By on August 27th, 2009

Updating our Website – You Vote

Ok we have been here for over 2 years now and we thought it was about time that we updated our theme (or the layout of the site), so we have chosen 3 of the best available and since this is your website we would like you to vote for the 1 theme which you like the best from the following three.

All you need to do is click on the small images below to open a site with a demo version of the theme for you to try/look at. Once you have decided the best one which you like, please let us know by voting in the poll below.

Theme 3 Theme 1

Theme 2 Theme 2

Theme 1 Theme 3

P.S. Don’t worry to much about the colors on the themes as these can be changed, its more about the layout and style – Thanks.

[polldaddy poll=1923782]

Site Announcements • Windows Home Server
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By on August 27th, 2009

WHS Based Digital Entertainment Platform

Paul from S1Digital has been in touch to inform us of their recently announced Digital Entertainment Platform, which provides centralized archiving, storage and distribution of HD movies, live and recorded HD television, videos, music, photos and more and its all based on the Windows Home Server platform.

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“The Digital Entertainment Platform is the most advanced digital entertainment offering on the market today,” stated Paul Heitlinger, President of S1Digital. “Our solution is unique and we consider it a new category of product. No media server has been able to integrate this many different types of media, much less stream high-definition TV and movies.”

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The S1Digital Digital Entertainment Platform consists of three components: an Entertainment Server, Media Center clients and a control solution.

ES16-fslash-32-5

The heart of the Platform is the Entertainment Server which consumes and catalogs content from the built-in combo Blu-ray, DVD and CD drive, automatically downloading cover art and metadata. The Server supports 16 or 32 terabytes of protected storage in a 3U rack chassis, or 4 or 8 terabytes in a 1U chassis. In addition, the Server can stream live CableCard or ATSC HDTV to clients.

The Media Center clients play content stored on the server, streaming smooth 1080p video and 7.1 channel audio. Live and recorded HDTV can be streamed directly to the client, without needing TV tuners or a cable box directly attached. The custom designed chassis is small, quiet and can also playback Blu-rays, DVDs or CDs directly from the built-in optical drive.

An optional touch screen controller can manage the Media Centers from any room. It provides two-way control enabling browsing of content including cover-art and metadata and can integrate with existing control solutions from Crestron, AMX, RTI and other touch screen controllers.

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The Digital Entertainment Platform can be purchased as a package supporting as many rooms as customers wish. The components can also be purchased separately so that users can add new zones or include existing S1Digital Media Center models or control solutions.

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“Integrators will realize the many benefits of selling and installing the Digital Entertainment Platform,” said Heitlinger. “There is no need for custom wiring back to the server or for bulky components in each room and the platform communicates over local network. In fact, there never has been such a powerful solution that’s so simple to set up and use, yet the platform costs less than most other single use media server solutions.”

More details are available from S1Digital.

UPDATE: Episode #220 of The Media Center Show has an interview with Paul Heitlinger from S1Digital who chats about their new range of products including the Windows Home Server based Digital Entertainment Platform – you can listen to it here.

Hardware • Windows Home Server
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By on August 27th, 2009

Installation Walkthrough

WHS Install Screen

Website How To Be Mobile have just posted a walkthrough on the installation process for Windows Home Server. This first part will be followed by another on completing the backup and restore process.

Read it here.

Tutorial • Windows Home Server
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By on August 26th, 2009

Save $150 Off the HP EX48x Range

If  you fancy saving 20% off of the EX485 and EX487 MediaSmart Server’s from HP then head along to the HP Official store.

HP Deal Aug 2009

From now (8/26) for 2 days only, HP is offering $150 off of both models with FREE standard shipping included – A deal definitely not to miss!

Catch it here.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on August 26th, 2009

Phenomenal Write Performance – The HP LX195

DesktopReview.com has a review of HPs LX195 MediaSmart Server which looks at the build and design of the unit as well as its expansion capabilities and performance.

Desktop Review LX195

In conclusion the reviewer states:

“The LX195 is compact and stylish. It offers better Mac compatibility than other commercially available Windows Home Server units. It’s relatively low power and it offers pretty phenomenal write performances.”

Read the full review here.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on August 26th, 2009

Interview with Add-In Developer Andreas M

Website HomeServerLand have an interview with Andreas M developer of the add-in Advanced Admin Console.

Andreas M

During the interview Andreas is open to everything concerning the Windows Home Server, which you can read here.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on August 26th, 2009

Backup WHS to a Friends Computer

The Home Server Show website has just published an article on using a social cloud backup called CrashPlan to backup your Windows Home Server.

CrashPlan Logo

The free version of CrashPlan will automatically backup your machine daily to multiple destinations e.g. a friends computer in the US and another in the UK. For a low fee you can also have unlimited backup to the CrashPlan servers.

