Another great benefit of being able to communicate with my protected home wi-fi network is that the 360 lets me stream my music and photos stored on my PC to my HDTV monitor at roughly 54 Mbps thanks to Windows Media Connect software found on Xbox.com. Different versions are available for different operating systems, so make sure you get the one matching your system.
Streaming music and photos is possible on XP SP2 computers, however, when connected to a Windows Media Center PC, you can do all this and more, including stream live HD-quality TV and video with DVR functions via HDMI or other direct connection – even the more robust 802.11 a wireless protocol. It’s interesting though that songs purchased at the Apple iTunes Music Store will not play through because of certain digital rights issues. Not sure how or when this will be resolved, but it’s an issue bound to get more attention in the near future.
I watched the last hour of an interesting documentary on PBS HD last night called The Video Game Revolution that “examines the evolution and history of the video game industry, from the 1950s through today, the impact of video games on society and culture, and the future of electronic gaming.” I was astonished to learn the gaming industry is expected to grow another 15 percent by the year 2008. You can check it out here.