WMC Media Extender/Xbox 360 Connecting

Im running windows 7, belkin N1 router (set up wired), and a XBox360 that is set up and recognized on my network.

I have used other software to stream video and music to my xbox but its fairly limited, I also run netflix on it.

I tried to set up media center today, and have failed everytime, says my extender cannot connect wtih my pc. So I went into my firewall settings, and noticed that media extenders was not checked on allowed programs. Everytime I checked it, clicked ok, and tried again, same error, and I noticed that it unchecked my media extender tab once again. So I went a step further and shut down my windows firewall, and my router firewall, still same error fails to communicate with my pc.

Any ideas?

There seems to be an issue with setting up XBOX 360 extenders on W7MC, alot of people are having multiple issues with the setup but a fix has not yet been issued.
i think it's gonna be a waiting game. (P*ss poor from MS IMO)

I have 2 other associates that are running vista with the exact same symptons as me. I think the 2 divisions up in Redmond (xbox and wmc) must not be getting along on the raquet ball court and not communicating with each other. Either that or one of the departments dropped the ball on the developing stages and didnt complete the project. Its pretty sad that software developed by 3rd parties work flawlessly and I cant get 2 microsoft products to work together.

I found this when fighting with this issue back in June. Maybe there are still no better tips online, it came first when I just googled it because I had forgotten the address. Helped me then, hopefully it helps you now.

Kari

Ckain said:

I have 2 other associates that are running vista with the exact same symptons as me. I think the 2 divisions up in Redmond (xbox and wmc) must not be getting along on the raquet ball court and not communicating with each other. Either that or one of the departments dropped the ball on the developing stages and didnt complete the project. Its pretty sad that software developed by 3rd parties work flawlessly and I cant get 2 microsoft products to work together.

Click to expand...

It's shocking really.
MS need to fix this quick. So much so, i'm even contemplating ditching the 360 and put that money towards a PS3 because i can just see it now; 12 months down the line and still not a fix

rsvr85 said:

i can just see it now; 12 months down the line and still not a fix

Click to expand...

That sounds like a realistic time frame

I had no problems connecting the 360 to MC - the set up was a breeze.

One little problem in running it though...

With the 360 set to 1920x1080 via VGA cable - When running MC on the 360 it 'defaults' to 640x480 which completely garbles the screen, rendering MC utterly useless.

Yet it works fine via component.

Apparently this bug has been there since build 7100.

Ckain said:

I tried to set up media center today, and have failed everytime, says my extender cannot connect wtih my pc.
Any ideas?

Click to expand...

I went through the same problems. I could stream everything by using a network share, but windows media center would not connect. Windows Media Center setup would complete all but the last step when adding an extender; the step that says "Connecting to your extender...". Completion of setup would state: "Your Media Center Extender was set up successfully, but failed to connect."

When connecting from the Xbox 360, it would stay at "Connecting..." until it states, "Connection Failed..."

I'm using Windows 7 RTM. Avast antivirus on, Windows firewall on. PC and Xbox 360 wired to a switch. Switch connects to router. No Windows settings changed, as the setup does everything for you.

I think media center creates an RDP session to connect. The connection it makes is not compatible with the default Windows 7 RDP security settings.

Solution

Run gpedit.msc. Go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative templates -> Windows Components -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Session Host -> Security.

Enable "Set client connection encryption level" & change encryption level to 'Client Compatible'.
Disable "Always prompt for password upon connection"

I'm guessing these settings don't only apply to Windows 7, but to Vista and XP media centers as well.

ceevee said:

Solution

Run gpedit.msc. Go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative templates -> Windows Components -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Session Host -> Security.

Enable "Set client connection encryption level" & change encryption level to 'Client Compatible'.
Disable "Always prompt for password upon connection"

I'm guessing these settings don't only apply to Windows 7, but to Vista and XP media centers as well.

Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that ceevee. I was having trouble getting my Xbox360 connected and followed your solution and it then worked straight away. Thanks!

Well, actually I went through and did a complete reinstall on 2 of my computers the other day, and the first thing I did was run through the set up of Media Center and my Xbox and it set up flawlessly.

I have an assumption that possibly using other software to stream my media to my xbox may have been preventing media center to communicate with my xbox. Thanks for all the help anyways.

ceevee's solution worked for me... however I'm not sure how to do this:
I have a network storage device which I have my music/movies/etc mapped to. It doesn't automatically detect the content from there.

Any idea how to force my system to share what's on the network drive?

Ackis said:

ceevee's solution worked for me... however I'm not sure how to do this:
I have a network storage device which I have my music/movies/etc mapped to. It doesn't automatically detect the content from there.

Any idea how to force my system to share what's on the network drive?

Click to expand...

Ackis,

You should just be able to map the drive using your Media Center PC, then add it to the library on your PC.

After adding it to the library on your PC it should show up on your extender without a problem, I think.

Brian

kstrike155 said:

After adding it to the library on your PC it should show up on your extender without a problem, I think.

Click to expand...

Yeah just add the network drive to the media center library and it should show up.

Ackis said:

Any idea how to force my system to share what's on the network drive?

Click to expand...

Yah it's not working for some reason.

My home network setup is as follows:
My PC
A secondary Computer
A DNS-323 network storage device
Wireless printer
Wii
XBox 360
And a Nintendo DS or two depending on if we connect with them.

Anyways I have the Xbox setup with media centre to the main PC (Mine).
My PC has it's My Music drive remapped to be: \\DNS-323\Volume_1\Music

Well, remapped isn't the correct term now that we have these media libraries.

I see all my music locally in the media centre application, however when I try to view it over the xbox nothing shows up.

My xbox has the same mappings as my pc for where the libraries should be.

What's also weird is that I can't see my other PC's music on my system, however the xbox can when that PC is selected.

I thought that you only needed to add the folders to the libraries in Media Center for extenders to see them. But maybe there's additional settings required?

I'm not sure if this applies, but it did to me when I share media files to Wii, PS2, etc.

I only know the settings with Simple File Sharing disabled.

Make sure you have the correct Sharing and Security settings for the folders you need shared. For Sharing you need the Everyone group with at least Read permission checked. For Security, make sure the Everyone group has at least Read & Execute, List Folder Contents, and Read permissions checked.

It could be the permissions on the shared drive as I have them set to be read/write with a user name/password.

I'll set up a group which has read access and see if that works.

I had it working and then I was required to turn on file syncing and that screwed everything up. Lots of fun.

Check you don't have a port conflict. I had redirected port 3390 to to access RDP inside a vmware image I'm running (vmware NAT) and that caused my grief. My event log kept showing a port conflict (Message: Terminal Server session creation failed. The relevant status code was Only one usage of each socket address (protocol/network address/port) is normally permitted. Error 1036). I discovered the port conflict by poking through the registry settings for terminal services. Once I shut down vmware NAT, the xbox was able to connect to media center.

I did also go through the steps of removing the extended from media center and purging the media center "game" on the xbox.

Now, the quality of the mkv files I am going to play sucks (lots of blocking and stuttering) but that's another issue.

Ackis said:

I had it working and then I was required to turn on file syncing and that screwed everything up. Lots of fun.

Click to expand...

I think this is the same thing that happened to me

did you find any way to fix it?