The Home Server Show 36 – Before you Build Follow Up

Today’s show is a follow up to the Before you Build show.  It’s a short show this week.
News and Links mentioned in the podcast
Microsoft’s New Server, Foundation
HP Upline is calling it quits.  Did we kill it?
Windows Home Server February Update
Add-In:  Update to WHS Outlook
Norco SS-500 Hot Swap Backplane Review
What should we do with a VIA [...]

Windows Home Server Drive Balancer Utility

by Tom Spinoso
Imagine getting a brand new shiny 2TB drive, slapping it into your home server, adding it to the pool, then heading over to the Disk Management add-in and rejoicing over all the copious TBs of storage you now have.  Ah……what a great feeling, but doesn’t it look a bit lonely sitting empty?  That [...]

Monday Update for Feb 23rd

 
I’m continually posting the Monday update later and later!  Pretty soon it will be the Tuesday Update!
Leave me a voicemail!
Skype me at:  CONNEXXLLC  Tell me what your thinking and I’ll get it on the next podcast.  If you want to leave a message and not be on the just say so in the voicemail.
Serve Up [...]

The Home Server Show 35 – Before you Install

Regardless of whether you have built your WHS or it arrived all in one piece there are certain steps you should take to get up and running with Windows Home Server.  This is not a step by step guide to installation.  They are all different.  This is more like Cliff Notes.  It’s the stuff you [...]

Serve Up Your Movies with Windows Home Server & Media Center DVD Library

In a recent discussion on the Home Server Show, I mentioned that I use my server to store and play my purchased DVDs around my house. While this feature is not built into Home Server or Media Center, a few fairly easy steps make it possible. This information can be found all over the web, but I wanted to aggregate it here for you.

Note: this is not the only way to do this, just how I do it. Feel free to post alternatives that better fit your needs.

What you need: A Windows Home Server, a Media Center PC, some software.

What you’ll get: Movies that can be streamed to every media center in your house, even over wireless (802.11G Works!), a great way to organize and backup your movie collection along with all your other media.

Turn On DVD Library in Media Center

By default, Vista Media Center has the DVD Library disabled (a fact I am happy to report is fixed in Windows 7!). Turning it on is a matter of a simple registry edit or running a little fix from the Microsoft Knowledgebase.

When you’re done, movies you record or add to your library will show up within Media Center like this.

(Pretty nice, huh?)

From there, you can play the movies just like they were inserted in your DVD drive with full surround sound, chapter navigation, special features and whatever else in on the disc. Now, right click in the DVD Library, click “Add Movies”, “Add folder to watch”, “Add shared folders from another computer” and point to your server.

Store DVD Data on Your Server

To put your movies on your server, you need a way to read the data from your copy protected discs. The main program I use is called DVD Shrink. It is not available from the main software website, but a quick google search will get you what you’re looking for. DVD Shrink is FREE and lets you view the files on your DVD and decide what parts of the disc you want to transfer to your server.

Note: You want version 3.2.0.15. Any other version is likely not authentic and may be dangerous.

Once you find the program, it is really easy to use.

1) Go to “Edit – Preferences” and change the Target Size to DVD-8 (8.5GB)
2) Put a disk in the drive and click “Open Disk”
3) If you want to save space, uncheck the files you don’t want/need (Alternative Languages, Special Features, etc)
4) Click the “Backup” button, select “Hard Disk Folder” from the target list and select a folder on your server as the target.
example “\\YourServerName\Videos\Movies\YourMovieName”
5) Hit OK, and wait!

Note: Sometimes, DVD Shrink does not work. The main error is a generic “Cyclic Redundancy Error”. Try cleaning the DVD, but if that doesn’t help, there are several commercial programs that do similar things. I occasionally use a program called Magic DVD Ripper which I did pay for and rarely lets me down.

For another step-by-step – try www.doom9.org

Adding Movie Art to Your Collection

Media Center will not automatically add cover art to your collection, but it’s easy to do. Just find the image you want (Google “Movie Name and DVD”) and save it in the target folder you made. IMPORTANT – Name the file Folder.jpg for windows to use it.
UPDATE – Some people are getting album art AND meta-data automatically. I do not. Hope you do!

Quick & Easy Windows Home Server OS Backup and Restore. | 4Hak3rs

There is finally a quick and easy solution to backing up your MediaSmart server’s Operating System.
One big option I thought that Microsoft wrongly omitted from the WHS software is to backup the OS. Yes there is a way to backup your shares, but not the OS. I have looked into options like Acronis Echo Server [...]

How to run HP Upline inside your Windows Home Server Console

HP’s Upline service was not designed to run in Windows Home Server.  The console has an application that sits on the desktop and it’s impossible to get to via the Windows Home Server Console.  That’s what I first thought anyway.  After a bit of tinkering I have managed to run Upline inside of the [...]

Cyberpower Windows Home Server

Cyberpower recently introduced this stylish little number, the Cyberpower Windows Home Server 100.  It’s an atom powered small form factor machine that is selling for $399 from the manufacturers site.  Engadget.com had a post insinuating that Cyberpower was actually shipping this with Server 2003, but the Cyberpower site clearly states that it will indeed be [...]

TekZilla on Windows Home Server

The TekZilla crew is at it again with their second of three shows that will showcase Windows Home Server.  The guys run through the build list in their latest show as well as look at a few Add-Ins.  WGS and MSWHS got a mention on the video so that was good for the community.  [...]

Reader Submitted Deal of the Week: Hitachi 1TB Hard Drive $87.99 Free Ship!

John P. has submitted a nice deal.  New Egg has the Hitachi 1TB, 7200 RPM, 16MB Cache, drive for $87.99 and this includes free shipping.  Very nice deal so don’t wait!  Click this link to go to Newegg.  Thanks for the submission John.
HITACHI 1TB 3.5″ SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

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