WHS/HTPC combo?

[SAWYER]

I have a home made WHS, I have been thinking of sliding it over behind my tv and using it as a HTPC to get more functionality, is this a good idea?

 

[WT]

IMO, no, as its better to delegate a PC to doing one task and doing it well. You run the risk of creating odd problems that no one has experience with fixing, which makes it doubly harder to diagnose.

Say you are doing your nightly WHS backups and you start recording a show using the built in tuner (you'd need to make sure the OS supported the tuner card you use also). You may get a lag hit that causes either stuttering with the recording or the backup. I know it sounds like a good idea to have one PC perform multiple roles, but in real world use it rarely works well.

 

[JackMDS]

There are variety of AddOns that can help making the WHS work as a HTPC.

Look at the multimedia section of this page, http://whsaddins.com/

 

[MatBailie]

Those add on are for streaming. I have an XBox 360 but it doesn't support MKVs or MP4s over 4GB.

As such I'm looking at running WHS in a virtual machine. I have an AMD 740G motherboard with basic onboard graphics, and an AMD 4850e (45watt) CPU. I've tested WHS and like it, and I've tested XP-Pro and it can play 1080p video with CPU time to spare.

What do people think of running MediaCentre Edition with WHS in a virtual machine?
- Both would share a 250GB drive
- WHS would have 2 x 1TB drives dedicated to it


Cheers,
Mat.

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: MatBailie
As such I'm looking at running WHS in a virtual machine. I have an AMD 740G motherboard with basic onboard graphics, and an AMD 4850e (45watt) CPU. I've tested WHS and like it, and I've tested XP-Pro and it can play 1080p video with CPU time to spare.
Mat.

Unless one is running WHS as part of another server (Like using it on a stand alone Hyper_V or Windows 2008 with Hyper-V), I do not see any value in runnning it as a VPC Client to a WinXP or Vista. It actually defeats the whole idea of have a reliable backup/media server.

 

[MatBailie]

The benefits:
- Streaming to XBox can't play all the files I want it to. Playing directly from the PC through HDMI works great though (in XP)
- Buying another box for the same purpose isn't cost effective if I can use the same box (or very Green either)

What I'm looking to do is make effecient use of the hardware. The XP install won't serve any purpose other than a glorified "media player"

I've tried playing files directly from WHS but the Audio fails no matter what I try. Yet it works beautifully from XP.

Were I building this for a commercial environment my priorities may balance differently, but cost vs benefit would still come in to it. If you have a better way to efficiently utilise my resources I'd love to hear it, as I don't like the VM idea much either 🙂