Which extender to buy?
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Which extender to buy?
What is the cheapest fully functional extender for playing copy protected WTV TV files out of my Win 7 Pro PC? I just need a tool to use until I clear (watch) all the copy protected files off of my old WMC PC. All attempts to move my drives into my new $1500 PC, and all attempts to play (share) the files from the old PC to my new WMC PC have failed.
Will stick this in my closet with my old WMC PC and boot it up from time to time to clear content. I hate DRM.
Paul
Will stick this in my closet with my old WMC PC and boot it up from time to time to clear content. I hate DRM.
Paul
- Scallica
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http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... 0&_sacat=0Paul Anderegg wrote:What is the cheapest fully functional extender for playing copy protected WTV TV files out of my Win 7 Pro PC?
HTPC Enthusiast / Forum Moderator - TGB.tv Code of Conduct
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If you want to buy something from retail - used Xbox 360s are available from GameStop.
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This looks like what I will end up with....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cisco-DMA2100-L ... Sw3mpXFMv0
Anything I need to worry about, like no servers left for firmware, or are these old rigs still serviceable?
Paul
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cisco-DMA2100-L ... Sw3mpXFMv0
Anything I need to worry about, like no servers left for firmware, or are these old rigs still serviceable?
Paul
- Doctor Feelgood
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I've been going with the used XBOX 360 E's to expand my extender collection. Paid between $55 and $75 for really good condition units over the past year. Bought one on the forum here, and others came through CowBoom (Best Buy).
- Scallica
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The DMAs will not work with Windows 8 or higher. Why pay $99?Paul Anderegg wrote:This looks like what I will end up with....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cisco-DMA2100-L ... Sw3mpXFMv0
Anything I need to worry about, like no servers left for firmware, or are these old rigs still serviceable?
Paul
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cisco-Linksys-M ... 2359830646
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If your WMC PC frequently sleeps, be aware that old extenders like Linksys won't wake it. But Xbox and Echo will. That's why I stick with Xbox and Echo. I use Xbox where I need other streaming apps (Netflix, etc.), and Echo where I need quiet running and a small footprint.
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Good advice on the xboxes, but based on your original post - you'll only need the DMA. It runs on Win7 perfect and since you'll only be booting the system to watch shows, the DMA will be great. I have two (bought for $30 or so on eBay) and recommend them for what you need.
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I would go with an XBOX over other extenders for multiple reasons:
1. much faster startup
2. lots of other functionality besides the obvious games - Netflix, Amazon, HBO Go, Hulu, etc.
3. better compatibility if you "upgrade"
4. If you have thousands of songs in your music library, WMC music library doesn't scale to it well, especially on extenders. The DLNA music library functionality on the XBOX does.
1. much faster startup
2. lots of other functionality besides the obvious games - Netflix, Amazon, HBO Go, Hulu, etc.
3. better compatibility if you "upgrade"
4. If you have thousands of songs in your music library, WMC music library doesn't scale to it well, especially on extenders. The DLNA music library functionality on the XBOX does.
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Hi, one feature I often use on 7MC is "fast playback" where the audio is compressed and pitch compensated. I just ebay'd an xbox 360, and it doesn't appear to have that function. Unlike 7MC, the first fast-forward step cuts out the audio.dkrom wrote:Good advice on the xboxes, but based on your original post - you'll only need the DMA. It runs on Win7 perfect and since you'll only be booting the system to watch shows, the DMA will be great. I have two (bought for $30 or so on eBay) and recommend them for what you need.
Does the DMA support fast playback with audio? Tivo recently added this feature and calls it "quickmode".
Please let me know, thanks, Jon
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DMA's and echos do not have the fast play with audio feature.jonwz wrote:dkrom wrote:Does the DMA support fast playback with audio?
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Thanks for the reply and info. I guess I'm back to my old school solution (that I started using with my legacy replaytvs), Video splitting. There are HDMI splitters that are "broken" and ignore DRM.hoonk wrote:DMA's and echos do not have the fast play with audio feature.jonwz wrote:dkrom wrote:Does the DMA support fast playback with audio?
Can anyone recommend an HDMI distribution solution? I've never had much luck with "data" over home powerline, but that might be the best way to run HDMI from 7MC to other rooms.
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Perhaps a little off topic, but.. is there a way to validate a priori whether my Xbox360 as installed is compatible and ready to view the Comcast MP4 rollout changes, if there's any codec updates or what not? I've acquired an xbox and a couple of Echos to start using, but wish I couple pre-check the compatibility...
-Alan
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Well I can tell you first hand Comcast H.264 works fine on the Echo and 360 and I didn't do a single thing to prepare or validate when I moved from Charter territory to Comcast. I plugged everything in, got the CC activated, reran TV setup, and everything worked immediately. I didn't even realize it was H.264 until I noticed the recording file sizes were much smaller than before, and then I manually checked the 411 info (several days later)
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Well, consider how the XBox works as an extender.webminster wrote:Perhaps a little off topic, but.. is there a way to validate a priori whether my Xbox360 as installed is compatible and ready to view the Comcast MP4 rollout changes, if there's any codec updates or what not? I've acquired an xbox and a couple of Echos to start using, but wish I couple pre-check the compatibility...
For TV, all of the viewing happens on the 7MC PC. What the extender does is remotely play the actual video stream that the PC provides.
It is not that the actual video file is sent to the extender for decoding.
For media files, all of the heavy lifting transcoding work is done on the host 7MC box and sent over to the extender in a format the extender natively works with.
In short: don't worry, it all just works.
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Appreciate the info. Since the Linksys units I'm replacing will stop working due to the fomat changes, just trying to verify the Xbox didn't require any considerations to support the non-MPEG2 formats.
-Alan
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yeah, XBox works differently than non-XBox extenders.