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Media Center Alternatives

If you have Windows XP or Vista Home Basic, you won't be able to use a Media Center Extender with your PC, but there are plenty of HD-capable options ready to fill the gap for you. Notably, if you own an Xbox 360, you may be pleased to hear that it works with all XP and Vista systems. With Vista Home Premium and Ultimate, they work just like the D-Link or Linksys extenders; with XP or Vista Basic, they interface with Windows Media Player 11. WMP doesn't give you the whole Media Center experience, but it does let you stream most content from your PC. Note that you'll need an ethernet connection or 802.11n Wi-Fi for smooth HD streaming, just as with the Linksys Extender.

Setting up your Xbox for either Media Center or Media Player support is simple--just download the software from the Xbox site and you'll be watching all your media files in no time. The Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote even has a special Media Center button to make navigation easy. Make sure you have the Xbox hooked up to your TV using HDMI to get the best picture quality. If you have a non-HDMI Xbox 360, Mad Catz makes a $90 conversion kit.

If an Xbox 360 isn't in your arsenal, consider the Netgear Digital Entertainer HD ($400), D-Link MediaLounge Wireless HD Media Player ($250), or Apple TV ($300 to $400). All three devices will grab video, music, and photos from networked PCs and play them back on your HDTV. The Netgear and D-Link models support up to 1080i playback, while the Apple TV supports up to 720p. All have HDMI ports and built-in Wi-Fi networking, but many of their other features vary widely.

The D-Link and Netgear systems have the advantage of being able to play back media stored on NAS drives as well as multiple PCs on your home network, so you could keep your photo and audio libraries on a shared network storage drive, while using your PC as a DVR to record TV shows. Both boxes support a wide range of audio, video, and photo formats, including Windows Media DRM-protected content (although DRM content must be played back from a PC, rather than from a network drive).

The Apple TV has its own 40GB or 160GB internal drive, but the contents must be copied from iTunes on your PC or downloaded directly from the iTunes Store, so it's not as versatile as the others. Aside from its simple graphical interface, the main reason to buy an Apple TV would be to view content downloaded from the iTunes Store.

One more option to weigh is the LaCie LaCinema Premier Drive. This unique hard drive, available in 500GB, 750GB, and 1TB capacities for $250 to $500, first connects to your PC via USB to copy over media files, then directly to your home theater via HDMI and optical audio to play them back, neatly avoiding any networking issues. It supports most major photo, audio, and video formats, has 1080i output resolution, and comes with a remote control. If you don't add new content frequently, and just want a big drive to store your home video, photo, and music libraries for playback on your TV, it's a simple and economical solution.

Finally, consider simply hooking an inexpensive Media Center PC like the compact HP Pavilion Slimline s3300t right into your home theater. At $600 including an HDMI graphics card and 500GB hard disk, it costs no more than a Media Center Extender plus a network-attached storage (NAS) drive, and gives you more flexibility. You can use it as a NAS drive for your other PCs, or as a DVR with an add-on TV tuner (about $100), and even burn your shows directly to the built-in DVD recorder.