timekills

Unguided,

 

Couple questions/omments:

1) When you mention "free" Hyper-V, do you mean on a Windows 8 system, or the Hyper-V server core? The Hyper-V server core is great, but I don't recommend it as your first take at Hyper-V as it requires remote admin and is more difficult to set up since there is no GUI. If you meant Hyper-V on Windows 8, just remember that the virtual machines (VMs) are only as stable as the base OS. I.E. If you will run a domain controller (DC) as a VM, I highly recommend you leave the base OS (Windows 8) as clean as possible.

 

2) You can always install TWO domain controllers (on separate machines, preferably...) They can both be VMs. That way if you have to turn one machine off for repairs, it crashes, whatever, the other DC will run the domain. You can do this on two VMs on the same physical machine, but this only helps if you have to "reboot" one of the DC VMs. Obviously if the host machine is rebooted or crashes you're still out of luck this way. You can have the more powerful machine do the transcoding and file hosting as double duty while a low powered machine acts as DHCP and DC only.

Do I get a +1 for this?

Not to sound too sour grape-ish, but unless someone is listing a place to get one of these for those of use who couldn't snag one, I'm not sure this should be in deals still. I keep looking here thinking someone found a place that had them in stock. I know, no big deal, five seconds of my day wasted but I get a little more depressed each time I get denied.

Your timing is right, here is a project to help with displaying when backups are run using a WHS v1 type connector.

http://forum.wegotse...-server-status/

Please let us know about your experience if you choose to use this.

So it appears that after you configure it, by giving it your homeserver's web address, it identifies its status in one of two ways. Either (by default) as a Win7 icon in the taskbar:


or as the classic tray icon.


If you choose the tray icon, as I did, note that it does not replace the WHS2011 icon - it appears as an additional indicator. Images above show the program in blue status as I tested it while performing a backup. I've since chosen to hide the native WHS2011 indicator as the Home Server Status icon gives the same functionality plus color indicator (i.e. you can access Remote Web, Dashboard, Shared Files, etc through it just like the native icon.)

Ok so now that I'm getting ready to officially start using WHS 2011 as my main media server, I was wondering if i should stick with my old method of meta data management or go with something different.

I have been using Media Browser + Meta <Browser> for almost 2 years now and have been happy using it.

But with the new My Movies which supports TV Shows, I was wondering if I should switch to that!

So my questions are as follows:
1-What are the benefits of using My Movies over Meta <Browser>?
2-Does My Movies work with Media Browser? If not does the generic Media Center provide the close to the same experience e.g. (recently added, watched,... etc)
3-Several HTPCs will be accessing the Meta Data will it be faster on My Movies vs Media Browser?

Thanks in advance for the help

I've used both, as well as TV Meta Data Finder, and others. I'll say this: If you are already using My Movies, the addition of TV meta data makes it the clear winner in my book. It works extremely well, is very accurate - the most accurate I've used for movies and now TV - and the WHS implementation and backup has worked very well for me.

My Movies and Media Browser don't really work "with" each other as they both do sort of the same thing. Media Browser has in my opinion a cleaner and more configurable GUI but My Movies has much better meta data management. I've been a Media Browser fan, have donated to them, but I've been using My Movies front end in WMC recently and really like it too. I think Media Browser can use the meta data from My Movies, but I've always used it with Media Browser's meta data. You can sort and/or annotate recently added and watched videos with My Movies as well as Media Browser.

I find My Movies to be as fast or faster IF the connection to the My Movies server is fast (assuming you are using the My Movies in server/client fashion.) I have My Movies for WHS and the v4 client on my PCs. The latest update to Media Browser supposedly sped up the meta displays with the service running continuously but to me it is still a little slow when you get to 300+ videos. Presumably multiple HTPCs accessing a WHS database via My Movies would be slower than accessing the local files using Media Browser but I've used four at a time and still found My Movies to be as fast or faster.

One last point - My Movies allows for the server database to be backed up, and of course all your HTPCs get their data from it so you don't have to update the meta data on each HTPC individually.

P.S. Kuwait - local or military?