Windows 7: WMC and extenders

Hello, I have WMC7 and my 10year old 60" TV is about 20 feet from my PC. MCE7 does see the Xbox 360 extender on a TV in my basement, but is there something I can buy (extender) for my Big Screen TV so I can watch what I record on my PC on the TV? In addition I have a Verizon FIOS DVR box on the TV as well. Wasn't sure if RCA cables was an option, but never seen 20 foot cables before.

thanks

Your computer has an HDMI out but because HDMI is about 7 years old system and you told your TV is 10 years old, that's not an option. The length would be no problem, my upstairs bedroom TV gets signal from my computer in downstairs study over a 15 meter (50 feet) HDMI cable. An equally long USB cable brings the mouse and keyboard receiver next to the TV so even the computer is in another room I can fully operate it from my bedside table.

Check the connections in your TV, as I said your 20 feet is not going to a problem. Ten years old means there probably is both scart and S-video? One option is a new graphics card with S-Video output which would allow you to use the TV as a second display if your TV has S-video in. S-video does not carry audio so it needs to be transferred separately from computer's audio out. You can also use a mixed cable (S-video & RCA-audio from computer to scart in TV).

A second Xbox is a good but costly alternative. Read about other options this article.

Kari

Hi Kari,
So what your saying is I probably don't have the necessary ports to connect my PC to my TV via HDMI, but I could possibly find a 20 foot RCA and Audio cable? I think I have an svideo port on my PC so I would be looking for an S-Video/.RCA cable?

What exactly is an extender then?

A Media Center Extender would be a perfect option. An XBox is a Media Center Extender but has many other features. There are several that are fully supported in Windows 7 WMC both x-86 and x-64. It connects to your router or switch (ethernet) and many have S-Video or RF outputs.

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Set up a Windows Media Center Extender

Media Extender is any device which connects your computer to a secondary display over the network:
A wild bet: your TV has scart? Buy an S-video/RCA to scart cable, connect S-video to computer's S-Video out and RCA to audio out, at the other end connect scart to TV. You could also take audio from computer's headphones out using this:



Kari