High CPU Utilization while streaming through Xbox

Hi all. I've got one I wanted to run by this group to see if anyone has run into a similar problem. I currently have a Dell desktop with an AMD Triple Core Phenom that I use as a media library. I stream content from there to my Xbox, mostly audio--it is connected to my audio system. I have other devices on a homegroup which this Dell is a part of, two HP laptops and some portables. Whenever I stream to my Xbox my CPU utilization on the Dell runs as high--and higher--than 90%. I don't run into the same problem when streaming content to one of the laptops. Is this just an inherent limitation when it comes to this CPU or something that I could remedy? I hate to fry the desktop.

I would appreciate any advice that could be offered. Thanks to all.

Most likely this problem has to do with the A/V software that is installed on the problem machine. There are a few that cause either CPU or memory usage spikes depending on the machine.

I'll check and see exactly what it has, but it's actually disabled right now. It has no active internet connection, being used solely as a media storage device, so I haven't put anything on it. Most of my media is transferred to there from other points after being scanned. Worth a look, definitely.

Are you using the Xbox as an extender To WMC or just sharing through WMP?

I'm using it as an extender to the WMC installed on the Dell. I wondered if there was a better approach....

SteveCSC said:

I'm using it as an extender to the WMC installed on the Dell. I wondered if there was a better approach....

WMC will tend to use more resources than just streaming via sharing in Windows Media Player. If it's mainly music anyways, it's probably better for you. Windows Media Center is GREAT, but mostly if you are going to take advantage of all of it's features. Try this go to Media Player, click "Stream" at the top, then "Turn on Media Streaming", then click the button to "Turn on media streaming". Name the library, and adjust any settings here if you want to lock it down,etc. Click OK. It's been a while since I set it up, but when you try to connect your Xbox to it, your PC may pop up a message if you want to allow this device to access it. Then see what your CPU uses.

I found WMC Extender to be a bandwidth hog on my 100MB LAN. Video and even music streamed badly with disruptions, and sometimes wouldn'y stream at all.

However, once I had disabled WMC Extender and instead shared my Video and Music Libraries via WMP, everything ran smoothly.

Thanks for the suggestions. I appreciate all the input. I'll give this a run when I get home and let you know the results. Thanks again.

I agree about WMP, streams like a champ for me both movies and music works perfectly with hardly any resources being used.

So it worked. I removed the extension, allowed the sharing through WMP and the content made it to my Xbox eventually. For some reason it kept giving me the "No music found" repeatedly despite seeing my server. Eventually they just populated, which was odd. The downside...for some nebulous reason, the next time I started Media Player there was nothing in the library. When I tried to add the library back I kept getting the "Folder already added" or "Cannot add this folder". I'm assuming I have some corruption in WMP database that it uses for the library, and I don't see anything to do but reinstall it. An odd error...

CPU usage when the process was working was at about 35%, so much better