Why?

Ben

They don't support Lossless?

Q. What audio and video file formats are supported by Media Center Extender devices?
A. Media Center Extender devices support a number of audio and video file formats for play back through TV displays and home entertainment systems.

Audio file formats supported:
• Windows Media Audio Standard 7 through 9
• WMA standard audio may be Windows Media DRM-protected
• Windows Media Audio Pro and WMA Lossless
• MP3
• Playback of other audio formats may be enabled by installing a compatible DirectShow decoder on the Media Center PC

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/evaluation/devices/faq.mspx

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Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

Ben's right... I can personally verify that the linksys extender won't play WMA Pro (and by extension lossless) nor DRM content.

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Windows XP Media Center 2005
Asus Dual Xeon | 2GB DDR | SATA RAID 0
ATI X800 Pro | nvDVD 4.00.29
2 x Hauppage 250 | 2 x Motorola 6200 STBs (firewire!)
42" Samsung Plasma connected via DVI @ 848x480

My info came from the http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/MedctrSDK/htm/creatinganewuseraccount.asp. See below. I can just about live without WMA lossless but must have widesccreen support.

Ben

 

Supported Media Types for the Media Center Extender

The following media types are supported on the Media Center Extender:

Video

• Windows Media Video 9 Series
  • Maximum resolution of 720x480
  • Maximum bit rate of 4 Mbps. Variable bit rate (VBR) encoding is supported; however, high peaks in the video bit rate (higher than 4 Mbps) may cause video glitches
  • Main profile
  • Video width and height should equal the aspect ratio specified in the file
  • Windows Media digital rights management (DRM) support up to Level 2000
• MPEG-1 and MPEG-2
  • Standard definition
  • MPEG-1 layer I and II audio
  • Maximum bit rate of 6.5Mbps

Audio

• Windows Media Audio (WMA) 7 through WMA 9
  • Windows Media DRM support up to Level 2000
• WMA Professional and WMA Lossless
  • Windows Media DRM protected WMA Professional and WMA Lossless is not supported
• MP3
• Any other format that has a DirectShow decoder installed on the host computer, and which outputs pulse code modulation (PCM).

If your application provides content that is not playable on a Media Center Extender, the application should inform the user that the content can be played back only on the host computer. The application can inform the user by displaying a message when the user starts a downloading or streaming operation from a Media Center Extender session, or by providing UI tags for each content file. To detect whether the user is in a Media Center Extender session or on the host computer, see Detecting a Media Center Extender Session.

See Also

OK Chris -  brain fart on my part - it looks like you are right. I see that it is only DRM protected WMA lossless that does not work. Does this mean that if I rip my CDs with the "Copy Protect Music" option un-checked in Rip Options in WMP10 that they will play OK on an extender? Sorry for the ignorance. I live in the UK and can't get hold of an extender yet.

Ben

I'm just going by what's in the FAQ, I have not had a chance to play with an Extender yet. (((soniK))) has and confirms they don't play. So....

As I remember they don't support Widescreens at all.

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Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator

Well, I am bringing back this post for a quick poll to the crowd. Can anyone confirm whether or not DRM WMA Lossless works with Linksys DMA2100 in VMC?? I recently tried to play some tracks that I purchased from MusicGiants on my Linksys DMA2100 and it says "audio error". I am sure hoping this is not the case.

4 years old?  Please start a new thread.

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Chris Lanier
The Green Button Forum Moderator