MediaCenter Extenders - Linksys(or Similar) or xbox360

optimus

optimus

optimus

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All,

I've been pondering what to get as a Media Center extender.

Originally, I was thinking of a Linksys extender (DMA2100), about £150, and looking at reviews they do the job ok.

Then looking around, if I get an xbox 360 (although not primerly for gaming), I do have gaming functionality, and the movie content if we ever get in the UK from xbox live. An xbox isn't too much more, and would be 1 less unit as I'd kick my dvd player out, (and single HDMI).

I'm a little concerned about noise.

What do you all think?
 
I have both a Xbox 360 and Linksys DMA2100 set up as media extenders in different rooms, here are some pros and cons:

Xbox
Con - noisy, although not too bad as I have it hooked up to a projector and AV amp so tend to have the volume up.
Pro - Very smooth media center interface.
Con - cannot play xvid from within media center, although can play them from the dashboard, this is a minor issue.
Pro - it's also a games console.

Linksys DMA2100
Pro - No fans, no moving parts, totally silent.
Pro - It's very small.
Con - Not so smooth media center interface, obviously does not have the CPU grunt the xbox has.
Pro - Can stream xvid from within media center.

They are both great at what they do, however the Linksys would be the best option if you want silence and the xbox would be the best option if you don't mind the fans and also want to play the odd game.
 
PS3 with PSP for remote play purposes and a 250Gb+ harddrive?

HDMI
Blu Ray & DVD Playback
Easily Upgradable HDD (not at rip off Xbox Prices)
Also works great with External USB
Can be linked to PCs for streaming or file sharing
Upcoming Tv Tuner for Freeview and Freview HD (record to HDD even when playing a game)
PSP remote play features and file transfers
Compatible with lots of formats
Almost Silent
 
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He is after a Media Center Extender not just any old media player. Anyway i use my 360 as a Extender with Vista Ultimate's Media Center and its great, ok it cant stream all the formats but for me that is not an issue as i re-encode all my media to WMV or WMV-HD anyway.

But I've never tried any other Extenders to compare with the 360.
 
NeverWinter said:
Yeah, i'm uning my PS3 as a media extender. So much quieter than my XBox.
Click to expand...

Indeed MC is slow to start even if the front end is rather nice with Vista.
I also had problems with album art in the past for music. Saying that some people love it.
The PS3 still has got some way to go in certain areas, like for instance instead of endless lines of files/items allowing users to create sub folders for their files.
Of course this is one benif of using a portable drive you can do this, although you have to use the "view all" option and then loose the thumbnails.
Hopefully in time with a new firmware update this will be allowed too.

A PS3 should be upto the tasks required.
 
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When you say the movie content for the xbox 360 if you mean downloadable movies they've been out for a while (Available in 720p and 480p)
 
SeriousPigeon said:
Mr Latte, can the PS3 stream .m2ts files, or is better to use .mkv?
Also have you used the PSP remote play much?

Sorry for slight thread hijack.
Click to expand...

What your looking for is 720p or 1080p avchd x264 thats been perfectly encoded for PS3. This usually contains AC3 or DTS Digital. For me i mostly stick with MP4, Xvid, Divx, or VOBs for SD and have noticed a lot of avchd PS3 prepped stuff beginning to appear in HD. Maybe a sign of things to come but means none of this re-encoding nonsense.

These can be burned directly to a DVD DL or for example Titanic to a BD-ROM disc. Most come under the 9GB and will play with fully working FFWD etc from the disc.

Ive yet to find a good utility for splitting a video file into the 4GB limit of FAT32 though. I suppose the other option is eventually going to the bother to stream 4GB+ from a PC or server.
As for remote play its cool but my daughter uses it a lot to stream stuff from the livingroom PS3 (Movies /TV in Bed)
 
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Athanor said:
Might as well, it's no use as a console with no games to play on it ;)
Click to expand...

Read that before, cant say i agree though and if anything ive been starting to buy more games for PS3 than X360 lately.

Examples of upcoming reasons...
Resistance 2 & Killzone 2 in 7.1 should be pretty entertaining, 5.1 is so 1990s, lol and of course with driving games you can use the Logitech G25 and not that silly X360 wheel. :D
 
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