Hi all,

After I got my xbox back from red ring repairs, somehow media center extender stopped working.  I removed then added the xbox as a new extender from vista and everything looks ok during this process.  Media center starts on the xbox and the extender listed on vista media center says ready to use.  The TV guide and music library both shows the correct listings. However, trying to play any video only shows a black screen (live tv, recorded tv) with all the menu functionality still working (I can change channel, fast forward, rewind.  but all black screens).  Trying to play music doesn't work either.  Trying tune network shows a connection to the windows media center extender cannot be established.  Same results turning off Norton, windows firewall, and windows defender.  I checked the permissions on the recorded show, it shows mcx1 having full permission.  I checked windows media player 11, media sharing is allowed on the xbox.  At this point, I am really stumped.

Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks.

did you delete the original extender account first? if you re-add the extender (or add new ones) it will create a new accounts MCX2, 3, 4 etc

Vengence_Irl:

did you delete the original extender account first? if you re-add the extender (or add new ones) it will create a new accounts MCX2, 3, 4 etc

I removed the extender from media center first then re-added it.  Looking at the recorded tv folder permissions, there is only mcx1.

update: uninstalled Norton, still doesn't work.

Anyone? Help? Please?

I've been struggling with this for a week now.  What type of network are you on?   What has (mostly) worked for me is to update the firmware on my router to one released just recently - it's a d-link dir-655 - the "xtreme" n one with gigabit ethernet.  The black screen went away initially after that, but then I could only watch a few minutes before it would go black again (anywhere from a few seconds to a half hour).  I then changed the connection type to 100mbs at the router where the xbox is connected - i think xbox has issues with gigabit - and it seems to have cleared that up, but I can't tell for sure since that's just the latest fix i've tried, but I've gone for more than an hour without a black screen on recorded and live tv now.  I also changed the multi-cast settings at the wireless router, and that may have helped too, but it's hard to tell.

i still can't "tune network" successfully, and live tv drops on the 360 with a signal lost message, but it's still viewable on the media pc.  so that's where i'm stuck now.

you may also want to check the mpeg2 decoder on vista - you can download a free app here:  http://mediacenterexpert.blogspot.com - to view/change it.  i don't know if it affects the xbox much but it seems to from my messing around.


hope that helps.  if anyone else has any ideas on my live tv problem and the tune network thing, i'd appreciate it.  i'm thinking it might be related to the dlink xtreme n card in the vista media pc, but i don't know for sure.  i have the latest driver according to windows update, and that's stamped from a couple months ago i think.

one other thing i did that seemed to help was disabling the screensaver mode in the registry for the media center user.  there's instructions on doing there here: http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/permalink/190274/153693/ShowThread.aspx#153693 - just make sure that you log in with the xbox to have it's user id show up in the registry.

Thanks for the suggestion, the screensave tweak did not help.  I am using a D-Link DI-624m, of which I'm really afraid of doing firmware updates.  This router has worked with xbox extender before the RROD in its current state, so I don't want to introduce any more change at the moment. 

The only things that I know for sure changed before and after the RROD are the xbox (I marked the dead one before sending it in for repairs) and the fall update.  I'm trying to get another xbox to test on my network, but that is turning out to be more difficult than it should.  Since media streaming through WMP 11 works fine on the xbox, I wonder if the fall update or this refurb xbox I got broke something in Media Center. 

try plugging directly from your xbox to your computer to eliminate the router completely if you can (i haven't yet, but was planning to this weekend when i have some time to break that all down).  i was working previous to this with mce 2005, but upgraded to vista last week and haven't had a solid go at it yet.  can you stream video through windows media player?

i just went a couple hours, but finally got another black screen halt.  but that's by far the longest i've gone. so far i've had the most luck with changes to my router setup, but if you have any luck elsewhere definitely post it.  nothing has gotten it 100% so far, but at the start of the week i couldn't get anything to play, so it's progress at least.

I tried connecting the xbox directly to my pc and got the same results.  I can stream videos through windows media player 11, but not media center.

I had the same issue you've described happen to my system. I fixed it by manually setting the IP address, mask, and gateway on the xbox360's network adaptor - I'm using the "wired" adaptor in this case. Even if you're using the wireless adaptor, I'd try hard setting the IP also. I hope this helps you.

Thanks for the reply.  I have tried both the automatic and manual setting, but getting the same result.

I ran into this problem when my router crashed and lost the DHCP reservations and then the Xbox got a new IP address, I just could not get the MC PC to recognise the xbox again.  spent hours trying to figure out how to fix.  In the end it turned out that you have to delete the old connection from both the xbox and the MCPC.  I am at work and cant remember the place in the xbox where you do it or if it was at the computer setting, but after doing that then turning everything off and reconnecting everything all of a sudden MC was able to add the xbox again.

 

 

Hi,

Just got an xbox360 - primarlily to use as an extender and am experiencing the exact same problems as mentioned above - was it resolved at all? Anyone got any additional tips?

Almost at the point of taking the thing back -useless!

Thanks.

Installing Vista SP1 fixed this for me.  I still don't know what exactly was happening tho.

I had this problem after adding another extender to my network. I solved this by turning on Rx/Tx Flow Control in my NIC's drivers.