November 19, 2004 spout

A Reason For A Home Gigabit Network

I finally figured out why I need a gigabit LAN, especially at my house: the Windows Media Center Extender (mine’s for my XBOX, which I bought especially for this purpose). It lets you get at the music, video, pictures, radio, PVR, live TV and pretty much everything else that Media Center exposes, but from any TV in the house and all with the fabulous 10-fit UI that MCE provides. I had to duct tape down the extra long wire from my office to my bedroom (I explicitly left out a network connection in the bedroom when I wired the place -- who knew?) and my megabit LAN works just fine, but I can see needing more when I put one of these things on every TV in the house, which is pretty likely, since it rocks so hard. Wahoo!

Oh, and as if that weren’t enough, the XBOX Media Center Extender kit comes with a remote and remote sensor that works for playing DVDs, too, thus saving you the trouble of buying both. I’m in love!