Windows 8 and Linksys DMA2100 - Does it work with Retail?

[foxwood]

It's not necessarily just a question of Microsoft "allowing it" - it might not be technically feasible with the hardware in the Echo. Nobody who knows is saying, one way or the other.

[slowbiscuit]

Don't you just love having to repeat yourself?

To try and justify a stupid decision made by MS, sure - that's what it will take. It would've been a lot easier to take if WMC8 was a whole new beast.

I can't imagine Ceton is happy about it either, but it's damn strange that they didn't know about it and have it working with the new RDP on day one.

[foxwood]

What stupid decision by MS? The decision to significantly re-engineer the remote desktop support in the Operating System so that it would be a far better player in the corporations that buy millions of licenses every year, or the decision to significantly re-engineer the remote desktop support in the Operating System which happens to inadvertently inconvenience a few thousand Windows Media Center users who might be thinking of buying a Ceton Echo?

Linksys and HP not only stopped selling, they stopped supporting their Extenders over 4 years ago - you can't really fault MS for ignoring them, though perhaps they should have made more of an effort to notify people that they wouldn't work with Windows 8, though if people upgraded without being aware of the fact that V2 Extenders didn't worked with the Consumer Preview version of 8MC as long ago as last May, I'm not sure how MS would have informed them anyway.

[Danno100]

And for folks like me with five V2 extenders, rather than upgrade to Win 8 and keep WIn 7, I simply dumped my WMC7 platform entirely and went with a Mac mini, iPads (2), iPhones (2), Apple TV's (3) and Samsung Airplay speakers (2). Nice echosystem.

[foxwood]

I'm pretty sure you didn't drop the better part of $2K just because Windows 8 didn't support V2 Extenders.

[staknhalo]

I'm pretty sure you didn't drop the better part of $2K just because Windows 8 didn't support V2 Extenders.

I wouldn't assume that - I've seen people drop a lot more money for lesser reasons. ESPECIALLY in regards to home theaters.

[Danno100]

I'm pretty sure you didn't drop the better part of $2K just because Windows 8 didn't support V2 Extenders.

I wouldn't assume that - I've seen people drop a lot more money for lesser reasons. ESPECIALLY in regards to home theaters.

True, I didn't spend $2K+ on a Mac Mini and peripherals ONLY because Windows 8 didn't support V2 extenders. Rather, Win 8 and V2 extender support was the last straw.

I did it because 1) although curious about MS Win 8, my upgrade license passed the upgrade test, but failed to upgrade, 2) Win 8 seems like a step backwards with no new WMC enhancements, 3) WMC always failed to support ATSC/QAM in Canada, 4) there was no major plug-in market for WMC and none in sight, 5) my other home laptops were getting multiple worms, viruses, etc, and 5) I finally accepted that my 300 watt power hungry and noisy home server (i7, 6GB RAM, 128 GB SSD) was a dinosaur.

With my Apple environment I can 1) record ATSC/QAM, 2) run apps like XBMC or PLEX, 3) have the mac Mini on 24/7/365 and consume little power with virtually no noise, 4) Airplay virtually anything from an iPad to an Apple TV and direct the sound to powered wireless Airplay speakers instead of the TV speakers.

After supporting MS for over 30 years (first PC in 1982), I guess I just felt that MS let me down.........

P.S. I know this smacks of MS bashing, but my long winded response is more of just one person's story of why people are switching to the other side.

[slowbiscuit]

What stupid decision by MS?

*sigh*

The stupid decision not to support the prior version of RDP for V2 extenders, given that WMC didn't change. Yes I know almost no one uses WMC w/extenders, the new RDP is the bomb and integrated into the OS yada yada yada, I really don't care. Parallel printer support is still in there, I'm sure, even though the last users are probably old dot-matrix printers (yes I know printers have nothing to do with RDP, just a dumb example of how old hardware is still supported).

I'll stop now, it's just an endless repeat of the same tired arguments.

[foxwood]

What stupid decision by MS?

*sigh*

The stupid decision not to support the prior version of RDP for V2 extenders,

*sigh*

There was no decision to not support the prior version of RDP. There was only a decision to completely re-engineer the way RDP works, and, as it happens, every single extender available for retail sale and supported by the manufacturer at the point that decision was made works just fine.

V2 extenders still work just fine with the versions of windows that they were designed to work with.

By the way, there are 2 Win 8 desktops in my house, and 2 Linksys extenders. But I haven't come across a single reason for upgrading my HTPC - even if I was using Xbox extenders (god forbid!), I wouldn't have upgraded my HTPC. Rule #1 of WAF is "If it's not broken, don't fix it!"

