Since a Media Center PC can't be a worthwhile TiVo-type recorder while it sits at your desk, and it can't be used to its fullest capacity as a PC when it' s in the living room, it needs a way to be in both places at once. Wireless networking has gotten to a point where it can stream both audio and medium-quality video around a home without a hiccup. The Extender takes that capability and melds it with the familiar Media Center interface, becoming the living-room presence of the PC.

What's so cool is that you can watch shows, delete them, schedule new recordings and even watch live TV or call up videos on demand all from the living room with a remote, while the PC that makes it possible sits in another room. You can also access all of your music, queue up tracks and build playlists (though saving those playlists to the PC is not always possible). At a time when lots of media distribution systems carry over-inflated boasts about what they can do for you, here's one system that actually works as billed.

Of course the reason it works is that the list of system requirements is long. Before you plunk down $300 for the Extender, you need a 2005 Media Center PC, which you can get from Dell, Gateway or others for around $1,500. Next, you need a wireless network in place, which will set you back another $100 and, quite possibly, a few days and nights of tech-support calls. (Linksys does give you the option of using a wired network, but that means you either have a house with Ethernet cables running through the walls or your PC is too close to the TV for the Extender to make a difference anyway.)

After you've got all the pieces put together, you still need a little patience. You can get decent video quality, though for best results you need to use S-Video cables where possible. Like most non-HD video recorders, the picture isn't ideal on big-screen TVs. Worse yet, occasional dumb computer errors still occur.

Should you go for it? If you're not a do-it-yourselfer (or even much of a problem solver), you should probably stick to TiVo or the limited, at times clunky video-recorder hardware now available from your cable company. But if you're the type of person that stays calm during technical breakdowns you will find a fully "Extended" Media Center to be beneficial for many of your entertainment needs.

Gadget Extra (Nov. 1): Over the weekend, I noticed that some of the movies recorded on the 2005 Windows Media Center Edition PC are flagged for copy protection. How did I notice this? Because they wouldn't play on the Extender. Not being able to enjoy watching half of the premium-channel movies you have pre-recorded (mostly HBO and Cinemax new releases) is a big turn-off, but Microsoft assures me that it will release a software patch "later this year" to enable playback of copy-protected content through the Extender. I'll be waiting.