XBOX Music Mixer
 

Just got an email from BB.com saying price has been dropped to 19.99 on this. Is this worth it???

Seems like a sure thing for $19.99, $14.99 if you have the Gamer's Gift Card Discount. I've been waiting for a price drop so I'll pick it up now.

I'd consider it just for the fact that it is supposed to make it easier to transfer mp3's from your computer directly to your XBox, although I've this process isn't as easy as it sounds.

My wife had fun with it. Seems like it would be fun to mess around with if you had friends over at your house.

It's worth it for $20.

Depends on what you'll use it for. For $20, I'd say sure... I can probably answer any questions you've got too.

http://www.videogametalk.com/read.php?ID=64

The main thing I got from it was it named the songs I had on the hard drive.

How does the interface work for transfering files? Do you need to do it over xbox live or just burn them to discs?

Transferring from PC to Xbox? You just need a router and to have downloaded the helper application to your PC. Then it's a matter of getting the files organized on the PC and grab them using your Xbox. It's very fast when transferring too, but if you want to use them for games, you'll need to do the conversion which takes a while :(

Do you have to copy them over, or can you stream the mp3s?

Do you really even need the music mixer program at all then to transfer the files or do you just need the helper program?

That is what I want to know...

Seems like too much of a hassle to transfer the music....

Crapola, I should've waited.

And it's not a hassle.

And yes, you do need the Music Mixer... the helper application is for use with the Mixer.

No streaming mp3's... it still does it's conversion to make them playable on the xbox. And yes, you do need the Music Mixer.

The only true hassle is that you NEED to have Win XP installed...unless they've updated it to work with older OSes

Well you need a router, and I don't have one of those. They are what, $50 or higher?

It is quite the hassle.

You have to use a PC program that converts the MP3's to Xbox format.(takes a bit of time).

Then you have to transfer them to the xbox(using the Music Mixer disc/interface), another bit of time.

Then to actually see the files in your soundtrack you have to transfer them from your music mixer playlist to the soundtracks on the xbox.

So depending on the amount of songs you do at a time, it ranges. Typically for 50 songs it took me about 15 mins - 20 mins.. for each step above. So about an hour for 50 tracks.

The PC software is quite buggy, I have let a couple people borrow it and had the same buggy results. Search for a previous thread I know I went into detail about it. And yes it is XP only which is quite lame.

I got it for free as a gift. I used it for about 2 weeks. I certainly wouldn't have bought it at $50 knowing the results. But $15 may be the right price.

Yes it is a hassle AND time consuming, but it can also be well worth it. PGR2 just got that much better now that I've got all my mp3s in the XBOX. The auto-naming of songs is worth it's weight in gold to me.

Just don't expect them to be ready to use right away. Take an evening where you're home but not playing (I watched a movie while they converted for game use), and then convert them. It's been a great way to organize all my songs into separate soundtracks depending on type of music etc.


I would say that if you have a lot of mp3s or burned CDs with music that you'd like to listen to while playing...then it's definitely worth $20. Just watch how your mp3s are named, not the title but the actual embedded tag info, this is what it uses to name the songs on the XBOX.


Word of warning....you MUST have XP to use the transfer tool (the free download helper program).

I bought this awhile back but, never used it much because I didn't realize that you needed WinXP to transfer files. I am running Win2K for now. I can transfer files via FTP now that my xbox is modded though, which works better. The files still need to be converted of couse.

It's a real pain in the ass if it doesn't work right away for you. You'll have to mess around with some settings and troubleshoot.

But after you got it all working, it's as smooth as a baby's butt. :) And it's a hell of a lot faster than ripping a CD. Although, when you convert mp3 to game soundtrack, it'll feel just as long.

Let's say I had 10 GB of mp3's on my computer, how much space would that take up on the XBox? I'm sure there's some sort of conversion going on.

I'm still not there. Not smooth at all for me. I have yet to have it do more than 30 songs at a time, and that is a stretch. 50% of the time it quits because it says some file is bad. And it cancels out the whole operation. Converted 99 songs? If #100 is bad it doesn't covert any of them. You have to start at square one... an hour later. Yet it doesn't tell you what file, so it is a guessing game as to what to transfer. It is a terrible bug that could easily be fixed. Just add a line of code that says what file is bad in the error message. But then again, this is Microsoft we are talking about. As long as they get your money. Who cares if it is buggy and problematic.

Lastly, NONE of my files are bad. I check them all when I get the message and they all play fine.

Anyway, good luck if you pick it up.

If you 2 cat 5 cables and a hub or a cross-over cable you should not need a router.

however you do need an ethernet card, depending on how old the computer is you may not have one.

I just bought this last night, and noticed a warning on the bottom of the package once I got home:
This microphone....contains chemicals known to the state of cali to cause cancer, birth defects, and other reproductive harm. WASH HANDS AFTER HANDLING.


WTF?! Any of you guys know anything about this...I'm afraid of opening this now! Should I be worried about the family jewels after doing some karaoke!?

just wear gloves