Windows Home Server PP2 adds Media Center integration
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Mar 23rd 2009 9:25PM
posted Mar 23rd 2009 9:25PM
posted Mar 23rd 2009 9:25PM
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Does this mean recorded TV can be stored to WHS?
Interesting...
Will definitely be watching what they are doing here. I doubt it's going to be recording from the server ala SageTV because I think some of the OEM products don't have the horsepower to support that and MS wouldn't want to tick them off, but I'm hoping for some kind of tuner aggregation across multiple box and maybe some file centralization that's compatible with Vista.
I wonder if the other stuff in this PP2 will fix my problem with SSL being broken on my box...
Duh, read the link before you post. I would like to retract that previous post :D
Still a huge step behind sagetv. I don't understand why/how sage can integrate with Microsoft better then they can??
Sorry for the dumb question, but what does the $99 version of Windows 2003 Server have to do with this? Is this an alternative to purchasing the Windows Home Server software? Where does the server software sell for $99?
I'm sure there are other places, but Newegg sells it for $99.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116550
I think they meant that Home Server is built upon Windows 2003 Server but with enhancements.
sorry for the dumb question, but does this mean that with WHS you can use the NAS as your media center so i wouldnt have to keep a vista PC on to stream video from my NAS to my extenders?
If so, I'll ditch my current NAS and go for one of these.
You would need a server like the HP smartmedia servers. But yes once they are set up and running the can serve the content out to where ever. Don't need to leave your power hungry pc running.
MP4 is great!
I doubt that means ALAC MP4s though... *ugh* so much time spent ripping that format...
Since you guys seem to have some knowledge on the subject: i'm looking into making backup copies of my dvds to stream onto some sort of extender (xbox, sage, popcorn hour). I was wondering what format would be best. I can't decide! .mkv .iso . ts? A nice interface showing all the coverart would be preferable. which and why?
I backup my DVD's in .iso format. I use both a Xbox with XBMC and a HTPC with XBMC to stream and play them from my WHS (among movies in other formats - HD only works on the HTPC). XBMC can use scrapers to construct thumbnails, fanart and description information for your movies - or you can add those things yourself. Both looks and works great.
Wow both the patch notes and this post are really unclear.
I get that it will now more easily (though you could do it before through guest) send data to your mce, box and then also out to the extenders (and it was a pain to make that work before too though My Movies dose a better job then MS), but now can you just kill the MCE box and send get a MCE blade running from the 360 directly from the home server? That would be the goddam holly grail, no more needing a middle man box for the 360 as extender (or in my case running win7 in a VM on top of WHS just to feed the dam MCE interface out)...
Well ok the real holly grail would be when I can build a box and then pick a cable or sat providers to feed it signal but it appears that IP overlords don't want us to have that much free choice (clearly is not CP since everything is online anyway).
Im using Win 7 beta and HP Media smart server .. how the heck do i link it ? on my HP WHS it tells me i need to use the WMC connector on my start menu .. um there is nothing there
I'm using Win7 Beta and the connector shows and works fine. Make sure the the WHS client updated in Win7. It should prompt you to reboot when it is done.