Microsoft's 'Extender' for Vista and HDTV reaches reality

Microsoft's Extender for Windows Media Center isn't altogether new. But the extender products announced at CES 2008 -- from Samsung, HP, Linksys, and others -- are a different kettle of fish due to their use of Vista and HDTV.

First rolled out by Bill Gates way back at CES 2004, Microsoft's "Extender for Windows Media Center" finally seems to be approaching full throttle at this year's CES -- now that Samsung, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco-owned Linskys, and other hardware makers are producing extender hardware that works with HDTVs and the streaming media capabilities of Vista PCs.

The first generation of Microsoft's "extender" technology allowed for AV streaming, but on Windows XP rather than Vista-- and only between a PC and either (1) an Xbox or (2) another PC outfitted with a set top box.

With Vista's arrival, though, Microsoft has revamped the extender technology so that you can now receive recorded HDTV content, audio, Internet TV, photos and text files on a HDTV set without needing to establish a direct connection between the PC and the TV set top box.

Instead, you attach the HDTV to a more flexible type of hardware adapter, available in a variety of sizes, shapes, and configurations, which then communicates to Vista's Media Center over either a wired or wireless home networking connection.

You also select and manage content -- which is stored on PCs, but displayed on very high resolution HDTV sets -- with the use of either a TV remote or a remote control unit that ships with the extender adapter hardware.

According to Microsoft officials, you can use the remote to pause a high-def DVD, for example, while you're moving from the living room to the kitchen. Then you can press a button on the remote unit to resume playback on another HDTV set in the other room, without missing any of the action.

Depending on how well the new Vista-enabled hardware delivers, it might serve to give the blue-laser DVD market a much needed shot in the arm, in that industry figures still show the numbers of fully "HDTV-enabled homes" to be abysmally low.

Consumers who have actually purchased HDTVs will now have more things they can do with the sets -- and those who haven't might grow more interested.

Will the extender technology spell the demise of emerging PC-TV combo devices from Gateway and Dell? Well, maybe those products were just novelty items, anyway. Who really wants to watch TV on a PC? The experience does seem more pleasant the other way around, right?

In any event, all together, at least five hardware vendors are unveiling extender hardware at CES 2008. In a keynote speech at this year's show, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division, announced that a device from Samsung called Home Digital Media Adapter (DMA) -- due out later this year -- will provide extender support for compatible Samsung HDTVs.

Meanwhile, Niveus launched a specialized extender device dubbed the Niveus Media Extender - EDGE, available immediately through some custom AV installers, that features Niveus' 3D user interface, high-end 1080p video, hi-fi sound, and the company's Glacier Passive Cooling system for quiet operation.

Supposedly, Media Center extender boxes are able to connect to the PCs over either a wired connection such as Ethernet or a wired connection -- although some might well question whether Wi-Fi provides nearly enough bandwidth to support transmission of high quality video images.

Another new product in the category, D-Link's DSM-750 MediaLounge HD Media Center Extender -- slated for availability this month at pricing of about $330 -- is a 17-inch black aluminum box, billed as operating over either type of connection.

D-Link's extender also comes with a USB 2.0 port for playback of HDTV videos, music and photos stored on USB flash drives or hard drives.

Meanwhile, Cisco's Linksys division has just released two extender devices also enabled for Wi-Fi: a small standalone extender called the DMA2100, priced at about $300, and the Wireless-N Extender for Windows Media Center, a device combining an extender and DVD player for pricing of around $350.

Unlike Samsung, HP is offering a Media Center extender that will reportedly work with any high-def TV, not just its own HDTVs. Slated for release some time in the first half of this year, HP's MediaSmart Receiver x280N is another extender designed to work over either wired or wireless home networks.

Interestingly, in the enterprise space, HP has been working lately on remote workstation technology that allows graphics displays outfitted with small hardware units to be used in a different room -- in this case, outside the data center -- than corporate blade computers. Also like Microsoft's extenders, HP's remote workstation approach is designed to reduce or eliminate wiring.

HP's technology, though, is based on the company's long-time Remote Graphics Software (RGS), a multi-display 2D/3D graphics package with advanced algorithms for compression and encryption.

So what explains this year's sudden surge of Microsoft Media Center extender hardware for Vista and HDTV? HP and Samsung were on the initial list of OEM partners for the first generation technology four years ago, but not so for the other vendors that are making announcements at CES this week.

The benefits of Vista and HDTV notwithstanding, Microsoft seems to have been making a concerted push to attract new hardware allies through a company-sponsored organization known as MCX (Media Center Extender) Partners.