alton987

It's was great to see Media Center get some face time at CES keynote. What made me sad was the denial of extenders or the model that MS sold us years back. I guess tv on your PC is the new media center, RIP Media Center Extenders... (hopefully I'm wrong and some more news will surface)

Wrong or not it was one of the most boring keynotes I have ever witnessed. They really spoke in very general terms. There wasn't really a denial of anything, because when you think about it they really didn't say to much. I think we'll know more once people really start to hit the show floor and start asking questions. Steve Ballmer is a terrible speaker. Robbie Bach was a little better, but there was really no showmanship. I felt like I was eating cardboard.

teddyboy16

I felt like I was eating cardboard.

Or Domino's Pizza!  Really do not watch many keynotes, but this did seem a little embarrasing, and left you with a feeling of okay, cool, but what does it really mean.  Was hoping for more of a strategic direction.  I am at a deciding point of coming back to Media Center from SageTV.  If Sage offered something like CableCard, I think I would have my mind made up in an instant.  If Microsoft came through with a quiet $150-200 extender ($200-250 with DVD) that worked and would be suported for a while, That would also make up my mind.

 My problem with PC on TV or TV on PC is multiple boxes to maintain.  With extenders, install one box, keep it healthy and the extenders are self maintaining for the most part.  Changes on the main PC transcend to the extenders.  Ability to have tuner pool, particularly with the Ceton knocking on the door.  It will always be cheaper to do an extender and keep it controlled than individual PCs.

I never saw the appeal of an extender, i think they are a waste of money, a mini itx pc or a hdmi extender and usb over cat6 is all you need for and extender.

skatingn330

I never saw the appeal of an extender, i think they are a waste of money, a mini itx pc or a hdmi extender and usb over cat6 is all you need for and extender.

Its not the extender but the centralized recording and program scheduling\guide that is appealing to most users.  You can't get that on a multiple PC model.  Also normally extenders are cheaper.

I think I'll just keep my 5 Linksys 2100 extenders.  They are small (fit squished behind my plasma's), silent, use virtually no power (8 watts) and on 24/7/365, use any MC remote, and require virtually no maintenence. Vista is crappy, but it works perfectly with these little baby's. 

I'm not going to buy 5 XBOX 360's or update my MC to Win 7.  A loss for MS, more money in my pocket.....

I currently only have one television set in my house so there is no need to currently buy into the extender model.  The problem is that the Ceton cards become very compelling with multiple televisions in the house.  Then you have the potential (especially with a 6 tuner card) to stream a unified experience to all devices using a single system.  However, the lack of capability of current generation extenders is glaring to a lot of people. 

I agree that small form factor PC's like the Revo are starting to become ideal for a second media center, but the average consumer wants all their devices to work together and talk together..convergence if you will.  I know I dont want to have 2-3 Revo PCs that I have to manage independently of one another.  It would quickly become more work than a person needs to or cares to deal with.  All in all, I was definitly disappointed with the lack of news last night.

Danno100

I think I'll just keep my 5 Linksys 2100 extenders.  They are small (fit squished behind my plasma's), silent, use virtually no power (8 watts) and on 24/7/365, use any MC remote, and require virtually no maintenence. Vista is crappy, but it works perfectly with these little baby's. 

I'm not going to buy 5 XBOX 360's or update my MC to Win 7.  A loss for MS, more money in my pocket.....

  

Windows 7 works better with the linksys extender then vista.  Specifically it loads large tv libraries much faster, has built in transcoding of non-native formats, and is dlna compliant.   I think win7 fixes most of the complaints about them.  It's too bad linksys discontinued them.  I am still hoping that toshiba comes out with something and that my current linksys extenders never break. 

Also, I like not having to install patches, hotfixes, virus definitions on my DMA 2200 --one less box to maintain. That's the appeal for me with Extender devices.

alton987

skatingn330

I never saw the appeal of an extender, i think they are a waste of money, a mini itx pc or a hdmi extender and usb over cat6 is all you need for and extender.

Its not the extender but the centralized recording and program scheduling\guide that is appealing to most users.  You can't get that on a multiple PC model.  Also normally extenders are cheaper.

It's that stupid .wtv TV recording format that is stopping me from the upgrade to Win 7.  I'm too lazy to figure out how to automatically convert .wtv to .dvr-ms and retain all the metadata while deleting commercials. If MS gave me the option for a recording format, I would upgrade in a flash.

Danno100

It's that stupid .wtv TV recording format that is stopping me from the upgrade to Win 7.  I'm too lazy to figure out how to automatically convert .wtv to .dvr-ms and retain all the metadata while deleting commercials. If MS gave me the option for a recording format, I would upgrade in a flash.

Commercial skipping now works in MC7.

Hey Guys, I have been using a ZeeVee zvbox 150 for the last few weeks, its a good solution for viewing all my recorded tv, mymovies blu-ray rips. etc. all over the house. I still use my xbox 360s for watching different recorded tv shows at multiple locations. Not a cheap solution, but considering how much I have sunk into media center over the last 6 years.. not to bad. check it out.

I feel compelled to point out, that without extenders, MS has nothing more to offer over a MAC / Elgato EyeTV solution. A while a go, I costed a three room solution of MAC mini vs Dell using a pair of HD Homeruns and there was very little price difference.

It is only the centralised recording and distribution via extenders that keeps me from moving to an Elgato solution.

What's more, I intend to hedge my bets by buying a MAC mini soon as a replacement Media Center Hub (But, I'll be running Windows 7 on it). If Microsoft drop the ball, or another of my extenders dies and can't be replaced with something quiet, then I can easily switch over to a MAC solution.

Oh...and with the MAC solution, I can easily watch the recorded TV on my iPod.

Solo

 Am I missing something? I thought that with WHS that the extender concept became obsolete. With PowerPack 3 don't you have the ability to centralize your recorded tv and then use a low power Atom box to view the recording? 

You can centralize the recored TV, but you cant have a centralized management of the recordings. You would need to know witch TV has the program schedule to record and handle all the duplicates manually. Since the tunners would be across the home, you would need now if you already scheduled the show on other computers and etc.

Also, with no tuner farm, you would be more prone to conflicts on each individual PC. Not to mention have an extra cable running trough the house in case the tuners are attached to the PC.

But my main problem is that I dont think PCs are reliable as CE devices to be under my TV. I used them quite a few years and gave up. It might work most of the times, but theres always that problem when the PC resumed for some reason, the remote stopped to work until a reboot and all the small glitches that a PC can have. If its only one, you might live with that. If you have 5 or six trough the house, than its a pain.

 I´am glad I moved to the extender model, but would really appreciate a few more choices of devices (like a Blue Ray player with extender) and a few more features (like Silverlight/Flash, DVD streaming and etc).