[barnabas1969]

You know, it is possible for Microsoft to make Win8 able to detect that an older RDP client is attempting to connect. It is also possible for them to make a setting in Windows so that you can choose to allow an older RDP client to connect. But they chose not to. Backwards compatibility is important, but Microsoft chose not to support it. They have chosen, in the past, to support backwards compatibility with older RDP clients. Why not now?

EDIT: I'll agree though, that there is no compelling reason (yet) to upgrade to Windows 8 for an HTPC.

[foxwood]

You know, it is possible for Microsoft to make Win8 able to detect that an older RDP client is attempting to connect. It is also possible for them to make a setting in Windows so that you can choose to allow an older RDP client to connect. But they chose not to. Backwards compatibility is important, but Microsoft chose not to support it. They have chosen, in the past, to support backwards compatibility with older RDP clients. Why not now?

Because the cost of doing so far outweighed the benefits. Anyone who already had V2 extenders at the time, doesn't need to upgrade to Win 8 (remember, WMC itself hasn't changed) and the only supported Extender available at retail at the time wasn't affected by the change. I don't know what happened with the Echo - the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing? But the technology had been baked in long before the Echo was even in Alpha, never mind Beta. And if Ceton was only dealing with the Media Center team, there was nothing they could do to fix it - the change was in the OS, not in WMC, and I can only imagine Sinofsky's response when someone suggested that they put a bucket load of cruft back in to support an Extender that might sell a fraction of a percent of the number of Windows 8 license they planned to shift.

The logic might be slighly different if WMC was in every copy of Win8, as it is with Win7. But the rather bizarre requirement that Media Center is only available in the Pro version of Windows 8 means that the potential market for Windows 8 Extenders will always be tiny compared to the potential market for Win7 extenders. In fact, if it hadn't been for the $40 promo price, the issue simply wouldbn't have arisen - the number of TGB users who would have shelled out $199 just to try Windows 8 on their HTPC could probably be counted on the fingers of 1 hand

[barnabas1969]

There is nothing bizarre about requiring the Pro version. The Pro version contains more security settings (which also affect RDP) than the Home version. I wouldn't build/buy a PC with anything less than the Pro version... even with XP!

[foxwood]

There is nothing bizarre about requiring the Pro version. The Pro version contains more security settings (which also affect RDP) than the Home version. I wouldn't build/buy a PC with anything less than the Pro version... even with XP!

WMC is a product for use in the Home, always has been. The security settings are irrelevant to the target market for WMC (if MS believed there was a market to target, that is). And you're welcome to waste your money any way you want, but for most WMC users, that extra $100 to go with the Pro version would have been better spent on a bigger hard drive.

The point is that the bizarre requirement to require Pro to get 8MC means that there will be more 7MC machines than 8MC machines for years to come.

[davemce]

I just found a way to effectively be able to use my Linksys DMA2100 with Windows 8 WMC and thought I would share so it might help others. The innovators at Ceton have released an app called "My Media Center" (available on various platforms including WIndows 8, ios, Android, etc) that allows you to control your Windows 8 Media Center extenders using any device you install the app on. Basically, you install the main application on the WIndows 8 WMC machine itself then install the companion app on any device you want to use (iPhone, Win8 Tablet, Android smartphone). This companion app allows you to control your DMA2100 (or any other extender based on the documentation). To give you an idea, the app provides the ability to act as a remote control to your extender(s) (including pause, fast forward, etc), uses its own interactive tv program guide that allows you to change channels, and allows you to play any of your recorded tv to your Linksys extender. Essentially, the app provides the user interface that is no longer available on the Linksys extender itself when using Windows 8 as your Media Center. With that, your smartphone becomes your guide, remote, and recorded tv selection for your LinkSys extender. Personnally, I have used this app with my Linksys DMA2100 extender using my Windows 8 laptop (separate from the Windows 8 Desktop I use as the Media Center) and using my Samsung SIII Android based smartphone and it works flawlessly.

The app does cost a nominal amount (currently $5) but it's well worth it as it allows you to actually effectively use your old Linksys extender. I was about to toss my Linksys until I came across this app. Really phenomenal innovation by Ceton.

I have absolutely no affiliation with Ceton and simply have been a satisfied customer that has been using their cablecard tuner since its release and, now, this app they created.

Hope this helps those who are looking to still be able to use their old Linksys extender after upgrading to Windows 8.

Here is the link to Ceton's webpage describing this app:
http://cetoncorp.com/blog/welcome-to-my-media-center/

[browerb]

So I wanted to use the ceton app as a resolution for the blank screen however I am unable to setup my dma2200 in win 8 pro. I keep getting an error after I try to set it up and put in the code to register the extender. After I put in the coder it briefly flashed the setup screen and then goes to an error message that says unable to set up this extender. Any clues how I can bypass this?