What media centre extender

[David A]

A fairly simple requirement I think. I've a media center pc (that does other things hidden away and wired into the TV in the lounge, which is great for watching the library of tv shows in films.

However, I'd like to extend it (wirelessly if poss) to the TV in the bedroom upstairs. I gather I need a "media center extender" but not a clue which one (some seem only to run off local HDs rather than a media center pc).

Quality doesn't need to be great, hdmi out would be a plus, failing that component out. Sound would only be 2 channel upstairs so nothing clever needed there. It does need to support divx, h.264, avi etc etc

Any pointers folks?

[aclivity]

I use an old xbox with xbox media centre installed to do this, but it is a bit large and noisy. Popcorn hour seems to be pretty good.

[David A]

aclivity said:

I use an old xbox with xbox media centre installed to do this

Thats kindof what I'm after - but smaller, quieter and cheap!

Or will any old xbox 360 be able to do this?

Dave

[aclivity]

David A said:

aclivity said:

I use an old xbox with xbox media centre installed to do this

Thats kindof what I'm after - but smaller, quieter and cheap!

Or will any old xbox 360 be able to do this?

Dave

Mines an original xbox - cost was:

£15 for xbox from eBay
£5 for a wireless range extender (again, eBay)
Borrowed a USB adaptor and a copy of MechAssault
A couple of hours faffing time.

Well, to be completely honest it was a lot of hours faffing time, and it would have been £15 cheaper if I hadn't bricked the first xBox (that I was given).

I believe the 360 can stream if you have a wired connection, if not you will need something like my wireless range extender - this is similar to the one I bought: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Belkin-54G-Wireless-Access-p...

I believe Microsoft sell a branded Xbox 360 one for about £60.

Or you could use powerline adaptors? A colleague of mine uses those instead of the wireless route.

[David A]

Having thought about it, the xbox solution would probably be too noisy and big.

Are there any nice shiney small boxes (and cheap!) that would do the job ?

[aclivity]

I think the "Popcorn Hour" devices are about the best that I've heard of, but not exactly "cheap" unless your definition of cheap is around £200. A fading memory of an advertising email from a few weeks ago had me looking around on the Expansys site ... not sure of the quality or capability of this, but it seems to do what you are looking for:

http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=183670

[David A]

Thanks, got bored of waiting and needed to spend money on a gadget so have ordered one of these plus wireless dongle:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/188647

Seems to get good reviews etc. Will report back later

[aclivity]

David A said:

Thanks, got bored of waiting and needed to spend money on a gadget so have ordered one of these plus wireless dongle:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/188647

Seems to get good reviews etc. Will report back later

Yeah, having read a bit more the one that I linked to above seems to have some good points that are lost in a sea of flaws (no 264 support, only uses shared folders instead of media streaming servers). I'll be interested to know how the one you have chosen shapes up, the xBMC is doing a good job, but something smaller and neater would be nice.