The November 2011 Xbox 360 update will bring new TV and film streaming services to the console, such as iPlayer, LoveFilm and 4oD. There has been much discussion online about how Windows Media Center (WMC) will fit into all of this.

Xbox is currently an excellent extender for WMC, allowing you to easily stream live and recorded TV, music and photos to the console using an look and feel that is, more or less, identical to the direct PC interface. There are a couple of clues that some think are pointing towards less, if any, WMC Xbox support after the update.

Firstly, there is the lack of WMC in the first beta versions of Windows 8, suggesting that Microsoft may be going cold on this underused feature. It has been confirmed, however, that WMC will be in Windows 8, but how it will look and function has yet to be announced. The second thing that makes avid WMC users worry about Xbox support is the lack of a dedicated WMC button in the new official Microsoft Media Remote for the Xbox 360, a feature that all previous remotes had. Maybe a design oversight, or maybe a conscious decision.

While these facts may mean less or no WMC integration on the Xbox after the November update, maybe, just maybe, they mean there will be more. Maybe Microsoft are delaying the release of WMC on Windows 8 so they can add more features, and maybe the lack of a dedicated button on the Xbox remote is because you won't need one. Media Center will be deeply integrated into the whole Xbox experience, rather than being a tucked away specialist feature. If this turns out to be true, here are some wishlist items for a new and improved relationship between Xbox 360 and Windows Media Center:

• Recorded and live tv dashboard integration: Rather than having to open up a connection to WMC from the Xbox and then navigate to recorded and live tv, it would be great if it was integrated into the dashboard, the same way that games and videos are.
• Guide dashboard integration: Imagine the Freeview guide from WMC, or whatever you have your WMC hooked up to, merged with the listing for other on-demand Xbox tv and films, right there in the dashboard.
• Kinect support: Currently some things on the Xbox can be controlled by Kinect and some can't. Users can browse through Zune movies, for example, just by moving their hands. To have this extended to work with WMC as well would be very cool.
• Bing search support: Imagine being able to easily search your recorded tv just by talking to the Xbox. That would be neat.
• Kinect voice control support: The obvious next step from Bing support - "Xbox, Bing, Curb Your Enthusiasm... Play". Sorted.

So, hopefully Microsoft will bring Windows Media Center in from the cold and make it a fully featured member of the Xbox family, rather than being a distant, infrequently visited, poor relation.