Your backups are compressed to conserve bandwidth and are also encrypted with a private key.

In the first part of this article CrashPlan is explained in depth, whilst part 2 will describe how to install and set it up.

Part 1 can be read here.

News • Windows Home Server
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By on August 25th, 2009

Stream from WHS with the Xtreamer Player

xt_TV

The Xtreamer player allows you to play and stream your HD (MKV H.264) movies or user-generated videos, listen to high-quality digital music and show high-resolution slideshows of your family photos on your TV.

And for a launch price of only £99, this tiny box, approximately the size of a small book, or a 3.5" Hard Disk, will play back almost all Media Files, up to 1080 HD.

Xtreamer Up Close Xtreamer 

So what can it do?

  • Play back of Network stored files, i.e. from your Windows Home Server or NAS device
  • Playback of local Hard Disk files (the unit can hold a 2.5" Hard Disk)
  • Playback of local files from USB sticks
  • Serving of local files to other players (it’s a server too)
  • Internet file experience (i.e. YouTube, weather, themed sites, i.e. cooking)
  • Simple to connect to HDMI or SCART TV
  • Wired or wireless operation (Wi-Fi network and active antenna (£25.00) required)
  • Simple operation

If you reserve the Xtreamer player now you will receive the unit during the first week of September with the FREE Wi-Fi option which normally costs £25.00.

Reserve your unit here.

Hardware • News • Windows Home Server
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By on August 24th, 2009

Add-In: TV Manager 1.5 Preview

CompuGeek Software has released an update to TV Manager as a preview build to show what’s been added and changed since version 1.0.1 was released back in September 2008.

The TV Manager add-in moves your Media Center recordings to your Windows Home Server for storage and management, allowing you to view your moved recordings from within Media Center as if it were sitting in that computer’s Recorded TV folder. The add-in also allows you to watch the recordings from the TV Manager Web Interface to non-MC PCs over your local and Internet connection.

Changes in 1.5 Preview include:

  • Fixed deleting recordings via web interface or deleting shows from Media Center and then viewing the web interface – would mess up Shows.xml
  • Fixed share not being created after install – causing service to crash and install to appear to fail
  • Fixed not showing all options on client. Still requires being configured with full Administrative privileges (changing settings).
  • Fixed bug in web interface causing an error message to show instead of the page content.
  • Fixed Compatibility with WTV.
  • Fixed some glitches with the Email Notifications options in the settings tab.
  • Added a new interface for clients.
  • Added show thumbnails to the web interface.
  • Added sorting to the web interface.
  • Added an about dialog to the client.
  • Add the "All" item in the web interface to show all the saved recordings.
  • Added moving recordings at midnight under client settings.
  • Added a client service, recordings will be moved even if a user is not logged in.
  • Added right click menu to the new client interface (Contains options Play and Delete)
  • Added a Series catalog feature that lets you print a catalog of all your recordings.
  • Added Windows 7 features (jumplists, progress bars, pin-able taskbar item).
  • Added WTV converter for Comskip, allowing commercials to be removed from WTV recordings (Windows 7 Only)
  • Added an option to move recordings at a specified time (assuming the client is turned on).
  • Added an SDK so users can write plug-ins for TV Manager (read the documentation for more information).
  • Re-Added Original Air Date.
  • Re-Added ComSkip option — May cause problems.
  • Re-Added the Home Server Console tab – The play option might not work yet.
  • Removed accidental time zone from Original Air Date column in Web Interface.
  • German and French translations implemented into web UI and client.
  • Easily deploy client via the web interface or the Home Server Console tab. It auto-detects the language/version of the installer to use.
  • The client application can now detect your remote access domain (via it’s SSL certificate) and will load that to prevent SSL error messages.
  • The client now requires .NET 3.5 to run.
  • The home server add-in now requires Power Pack 2 to function.
  • The client and server can detect your “Recorded TV” share’s name (for non-English versions).

More documentation and the download can be found here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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By on August 24th, 2009

Add-In: KeepVault for WHS 3.15

Proxure has released a new version of KeepVault, the online backup solution for our Home Server’s, which provides improvements to upload speed and a new KeepVault Connector “sync tool”.

KeepVault Connector Settings

Version 3.15:

  • Up to 50% increase in upload speed
  • Includes new KeepVault Connector WHS add-in allowing you to sync files from any PC (either local or internet) to your WHS for protection.  Another step forward making the WHS the center of your data protection strategy.

More information on KeepVault for WHS is available from here and details on how to setup the KeepVault Connector to sync files to WHS here.

add-ins • Windows Home Server
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