Current Extender Models

If you want to upgrade your current Media Center 2005 system to use an extender there are currently 2 ways of going. You can buy a 'set top box' style Media Center Extender from either HP or Linksys. The other is to obtain the 'Media Center Extender for Xbox' package which provides exactly the same interface, but running on an Xbox games console rather than needing another hardware box.

The Media Center Extenders themselves run an operating system named 'Windows CE for Media Center Extenders'. Once this has loaded it then starts a 'Limited' sub remote desktop session on your Media Center 2005 system. So after you first see the Media Center UI, it is actually being remotely generated on the host Media Center machine rather than the extender. It is for this reason that you must choose between either having Extenders or being the member of a domain since the Extender requires potentially up to 6 user accounts to be logged on at the same time (fast user switching is not enabled when joined to a domain).

The video (MPEG/WMV) data is sent alongside the RDP data (Remote Desktop Protocol) and decoded on the extender itself. This limits the setup to MPEG1, 2 and Windows Media Video 7-9 playback. Unlike the audio side which is handled by the host and allows you to install additional audio codecs and have the extender playback the music.

The Set Top Extenders can connect to your network using 100Mbit wired Ethernet or by using 802.11a/b/g. b is not officially supported and you will see 'Network Congestion' messages appearing which interrupted playback. Preferably you would only use 802.11a/g using WPA encryption if using an extender wirelessly. If you secure your wireless network using WEP your key could be cracked fairly easily due to the vast number of packets sent for TV viewing. A Media Center 2005 PC can have up to 5 Extenders (4 wired, 1 wireless). As the interface and responses to user actions are done by the PC rather than the Extender itself it's a good idea to have a fast link between the two.

The inards of both the Media Center Extender set top box devices are based on a refrence design, both the HP x5400 and the Linksys Extender are almost identical in operation (the boot logo is about the only change). When shopping for a set top box extender you can base a purchase soley on price.

The Media Center Extender for Xbox kit includes everything nessisary to use an Xbox console as an Extender. The main parts which allow this are an IR dongle, Media Center remote and a game disc for the Xbox which includes the nessisary software to connect to a Media Center PC. Using the Xbox rather than a set top gives a few advantages, the upgrade costs $65 rather than $260 for a set top extender. You can play Xbox Games and watch DVD's on it (but not while using the extender software). However you do already need to own an Xbox, and you'd need to buy a wireless adapter for it seperatly if you did not want to use wired networking. The TV quality has been said to be better on a set top device.