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Media Centre : Extenders

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  • 27-10-2005 11:11pm
    #1
    riddik
    Registered Users Posts: 362 ✭✭


    Apologies if this is already in a thread somwhere, but I couldn't find. I don't know much about these extenders, but what I believe is that they are exactly the same as buying a media centre pc, except you are just able to use your existing pc in whatever room its in??? please correct me if i'm wrong. Now what i want to know is, and I doubt it, can you record tv to ur hard disk via the wireless extender? as i say i doubt, but want to know for definite. thanx


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    #2
    SouperComputer
    Registered Users Posts: 6,949 ✭✭✭SouperComputer


    AFAIK the MCE extender will allow you shedule alright, but of course your tuner needs to be unused.


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    #3
    FrankGrimes
    Registered Users Posts: 4,031 ✭✭✭FrankGrimes


    Riddick – I bought two HP Extenders while on holidays in the US (got both for $140 each cos they were B Stock but they only have minute scratches you’d never notice) and just set one up there last week.

    I had a pain in the ass setting it up: tried wireless but had many security issues, then tried wired (which is what I always intended on as it will give better performance) and still had trouble. I changed from Norton Internet Security to Sygate Personal Firewall, opened the required ports and it worked on the wired connection no problem. I will be adding the second one on a wireless connection soon and will be interested to see the performance. Think you can only have one wireless and up to 3 wired.

    So far I think its deadly and I think the negative reviews I’ve seen are very harsh (so it doesn’t do an animated transition from pic to pic in a slideshow – who cares?). Basically it lets you do all the main stuff you can do on the actual MCE PC – watch and record TV(yep this gets saved on the PC so you can watch it from the PC or any other extender), playback MP3s, watch pics, schedule TV recordings.

    So it meant I bought one PC for the house and put this in a PC room and then I will have extenders in the bedroom and living room and can share the media across all 3 and someone can use the PC for web browsing or whatever while the extenders pull media from it. All in all, though I don’t yet have media center fully setup (i.e. I don’t have my NTL Digital sorted yet or WebGuide3 for scheduling recordings over the web), I think its absolutely savage and it makes such a difference to your lifestyle as you can easily listen to your music collection in each room, and you’ll never watch ads or channel surf again – you’ll watch what you want, when you want it, in whatever room you want.

    Oh yeh – make sure to get a Hauppage PVR 500 MCE – dual tuner but only requires one input (splits it). This will let you watch one channel while you (or someone in another room) records another, or even record two at the same time (though you would then have to watch one of those channels). I think the recent Rollup2 update allows for up to 4 tuners so if youhave the need for it the option is there.

    Gimme a shout if you have any questions on media center and I’ll try to sort you out, but check out http://www.thegreenbutton.com http://www.avforums.com and http://www.xpmce.com aswell


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