Great review, just about everything I needed to know before ordering one myself…
just one question, if you have two video cards on your Media center computer, can you watch different live tv channels in the extender and the computer?

Hann,

Yes, you can can. I have four tuners and you can have 4 extenders connected watching different live programs while you watch recorded content on the computer. Just keep in mind you need a beefy machine to do this… I have a Q6600 with 4gb ram and 3tb of storage… and I don’t have any problems.

Danny

Hi Danny,
Thanks for your quick response.
Another question, I have a Lutron homeworks Lighting control system and I’m writing a Media Center application to control it.
can the extenders run applications that are installed on the hosting computer?
By the way, I just love to read about your projects, I got more ideas from your blog than any other source I read.

Thanks,
Hanan

Hann,

Yes, you can run your MCE applications thru the extender. I use My Movies which can stream DVDs without any problems.

If you want to maintain full fidelity animations, make sure you write your UI using MCML rather than HTML, which will give you 3-5fps animations.

Keep me posted on your application… sounds like a great project!

Danny

Danny,

I just love to read your blog and view your reviews. Keep up your good work.

1. I’m just curious to know , what’s your media center configuration ?.

2.What’s the possibility of streaming movies from windows home server to Media center extenders ?

Thanks
Baski

Baski,

Thanks for the kind words!

I built my MCE using the following parts:
- P5W DH Asus Motherboard
- Q6600 Intel Quad Processor
- 4gb Corsair XMS2 memory
- LG Blu-ray/HD DVD drive
- Sony 200 disc DVD changer
- PVR500 Dual Tuner (NTSC)
- ATI HD Wonder
- VBOX ATSC Tuner

My tuners were legacy, I’d really like to go cablecard, but I’m not into buying a system, I like building my own. I may get a DELL XPS420 with cablecard support… still debating.

Software:
- Vista Ultimate
- My Movies Media Center Plug-in
- Daemon Tools (for mounting ISOs)
- Transcode 360
- Webguide 4
- PowerDVD Ultra

I don’t install or use my MCE for any other use to keep the system stable.

Hope this helps!
Danny

Danny,

Thank you so much for your details. I’m also debating to build my own for buy one with Cablecard provision. How you receiving all the HD channels provided by the cable company without cable card in your Media center ? or you are just usign over the air HD channels ?

Thanks
Baski

great review! very informative.

One of the things that I like about the Xbox is that it automatically dims the screen after so often to protect the display. I generally like LCD’s but I do have one Plasma in the house and this feature has been invaluable as we tend to leave the TV on static images for extended periods.

Does the DMA2100 have this automatic dim feature? Is the screensaver actually a dimming of the screen? How long before it comes on?

Also, the auto shut off would be very annoying. Does the screensaver definitively prevent it from turning off?

Thanks!

Baski,

Yes, I get my HD over the air… cablecard does sound tempting.

Aaron,

Yes, the Linksys has a built in “screensaver”, you can set it from 2 mins to 2 hours or something like that (not in front of the unit to check). The screen goes black and “Linksys” logo moves around the screen.

I’ve kept the unit running with screensaver mode and it hasn’t gone into standby mode… so it’s looking good.

Danny

Thanks, I appreciate the info!

Wow, what an awesome review. I was having trouble finding anything on this product and found your video to be very useful, cnet doesn’t even have a video review up yet!

Hi Danny, Thanks for the review ,are you able to watch a Blu-ray placed in the drive, ie not ripped to the Media center, on the extender?

Thanks, Peter.

Peter,

Unfortunately, no. You can’t watch/stream DVD, Blu-ray or HD-DVD natively. You can stream DVD if you use My Movies and Transcode 360 only — I’m doing that and it works great. No HD streaming…

Danny

How does the linksys compare to the netgear or the dlink extenders. I am trying to choose the best one to buy.
Jeff

Thanks. Was planning to buy it, if it was any good. Fantastic review. Going to get it tomorrow. Abie

So your saying it will play Blu-ray and HDDVD through my movies, but at SD resolutions?

Wyatt,

No, currently you cannot transcode or playback HD DVD or Blu-Ray…

Danny

Hi,
I have linksys dma2100 and nas200 and have problem streaming music, etc.
dma2100 cannot find the nas200.
even though the drive are all shared and password requires…
OS: window vista ultimate
dell: laptop 1530
2 gig memory
160 gig hard drive..

Nas200: 2 500 gig drive

please help

Hey Danny. Love the site.

The number of channels is quite limited via QAM. So, I use a comcast cable box controlled via firewire. Do you think liveTV will work with the media extenders in such a setup?

I’ve heard rumors that media center can play/stream bluray through 3rd party applications. Is this true?
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb189523.aspx

You can register XML to make Media Center start a blu-ray player from within Media Center, but it only plays on the PC, it does not stream to the Extender as far as I can tell.

With all the issues around HDCP I can understand why you can’t yet stream Blu-Ray or HD-DVD discs to Media Extenders… but SOMEOME has got to find a way to stream these high-def discs to Media Extenders…. via plugins for Media Center or stand-alone stream servers, this is just too useful a thing to not do! Surely there’s a way to limit output from the Media Extender to analog only (component video) this would satisfy HDCP.

My laptop has a Blu-Ray player but no HDMI can use it as converter?I want to use my PC as a Blu-Ray player and enjoy 1920x1080p on my HDTV is that possible?

Hi Danny,

Tx for your review, great!

I have a DMA 2100 myselve, but I can’t get MyMovies going to work on it. It will display all my movies, but when I start to play one, I get the error that the path couldn’t be found.
How did you solve this?

Best regards from the Netherlands.

great video. Is it possible to use a keyboard, surf on the internet, and browse through the files on your pc. Or can you just see the media center???
-del

hi been looking around for the past few days for soemthing that will stream my xvid movie downloads. looks like the linkysys dma2100 could be the buy for me… just wondering though… how well does the box upscale via the HDMI connection? when i watch a film through MC on my pc going to the zoom 2 setting blows it up full screen on my 32” LCD. which is great, will this box also do the same? and does it have a zoom button on the remote? great review by the way!!

hope to hear back from ya!

thanks ;-)