Right
on cue, D-Link has made its own
Media Center Extender official on the same day as
Linksys. The DSM-750, which strangely boasts the exact same model number as
a different product we heard about at CES, becomes the latest in the firm's MediaLounge lineup and enables "high-speed, uninterrupted wireless (or wired) streaming and sharing of HD / SD video, movies, digital photos and music," regardless of where your PC is located. The device features dual-band draft Wireless N technology, silent operation, a wireless remote, USB 2.0 port for accessing external storage, and a 10 / 100 Ethernet jack. Catch it this November for $349.99, and check out a bevy of photos (including a few hands-on) in the gallery below.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
E71 @ Sep 26th 2007 8:04PM
D-Link are very good at producing stuff that don't work. Take a look at the DI-624 for example. They ought to be shot just for that monstrosity.
JoeStalin @ Sep 26th 2007 8:16PM
MS really doesn't want these things to catch on. I mean these things are what 8 months late and come in at this price point? Without a DVD let alone HD-DVD or BR? I don't remember seeing pricing on the Linksys line, but you might as well just get a slew of 360's for your house. Nice how that worked out.
jim @ Sep 26th 2007 8:20PM
at that price why wouldnt you just get an xbox 360?
K @ Sep 26th 2007 9:26PM
ditto
Paul @ Sep 26th 2007 8:28PM
Yeah I really dont get the media center extender thing AT ALL. First of all for $350 why wouldnt you just buy an Xbox 360 or a Playstation 3 and reap the extra benefits. Second why just a media center extender and not also just a media extender for those people who dont use Windows Media Center. Weird...
Marshall @ Sep 26th 2007 8:35PM
Wow, I gotta agree. Swing and a miss. This needs to be $200-250, unless it provides a better experience than the xbox. And I thought I heard Vista only, which would be forgivable, if the Xbox hadn't already established XP support. Maybe I'm wrong, but I guess I'll find out in a couple days when I get my hands on this thing.
Marshall
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The Real HT Info Podcast
JoeStalin @ Sep 26th 2007 8:38PM
I love my extenders and 360 don't get me wrong I've been using them for about three years now. The only real draw I had to these things was something plenty cheaper than the 360 and SILENT. It remains to be seen how these things handle HD as they have far less horsepower than the 360. Also, I am looking forward to the new codec support down the road.
Marshall @ Sep 27th 2007 7:55AM
I'll Give you silent, but an xbox 360 is the same price, no?
We need more details, hopefully at digital life, but so far...
D-link extender:
Small/silent
Divx/xvid?
Cons:
Price
Vista Only?
X-box 360:
Same price as D-link, $350
Plays Games
20GB HD
Downloadable HD content
Cons:
Not Silent
Does not play Divx/xvid and other advanced formats w/o transcoding?
I don't own an Xbox, is there anything on the list I'm missing?
Marshall
---------------
The Real HT Info Podcast
RyanTV @ Sep 26th 2007 8:40PM
am i just totally missing the HDMI port on this thing?
Jerry @ Sep 26th 2007 9:01PM
Take a look through the pics, it does have HDMI and even optical audio... but either way I won't be buying it at this price point. Maybe at $200... but at $350 I'll stick with the 360.
Jerry @ Sep 26th 2007 8:48PM
forget it. i was so excited about these extenders and couldn't wait to buy one, but at $350 I'd rather buy an xbox 360 which will do the same thing PLUS allow me to play the occasional game.
So sad...
zik @ Sep 26th 2007 8:59PM
These extenders are priced way higher than they should be if these folks intend for these to catch on. Why would anyone spend $350 for an EXTENDER? When you can buy a G3 HD-DVD player for less than $350, it's really hard to swallow that a simple media center extender would be worth that much. I mean it doesn't even have a hard drive or anything like that to justify that high price point. I really hope linksys prices its device way more sensibly.
In my opinion, extenders need to be priced at about $100 for them to really take off. I realise that they are going to be priced somewhat higher for early adopters, but $350 is way crazy.
gth7491 @ Sep 26th 2007 9:01PM
802.11n and silent operation make this attractive. 360 certainly can't do silent.
Don-Don @ Sep 26th 2007 11:46PM
And if these are the extenders that can handle XviD, then that's another thing the 360 can't handle natively (without transcoding)
Tybio @ Sep 26th 2007 10:32PM
Don't forget, the 360 can't do DivX/Xvid and only supports WMV and MPEG-2 files...which makes them amazingly limited.
Still don't see any word on mkv/h.264 support, if they have that then they will trump the 360 for Media distribution.
Don-Don @ Sep 26th 2007 11:48PM
Even the 360 can support h.264 video, but I would doubt mkv support anytime soon. I mean, it took this long for XviD!
dj-kenpo @ Sep 27th 2007 1:22AM
I'll take a $100 xbox with XBMC instead. what's with all the overpriced lackluster alternatives. just stop already.
Steve @ Sep 27th 2007 1:41AM
Based on the specs it sounds pretty cool.... but no gigabit ethernet?? At $350, I'll pass...
Mark @ Sep 27th 2007 11:27AM
What is the hard drive used for? What media would you store on it and how would you get it there? It's not like the average user would want a USB cable sticking out of the front of their entertainment system. Is it meant to hook up a USB stick to view pictures?
xman1 @ Sep 27th 2007 1:49PM
I have the DSM-520 and absolutely love it. Silent. Handles everything from Xvid to Ogg and will gather and play any media from any machine in the house (I usually have about 3 or more machines running at the same time), stream inet radio, you name it. Getting the N wireless is the only attraction this box has over the old one, since as you know, streaming video over G needs a clear signal. 100 MBit ethernet is the other alternative - plenty fast for streaming HD content, so I probably don't need the upgrade. I guess this 750 looks nice, but a DSM-520 can be picked up for $170.