

Here are some other helpful and related articles for Windows Vista Media Center:


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