Access movies, your music library, family photos and HDTV programming from your Media Center PC and stream it all to your living room TV or home theater. New Linksys Media Center Extenders give you access to the entertainment content on your Microsoft Windows Vista Premium or Ultimate PC to enjoy in the comfort of your living room. Pause or rewind live TV, record sporting events or episodes of your favorite TV shows and save them for later viewing. Quickly navigate through elegant menus and programming guides. Access online movie, music and other Internet services to expand your entertainment options.
The Linksys DMA2100 streams your digital music, movies and photos to any TV in your home without running wires. With elegant and easy-to-navigate menu screens, you can play DVDs, view family slide shows, browse your music collection by cover art, listen to entire playlists or choose from a vast selection of Internet Radio stations from all over the world.
Bring your digital music, movies and photos to your TV or Home Theater
# - Allows you to share your photos, music and movies on your computer with friends and family
# - Uses existing high-speed Wireless-N home network
# - Easily navigate menus with a single learning remote
Customer feedback:
1. It plays our recorded TV, pictures, DVDs ripped to XviD (not DVDs in the player), and music from the other room with an interface that looks just like Vista Media Center. Wife acceptance factor = high. We are using wired ethernet (100) and a 1080p tv via HDMI. The supplied remote is good. Speed of menus is acceptable (even faster, if you turn off transitions in the setup). FF, rewind, pause, etc. are all fine for Live/Recorded HD TV -- looks perfect on our 1080p tv.
XviD files are a little slow to start up on the DMA2100.
I had realistic expectations and we are happy!
2. I purchased two of these extenders in Januray to go with my two XBox 360's, and I am nothing but pleased. I ended up buying a QuadCore 6600-based PC to use as the media center, mainly because I didn't want to have to go through the hassle of upgrading my older machine to Vista. I am connecting it to a wired network; I haven't yet gotten a 802.11n router so I can't speak to how well it works wirelessly.
The interface is exactly like it is on the Vista machine. I don't experience any sluggishness - this might have to do with how powerful the PC is. It's easy to use, and my family thinks the interface is a big step up from my Time Warner cable box. This thing is really quiet too - if you get close to it when no one else is home you can hear some noise but I haven't been able to identify just what it is. Compared to the runway-noise level of the 360's, this is silent.
