Tim Coyle on this Excellent blog here says that the Xbox 360 could kill off Media Center as a platform.
So there’s been a lot of leaks lately on the next Xbox system coming out and the two features that I find the most interesting are:
the interface will look very similiar to the Media Center interface you can stream content from your Windows XP PC to the Xbox console If this is true, and the price point stays at $299 (the current cost of a Media Center extender), then why would anyone buy a Media Center PC? It looks like the only thing that will be left out of the next Xbox is the ability to view and record TV. But you can throw a TV tuner into any PC and record TV. You still won’t have live TV to stream but with time-shifted TV available how many people actually watch live TV anyway? Plus you can get a HD capable Tivo or something like that.
I think that the Media Center function will be at the heart of a consumer version of Longhorn and they will position MCE as the digital media server for the home. The MCE PC will be more that just TV, it will be downloading content from the web (like TVTonic, Online Spotlight will enable streaming content on to the xbox via the PC)
So I don't see MCE going, but I see it taking more of a server role and the xbox is a endpoint for your content. I can't wait to see what Media Center function will be on the XBOX 360. Maybe in the rest of the world we will finally get entenders?
Plus another point is that some people don't want a XBOX as an extender, they want a very small set top box type extender without the complications of a XBOX.
The XBOX 360 will open up Media Center rather than cut it off.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
