Fully Functioning Deathstar

by | Feb 9, 2007 | Uncategorized | 4 comments

I finally…finally have my Media Center up and running. Tonight I snagged myself a Linksys Media Extender (with an Ethernet cable, it connects my TV to my computer).

On the 534th day of construction, I now pronounce: It is Cool.

What is a Media Center? Well, it’s something that Brian has had for about three years. And it’s something that in another three years, most people will have — and it’ll be much easier to do than what I went through.

Basically, the ole Media Center is a central storage unit for all my media (MP3s, TV, photos). My newest component (Linksys Media Extender) is the gateway between my computer and my home theatre system. So I can listen to all my music on my stereo, watch TV (and pause(!) live TV) on my actual television set, record television (no longer need a VCR), watch slide shows (much more entertaining than it sounds).

These are the components of my system:

Gateway 4016 Desktop Computer – $399 : All systems now come with a ridiculous amount of RAM, CPU power and the other tech stuff. The most important aspect of this computer is the Hard Drive. 200GBs. Nice.


Dual Tv Tuner Card – $179: Once installed in the desktop, this little device can decode TV signals (not the right word, but I don’t care). It’s a dual tuner so I can watch one station and record another.

Linksys Media Extender – $79 Snagged this tonight for about 1/4 of what they go for. I could’ve used an X-Box or X-Box 360 to do the same thing. Because of this, I don’t have to worry about more computer stuff like audio or video.


Microsoft Remote Control – $42.00 I realize now that I don’t really need this. It’s just a standard remote control — but with a green button that will start the Media Center. My logitech remote will be able to handle these duties — and then I’ll put this remote up on Ebay.

So for $699, I have a Media Center, a computer (because my old one kept crashing). I didn’t need the remote as my current Logitech remote can handle those duties.

4 Comments

  1. John
    John on February 11, 2009 at 12:00 am

    Are you able to stream content that is on the laptop to the TV/Entertainment unit too or does it all have to be on the media center?

  2. Ryan
    Ryan on February 11, 2009 at 12:00 am

    Sort of. The content has to be recognized by the Media Center. All the extender does is, well, extend the Media Center capabilities to a TV. It has enough outputs to hook up correctly to the home theatre system (Component, S-Video, RCA, USB, etc).

    The workaround, of course, is that I just plug the laptop into the network, let the Media Center see the Network folder, and go from there.

  3. Brian G
    Brian G on February 11, 2009 at 12:00 am

    I love my Media Center, it’s brilliant. I had a TiVo, which was good, but the Media Center…being able to watch stuff I download, listening to mp3’s , photos, all that fun stuff. There’s also all kinds of little downloads you can get like the ones available at The Green Button.

  4. Eileen
    Eileen on February 11, 2009 at 12:00 am

    So this means you can watch movies on your TV now, right? Right? Or did I miss something…. I’m pretty sure I missed something. This does explain the 12 hours of watching you did on the weekend, though. So, congratulations on your Deathstar. I’m sure you will both be very happy. (That is pretty cool about being able to pause TV though. See, I did read through most of it!)