1.      Millions of gamers have discovered the XBOX360. With over 700 available games and a robust multiplayer gaming interface, it’s no wonder why it is so popular. But that’s not the reason why it’s a top tech gift. It’s because of its media capabilities. At $199 the XBOX360 Arcade is cheaper than just about any other network media device designed to be hooked up to your entertainment system, and none of them have the extender capabilities that the XBOX360 does when paired with a PC that has Windows Media Center (Vista Home Premium and above, or any version of Windows 7). When used as an extender the XBOX360 can access most of the media files on your PC and play them back through your AV gear using the easy to navigate Media Center interface. This includes audio files and playlists, video files and even both live and recorded TV. In my house I have a PC running Windows 7 with four FIOS cable card tuners that I am using as a whole house DVR.   Thanks to the extender capabilities I can watch live TV or any of the over 700 recorded shows and movies (most in high definition) on any TV in my home with a XBOX360 connected. For rooms where I rarely play games, the XBOX360 can launch Media Center when it is powered on. Prefer home videos? Most new high definition camcorders with hard drives or memory cards record in the AVCHD format. Put these files on your Windows 7 PC and you can watch them on your TV through the XBOX360 too. Still not enough content? With your XBOX Live Gold membership and a Netflix account you can stream over 10,000 TV shows and movies.

 

Did I mention it is great for games? If you think you will use it for gaming too, spend the extra $100 and spring for the Elite package to get the headset and 120GB HD.