I cant get a clear answer on this.  Can I use a Live Banned Xbox 360 as an extender?  I have one extender and it works great and want to add a second one cheaply.  Need to stream from my tuners in my W7 box.

Thanks,

I have never tired using a banned xbox but, this thread might answer some of your questions.

http://experts.windows.com/frms/windows_entertainment_and_connected_home/f/116/t/81205.aspx

Personally I wouldn't buy a banned xbox, if the xbox price is an issue you might want to wait and see what the price will be for the Ceton extender. Or see if you can get one of the discontinued extenders like the Linksys.

Thanks gut that article still doesnt say for sure.  I wish someone with a banned console out there could confirm.

Thanks,

Looks like this gentleman in a thread had some problems (see link below). From what I read, a banned XBOX cannot connect to XBOX Live and since updates might be necessary to launch the extender software, it makes sense that it might not work. Anyhow, check this link out to see what you think.

www.sevenforums.com/.../3194-trying-setup-media-center-xbox360.html

Best Regards,

Perry

I have a banned console (was opened up). It cannot access Xbox live but it can go to Windows Media Center. You cannot play videos on it (AVI, MKV). But you can play recorded TV.

It's too bad you can use them.... I saw a few on Creigslist for $40....

It should work for being an extender, but won't work for the additional codecs (Which I don't think work inside the WMC interface, anyway)

As others have said, the system will continue to work as a basic extender, however you will not be able to playback any media that requires the Optional Media Update to play them back.

And the optional media update only works under 2 conditions, if the update is installed on the primary device for the account that downloaded and installed the update the update will work off-line, or if you install the update on a secondary xbox the update will work as long as the account that downloaded and installed the update is logged into xbox live.

I hope I didn't make things more confusing, but that is the reason that xbox live connectivity is required to playback of non-native video files.

I purchased an xbox from ebay and that turned out to be banned. I was able to connect to Media center and watch Live/recorded TV. I however had issues viewing my video collection (.mp4 files) since I was unable to connect to xbox live and download required software. I returned the xbox to seller.

I feel that while it might work, its not worth the hassle.

One Caveat - in the Win7 beta timeframe, the beta-signed Xbox executable required it to be signed into Live (but the RTM version did not).  It's possible this may repeat with Windows 8.