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Using a Windows Media Center Extender

To see how well the new Media Extenders work, we tried out the Linksys DMA2200 ($350). This model adds a 1080p upscaling DVD player to the basic DMA2100 extender ($200). If you already have a progressive-scan upconverting DVD player, the DMA2100 is all you need.

To get up and running with your Media Center Extender, start by plugging it into an HDMI or component video port on your HDTV, then run through a few configuration screens to configure your TV resolution and aspect ratio, and the type of network you will use (wired or wireless). If your network is wireless (as most home networks are), you also need to choose your network and encryption settings. All this is easy to navigate with the included Linksys remote. Finally you'll be presented with a key to type into Media Center on your PC, so it can recognize the extender. In our case, the extender was automatically recognized by Vista, which popped up the "Found new hardware" balloon to prompt us. Click the balloon to complete the setup, and enter the key you received from the extender.

Once Windows Media Center connects to your extender, you'll need to set up the media folders you want the extender to be able to access, and then Media Center will check the quality of your network connection, which is vitally important for smooth HD streaming. This is where things fall apart for many users, since most people still use 802.11g Wi-Fi at home; in this configuration, most extenders will barely function. Switching to wired ethernet on the PC side yields a slight improvement, but the change remains nonfunctional for HD video. In our trials, we swapped our old 802.11g router for Linksys' WRT600N 802.11n model, which finally gave us near-acceptable performance on the 2.4-GHz band, and perfect performance on the 5-GHz band. (The extender includes dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi.)

To be fair, Linksys strongly recommends using 5-GHz 802.11n Wi-Fi with the extender, but we just wanted to see for ourselves, since most people don't have a dual-band N router, and it costs about $250. If you plan to upgrade your router anyway, it's not a big deal, but at a total cost of $450 for the router and DMA2100 extender, there are less pricey alternatives. The cheapest of these options is to simply run wired ethernet to the extender--something we strongly recommend for trouble-free performance. No matter how good your wireless network may be, you may still experience the occasional dropout. Wired networks have no such problems.

Once you clear the network hurdle, your extender will offer you a wide selection of Internet content and movie downloads as well as whatever media is on your PC. You can also stream media from a connected NAS storage device. However, many of these offerings--such as Vongo's movie rental service--come at a premium price.

One other trick you can try with an extender is to watch and record live TV using a TV tuner attached to your PC. We used the Hauppauge WinTV HVR-950 USB stick, which comes with a small digital antenna. It was amazingly easy to set up. Media Center will tell you it found the hardware, and walk you through scanning available digital channels either over the air or on unscrambled cable (Clear QAM). Give it your zip code to download the program guide, and you can start recording almost immediately.