Pros & Cons
-
- Easy config and network setup.
- Dual-band wireless.
- Lots of Internet media compatibility.
-
- Wireless high-def traffic reliable only at 5-GHz wireless-n.
- Needs a Vista PC on the network to function.
- High price.
There are a number of new media extender products arriving at this year's CES, but Linksys was good enough to give us a sneak peek at its new DMA2200 before the show. The DMA2200 is a prime example of what you can expect to see from the Windows-oriented media extender category this year, though I'm hoping there's room for a little improvement as we go along.
The DMA2200 is a sleek-looking black box that would look like a standard DVD player if it weren't for three antennas sprouting out the back. For those confused about the real purpose behind a media extender, you can think of it as a network bridge between your TV and your multimedia-carrying home PCs. That means it will live in your entertainment center, plugged into your TV and connecting to your home network via either wired or wireless.
Setup is fast and simple—provided you've got several ducks in a row. First, you'll need a Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate machine on the home network with Windows Media Center enabled. No, Windows XP Media Center won't do. Next, if you're connecting wirelessly, you'll need a draft-n-capable router running at 5 GHz. Yeah, the DMA2200 can talk 802.11g and even 802.11b, but on our lab tests, 11b is abjectly useless when it comes to running HD content, and 802.11g had enough skips and audio cutouts to make it just too annoying. Running draft-n at 5 GHz, on the other hand, bumped our throughput into the 90-megabit-per-second and above range, and that's fine for HD. If you're not in a draft-n mood, however, the DMA2200 can still satisfy—as long as you've got a long-enough Ethernet cable. Even at only 100 Mbps wired, HD content flowed perfectly. Last, you'll obviously need an HDTV to which the DMA2200 can connect with either standard component or HDMI connectors.
Once the above duckies are aligned, you'll run through two setup sequences. First, the DMA2200 will configure itself with a little prompting from you, via the remote. This involves the basics of language, date and time, and network connectivity. A note here: If you're running a dual-band wireless setup as we were (using our Editors' Choice Linksys WRT600N), you'll likely be running your draft-n traffic at 5 GHz and your 802.11b and 802.11g traffic at 2.4 GHz. The DMA2200 is also dual-band, so it will see both wireless networks and ask you to choose between them. Make sure that your 5-GHz network has a distinctive name because you'll want the 5-GHz throughput for HD, and the DMA2200 won't tell you which is which: It simply shows you both SSIDs.
This first setup sequence ends with an identity key that the DMA2200 and the Vista Media Center PC will use to find each other. At this point, just slap that setup CD into your Vista Media Center PC and run the wizard. Once the identity key is entered, the two will find each other on the network and you can begin to sync content. You can tell the DMA2200 to always scan certain folders on the Vista PC or also specify folders elsewhere on the home network, such as on a network-attached storage device. You'll be able to scan those folders on your TV screen from the DMA200 using your remote control. Find something you like? Simply click on it to initiate playback across the network.
Available content is determined by what Vista Media Center can handle. That includes digitized movies (up to 1080p HD), photos, and music. You can play DVDs off the DMA2200, but only at standard DVD format, though the player is upscaling, meaning it will play standard format on 720p, 1080i or 1080p HDTVs. You can't play an HD DVD disc in your PC's HD DVD drive and play that over the network because, apparently, Media Center still can't support that. However, if your Vista Media Center PC is equipped with a TV tuner, you'll be able to access program scheduling, set up recording sessions, and do playback—and you'll be able to do it either from your PC or from your TV with the DMA2200's remote control.
Last, there are numerous hooks to online media content. These include preset Internet radio stations (a good-size library of stations to which you can add your own), as well as links to MSN's video library and a wide variety of others that you can install on a plug-in basis. That means you'll initiate the plug-in installation using your Vista Media Center PC, after which the DMA2200 will be able to show available content menus, initiate movie rentals and purchases, and do playback across the network. We had links to sources as diverse as MovieLink and SHO premium content. To keep your credit cards safe, these content sites can be protected via access codes.—
Great Feature Set, But How Does It Work?
Overall, once I had the DMA2200 up and running, my feelings were a little mixed. On the one hand, the functionality is great and gives you far more choices than just your straight cable box. On the other hand, it costs a pretty penny—and I'm not talking about just the $349 list price, though that's a tad high, too. Basically, you'll need to dedicate a Vista Media Center machine to the DMA2200 in order for it to work as anything other than a DVD player. On our tests, disconnecting the Vista machine actually crashed the DMA2200, though I'm told that in production-level units it will just say that it can't find the Media Center PC any longer. The reliance on the PC isn't Linksys's fault, it's how Microsoft's Media Center architecture is built. But I wish these extenders had more autonomy—say, by way of an OS that they could run without an attached PC, and maybe a hard disk that they could use to store their own content.
The $349 price tag was another sticking point for me. We've got a $270 Xbox 360 sitting in the lab, and that can act as a full-on Vista-based media extender, too. Same interface as the DMA2200 and even a similar setup process. What the Xbox doesn't have is dual-band draft-n wireless support and Gigabit Ethernet. But at 100 Mbps using an Ethernet cable, HD playback on the Xbox 360 was just as sweet as on the DMA2200. Linksys has a cheaper version of the DMA2200, appropriately called the DMA2100, which is the same platform minus the DVD player, and it runs up to $199. Given that most home entertainment setups will already have a DVD player—or even an HD DVD or Blu-ray player—I think the DMA2100 is going to be the more popular choice.
More Media Extender Reviews:
Final Thoughts
Linksys DMA2200
The Linksys DMA2200 media extender is a solid entry into the Vista-compatible media extender space. There will be more of these from other vendors, but the DMA2200 differentiates itself with dual-band Wi-Fi, an DVD player, and loads of Internet media plug-ins. Unfortunately, it's also got a fairly hefty price tag.