Black Boxes:
Linksys Media Center Extender
$299
Linksys
A Division of Cisco Systems, Inc.
121 Theory Dr.
Irvine, CA 92612
(800) 546-5797
www.linksys.com
Digital entertainment PCs are finally starting to migrate into the living room where they store and control the whole family's digital media. But a problem quickly arises. What do you do about the TV in the bedroom or kids rooms? You might be able to get the young ones to watch Barney off an antenna--for a while. A better solution is to get a wireless media extender.
We took a close look at the new $299 Linksys Dual-Band Wireless A/G Media Center Extender's ability to transfer both navigational features and media from an HP Digital Entertainment Center (DEC). The Linksys uses 802.11a and 802.11g wireless Ethernet (WiFi) protocols to get the job done. Our testing environment was a two-story home where a DEC using Microsoft's Media Center Edition was already installed. The Extender was in an upstairs bedroom connected to a 20-inch LCD TV with DVI inputs. The DEC was downstairs connected to a 50-inch rear projection TV.
A Good Connection
The quick installation guide and CD were all we needed to set up the Extender successfully. We installed the simple physical connections in just a few minutes.
Configuring the software in the DEC was a little more challenging. The installation CD running in the DEC prompted us to reconfigure our firewall before proceeding. Following this, set up continued normally.
At the end of the setup process, a screen told us how good our expected signal would be. With an approximate distance of 25' and several walls and a floor separating our DEC from the Extender we received a rating of excellent. We further tested the range of the Extender by moving it to three different locations in our home all of which received a strong signal.
The home screen looks identical to the standard Media Center Edition--almost. The Extender's home screen does not feature all the DEC options. The most notable is the lack of Play DVD. DVDs will not play thru the extender. Even initiating play on the DEC does not transmit the signal. Copyright protections may be the reason. The other Media Center Edition options are available and under full control of the remote. Here's a closer look at how the Extender handles each.
Online Spotlight
We connected to a broadband T1 line and tried to stream AOL music videos at 700 kilobits per second for our tests. While the extender relayed all the online navigational features of the DEC, it could not stream video without significant delays, digital artifacting and A/V sync problems. To confirm this is a problem with the extender and not with our T1 internet connection we connected the DEC directly to our home network and ran the identical broadband video stream flawlessly. Reducing the stream to the lowest setting of 500 kbps did not improve the quality from the Extender. We even brought the Extender into the same room to increase the wireless signal strength but this did not help.
My Videos
The extender provided all DEC controls and features with no noticeable degradation in video or audio quality. But we did run into some control problems. The Extender would start playing a pre-recorded video just fine but, unlike using direct control, when we tried to simply choose another clip and play it, we got a "cannot play" message. There is also a lag between the remote command and the DEC response. Clicking several commands ahead will get you into trouble. We even experienced a system lock up that required rebooting after trying to start a different pre-recorded clip while another was playing.
My Pictures
The Recent Files listing for the Extender is not the same as for the DEC. In fact, stills that had been transferred to the HP DEC from a digital camera prior to setting up the Extender did not show up at all in the main listing. Images transferred to the DEC after we installed the Linksys Extender showed up fine. We had selected the option to use the same media folders as the current user of the DEC during Extender setup so this should not have been a problem.
My TV, My Music, Radio
All these options worked well and reliably through the Extender. Again there was a slight lag between clicking the remote and changing channels and engaging some features, but this was not too annoying once we got used to it.
More Programs, Settings
The More Programs option only lists three of the 11 possible programs accessible by the DEC directly. The Settings dialog does not display the Automatic Download and Visual and Sound Effects options.
Good and Bad
A very cool feature is the ability to run at least two different data streams at the same time on different TVs. We ran one pre-recorded clip off the extender while running another clip directly from the DEC to a digital TV in another room. There was no noticeable change in video or audio quality or even system responsiveness.
Both the Linksys and HP remotes control the DEC but the Extender doesn't recognize the HP DEC keyboard. A quick call to Linksys revealed they do not have immediate plans to make this possible.
Extended Solution?
The Extender does allow you to enjoy nearly all of the features of a digital entertainment center with good video and audio quality. Set up is straight forward and not having to run wires all over your house is a huge plus. But things can get tricky if you need to do much reconfiguring to your DEC or existing home network.
Brian Peterson is a Communications Director with more than 14 years of broadcast video production experience.
Tech Specs
Platform: PC
Operating System: for use with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
Wireless standards: 802.11a, 802.11g, 802.3u
Ports: Ethernet, USB (2), Video Out (Composite, S-Video, Component), Audio Out (Analog R/L, SPDIF Optical, IR Out
Buttons: Power, Standby, MDI/MDI-X, Video Select, Enter, Back Up, Down, Left, Right
Cabling Type: CAT 5 Ethernet, RCA Audio, RCA, Video, S-Video, Toslink Optical, Component Video
Transmit power: 16dBm
Remote: Yes
Security features: WEP
WEP Key Bits: 64, 128
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