RSSMicrosoft Brings Back the Media Center Extender
By Ed Oswald | Published September 6, 2007, 2:42 PM
With a market likely a little more open to the need for online video in the living room than it was three years ago, Microsoft on Thursday reintroduced the Extender line, meant to complement households with Windows Media Center PCs.
Microsoft first announced the Media Center Extender at CES 2004. However, the product line never took off as consumers balked at the need for another set-top box, and the user interface paled in comparison with the actual Media Centers.
The Extender platform saw a rebirth upon the release of the Xbox 360 in November 2005, which included a version that replicated the PC Media Center experience quite well.
In this iteration of the Extender, the devices will be produced by companies such as Linksys, D-Link, and Niveus Media. The new Extenders include high-definition, DivX, and Xvid support, and wireless networking capabilities.
The devices come in a variety of form factors and various price points, and will be compatible with the Windows Vista Premium and Ultimate editions of Media Center.
"With more than 60 million Windows Vista Media Center PCs in use worldwide, there are many customers eager to bring the simple and elegant Media Center experience to the televisions in their homes," Microsoft's eHome head Dave Alles said.
The Extenders will be able to send protected HD content from CableCard tuners, Microsoft said, and will be compatible with several online music stores. Parental controls are also be built into the devices.
Microsoft said that while it will only be working with the companies mentioned previously initially, it has plans to sign more partners as the market becomes established.
I know I am getting one. Xvid and Divx was the missing peace. Tired of the crappy IR keyboard and all that.
All I want is an HD extender that can play some divx.. would be nice for my XBox360 to get it though! Although the IR port on the xbox 360 doesn't have great distance sensitivity.
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|Finally!! I have been wanting to 'extend' media from my XP Media Center forever, but I didn't want to buy an old linksys extender that wasn't Vista compatible. I am not a gamer so I didn't want to drop a wad on an Xbox. Now, maybe I can get an extended that will work with XP MCE and Vista.
Media Center is the coolest part of Windows. It takes a plain OS and makes it a cool, well, Media Center. It becomes a hub for all your content and with the extenders you can extend media wireless or hardwired to other TVs or devices in your house.
So, you can be recording a TV show on your PC, while at the same time broadcast another TV show (or movie, or songs, etc...) to your bedroom.
Yes, this predates AppleTV by about 3 years.
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|Didn't this die a few years back? What's different now?
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|You must have forgot to read the article when they explained whats different now.
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|Apple TV came out.
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|jesus h christ. you didn't even bother to read the first, bolded sentence???
"With a market likely a little more open to the need for online video in the living room than it was three years ago"
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|Actually, no had nothing to do with Apple Tv (which in itself is pretty lame and doesn't compare to what the xbox360 has been offering for the past two years.), It had more to do with the xbox360 extender doing well. Does anyone read the articles anymore or just comment their biased opinions?
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|What's an Apple iTV? iDon'tknow.
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|i hope they put a gigibit ethernet jack in it
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|No need for the media extender anymore http://tversity.com does it for free and works with divx etc...!!!!
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|Maybe, I am not understanding it but you still have to have a device to stream the files to your tv.
So this seems to be used in conjunction with the xbox360, iphone etcetc.
This device is hardware based and I assume plugs into the tv in some way and then the network.
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|Yeah you have to have a 360 or other existing device hooked up to the tv already, what the main advantage is it can handle any kind of video format that your pc has the codec for, where the 360 and other systems are limited in that regard
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