Do we need a Media Center Server Edition?
I have been following Steve Makofsky (The Furrygoat Experience Blog) talking about how he is moving his Media Center PC in to a server roll.
Since getting his XBOX 360 he thought it made a better WAF (wife acceptability factor) than the Media Center PC.
I can see his point, still I think that Media Center connected to a TV has a good WAF and have the same step to getting in to Media Center mode as the xbox (the green button).
He has now changed his Media Center PC in to a server and put it out of the way.
So he has not got a Windows Media Center Server (complete with RAID storage). I wonder if there is demand for this to be a product line in its self, a server powering Media Center Extenders and Windows Media Connect devices.
Read about it on his blog
Greetings from Shanghai.
Yes, I do think that this is very much needed in the product line.
I’ve been using my Media Center PC in this way for a while. It’s the family computer (mostly for the kids since my wife and I have our own computers) as well as recording TV shows. It’s the central server for the house since it has many hard drives in it. I’m using 2 MediaMVP’s to stream TV recordings, music, home videos, and photos from the system, but I’d like to have 2 reasonably priced extenders instead. I’m not a gamer, so I really don’t want to go buy at least $600 worth of XBox 360′s to do this. $300 worth of wired extenders, I’d do.
i imagine high end consumers would want a server solution … but i’m skeptical that the average consumer would go for it
My MCE PC is a pure server – no monitor, keyboard or mouse, it’s in the cupboard under the stairs on a UPS with the network switch. Three 360s do the actual display stuff.
To be honest, I’m not sure what a "Server Edition" would be over and above normal MCE? I use VNC to control it when I need access to the machine itself, which works just fine.
To me the real question is do we really need a MCE client? With better wifi and the 360 as an extender I really see no reason to have a PC in your living room. Sure there are snazy looking MCE machines out that can fit into your entertainment center nicely but I really don’t want/need a keyboard or mouse in my living room. Everyone I know that uses MCE also uses it through an extender.
To me it’s really extenders that make MCE. You can have your MCE server sitting up in a closet somewhere with external USB drives and you don’t have to shell out a fortune for the small form factor case and expensive laptop drives and ultra quiet fans. You can use a huge tower with cheap 300GB drives that holds all your media.
I honestly don’t get laptops with MCE installed. MCE should be the media hub that hides behind the curtain and everything else connects to it. In fact I’d *love* to see cheaper extenders from Microsoft that are basically just the wifi + extender + HD outputs.
I dont personally use my mce as a server (yet) but as soon as I get a 360 I will. I really hope the vista will include some sort of a server because one thing server 2003 has thats very neat is software raid builtin to windows (and works really well). Right now my plan is to make a file server with 2003 and then have a media pc with it (running media center). If I could integrate those 2 servers into one that would be very nice. (unless im missing something and mce05 has raid builtin)
I’m not sure whether a Media Center Server Edition is needed or not but I do look forward to the day that I can move my Media Center PC out of the living room in a server type role – possibly residing in a 19" rack as well.
For me, I would be able to add more hard drives, put it on UPS and finally have peace and quite in the living room. Whilst I have an AV style case, accoustic padding / insulation, low DB fans it’s still too noisy when the TV isn’t on!!
I’m not a gamer anymore so a 360 is a bit overkill in that respect, however I do subscribe to the idea of having extenders scattered around the house. I look forward to dedicated v2.00 extender devices (should they ever materialise) or to a low powered PC in the living room running softsled. I guess the latter would be rather cool – but i’m not sure if this will hit our screens in the near future (WMP11, Windows Vista or as a Seperate Product) or not.
I guess if the ehome services (recorder, guide, etc…) were added as services to Windows Server 2007 (AKA "Longhorn" Server) then we would have a Media Center Server Edition. For most Media Center enthusiasts price may be a limiting factor in rolling out Windows Server in the home. Maybe Windows Server Home Edition????
With extenders being more popular, will the two tuner limit be increased?
hiya people what do i need if i want to connect my xbox 360 to watch videos from me computer and what do i need for a media center
to connet an Xbox 360 to a PC if you have XP pro or Home you can use Windows Media Player 11 to share content.
If you have Windows Vista its all built in