Your Xbox 360 is an amazing piece of technology, it can play the latest games, and movies in HD, play your favorite songs from it’s hard drive, download updates over the internet when it’s on and off. The amount of things you can do with it is probably endless, well, endless unless Microsoft legally restricts it, like they did with mod chips. With new software coming out to support your Xbox 360 you can now connect it to your PC and stream all your music and videos from there, rather than wasting your precious hard drive space on your 360. Some software even lets you stream videos from internet sites like YouTube and AOL. If you want to do this you have three options for streaming to your Xbox 360: Windows Media Player 11, WinAmp Remote, or by using your Windows Media Center PC.

Using Windows Media Player 11

1. First make sure your Xbox 360 is connected to the network and can connect to Xbox Live.
2. Open up Windows Media Player 11, and click on the arrow directly below the Library tab, then click on Media Sharing.
3. A Media Sharing Window will popup, now check the “Share my media to:” box and click on your Xbox 360. Select allow and click okay.
4. Wait a little bit. You’ll have to wait for the system settings to take effect and for the Xbox to show up in the network, if you’ve waited and nothing’s happening try redoing the process or opening up the ports on your router for the 360 (a good place to do that is Port Forward) because they could be blocking it, and also make sure there isn’t a firewall enabled somewhere that is causing problems.
5. After you’ve waited, get on your Xbox and select the Media blade, then Music or Videos, and then press X to change your source and select your computer.
6. Everything you have in your library will show up on your 360 now. Enjoy your songs and videos.

WinAmp

1. Download and Install WinAmp Remote.
2. Right click the WinAmp Remote icon in the system tray, click configure, and then media tab.
3. Add the folders that contain your music and your video files.
4. Again, you’ll need to wait a little bit for the network to show up with the 360.
5. Go to your Media blade on your Xbox 360 and press X to change the source and select your PC.
6. Enjoy your media.

Windows Media Center PC

1. Go to http://www.xbox.com/pcsetup to download the necessary software updates for your PC.
2. On your Xbox 360 go to the Media lade, select Windows Media Center, and follow the easy, on screen instructions to complete your setup.

Each of these options are very easy to implement, and have different pros and cons. Currently, Windows Media Player is faster at streaming and buffering than WinAmp Remote, and it seems like it is more stable, but WinAmp Remote has the ability to stream online videos. And the Windows Media Center PC option is perfect if you have a Media Center PC.