Belated, but as promised here is my current tech setup. Admittedly, it does not include the two laptops I use, the Asus SeaShell or the Dell Latitude D830 (desk wasn’t big enough to hold the Dell).

I thought it would be nice to annotate it so you know what everything is…

There are 3 things in there which aren’t tech… can you spot them?

This is kind of bad, is Grand Theft Auto 4 on the Xbox 360. I have had the game since very close to when I bought the Xbox last year. I got stuck though, and haven’t played it for a long time. But recently I thought what the hell and got it out to see how it looked on the new TV.

Just to clear up some confusion, no I haven’t thrown my new Xbox out the window!

+ =

This is the Xbox which I FINALLY plucked up the nerve to buy on Sunday! YAY ME! Along with it a couple of games and I’ve liberated a 30inch TV from downstairs to add to my bedroom powerplant.

This post is however not about the games or the Xbox itself, it’s about the way that Windows and the Xbox integrate. Admittedly this is my own fault for not reading up on it before hand, but I have a friend who always used to play his computer downloads through his TV (things like TV shows, PAID for films etc nothing illegal *wink wink*). Little did I know that you either need a top version of Vista to do this or you have to pay some extortionate amount of money for what is known as the Windows Media Center. There are otherways of course, you can buy a classic Xbox and chip it, then there are customised programs which work the same as Media Center. This has not been developed for the 360 to date.

So now I have a couple options:
1) Take the free upgrade to Vista I have sitting on my desk and convert everything to Vista
2) Download and install the pirate copy of Windows Media Center, including a safemode boot up and install of the crack (dodgy much?)
3) Buy a classic Xbox and chip it (£40 + £20)
4) Get over the desire to watch things from my PC on the 30inch TV and settle with the 19inch monitor I have

Thoughts?