4. Media Center Extender: Turning A Media Center PC Into A Home Entertainment Server

The addition of a Media Center Extender is what really turns a Media Center PC into a hub for home entertainment media. There are two kinds of Media Center Extenders:

The Media Center PC stands by itself in one room, but can be connected with up to three Media Center Extenders that are in turn attached to devices like television sets or audio receivers. These so-called network players can use the same remote control as the Media Center PC. Only a few differences set apart the supporting software from the software that the Media Center PC offers.

By contrast with the Remote Desktop capability in Windows XP Pro, which blocks local access while it's in use, Media Center Extenders make it possible for multiple users to share a single Media Center PC simultaneously.

Only a small number of vendors offer Media Center Extender products at present - most notably HP and Linksys - and these products are only available in the US. These devices don't use conventional PC technologies; rather, they use special embedded processors with MPEG-2/WMA-decoders and run Windows CE instead of a full-blown operating system. This means these devices are quite compact and operate silently. Network connections to the Media Center PC can use wired Ethernet or wireless LAN media, including either IEEE WLAN-G (aka 802.11g) or WLAN-A (aka 802.11a).

The Linksys WMCE54AG is a compact, wireless Media Center Extender.

Media Center Extender: XBox As A Multimedia Client

The second type of Media Center Extender turns the XBox into a multimedia client. The extension technology consists of the necessary software plus remote control through a USB-based infrared receiver. Should you wish to connect the XBox to a wireless network, an additional Ethernet bridge from a third party is also needed.

A Microsoft kit for the XBox turns it into a Media Center Extender.

To handle HDTV signals in the MCE environment, either an independent Media Center Extender or an HDTV-capable TV card is required, but the XBox extender kit can also do the trick. The XBox can even be programmed to record various forms of programming using the extender.