Need a cheap way to get the media—even the high-definition stuff—on your PC to your TV? The SageTV HD Media Extender lets you watch live or recorded HDTV programming as well as online video, music, and photos on any TV in your home. Since it's a true media extender, you don't have to transfer files to the actual box. While it's not as dead simple to use as, say, the Apple TV, this device does an excellent job of streaming beautiful HD video.

Since the HD Media Extender comes with no software and doesn't work as a standalone box, you'll need to buy a license to use the device. SageTV sells a package that includes one HD Media Extender and one license for $249.95 (the HD Media Extender alone is $199.95). One license will work in conjunction with one or more TV tuner cards installed in one computer to watch live television, record shows using a schedule guide, and place-shift live programming like a TiVo. Additional licenses ($29 each) are required for each additional host PC. For standalone video, the HD Media Extender supports AVI, H.264, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VOB, and WMV videos at up to 1080p resolution.

The HD Media Extender comes with a full-featured remote control and looks like your typical A/V component. Its slim, black plastic front panel contains the usual Stop, Play, Pause, and Search controls, along with a Standby switch and two nonfunctioning—and therefore somewhat odd—USB ports. (In the device's PDF user manual, the company acknowledges that these ports aren't currently active.) The rear panel, meanwhile, offers HDMI, component, S-Video, and composite A/V outputs. You get only composite cables in the box, so you'll have to budget for more cords to take advantage of the other outputs. There's also an optical digital audio output along with an Ethernet port. Unfortunately, Wi-Fi isn't supported: If your PC is in the basement and your home isn't prewired for Ethernet, this product isn't for you. On the plus side, because the HD Media Extender uses wired Ethernet to connect to your home network, you're virtually guaranteed sufficient throughput for high-definition video.

I tested the HD Media Extender by connecting it via HDMI to a 42-inch Panasonic plasma HDTV and ran the OS X version of the SageTV client software on a Core 2 Duo iMac equipped with 4GB of RAM. Before I began, I updated my test unit to the latest firmware, but I ran into one major setup glitch. The media extender repeatedly hung upon choosing the language within the Setup sequence. Once that screen appeared, the entire unit froze and would respond again only after a cold reboot. An update of the SageTV software from 6.2.10 to the 6.3.5 beta on the Mac, however, solved that problem neatly.

The extender's interface was generally easy to navigate, though I could have used fewer dialog boxes. Some basic tasks such as browsing for media or importing files take more button presses than I would have expected. The UI itself is very sharp and attractive, though, whether on the computer-based software or the similar on-screen TV menu system.

When I streamed some high-definition NASA test videos from the iMac, which included 720p and 1080i computer animations with lots of detailed textures, they looked positively gorgeous on the plasma TV. (Also keep in mind that my television doesn't support 1080p, but the HD Media Extender does). Colors were sharp and vibrant, and there was no motion blur or other artifacts. In fact, it looked identical to playback directly on the PC—just bigger and better. Older AVI files in standard definition looked fine, too. However, some other files I tried—including high-definition 720p Internet trailers of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Iron Man from IGN either didn't play back at all or displayed pixelated video that looked awful. Bottom line: You may need to convert some files before they'll play correctly on the HD Media Extender.

Additionally, I listened to music, displayed photo slideshows (JPEG, PNG, and GIF files are supported), checked the weather, and even watched YouTube videos all from my living-room couch: Anyone who has tried the Nintendo Wii's built-in Internet features has an idea of what to expect here. I had no problems at all, and everything looked and sounded excellent.

The HD Media Extender, however, has a few limitations. Unlike the Linksys Media Center Extender with DVD (DMA2200), the SageTV box doesn't include a DVD tray. So you'll need to keep an external DVD player around to stream content from your PC's DVD player. Though inconvenient, this is not a tremendous drawback—the lack of Wi-Fi is more troubling. If you have a wireless network, having to add Ethernet cable is never a good thing.

If you want wireless capability, the identically priced Linksys DMA 2100 offers HD video over Wi-Fi, provided that you're running a 5-GHz 802.11n network. Otherwise, the HD Media Extender is a useful box at a reasonable price. Still, it isn't simple enough to use that I'd recommend it to the average person. Some fiddling with file formats, aspect ratios, and settings are required to get the best video performance. But although the HD Media Extender isn't as simple to use as, say, the Apple TV, at least you're not locked into the iTunes universe, as you are with the Apple TV.

On the other hand, a $399 Xbox 360 does a lot of what the HD Media Extender does and is a stellar gaming system to boot (albeit twice as expensive). A Windows Media Center PC would be more expensive still, although then you could record video and store it in the living room, instead of on a remote PC somewhere else in the house. But if you're on the adventurous side and don't mind navigating numerous menus or doing a little tweaking, the SageTV HD Media Extender lets you access all kinds of media residing on your PC—including beautiful high-definition video—inexpensively, and right from the living room sofa.

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