Dave Horvath
6 Sep 2007 9:48
Those engineers out of Redmond over at Microsoft have announced the release of a new range of extenders which will increase the amount of video formats that Windows Vista can broadcast throughout your home.
With the expectation of companies such as Cisco, D-Link and Niveus to unleash set-top boxes next month that are capable of accepting a stream of video from a Windows Media Center PC running on at home network. Users of the Vista Home Premium or Ultimate versions will be able to stream the previously unsupported DivX and XviD file formats to any television through a wired or wireless network.
These new extenders will be capable of delivering DRM encoded files over an 802.11n network for display in protected high-definition.
Microsoft hopes this move will revitalize customer interest in the Windows Media Extender services they provide as currently the only one making any big waves is the extender built into the Xbox 360 which is estimated to have sold some 10 million units.
Microsoft has plans to broaden its range of vendors which will produce extenders for the Media Center to potentially cover other devices such as DVD players.
Source:
PC World