Windows Media Center Extenders (officially "Extender for Windows Media Center" and code named "Bobsled") are devices that are configured to connect over a

computer network A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or b ...

to a computer running Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition,

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, released five years earlier, which was then the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft W ...

Home Premium/Ultimate,

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

Home Premium, or

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012, made available for download via Microsoft ...

with a Pro pack to stream the computer's media center functions to the Extender device. This allows use of the Media Center and its features (such as view photos, videos, listen to music, watch live television and use DVR functions, watch recorded TV, etc.) on a

television receiver A television set or television receiver (more commonly called TV, TV set, television, telly, or tele) is an electronic device for viewing and hearing television broadcasts, or as a computer monitor. It combines a tuner, display, and loudspeake ...

or other

electronic visual display An electronic visual display is a display device that can display images, video, or text that is transmitted electronically. Electronic visual displays include television sets, computer monitors, and digital signage. They are ubiquitous in mobile ...

. The advantage with these devices is that a household's primary computer, hosting Media Center, need not be near the device used for display. Additionally, with an Extender, the Media Center can be accessed at the same time by several users. The

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

and

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

gaming consoles have Media Center Extender functionality. The Ceton Echo is a stand-alone extender.

Technology

Media Center Extenders (MCX) can either be dedicated hardware devices, such as set top boxes or televisions, or software based implementations such as the

. First generation hardware based devices were based on the

Windows CE Windows CE, later known as Windows Embedded CE and Windows Embedded Compact, is a discontinued operating system developed by Microsoft for mobile and embedded devices. It was part of the Windows Embedded family and served as the software foun ...

operating system whereas the second generation devices can use other embedded OSs such as

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

as well. The Extender creates its own user account on the host PC(MCX1, MCX2, etc.) and then uses a version of Fast User Switching to enable the use of the host computer and Extenders at the same time. Version 1 Extenders only support Media Center versions up to Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Update Rollup 2 - they cannot support the version of Media Center incorporated in Windows Vista Home Premium/Ultimate Edition and later. The server software, which runs on the host PC and streams the media, is built into

Windows Media Center Windows Media Center (WMC) is a discontinued digital video recorder and media player created by Microsoft. Media Center was first introduced to Windows in 2002 on Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). It was included in Home Premium and U ...

. An MCX device must be paired with the MCE software before use; this is done by pairing the MCE software with an identifying number generated by the MCX device. The MCE software makes the user interface available via the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP, which is also used by

Remote Desktop In computing, the term remote desktop refers to a software- or operating system feature that allows a personal computer's desktop environment to be run remotely from one system (usually a PC, but the concept applies equally to a server or a sma ...

client). All processing done by the MCE software and plug-ins happen at the host computer; only the user interface is streamed to the MCX devices. As such, the device can render the interface even though the Media Center-specific software (or the plug-ins) might not be installed there. However, the media files are streamed over a different protocol. To render the media, an implementation of the

codec A codec is a computer hardware or software component that encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. ''Codec'' is a portmanteau of coder/decoder. In electronic communications, an endec is a device that acts as both an encoder and a decoder o ...

used to package the media must be locally installed on the Extender; having the codec on the host computer is not enough. Alternatively media can be trans-coded on the fly by the host computer to a codec that is supported by the Extender. In Windows 7 this is now a standard feature which will probably relieve Extender vendors in the future from having to include such a wide variety of codecs.

Version 1 Extenders

* HP x5400 * Linksys WMCE54AG * Xbox with Media Center Extender Add-On All Version 1 Extenders have been discontinued and are only supported with Windows XP, and are not compatible with Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Version 2 Extenders

For quite some time, the

was the only Version 2 Extender available that could work with Windows Vista and Windows 7. When connecting an

to a Windows XP Media Center Edition PC, a free download is required to connect for the first time. When connecting an

to Windows Vista or Windows 7, no download is necessary as all required PC components are built into Windows Vista and Windows 7. Microsoft eventually announced the v2 Media Center Extenders from partners (Linksys, D-Link and Niveus Media) on 5 September 2007. Version 2 capable Extenders support animated transitions between screens and additional capabilities of Windows Vista to handle newer video formats, notably,

DivX DIVX (Digital Video Express) is a discontinued digital video format. Created in part by Circuit City, it was an unsuccessful attempt to create an alternative to video rental in the United States. The format's poor reception from consumers resu ...

, Xvid,

Windows Media Video Windows Media Video (WMV) is a series of video codecs and their corresponding video coding formats developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows Media framework. WMV consists of three distinct codecs: the original video compression technolog ...

HD and H.264. They can stream

HDTV High-definition television (HDTV) describes a television or video system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since at least 1933; in more recent times, it ref ...

(including

1080p 1080p (1920 × 1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the sc ...

) through

HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary digital interface used to transmit high-quality video and audio signals between devices. It is commonly used to connect devices such as televisions, computer monitors, projectors, gam ...

like the

, can stream protected content and many incorporate draft 802.11n wireless connectivity. In addition to these updates, manufacturers were able to also integrate the Extender software as an application into devices such as DVD players. Windows Media Connect and Windows Media Player Network Sharing are able to connect to them on Windows XP; however, they do not work with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 as extenders.

is the only device that can work as an extender with both

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users a ...

Media Center as well as

. As of 2020, there are no commercially available Extenders.: *

* D-Link DSM-750 * HP MediaSmart Connect - x280n * HP MediaSmart HDTV (With software update from April 2008) * Linksys DMA2100 * Linksys DMA2200 (Integrated DVD Player) * Niveus Media Extender Edge; is a modified Xbox 360 built into a different case. * Samsung MediaLive Digital Media Extender MR-00EA1 * Ceton Echo (Does not work with Windows 8 Media Center)

Energy usage

The various versions of the Xbox 360 consume between 70 and 200 watts of power, depending upon model and activity (the 360 S consumes 70 W while idlingwinsupersite.com: Xbox 360 S Review, 6 October 2010
/ref>). The Ceton Echo claims to use less than 5 W. Energy cost depends upon electricity prices, model, and use, but for an Xbox 360 running continuously can be a significant fraction of the purchase price every year. The Ceton claims to save up to

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

60 a year on electricity compared to a cable box or Xbox 360 used as an extender.

References

External links