The Media Center Extender shootout

EngadgetHD takes a look at Extenders available for Windows Media Center, incuding the Xbx 360, D-Link Extender, Linksys and the new HP Extender. I will be testing out HP’s Extender on Monday evening

Vista Media Center really sets itself apart from any other DVR solution out there, and the single greatest advantage Vista Media Center (VMC) has over the other options — like the TiVo HD — is the ability to have multiple Media Center Extenders. There really isn’t any better way out there that will allow you to watch premium HD cable in every room of your house while at the same time centralizing all your media in one place. When VMC first hit the streets, there was only one HD extender: the Xbox 360. But the problem, of course, is that the Xbox is noisy and will always be a gaming console first and a Media Center Extender second. Well, things have really heated up in the extender market recently when both Linksys and D-Link released Media Center Extenders and HP upgraded its MediaSmart HDTVs.