Which Extenders to use?

[GE01]

Hi I'm new to this (in fact I haven't even opened WMC yet). i'm building my first HTPC with a cablecard (FIOS) to replace my Verizon boxes. I just wired the house with Cat6, My primary use will be recording live TV on the HTPC and playing it on different TVs around the use. There will also be some streaming of movie files (hopefully including blue ray). Any transcoding will be done on a different machine.

What are the best WMC extenders currently available and what are the relative pluses & minuses of the current offerings? Can you build a good extender (Raspberry Pi?) that performs better?

Thanks for your help and hopefully this is the right forum for this question.

[lithium630]

You can't build your own extender. You can build another PC but you can't share copy protected recordings between the two. You also can't resume between the two. In my opinion the best extender at the moment is the Xbox 360. It is the most reliable and had the smoothest interface. That being said I would still go with the Ceton echo. I realize a lot of angry people will disagree, with me, but Ceton has been working hard to update the Echo. When the android update is finally released, the echo SHOULD be the only extender that can play streaming media like Netflix and hopefully it will support more codecs like MKV. It also uses much less power than the Xbox.

[slowbiscuit]

If you want the best possible extender right now (and highest WAF), Xbox 360 hands down. If you're willing to roll the bones, want something quiet and low power and hope that it gets better someday, Ceton Echo. If you're not willing to roll the bones and want low power and quiet, Linksys DMA2100/2200 or HP x280n (used only, no longer made). Here's a cheap one ending on fleabay today:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Linksys-DMA2200 ... 257f265b66

[GE01]

You can't build your own extender. You can build another PC but you can't share copy protected recordings between the two. You also can't resume between the two. In my opinion the best extender at the moment is the Xbox 360. It is the most reliable and had the smoothest interface. That being said I would still go with the Ceton echo. I realize a lot of angry people will disagree, with me, but Ceton has been working hard to update the Echo. When the android update is finally released, the echo SHOULD be the only extender that can play streaming media like Netflix and hopefully it will support more codecs like MKV. It also uses much less power than the Xbox.

Thanks. Unfortunately that supports what I've found so far. i was hoping for a little better news on the progress of the Echo

If you want the best possible extender right now (and highest WAF), Xbox 360 hands down. If you're willing to roll the bones, want something quiet and low power and hope that it gets better someday, Ceton Echo. If you're not willing to roll the bones and want low power and quiet, Linksys DMA2100/2200 or HP x280n (used only, no longer made). Here's a cheap one ending on fleabay today:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Linksys-DMA2200 ... 257f265b66

Thanks. (what is WAF?) Since the main TV will be directly connected to the HTPC and the two (much) less frequently used ones will need the extenders, i will probably go with one XBOX360 for now. and one Echo. I **may** wait for the XBOX one to be released so that more used 360's will be available. When I told a friend of mine what I was doing he gave me a Linksys WMCE54AG. Can I use this as an extender or does the copy protection prevent that?

Thanks again for your help.

[slowbiscuit]

Wife acceptance factor. Can't use that Linksys because it's not a WMC7 extender (doesn't work past XP), only options are the ones I mentioned or you can put HTPCs in the secondary locations and have them access either the tuners or the recording directory on the main PC (assuming you don't have much copy protection on your cable).

[GE01]

Wife acceptance factor. Can't use that Linksys because it's not a WMC7 extender (doesn't work past XP), only options are the ones I mentioned or you can put HTPCs in the secondary locations and have them access either the tuners or the recording directory on the main PC (assuming you don't have much copy protection on your cable).

Thanks. WAF not a factor (lucky me). She lives in books (paper, e) so I can do what I want with TV. Also HTPC not a living room appliance, Sitting in my den so looks are less of an issue. I figured there was an issue with the older Linksys, just didn't know what it was. Probably going to start with HTPC and once it's running happy think about extenders (minor issue in my house).

Thanks again.

[nick]

The Echo has been fine for us and even passes the WAF. Some hiccups (1-2/month) but a reboot fixes it.