So, I finally got my hands on one of these 3rd party Media Center Extenders for Vista Media Center. Up until now, I have been using my Xbox 360 as my extender as that was pretty much the only game in town if you were running Vista. The older Media Center extenders do not work with Vista.
The problem is that my media center PC is in the basement next to my 46 inch LCD panel and I was using the Xbox upstairs on my 27 inch television to watch recorded shows. I finally decided that I really did not like playing Xbox games on a 27 inch tube television when I had a perfectly good widescreen in the basement. So, I was anxious to get a substitute for the Xbox upstairs. The Linksys certainly seemed to fit the bill. It is a tiny box – about the size of an Apple TV – about 7 inches square and maybe an inch and a half high. It has no fan and generates no virtually no heat, It is a welcome replacement for the jet engine the Xbox is both in terms of noise and heat. At $299, it is a little more expensive than the Xbox arcade ($279), but you don’t get a media center remote with the Xbox arcade. The $20 that will run you makes them essentially on par price wise – provided of course you don’t want to also play games or DVDs. So, it was with great enthusiasm that I picked it up, plugged it in and started to play with it.
So, what do I think? Well, my mother always told me that if you can’t say something nice, then you shouldn’t say something at all. Problem is that if I did that, I wouldn’t be doing my job as a reviewer. So, let me summarize – aside from the fact that it is quieter and generates less heat, I couldn’t find one redeeming feature. The advantages that it is supposed to have over the Xbox media center extender are implemented so poorly that you would have been better off without them. So, let’s explore in a little more detail this sad excuse for a tech device.
First of all, to use the device, you need to download a hotfix for your windows media center PC. Not sure why it needed to do that – if it implemented the Media Center extender code in the Xbox 360, it should have just worked. Hotfixes worry me as they are generally subject to less rigorous regression testing than other types of updates and my media center is not where I want instability.
The next problem is that the interface is dog slow. With the Xbox 360, moving through the menu is fairly snappy with almost no lag between keypress and action. Not so with the Linksys. It’s press a key and wait a second, press another key, wait another second, etc. This would be fine if this was a first generation device in a new technology area, but Linksys has built Media Center extenders before, and their original one for XP Media Center did not exhibit this lag problem.
One of the big benefits of the DMA 2100 is the ability to supposedly play DIVX/XVID/MP4 etc. movies from within the media center interface itself. The Xbox 360 can play MP4 files, but it is not from within Media Center – you need to exit and go to the Xbox dashboard for that. Furthermore, the Xbox is somewhat limited as to what MP4 files it will play – Divx and Xvid are out, but the H.264 files that Nero recode spits out work fine. There has been some controversy as to whether the Linksys really supports Divx. In fact it does, just an older version of Divx. For the best results though, you should use Xvid. I didn’t have any true Xvid files handy to test with, so I can’t comment personally on how well it works, but from what I have read elsewhere it does seem to operate as advertised.
The problem again though is the lag. It can take a minute or more to start the movie from the time you select it, and the fast forward/rewind functions did not appear to work on the H.264 videos that I was using to test with.
I took the Linksys back to the store today and bought an Xbox Arcade. Let’s compare the two devices to see how they stack up. Note that I am going to use the DMA 2100’s big brother, the DMA 2200 which includes a DVD player for comparison as the Xbox can play DVDs.
| Xbox Arcade | $279.00 |
| Xbox Remote | $20.00 |
| Total | $299.00 |
Features: Full Media Center extender functionality, DVD Playback, HD-DVD option, Plays all Xbox 360 games.
| Linksys DMA 2200 | $349.00 |
Features: Full Media Center extender functionality, DVD Playback
Aside from the noise and heat issue and maybe the Xvid playback capability – I can think of no real reason to spend more to get less. Even if you don’t think that you would want to play Xbox games, why not leave yourself the opportunity to change your mind in the future. Don’t waste your money on the Linksys DMA Extenders. They are underpowered, overpriced, and just plain annoying.
Hi there,
I just want to ask, in reference to the lag you found, was that using a wireless connection or wired? And if wired, were you able to test using wireless n?
I’ve looked at other reviews (though they are sparce) and no one else has mentioned that problem…and I figure its something that, if I was using it, I would certainly moan about!
Thanks
I like your review, my concern is the WiFi capabilty of each system. Isn’t the Linksys system more reliable?
Ahh Jimbo, your comparison is not quite accurate. Xbox does not play back live tv and allow you to use timeshift etc. Linksys does. With missing out such a big point between the two not quite sure your qualified to write such reviews. Wont be taking your advice that’s for sure. Your mother should have also told you If you dont know what our talking about, it is better to keep your mouth closed. Ciao
Whoops. Guess I’m still new to the whole blog thing. Had a boat load of comments tied up in the queue. I’ll try to do a better job.
To respond in order:
Densey – the lag I was referring to was the time between when I pressed a button on the remote and when the Linksys actually did something like move the selection highlight down. I was running a wired gigabit ethernet network. I don’t use wireless for streaming videos. You might check out Paul Thurott’s review here: http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/mcx_vista_03.asp. He pretty much says the same thing that I did about the Linksys performance, but say it a whole lot better as he is a professional writer.
Harrison – I cannot speak to the wireless capabilities of the Linksys versus the Xbox as I have not tried either. The Linksys does support 802.11n draft I think, which is the latest higher bandwidth standard. Xbox 360 is limited to 802.11g. I’m not a big fan of wireless for video streaming simply because interference in the signal for even a short time can be a real headache. There are a lot of things that operate on the 2.4 Ghz frequency (wireless phones, microwave ovens, other people’s wireless networks) so it is quite polluted. 802.11n lets you bump up to the 5 Ghz band which is less crowded, but you still find some wireless phone operating here (I have one for example that does). Also, you lose a lot of range as you go from 2.4 to 5. Suffice to say that I prefer wired when posisble for video streaming.
