Media Center Project FAIL! =(

August 13 14:31 2008 by Alexei Rivera Print This Article

So here I am with my cool Vista laptop with a Media Center raring to share its variety of nice High Def MKV videos to the world, but nobody wants it.

The Xbox 360 media center extender, amazingly slick looking as it is, can’t read the same codecs that I’ve already installed on the PC Media Center. So my precious High Def movie collection with 5.1 Dolby Digital audio isn’t going to anywhere near my Component 1080i TV and Optical audio cables + Logitech Z-5500’s.

Bummer.

To fix, I’m probably going to need an HDMI reciever to push my audio video through my laptop’s HDMI out and then onto my TV / audio setup. Which I was hoping I wouldn’t need, but I guess I’d need an HDMI something soon anyway, given the growth of its popularity these days.

Another choice may be to get another TV, say, a CRT HDTV with VGA in or HDMI in, then push my audio through a USB multi-channel sound card, so I can separate analog audio and plug 90 billion wires into the Z-5500’s head console.

For now, it looks like I have a really nice way to show pictures and play music! Yay!