For the past month or so, I’ve been obsessed with the idea of trying to get streaming video from my computer to my X-Box 360. It’s not that it was an absolute necessity, but I torrent a lot of TV shows, and it’s kind of a pain running cables from my PC to my TV to watch them. The X-Box 360 comes with streaming media functionality built in, it just happens to require Windows Vista or Windows XP Media Center Edition to stream videos. Why? Well, to give nerds a challenge I suppose.

So I unsuccessfully explored a few different alternatives, from soft-modding my old X-Box (I couldn’t find an X-Box Action Replay though), to installing Windows XP MCE on my computer (unfortunately you can’t upgrade from Windows XP, and I didn’t feel like reformatting my drive). Then this week, out of nowhere, Microsoft announces they are rolling out a new update for the X-Box 360 Dashboard, which now includes streaming video from non-Media Center PCs! Well, better late than never.

In order to get this to work, all you need to do is install Windows Media Connect on your PC and open a shared folder to your X-Box. It’s actually super easy to do, the only hassle is that all your videos have to be in .wmv format (I think Media Center Edition PCs can stream MPEG files as well).

For your .wmv conversion needs, the best utility I have found so far is WinAVI (it converts from DivX, XVid, MPEG, VOB and other formats). I think you can also do it with Windows Movie Maker or Windows Media Encoder, but I don’t really recommend it.

So now I have my streaming video solution. Was it worth all the hassle? Not really, considering Chian bought us a DivX-compatible DVD player a couple weeks ago. (Thanks Chian!)

At any rate, it’s becoming clear why Sony and Microsoft are so determined to get their game consoles in our homes. It’s not just about games anymore, it’s about controlling your TV set too. It’s only a matter of time before all entertainment is streaming directly from a computer or internet connection. Mark my words!