Mobcast 82: MW2 vs. Black Ops, the State of AI, Zombies, and More
Bitmob is a site where gamers and geeks gather to talk about gaming and geek culture. This weeks podcast features a segment on cutting their cable subscriptions and the pros and cons of doing so with a PS3 or Xbox 360. It's worth a listen!
Showing posts with label Xbox 360. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Xbox 360. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
So how much money will I save on my cable tv bill?
First a word about how much money you save. I am not guaranteeing that you will save $100 a month. You may save more, you may save less. Depending on what you have for equipment you may not see a savings in the short term. Before we cut back on our service, I already had an Xbox 360 and a Playstation 3. I have been a Netflix subscriber since 2002. I didn't pay for my Xbox; I won it in a contest when they were launched in 2005. Not including my PS3, I had a device that would let me stream content for free and I was already paying for Netflix. My costs were only the cost of the Netflix membership.
If you have premium channels, you will save money by making this switch. You will have to give up watching the latest shows the day they premiere to catch them on Hulu or wait for a DVD collection to come out.
If you don't have a home computer or a game console that will allow you to stream content, you can pick up a set top box for as little as $60 (Roku products on Amazon
) and a streaming only Netflix membership for $8 a month. If you're giving up at least two premium channels you can recoup your costs within a month. You can even get free trials of Netflix as a new subscriber.
At this point I hope that you have made the decision to try saving money on cable TV. From this point we will be looking closely at the devices and content providers that you can take advantage of to supplement your TV programming.
If you have premium channels, you will save money by making this switch. You will have to give up watching the latest shows the day they premiere to catch them on Hulu or wait for a DVD collection to come out.
If you don't have a home computer or a game console that will allow you to stream content, you can pick up a set top box for as little as $60 (Roku products on Amazon
) and a streaming only Netflix membership for $8 a month. If you're giving up at least two premium channels you can recoup your costs within a month. You can even get free trials of Netflix as a new subscriber.At this point I hope that you have made the decision to try saving money on cable TV. From this point we will be looking closely at the devices and content providers that you can take advantage of to supplement your TV programming.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
How to stream content to your Xbox 360 or Playstation 3
From any windows computer, it is very easy to stream content to either of these gaming consoles. Before you try to set up streaming here are some important points.
Content that is protected with digital rights management (DRM) will not likely stream. If you use iTunes to download TV shows for example, you can't stream that content to a game console unless the content is DRM-free.
You should also consider connecting the source computer to your network via a wired connection. If you have an older wireless router you will have issues streaming video to these console. If you have a newer 802.11n router, you will have better results but a wired connection would still be faster.
You should make notes of your firewall settings before you begin. If you run into problems connecting, your firewall configuration should be your first stop.
At this point you're ready to begin. If you don't already have it on your machine, download Windows Media Player 11. As part of the install your windows operating system will be validated. Once that is successful, install the player software and follow the instructions.
When the install is complete, open the media player. The first time you run it, you will prompted to set defaults. As part of the initial configuration, any items in your My Music, My Photos and/or My Videos folder will be added to your library. Under the Library button you will see an option for Media Sharing. Make sure you check the box under Sharing Settings to begin sharing and click the Settings button. From here you can name your Media Share and identify what kinds of content you want to make available. At the bottom of the window is a check box which will tell the media player to allow new devices and computers to connect automatically. The risk in checking this off is this; if you use your laptop away from home other people on the network will be able to access your content. If you leave your computer at home, I feel that the risk is pretty low in turning that on. If your network is compromised then you are also at risk. Use your best judgement. If you're not sure, leave it unchecked.
Now that the media server is running, go to your gaming console and try searching for the computer. On the Xbox 360 it is a simple as navigating to your library and selecting Window PC as your source. On the PS3, you have to search for media servers first. Once the server is found, you can navigate to the respective library and select the PC as the source.
In an earlier post I talked about using podcasts to tailor content to your interests. If you place the podcasts in the shared PC library, they will be available on the consoles. It's that easy!
If you're still not sure if this will work for you, my next post will walk you through the costs and savings of streaming content to help save money on your cable tv bill.
Content that is protected with digital rights management (DRM) will not likely stream. If you use iTunes to download TV shows for example, you can't stream that content to a game console unless the content is DRM-free.
You should also consider connecting the source computer to your network via a wired connection. If you have an older wireless router you will have issues streaming video to these console. If you have a newer 802.11n router, you will have better results but a wired connection would still be faster.
You should make notes of your firewall settings before you begin. If you run into problems connecting, your firewall configuration should be your first stop.
At this point you're ready to begin. If you don't already have it on your machine, download Windows Media Player 11. As part of the install your windows operating system will be validated. Once that is successful, install the player software and follow the instructions.
When the install is complete, open the media player. The first time you run it, you will prompted to set defaults. As part of the initial configuration, any items in your My Music, My Photos and/or My Videos folder will be added to your library. Under the Library button you will see an option for Media Sharing. Make sure you check the box under Sharing Settings to begin sharing and click the Settings button. From here you can name your Media Share and identify what kinds of content you want to make available. At the bottom of the window is a check box which will tell the media player to allow new devices and computers to connect automatically. The risk in checking this off is this; if you use your laptop away from home other people on the network will be able to access your content. If you leave your computer at home, I feel that the risk is pretty low in turning that on. If your network is compromised then you are also at risk. Use your best judgement. If you're not sure, leave it unchecked.
Now that the media server is running, go to your gaming console and try searching for the computer. On the Xbox 360 it is a simple as navigating to your library and selecting Window PC as your source. On the PS3, you have to search for media servers first. Once the server is found, you can navigate to the respective library and select the PC as the source.
In an earlier post I talked about using podcasts to tailor content to your interests. If you place the podcasts in the shared PC library, they will be available on the consoles. It's that easy!
If you're still not sure if this will work for you, my next post will walk you through the costs and savings of streaming content to help save money on your cable tv bill.
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