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Microsoft Windows Home Server
Windows Media Connect
Windows Home Server has the ability to act as a hub to share your digital media. Any capable Windows Media Connect client can view pictures, listen to music, and playback supported video formats. Devices from your Xbox 360 to the new DirecTV HR-20 HD DVR can be clients for your server. The problem I ran into was the limited formats that WHS will support for media center sharing. MP3, WMA, and ASF are all expected, butit could not stream H.264, even though the 360 supports playing back H.264 up to HD resolutions at 15Mb/s. The only video formats Windows Home Server supports streaming to the 360 are MPEG-1 and 2, WMV, and MS-DVR (recordings made from Windows Media Center). Functionally, Windows Media Connect worked much better in the retail version than it did in the betas. I was able to connect my Xbox 360 flawlessly to the server and stream all my MP3s without any issues. Likewise, viewing pictures (with the now-famous Ken Burns Effect) and WMV video from WHS on my Xbox 360 worked without problems. One of the benefits to the WHS and using Windows Media Connect is that, since the server is always on, your local device doesn't need a hard drive or other storage mechanism. Unlike the AppleTV, which has a hard drive (ranging from 40GB to 160GB), everything is streamed from a central location. Each tactic has its own positives and negatives. Streaming from a central location requires a PC to be on all the time, which consumes power and will probably call for a separate PC for most people (I have a hard time sleeping with the PC in my room powered on), and also demands a network fast enough to stream content (possibly high-def) in real-time or better - sorry 802.11b. The AppleTV approach syncs media from your PC or Mac to the device locally so you can play it when the PC is shut down or if you have a slower network. However, this increases the cost of the set top box and, due to the limitations in the AppleTV software, you can only sync media from one computer. If you want music or movies from another computer you'll need to stream it.
Page 1: Introduction & Hardware Configuration
Page 2: Installation of Windows Home Server & Client Software Page 3: Client Console and Restore CD Page 4: File Serving Page 5: Backup Page 6: Windows Media Connect Page 7: Remote Access Page 8: Plug-ins Page 9: Conclusion 
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