What is needed for your modern Home Media Center?
With todays modern world always being switched on and connected, whether it is a Home PC, Laptop, Mobile Phone, Games Consule or even your Hdi TV, what is apparent, is that the digital format is the most sociable format the world has ever witnessed. With so many devices to capture our memories that will also playback the memories and creations that are shared with us, a central location to display all of our whims is becoming more urgent. Because we want to share …….
Introduction
The task is to determine the method which enables the convergence of the variety of technological formats that each store or produce the media ensemble that represents our living life. Whether it is a document, a picture, a video, a tv programme or a webpage. We are surrounded by devices that capture and reproduce the media we create.
The most obvious is the PC or Laptop, which will share and play all our files, our mobile phones also connect and share with the “computer”. The methods of communication are either a wired network, a wireless network or a bluetooth network. We are familiar with the USB and connecting phones, cameras and camcorders to the computer to transfer/ share / copy the data stored on our portable devices. So therefore the computer is beginning to look like the central domain for storing all of our media.
This is fine if we wish to view this on our own, but a group of people huddled around a 17” inch computer screen is not the best solution if we wish to share our media with loved ones or friends. Truth be known, computers same as phones, are quite private conduits of our information and sharing is ok if one is in control of the media being shared.
Welcoming the TV to the digital centrepiece
The obvious solution to sharing the wealth of media is to share it on a device that has always been known and designed for several people to sit around and watch at the same time. This is the television.
Linksys have developed a “Media Extender” which permits material stored on PC, Laptop or phone to be wirelessley transmitted to the “Media Extender”. The media extender is connected to the television via many of the different methods, such as Scart Socket or HD cable. The media extender makes use of your Homes wireless network to receive media sent from your device. However despite the technology being around since 2007, the take up and reliability of the media extender has resulted in many devices being discontinued.
The problem with the media extender is that first it relies on windows Vista and the media center that is packaged with Vista. This immediately prevents XP users from using it.
Other issues with the media extender are that it doesn’t play all file formats and that they suffer from lagging when streaming a video from a computer as wireless networks are not quite efficient enough to provide the speeds required.
One solution to the XP issue is to use microsofts own Xbox 360 games consule to act as a media extender. This works with XP and Vista and plays all formats that Media Player can play with the added bonus of being a games consule. There are 2 main types which range from £139 – £249 one that has a 20GB Hard disk and one that has a 120GB hard disk. The Xbox will need a wireless card which is sold separatey but this also suffers from the poor speed of the wireless network.
A solution exists to overcome the poor performance associated with wireless and that is to hard wire a network between computer and the media extender. This has been made very easy by Linksys (from Cisco) developing adapters that use your Homes electricity wiring to provide a network carrier. How it works is that the computer is attached to one hub via an ethernet (network) cable (One hub has the capability to attach 4 ethernet (network) cables)and the hub is connected to the electricity supply. A second hub (supplied having only one ethernet connection) is then attached to the media extender. With the use of software supplied, the home (wired) network is then setup. See PDF
The powerline network adapters provide speeds that are double the wireless network capability and is a solution to provide seemless playback of all media. And cost £110 – £130 See Amazon
Also by purchasing more than pair of powerline network adapters it enables other devices in other rooms to be hooked up to your home network with ease.
Conclusion
If you want a home media centre today that combines all your media then it is suggested that the following setup is used.
Xbox 360 (20GB) cost £146.99 Amazon Here
· Includes a hard drive to save games, download new content and play key original Xbox games
· Xbox Live ready
· Includes a Wireless Controller
· Includes a Component HD AV Cable which is optimized for high-definition as well as standard TVs
· Enjoy your movies with progressive scan DVD playback
· Stream your music and digital photos from a wide range of portable music players and digital cameras
· Connect to your Windows XP or Windows Media Center PC.
Linksys PLK300 Powerline AV Network adapter cost £111.16 Amazon Here
Total cost £258.15
However, it is also suggested that this option would be held off until September as a new release of media extenders are due to be released by Microsoft which will hopefully address the issues with past attempts.
If you would still prefer to use the Xbox 360 option then it would also be suggested to opt for the more expensive Xbox which has 120GB of hard disk storage. This adds an extra £67.93 to the cost bringing the total to £326.08
The Xbox solution is a noisier solution than a media extender due to it’s cooling fan but it works with current operating systems without the need to upgrade to Vista.
I would be inclined to wait and see what the new breed of media extenders bring to the experience due to be around in September 2009.