And last but certainly not least to HSR – My comparison is quite accurate. The Xbox by itself does not timeshift TV, but it comes with a built-in media center extender application that offers the same functionality as you get with any other extender – namely the ability to play live tv streamed from the main media center pc and to watch timeshifted programs.
As for my qualifications, I have been using Microsoft’s media center application for more than 4 years and have owned every version since they started. Since you don’t even seem to know that the Xbox has a full media center client built in – similar to what you would get with the Linksys or any other extender, my thinking is that you might be the person not quite qualified to offer advice and opinions on this particular topic. No hard feelings of course.
I’m sorry, I have to say something. HSR. You are a moron. I am so fed up with children trying to take a perfectly good post and turn it into an argument. Guess what. The xBox 360 doesn’t play DVD’s either. Or games for that matter. In fact, it’s entire purpose in life is to make sure that your TV doesn’t feel lonely.
Jim, you are dead on. I have been using media center since 2005 and own 4 xbox 360’s because they are both cheaper and better then the linksys extenders. Granted I am a gamer and it’s sorta nice to grab my memory card and play in whatever room, but still. They cost less, have HIGH end video cards in them, and optical out for audio. What more could you want?
OK, I’ve had 5 Xboxes around my house streaming content from my Vista media centre and typically works a treat, albeit a bit noise. My main issue was having to convert all the Xvid/.264 files to WMV is a real pain and makes my quadcore PC run at 90% cpu.. Sometimes for days if I’m converting a series. So when noticed the Linksys DMA 2100/2200 that supports Xvid and H.264 it looked an ideal option and in the UK these can now be purchased from http://www.dabs.com for £98 (DMA2100) and £127 (DMA2200) this is now cost effective option.. and I can sell excess xboxes on ebay for roughly the same price… plus linksys hopefully doesn’t suffer from the xbox red ring issue.. That I’ve had to repair a few times.
ok I have 2 DMA2200 and 2 x DMA2100’s there is a little lag on the menu, but I found the DMA2200 to be slightly snappier than the 2100 version, but it must have improved since original review as the Lag isn’t that bad, poss 1 second delay.. personally I can live with that.
Its does play Xvid well, you can forward and rewind ok, just not that fast, but its ok, picture quality is good, which is improved as Xboxes only support 60Mhz, and in the UK Our TV’;s use 50Mhz and having DMA configurable between various Mhz values and being able to set to 50Mhz, i.e. the same as my UK TV is better. (for example on fast moving scenes I noticed was slightly patchy.. I’m the only one to notice as its only slight, but the DMA running at 50Mhz does not suffer from the same issue as there is not conversation happening from 60 to 50Mhz).. Obviously if you’re in the US, it doesn’t matter as your TV’s are 60Mhz anyway.
OK a bit about X.264 support – Initially my Media centre within the PC couldn’t see the x.264 files on the media centre, so followed these instructions to be able to see the x.264 content on the Media centre PC ( http://www.respectsakura.org/2006/10/17/mkvogmmp4-support-in-vista-20-visual-edition/ ) now I can see the x.264 files and also play them in the PC’s media centre app, and I can also see these on the extender, but when I play them on the Linksys DMA.. I only get the sound.. no picture – anyone got any idea’s..? I’m guessing DMA doesn’t support all x.264 content..? what’s different between x.2647 and H.264..?
To summarise remote on Linksys is rubbish by comparison to Xbox remote, but even though not perfect device (lagging on menu & x.264 support etc) , I’m sticking with the Linksys DMA’s, mainly due to the support for Xvid and WMV 9.. and its quieter.. And I’m hoping won’t suffer from xbox red ring issue i.e. more reliable that the Xboxes.
I just purchased a Linksys DMA 2200 for $119 off of shoplinksys.com. I have it working with Wireless G and I don’t have the delay mentioned above. It could be they have upgraded the firmware since then. If I load an avi or something it takes about 15 seconds and then starts and plays great. My only complaint really is the inability to watch hulu content. But this is not Linksys or Hulu’s fault. Apparently the content providers do not want to allow this just yet. They get a large profit from cable network providers and if people can watch hulu for free on their TV’s then they wouldn’t need cable anymore. While this is understandable, it’s annoying and a little unfair. It’s not our fault the cable companies are too weak in their R&D departments to think of things to make their business useful enough to want to keep. And now that somebody else thought of it they had to call the wambulance and make it stop so they could find a way to charge for it and stay in business. WAAAAAA
I have been using the DMA 2100 for a few months now, found it in a reduced bin for $89. The price is much lower now $150 and less online.
I must say I hated the thing with vista and via my linksys wireless n router. It would loose the connection many times and not all files would play.
However I installed windows 7 in a dual boot setup and connected the extender to WMC via wired connection and I love it.
It plays just about any video file I throw at it and the lag is acceptable, and video quality is great. The only issue I have with it is that fast forward and pause do not work as smoothly as I would like.
That said I would give products like the WD TV a real close look over an extender these days.
Hey Randy Glad to hear that the Linksys is working for you. ‘Course there’s a reason it was in the bargain bin. Like you, I have found things vastly improved with Windows 7 in terms of Media Center, so I’m not surprised that you report improvements in the Media Center Extender experience as well.
I did look at the WD TV a few months ago, but the key limitation is that it does not play movie files over the network – it only streams files connected locally via USB. For me, this was a complete show stopper hands down. I need something that can stream movies over the network from my NAS.
The best thing I have found has been the Popcorn Hour Player. The interface is dog ugly but it streams everything that I can throw at it.