Sunday, September 27, 2009

Xbox Cured

So the Xbox 360 is back and working a promised. Seems to be as good as ever.

Although, I loved the Hulu Desktop so much that I will put a small quiet desktop PC in my entertainment center for video streaming. More on that in another post...

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Xbox Repair Completion Time Just 14 Days?

That's that. My Xbox Red Ring of Death has been repaired and the Console has been shipped back with a scheduled delivery date of 09/21/2009. I'll post to confirm that it's working, but if it delivers on time that would make the entire repair 10 business days or 14 calendar days--well under the original six week estimate on the site.

Under promise and over deliver I always say.


Sunday, September 13, 2009

NFL Sunday Night Football Streaming via Web

Cable challenged Packer's fans and I will be able to watch Sunday Night Football tonight via an Web based HD stream on NBC...

Content for SNFExtra is presented in hi-definition through a technology called Smooth Streaming, part of Microsoft Silverlight. When watching a video with Smooth Streaming, the Bit Rate indicator (signal strength meter) on the right end of the control bar will indicate the quality. When the video is playing at optimal definition, the HD icon will appear.
Here's the link.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Xbox Repair, "In Proccess..."

No real additional information. Yesterday when I checked (a Friday) it was still being shipped, so it's progressed about half way through the repair process. I find now a days I don't play games on it as much as we watch movies, so the Hulu box from my last post is filling in just fine.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Hulu Desktop App is Pretty Darn Sweet

Since my XBOX 360 is being held in triage at XBOX's Texas Repair center, I was looking for a replacement for the Netflix On-Demand that we watched almost exclusively as TV since we moved.

Enter Hulu with a very cool Hulu Desktop application that did an amazing job of streaming content from my aging Sony VAIO laptop to my TV.




It could learn a little functionality from the open source projects XBMC and BOXEE, but let me tell you--this tiny program is a joy to use. A wireless mouse is all you need to control the programming and the minimalist commercial breaks during an episode of Late Night with Conan seem to take less time than skipping them with a Tivo.

Some functionality required a Hulu login and I haven't had time to figure out how the site and the app will work together, but my assumption is that I will be able to queue TV in Hulu just like I queued movives in Nexfilx.

You can get Hulu Desktop here, and my online profile is here.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

My Xbox 360 countdown to repair!

Xbox Says: Your console should be returned to you within 2 - 3 weeks from the day you ship it.

Follow my Xbox 360 on it's happy journey!