When the Windows Media Center (WMC) PC was introduced in 2002, the idea was to create a computer that also recorded TV programs and had a remote control that let you play them — as well as DVDs, slideshows, or ripped CDs — without sitting right in front of it. The specialized operating system, with a deep blue start screen called up by a green Windows button on the remote, offered choices like My TV, My Music, and My Pictures in big letters you could read across the room.
Now that wired (Ethernet) and wireless home networks have taken off, Microsoft wants you to see that blue screen and green button in every room of your home. The company has licensed custom versions of the WMC system for several A/V components that extend the functionality of WMC computers to other rooms. For example, if you have a WMC 2005 Edition PC loaded with music, TV programs, and photos, a WMC extender lets you access them all on a TV and stereo music system in another room through your network. (WMC extenders aren't guaranteed to work with older software, so if your Media Center PC isn't new, ask the manufacturer about upgrading it.)
While media receivers aren't new, the familiar blue start menu and button arrangement on a WMC extender let you operate the PC from a remote location in virtually the same way as if it were in the same room. And a Portable Media Center lets you copy content from the PC through a fast USB connection and play it anywhere — whether on your lap using the built-in screen or on a hotel-room TV. As with home-bound extenders, you manage all your files from the same WMC start screen.
We tested three Media Center Extenders: the Linksys Wireless A/G ($299); Microsoft's own extender for the Xbox ($80, plus a $20 A/V Pack for S-video or high-def connection, and $109 if you want wireless), which can turn your game console into a remote WMC controller; and the iRiver Portable Media Center ($500).
In my three-room setup, the heart of my mini media empire was an HP m1180n Photosmart Media Center PC ($1,500, not including monitor), a 3.4-GHz system running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. Though I hooked the PC into an Ethernet jack, I also set up a D-Link Air Premier AG wireless router so I could test the Linksys extender's Wi-Fi capabilities. Both the router and the extender support the new 802.11a standard as well as the older 802.11g.
Well Connected
The Linksys wireless extender fits comfortably into a stack of A/V components and provides most of the outputs you'll need to marry networked-delivered content to your home theater. After I installed its software on the PC, the Linksys extender easily found the Media Center in the other room on my network through its supplied Ethernet cable. I was soon streaming both live and recorded programs from the PC to my remote TV. I'd recorded at the highest-quality setting, and the pictures looked good via Ethernet, but what about wireless?
At first, the extender failed to find the Media Center when I switched to its Wi-Fi antenna. After Linksys technical support helped me solve the problem, I marveled at how smooth the video looked even though the extender was about 50 feet and two walls away from the wireless router. According to Linksys, the interior range of 802.11g Wi-Fi is 100 to 150 feet vs. 25 to 75 feet for 802.11a, but a network based on 802.11a is more reliable.
Beyond Game Play
You won't need a dedicated Media Center extender like the Linksys if you already have an Xbox ($150) in your remote room. After popping out your Halo 2 game disc, just pop in the Media Center Extender for Xbox DVD. The extender kit also comes with an install CD for the Media Center itself, a WMC-style remote (green button and all), and an infrared (IR) receiver you plug into one of the controller ports on the Xbox. You'll need to attach your own Ethernet cable. (We didn't have the wireless adapter.)
Once the Xbox contacts your PC, you'll see the familiar start menu (My Videos, My Pictures, My TV, and so on) on the TV you're using with the Xbox. Performance was identical to that of the Linksys extender in wired mode. The main drawback: you have to insert the extender DVD every time you want to access your Media Center — you can't copy it to the Xbox's hard drive. The big advantage: the kit also lets you use the Xbox as a DVD player (normally a $30 accessory for software and remote), and its A/V connections can do quintuple duty for games, DVDs, CDs, TV shows, and photos.
Taking It All with You
While a WMC extender is always dependent on a networked PC, a Portable Media Center can be disconnected and used anywhere once you fill it up with TV shows, music, home videos, and photos. Weighing 10 1/4 ounces with a 3 1/2 -inch screen and mono speaker, the PMC-120 from iRiver has a 20-gigabyte (GB) hard drive that can hold up to 80 hours of video or 600 hours of music. (There's also the PMC-140 with a 40-GB drive for $600.) A single jack lets you send composite video and stereo audio to a TV over the supplied cable. The snap-in rechargeable battery provided power for 5 hours of video in my test, and iRiver says it's good for 14 hours of music. A spare battery is $20.
When I tried to use the PMC-120 with a PC running 2004 Edition WMC software, my recorded TV shows became unwatchable after transfer because of dropouts. Once linked to the new HP computer, the iRiver took about 20 minutes to convert and transfer a 1-hour TV recording, but it played without glitches. So be sure you're running the latest software.
On my subway ride home, I watched a perfect-looking episode of Joey, listening on the supplied earphones. Other passengers shot me the kind of stares I haven't seen since I carried the original iPod. Each press on the fast-forward button let me skip commercials in 30-second increments, and holding it down let me scan through a 1-hour show in about 7 seconds. That's performance! And just to prove how attractively cool the PMC-120 is, when I got home my technophobic wife grabbed it, perched it on its kickstand, and played Without a Trace as she checked her e-mail.
Bottom Line
The benefits of a Media Center extender are substantial. People in different parts of the house can use the PC simultaneously to manage, record, and view their media files, and you can pick up a show you've started when you move to a different room. (Only one live TV show or FM broadcast can be shared across the network, though people in different rooms can be watching or listening to different parts of the same show since it's buffered to the PC's hard drive.)
If you own both a Media Center PC and an Xbox, or plan on adding the game console, go with the Xbox extender to multiply its functionality. If you want built-in wireless capabilities and the best A/V connections, go with the Linksys. And if you're bent on extending your media empire outside your home, iRiver's Portable Media Center can give you more quality TV time during plane trips, hotel stays, and daily commutes.
Of course, there's no reason you can't have it all. And now that I can move music, TV shows, movies, home videos, and photos just as easily from room to room as into the palm of my hand, I feel like the master of my own media domain. Who needs Rupert Murdoch or Michael Eisner to tell me when or where to watch what I want?