Cool Stuff with the XBox360
So I learned how to do something cool with the XBox360 today. For many years, I’ve had the Rhapsody music service. I’ve never understood why people like iTunes where you have to pay for each and every song you want when you can just pay a monthly fee and get unlimited music that you can still put on portable music devices. I dunno. I suppose monthy fees turn people off.
Anyhow, the XBox360 will stream MP3s, WMA, etc from any Windows XP machine that has Windows Media Connect installed and play it through my digital receiver in my living room. When you queue up an album into a playlist with Rhapsody, it caches the music by downloading all of it in WMA format to the My Music folder on you machine. That’s exactly where Windows Media Connect is looking for music. So, when I fire up the XBox360, it connects to Windows Media Connect which then streams any DRM licensed music from Rhapsody to the XBox360. This effectively means that Rhapsody gives my XBox360 access to 1.68 million songs for a monthy fee that I’m already paying.
My wife loves playing stuff from Rhapsody and wanting to get one of those Roku SoundBridge players but they cost anywhere from $100-300. That’s a bit rediculous for something that just provides music to your home receiver. I swear that some of the tech that’s in the XBox360 really makes it shine. At first glance, I was so-so about the XBox360. But a lot of thought was put into making it so much more than a gaming machine.
Explore posts in the same categories: Tech
May 1st, 2006 at 2:04 pm
So I just saw this…
http://news.com.com/2061-10797_3-6066991.html?part=rss&tag=6066991&subj=news
May 1st, 2006 at 2:10 pm
Yeah, that’s interesting. Poor guy though. Even with the replacements he had to wait a while for each replacement. I don’t know how I’d wait for replacements if I needed them.
I read the comments thought and people are calling it trash reporting and fearmongering because this story is about a minority of users. My favorite comment is this:
“So does this mean that I can have a headline story on CNet for my 7 bad PS2s?”
May 2nd, 2006 at 12:54 am
I have recently been introduced to iTunes (late bloomer i guess) and like it. I am not interested in getting music all the time, just when I need it. So if I get 3 songs a month, 3 bucks is fine with me. I’d have to look into this monthly thing though if i were ever going to get serious into downloading tunes.
May 3rd, 2006 at 9:24 am
I wouldn’t say your really late. I just downloaded it last month to have it grab podcasts for me to watch at work. Unfortunately, the interface was so clunky and buggy that I just deleted it after a while. I’m hoping and figuring that iTunes works a lot better on a Mac but on Windows it just bothered me too much.
May 5th, 2006 at 9:49 pm
i didnt think too much of it at first either, but it grew on me when i found stuff i really liked and that it was easy to manuver.