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Getting your digital music, photos and videos to show up in your living room can be a tall order. Our media receiver Labs showed that of all the options out there none are perfect, but the winner was the superb (but rather noisy) Xbox 360 - currently the only device on the market that acts as a Media Center Extender.

HP and Linksys released Media Center Extenders in 2004, but they didn't take off in the US and never made it across the pond. They're back for 2008, this time from Linksys, D-Link and Niveus

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- and they're coming to the UK.

By streaming the Windows Media Center interface directly to a receiver, you get all the same features as when using the computer locally, but in a small, silent box. This includes access to the PC's TV tuners to stream live broadcasts, watching or scheduling TV recordings, or viewing music, photos or video.

Worthwhile improvements for version 2 include DivX and XviD support, 802.11n and support for Vista's excellent Media Center. Media Center Extenders are also slated to be embedded in television sets, which could provide the seamless living-room integration this technology has been crying out for. Assuming the price is low enough, these extenders could be just the ticket for sharing PC-based content across networks, and we're keenly awaiting review units.

Next: 2 - Rich Internet Applications

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