Vista Media Center really sets itself apart from any other DVR solution out there, and the single greatest advantage Vista Media Center (VMC) has over the other options -- like the TiVo HD -- is the ability to have multiple Media Center Extenders. There really isn't any better way out there that will allow you to watch premium HD cable in every room of your house while at the same time centralizing all your media in one place. When VMC first hit the streets, there was only one HD extender: the Xbox 360. But the problem, of course, is that the Xbox is noisy and will always be a gaming console first and a Media Center Extender second. Well, things have really heated up in the extender market recently when both Linksys and D-Link released Media Center Extenders and HP upgraded its MediaSmart HDTVs.

The idea of having a centralized DVR with a bunch of tuners and other HD content stored on a hard disc and then streaming it around the house in HD, is pretty fantastic. Up until now the Xbox360 has been pretty much the only option for Windows Media Center fans who want to stream HD cable -- and soon DirecTV -- around the house, but as great of a box as it is, it isn't perfect. Our biggest complaint is the noise and the size, and if those are important to you as well, then you may want to check out Chris Laniers's review of the Linksys DMA2200. Overall Chris seemed to like the little guy, but considering it sells for almost the same price as the Xbox360 core system and does less, we'd suspect the only reason to go for the Linksys is because it is smaller and most importantly, it's silent.

Remember those Linksys Media Center Extenders that popped up yesterday? Well, today the duo has officially been priced, but there's no good news for folks hoping for these two to undercut the other guys. Up first is the DMA2200, which will of course sport an integrated "upscaling DVD player" along with the obligatory dual-band Wireless N functionality, while the DMA2100 arrives in a smaller package (see it up close after the break) but keeps to the basics by omitting the optical drive. Both boxes are set to land this November, and while the DVD playin' DMA2200 will run you $349.99, you can save $50 by opting for the lesser-spec'd sibling.

Want to spring out of your Windows Media Center situation, but don't have any good options? Well, you're in luck, because the good folks over at Linksys have whipped up a couple of wireless Media Center Extenders which might just do the trick... or wreck your home life. Feast your eyes on the DMA 2100 and DMA 2200 (pictured), two new offerings from the router-maker sure to please some of the people some of the time. Specs are thin right now, but what we do know is that the DMA 2200 sports an upscaling DVD player, both units have a "learning" remote, and the Extenders will be available sometime in November. For now, enjoy the photos, and your wild dreams of "sharing photos, music and movies" with friends and family.

[Thanks, Gordon]

It looks like Cisco is about to make its biggest push into the consumer market to date, with BusinessWeek reporting that the company is readying a "souped-up" set-top box that'll supposedly combine a number of different products into one. Of course, as BusinessWeek points out, this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, especially given the company's recent acquisitions of Linksys, Scientific-Atlanta, and KiSS Technology. As you may be able to surmise by that confluence of companies, the new do-it-all box will apparently be networked like nobody's business (wireless, naturally), including the ability to pull content off the Internet and distribute it to other devices around the house. It'll reportedly include its own web browser as well. While Cisco's pulling all the strings, it apparently won't be slapping its own name on the boxes, selling them instead directly to consumers under the Linksys brand and offering 'em up to various cable companies. If all goes as planned, you should be able to snag one for yourself by the end of this year or early next year.

[Thanks, Mercurial]

It's a good thing we all have our OTA antennas ready because we're going to need them to enjoy the latest in HD entertainment: MovieBeam. Disney started testing this back in 2003 and now it looks like it's ready to go and in HD to boot. No firm release date yet It is availabe in some ares now and Cisco's Linksys division is going to make the STB and both Cisco and Intel are helping to foot the bill. If we're lucky there may even be Viiv support.

MovieBeam will be available in 23 cities and come preloaded with 100 films from most of the major studios. Considering the price of $200 plus a monthly and per movie fee, I wonder how many people are going to take advantage of this, not to mention how this will effect our OTA HD that we love so much. They are distributing the content with datacasting and I can only imagine where they are getting the wireless bandwidth from. Now we just need one to test in the HDBeat labs. This should be interesting to watch develop.

Linksys is the next to jump headfirst into the living room, with this networked DVD player (DVD? that's so old school), but wait, it's got next gen features with this old-gen tech. It will connect to the internet for it's program guide, streaming media, video on demand and other content besides playing DVD's and WMV.

No word on DRM, will this work with Viiv, Media Center, HANA or any of the other alphabet soup of technologies shooting our way this year? No word yet, but this will probably still be a cheaper source of high definition content than HD-DVD or Blu-ray players will be this year. No word either on price, although it is shipping "soon".
Features:

• 1920x1080 playback
• Playback in Windows Media Video 9 HD, DivX HD, Nero Digital, XviD, MPEG-1, 2 and 4, WMA, WMA Pro, MP3, and Ogg Vorbis
• Built-in WLAN 802.11g connection for cable-free access to the Internet or home PC
• Ethernet 10/100 technology
• HDMI connection
• Online Electronic Program Guide (EPG)
• WebRadio 3 with more than 3,000 radio stations
• Online weather forecasts for any continent, country or town
• StockView where you can check and convert currency values
• Online games
• Video-on-Demand - availability depending on the area

No, we're never satisfied. You'd think that just having the ability to stream HDTV over WiFi would be good enough, but it's not. We want it to be flawless; no hiccups, stutters, pixelation, nothing. Since we don't have a hard-wired Ethernet solution, nor a screaming Ethernet over Coax option just yet, we took the plunge and snapped up another router: the Linksys WRT55AG.

While the picture above may look like a funky blue insect, it's actually our new 802.11a router sitting on top of our 802.11g router. The longer antennas are the high gain range extenders that didn't really help our HDTV, but now we can sit in our neighbor's bathroom and surf the web on Sunday mornings. Find out after the jump how we set this configuration up and if it helped bring HDTV perfection to our Xbox 360.

As the convergence race heats up, Microsoft is not sitting on the sidelines, as last week at the IBC show in Amsterdam they shed more light on their plans for IPTV devices with SBC, Intel, Motorola, Linksys and others.  Among the announcements made for NTSC markets were:

• Previously announced Scientific Atlanta set top boxes including SD and HD receivers and DVRs, as well as IP-over-coax and DVB support
• A Thomson/Intel box that is said to be commercially available, supporting Microsoft's IPTV Edition platform. Expandable to include DVR features, it also supports Windows Media 9, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 encoded sources.
• A system-on-a-chip developed with Sigma Designs specifically intended to support all IPTV edition features and lower cost so that it can be included in set top boxes, TV's, DVD players and gaming consoles.

I don't think this nearly answers the question of where the Media Center Edition platform's future lies, but Microsoft is clearly doing everything they can to make sure they have their devices at the heart of your digital entertainment center of the future.