Media Extender Links PC to TV

Here's the formula for the gadget of the year: a device that delivers Internet video on the TV. It sounds simple, but no one has really cracked this market, which should be huge.

Apple Inc., Sony Corp., Netgear Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc. are some of the big tech names angling in on it.

Not to be outdone, Microsoft Corp. has supplied hardware partners like Cisco Systems Inc. and D-Link Corp. with updated software and blueprints for the Extender for Windows Media Center, a box you put in your entertainment center and connect to your TV.

You control the extender with a remote, gaining access not only to the movies, music and photos stored on the PC, but also some free web videos and subscription movie services.

The first generation of extenders came out in 2005 for use with Windows XP, causing little excitement. The updated boxes, which work only with Windows Vista, started coming out in January.

Unfortunately, it's likely this generation of extenders will be met with as little enthusiasm as the first one. Maybe some other company, like Apple, will be the one to really spark people's interest in this category.

The main flaw is Microsoft's approach: it makes the software, and lets others build the hardware and provide services like web video. It's nice of Microsoft to let others get a piece of the action, but it makes for a poorly integrated mess of a system. You can't afford that in this category, which consumers are only just figuring out.

And speaking of figuring things out, Apple didn't exactly help by naming its competing extender, which came out last year, 'Apple TV'. But that device is dead easy to use, because Apple makes the software and the hardware. It sells the movies that play on it.

The remotes for these devices are perhaps the best illustration of their differences. Apple TV's remote has six buttons. The DMA 2200's remote has 48, many of them with cryptic little symbols. There's a large numeric keypad, while the oft-used Back button is tiny.

Apple TV lets you watch iTunes movies and YouTube videos. The Windows extender shows some clips selected by Microsoft, and works with Web movie rental services like Vongo, each of which has its own, sometimes confusing interface.

The funny thing is that Microsoft does have its own online video rental service that's easy to use and works well, but it's only for the Xbox360 game console.

The 360 also can do everything an extender can, and it's only a little more expensive, so it looks like a good value. But the console's cooling fans sound like a miniature vacuum cleaner, so it's understandable if people who are not gamers balk at it.

Unlike most Xbox 360 models and the Apple TV, the extenders don't have their own hard drives – all the content is streamed from the PC the moment before it's shown on the TV set. That means the speed of the connection is critical.

The extender can connect to a router via Wi-Fi or wired Ethernet, but the connection between the router and the PC is equally important.