Linksys DMA2200 Media Extender plummets from $350 to $95

It was only a matter of time, really. Remember when Media Center Extenders were all the rage (yeah, for around ten minutes) at CEDIA 2007? Remember how everyone balked at paying $350 for one when you could just buy an Xbox 360 for the same amount and get two things in one? Apparently those "everyones" were right, as Linksys' slow-selling DMA2200 Media Extender has sunk from $349.99 on day one to $94.99 today at NewEgg. Quite honestly, this thing looks about 8.98 times sexier with its slim new sticker -- anyone thinking of getting into Extenders now that the barrier to entry is all but gone?

[Via Slashgear]

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 27th 2009 1:42PM]

If it wasn't for the complete lack of codec support I would have kept the 3 I already owned instead of purchasing a popcorn hour. Needless to say I've couldn't be happier now.

[The Fuzz 53 Posted Mar 27th 2009 1:49PM]

Damn, I picked this up for $150 back around October or so. It gets the job done pretty well on my 36" SDTV I keep in the basement.

[The Fuzz 53 Posted Mar 27th 2009 1:54PM]

Oh and for some reason, whenever the power goes out, this thing turns on when the power comes back instead of going back to standby.

[RealHTInfo Posted Mar 27th 2009 1:56PM]

Ditto to Dave, I was really excited about media extenders until the popcorn hour cam out. For those on a budget or who need a flashy UI, then the Media extender makes sense at sub$100. For those who need ultimate power and flexibility, and are willing to sacrifice a pretty UI, it's Popcorn Hour all the way.

[Jonthomasdesigns Posted Mar 27th 2009 2:59PM]

Hey Marshall do you have any inside info on when a new upgraded model will come out ? i love my A-100 .. But i do not want to get the A-110 if a A-200 (or whatever name it will have) will come out soon

[CmdX Posted Mar 28th 2009 6:58AM]

@Jon: If you keep waiting for new PCHs you are probably not going to be seeing much in at least the next year... A-110 has basically every requested feature people have wanted (SATA, DTS, Optical, USB Master/Slave, etc) and there really isn't all that much to be desired hardware side.

My upgrade from my A-100 will be to Boxee on a used/refurb Mac Mini/linux htpc when it matures enough to be a somewhat stable media player. Boxee has a bunch of problems it needs to iron out but the development pace on Boxee is faster than basically every product on the market. I just haven't found it to be stable enough and there is no real universal remote capabilities to make it worth a full switch.

But yeah, don't expect anything more hardware-wise out of PCH, they just need to get their act together on the firmware side.

[RealHTInfo Posted Mar 28th 2009 7:42PM]

I don't have any inside info, but I'd concur with Nick.

[bushi Posted Mar 27th 2009 2:12PM]

One big Red flag is that first gen extenders could not work with vista, so anyone who built out that way got screwed. So far I have not heard if the current gen will work right (and get a UI update) to work correctly with windows 7. Basicaly MS's extender strategy has pretty much been shit since the get go for consumers, which is just sad.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 27th 2009 2:36PM]

These will work with Windows 7 and have worked flawlessly with the Beta. Better yet, W7 supports a greater number of codecs and will transcode on the fly to the extender as needed.

[DoctaDJones Posted Mar 27th 2009 4:16PM]

Anyone know if there is a new model coming out, causing this price drop?

[MikeTV Posted Mar 27th 2009 4:38PM]

If you are running Vista Home Pre. or Ultimate this is a pretty cheap way to get recorded HDTV, music, pictures and videos to your TVs assuming you have the network. Wired 10/100 and wireless N both work on these.

[djmattyb Posted Mar 27th 2009 4:55PM]

Two words for ya: Popcorn Hour

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 27th 2009 4:57PM]

These work great with Windows 7. The price was $300, not $350 and I bought one in a package deal on newegg in November with Gears of War 2 and a 2200 for $129.
If you have digital cable tuners for your pc these are essential.
And in regards to the codec support...I can play all of my files on extenders by trancoding. I can transcode 1080p mkvs at full resolution on the fly without problems.
If I had more TVs to connect I'd be buying more of these extenders.

[plexusXXX Posted Mar 27th 2009 7:55PM]

I bought a media extender better than this Linksys (which is just a rebranded KiSS) it plays and upscales DVDs, is even more versatile than the popcorn hour , you can also connect an external HD on one of its USB plugs transforming it in a media NAS, it also connects wirelessly to the BB router to show videos (Youtube, Google vids, Quicksilver, etc.) show web TV and play internet radio, Play music from all 3 my descktops, and my 2 lappies while showing album art or the pics from the hard drive with lots of transitions,and it's got a very good software and very sofisticated and pretty interface by Syabas Technology which is far nicer than Win Media Center.
It's branded "Blue Tinum" (surely a rebranding) but I payied exactly 49,95 Euros for it about one year ago which is about 50 USD.
It was a bit hard to set up (at least for me) but its been working flawlessly for the last 13/14 months.
Oh, it's great also at upscaling DVDs, so much so that with practically every movie I can't notice any difference with Blue Rays.
I think is still possible to buy it from the Blue Tinum home page, and maybe this has something to do with the dropping of the price of Linksys good but inferior media extender.

[andysexton Posted Mar 28th 2009 8:09PM]

I'd like another extender and I'm tempted, but I think I'd prefer the Xbox extender performance, although at the sacrifice of sound. With a Dell 20% off deal they seem to constantly be running, $160 isn't that much more.