windows media center or microsoft extender

[GOG427]

well i got media center on 1 of my pc yesterday ,i havent had time play around to much yet. i was wondering whats the diffrenace between using media center and a extender "witch is a top box i think". i have looked at the site its really beats around the bush alot.

[cmalton]

well i got media center on 1 of my pc yesterday ,i havent had time play around to much yet. i was wondering whats the diffrenace between using media center and a extender "witch is a top box i think". i have looked at the site its really beats around the bush alot.

Think of a Xbox 360 as the 2nd generation media extender. The first generation extenders by companies like Linksys connected to the Media Center in a kind of terminal mode where all of the processing was done on the PC and the window was just displayed on the TV. The 360 from what I've heard has more of the media center stuff built in, so less processing on the computer and more on the 360, seems to make things faster. Also, the 360 supports high definition streaming of TV and videos, which the first generation systems don't. Also consider that a 360 core (here in Canada) is $399 and the Linksys extender is $399 and the answer is pretty easy. I have 1 premium 360 right now for my downstairs TV and next year I'm going to buy another one and put it upstairs just for watching TV through the media center.