Barb’s Connected World

Posts Tagged ‘Media Center’

Intel’s Wireless Display fills the big gap in my Windows Media Center home theater experience.

This technology, first demo’d at CES 2010, may be one of the bigger successes in the HTPC and networking arenas as new computers (currently only laptops) hit the market with the Intel 2010 i3/i5/i7 processors. In a nutshell, I can use a laptop computer with an Intel i5 processor, Intel’s embedded graphics chip, Intel’s 6200 WiFi adapter, and a Netgear Push to TV bridge to stream any content I want to any TV connected to a PTV device over HDMI. The tiny Netgear device is connected to the TV via HDMI, and everything happens over a wireless Personal Area Network between my laptop and the Push to TV device.

So why is this such a big gap filler for me? My current home theater setup includes V2 Media Center extenders connected to the three HD TV’s in my home, with the Media Center desktop residing in my loft home office. What I can’t get with this set up (without buying a PC and connecting one to every television) are all the Internet based Media Center extra’s such as Internet TV and Netflix.  Problem solved. With WiDi, I’ve got a nice, light (4.2 pound) 13.3 inch widescreen laptop to use anywhere in my home, around town, or on the road AND I’m able to display all of these Media Center extras. I gain the ability to browse the web and display anything I want on my TV’s.

The technology is nearly idiot proof. Connect the Netgear device via the included HDMI cable. Hit the special button on the laptop keyboard and enter a 4 digit code after your device is found. All the networking setup is handled without user intervention. WPA2 security is configured via WPS (wireless provisioning services) behind the scenes to secure the Personal Area Network (PAN) connection between the laptop and the PTV device. An ICS connection to the Intel internal WiFi is also established behind the scenes. You won’t see this in any of Windows 7’s GUI’s or discover it with netsh, but it is present. In fact, while the 6200 Intel NIC is a/b/g/n capable, when using WiDi with the Netgear device, it is not possible to connect to the 5GHz radio in a dual band router. An error message is returned stating only 2.4 GHz is supported. Some additional good news, even in my overly saturated 2.4 GHz environment of 19 different SSID’s, I had absolutely no interference.

My 52 inch TV, Netgear PTV attached via HDMI, waiting for a connection

WiDi equipped Laptop, connected and ready to rock and roll

The quality is awesome. My recorded (via cable card and OCUR/DCT) content looks great. (All the DRM rules apply here.)

Some HD Recorded TV..

Stargate Atlantis in full HD, via WiDi

Internet TV (the missing piece in my home theater experience) in Windows Media Center looks good.

Star Trek content, Windows Media Center Internet TV

Streaming Star Trek from Windows Media Center via WiDi.

Anything I want using the Media Center interface is streamed to the connected TV, music.. pix… videos..

Music – WMC via WiDi

Anything displayed on your desktop can be streamed. Want to read email? Use Windows Live Messenger? Participate in newsgroups or forums? Browse the web? Yep, it’s in there.

Windows 7 – Everything and anything over WiDi

And for me, there is another huge gap filler. My main beef with Windows Media Center Internet TV is the lack of HD content. With a 52 inch state of the art 1080p TV, can you blame me for wanting HD streaming? Here’s the good news. If one of the networks or other source offers an asset in HD for streaming, WiDi handles it effortlessly. As shown earlier in this post, Windows Media Center Internet TV offers a large amount of CBS content, including (at least at the present time) all three seasons of Star Trek, the original series. Inside Media Center, only SD is available, but I can navigate to the CBS website and view the remastered Star Trek original series in glorious full screen HD.

Needless to say, I’m a very happy camper these days.

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, media center, Media Center Windows 7, windows media center, WiDi, Intel Wireless Display, how-to, Tip

Linksys is having a fire sale on the Media Center Extender model DMA-2100 – 50% off the original $300 unrealistic price.  Don’t get me wrong, for $150, if you have a Vista PC and need an extender that is significantly quieter than an Xbox 360, this is a good deal.  It has dual band wireless but does not have a TOSLINK digital audio port, only the COAX digital audio is present on this device.

Note that now that this is officially discontinued, there definitely won’t be firmware updates to provide additional codec compatibility. This would seem to mean that the more expensive DMA-2200 (has an on board DVD player that isn’t all that great but does have the Toslink port) probably won’t see firmware updates either.

This is a V2 extender that works with Vista and Windows 7.  Note that Linksys (and everyone else) also killed of their V1 extenders, which worked only with Windows XP Media Center Edition.

All things considered, as long as you understand you are buying a discontinued product, this is a pretty good deal. I suspect that the price may drop even further as time goes on.

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, media center, Media Center Windows 7, windows media center, Tip

Started with a ASUS 1000HEB EeePC (Best Buy sells this, got it on sale for $299). Upgraded to 2 GB RAM, swapped out the hard drive for a 7200RPM 320GB Momentus drive and installed W7 clean. All the drivers were either inbox or on the ASUS site. Max Volar tuner driver was on WU.

They say a picture is worth 10,000 words. So I’m saving 20K words with two pictures.

Bottom line: My EeePC (1000HEB) is running W7, and plugging in my MaxVolar Hybrid USB tuner yields just what I expected. Awesome..

The screen on the Netbook is actually quite good. Not sure what this will do to battery life

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, media center, windows media center, how-to, Tip,challenge-laptop

The HP MediaSmart Connect x280n ships with a handheld remote that is worthy of its own blog review. Most of the remote controls that I’ve seen shipping with Media Center Computer, Media Center Extenders, etc. are lacking in one or more key features. For one thing, if it doesn’t have some kind of back lighting, it isn’t usable for me in a home theater environment. A couple of the remotes I’ve received along the way from Microsoft and others DO have back lighting, so fortunately, since these things are interchangeable, it hasn’t been a problem for me. My other big gripe is that I have other components with remotes (you know, TV’s, home theater receivers, X10 lighting, and other components like Xboxen, DVD player’s, et all) and I hate remote clutter. For years I’ve used Philips Prontos. And I’ve programmed them with macros that are activity based. Perfect for my needs.

HP has definitely raised the bar when it comes to supplying a premium hand held remote. The images here are NOT to scale and are meant to show the layout and shape as well as features. Both the D-Link (left) and the Linksys (right) are pretty basic remotes. And they do what they are supposed to do. The D-Link DSM-750 has a secondary proprietary MediaLounge interface and their remote works seamlessly with it as well as the Media Center interface.

So what do I like and what do I think sets this remote apart? First, there is a very tactile cursor pad. Then there is the blue back lighting so I don’t have to fumble in the dark. The remote includes universal remote functions and allows you to add 4 additional components (TV, set top box, DVD, Aux, etc.). I haven’t set anything up yet, but for most people this will be more than enough to banish other remotes. There is no macro capability, so my Pronto will stay on the coffee table. And if someone wants to supply a Pronto ccf/pcf file and upload it to remotecentral.com.. I might go the other way and include a device on my Pronto. (Yeah, I can use “learning” and do it all myself). Another really big plus is the “sleep” button. (Think “Green”).

A final BIG plus that I want to highlight today is that the “Green Button” provides one touch access to turn the x280n on and fire up the Media Center Extender interface, and get you connected without going through the MediaSmart menu. Otherwise, you press the power button to reach the main menu and can select the MCX or HP interface from there.

My only complaint so far is that I prefer the play button to be centered, larger and standout more like on the D-Link remote and some of the MS reference designs.