Some times I like Windows Weekly with Paul Thurrott and some times the show really gets on my nerves. Normally Paul and host Leo Laporte seem to forget about Media Center completely while Paul gets his facts mixed up on Windows topics. This week Paul totally dismissed the Linksys extenders blaming poor performance (he did praise the Media Center UI). His message was to “totally avoid” the Extenders as having little benefit over the last generation of Extenders. While I can agree the price may be to expensive I can’t agree that the devices are “useless”. I have been using the DMA2200 full time for over a month and can say that I have no issue with performance. Yes the menu transitions are not as smooth as the Xbox 360, but its only a minor issue and does not detract from the Extender experience, selecting shows and music is fine, fast forwarding and rewinding is as responsive as the 360. In fact I find the video output better than my 360 as it’s HDMI. Paul said that the D-Link unit has a better processor and therefor better performance but I can’t see the problem with the Linksys unit, it plays TV well, does all it’s supposed to do in a small unit.
I still like my Xbox 360 but for a small quiet box the Linksys unit is great.
You can see my video reviews here and here, you can see my comparison for the 360 and DMA2200 here
EDIT: I forgot to ask, please post your experiences with the Extenders
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I agree with you. I’ve been using my DMA2200 full time for nearly a month, and generally have been very pleased with it. I was a (UK) TiVo user before, but now, after 7 years happy usage, have finally got rid of the TiVo, the old DVD player, the Satellite box and the MP3 player from under the TV. All that sits there now is an Amp, and the Extender.
All my TV, without exception, goes via the Extender. I don’t even have an aerial plugged into my TV. VMC is, for me, very stable and I have no issues regarding performance. My only wish is that it was easier to archive recorded TV, but that of course is a VMC issue, not an extender one.
I can’t belive that Paul Thurrott dismissed the Linksys extenders like that! Has he actually tried them or just looked at the spec?
The performance of my DMA2100 over the past month that I’ve been using it has been excellent. I watch live and recorded TV and listen to music over a wireless connection and have had no performance issues whatsoever.
Yes, I agree, they are not cheap and I could have bought an XBox for about the same price, but I wanted a silent unit and I’m not interested in palying games so the arrival of the Linksys unit was a godsend!
I just bought a DMA2100 from Amazon taking advantage of the $150 deal they had. I think the performance is great. I have it on a small 19″ LCD in my bedroom and my wife loves it. I turned off the animations and its very responsive. HDTV looks great, MyMovies plugin works great, my caller id shows up as expected and Internet TV streams perfectly. I do have it wired and connected to the TV via HDMI. Not sure if that makes a HUGE difference. So far I am very satisfied.
I just recently got a DMA2100 for the bedroom and I do have some complaints about it. I’ve been so used the smooth menu transitions on the 360 in my living room that it really annoys me that the Linksys extender has this problem. Also, the Media Center GUI looks considerably worse to me than the PC or 360. That being said, I haven’t noticed any drop in quality when watching TV and that is the most important thing. I can deal with choppy transitions and a washed out GUI.
That being said, if I hadn’t got in on the deal with Amazon.com for $150 and I had paid $250 for this thing I would be totally unhappy. I think the regular price on these things is ridiculous. I would rather buy a 360 Arcade for $30 more and have smooth everything and the ability to play games. Since I was able to get the extender for $150 I’m happy with it overall. Very small and quiet which is perfect for my bedroom!
Paul has always been an idiot. If you read some of his articles, he acts like he’s THE definitive source on all things Windows. He also likes to throw around the term “exclusive”, even when someone else has obviously beaten him to the punch with news, etc.
I must admit I thought the preview was terribly incorrect too, I made a post on my blog about this also as after listening it made me feel I had to give a full post on my reasons for disagreeing. You can ready my full blog post over on my MCML blog.
http://thedigitallifestyle.com/cs/blogs/mcml/archive/2008/03/21/paul-thurrot-s-non-review-of-linksys-extenders-on-his-windows-weekly-show.aspx