he Xbox 360 is an accomplished games console, yet relatively few people take advantage of its capabilities as a Media Center Extender. If you have a Windows Media Center PC, you can use the Xbox as a remote interface to it. We tested it with both Vista and XP and, in each case, the interface was identical to each version of Media Center, complete with sounds and menu animations.

Impressively, the Xbox was able to play the WMV-HD file smoothly over 802.11g, but the bad news is you have to fork out $150 extra for the wireless USB adapter – it isn’t included as standard. If you don’t want to shell out for the wireless adapter, there’s a Gigabit Ethernet port.

It’s a shame DivX or XviD files can’t be played through Media Center, even if you have the right codecs installed on your PC. TVersity (see p80) overcomes this limitation, though. And you can watch recorded TV shows in Media Center’s DVR-MS format as well.

If you don’t have a Media Center PC, you can still use Windows Media Connect to stream videos, music and photos to the Xbox 360. Generally, the menu system is easy to navigate (it doesn’t show photo options in the video category like the PS3, for example) and it’s good to see music albums being played in the correct order. Slideshows are pretty, too, and it’s easy to select the folder of photos you want.

There are two further ways to access media: from a USB flash drive or the internal 20GB hard disk. Downloading a free 2.3MB update through Xbox Live adds the ability to play MPEG4 video and unprotected AAC files from the hard disk or flash drive, and the 360 played the high-definition H.264 clip from a USB flash drive flawlessly.

And while the DVD-ROM drive can’t match the PS3’s Blu-ray drive (the optional, external $210 HD DVD drive can), it can still upscale DVDs, and they look great on a 720p LCD TV. Also, an HD cable (component video and phono audio combined) is included, and it sports an optical S/PDIF output for surround sound – you just need an external decoder and speakers.

The Xbox 360 may be the noisiest device here, but the slick interface (including the main blade-style menu) makes it a joy to use. If you have a Media Center PC and are happy to connect via a network cable, it’s great value.