This is how I envision WHS integrating  with Vista MC:

1: Tuner Farm- Been said before, but also should allow a box (filled with tuners seperate from the server) to connect to the server via e-sata so I could add as many tuners as I want. Also should be able to recognize ANY tuner on ANY computer. Should be integrated tightly so the typical user would not need to mess with a buch of settings or drivers to make tuners (alike or different) from different manufactures work.

2: Tuner Seeting- Lets say I have two OCCUR cards and two QAM cards. I want to set it so the QAM cards get prefrence to record to non-encrypted channels first. And Always have one OCCUR card as the last to record (unless it interferes with a recording schedule) so I can still view all my channels. I think this should be the default setting when MC recognizes the tuners.

3: Seemless & Smart: WHS should know all the music, video, recorded shows, & etc.. So when I use PC "X" it will be no different from using PC "Y" (within MC). Duplicate tv recordings, music, and videos should not show up. WHS should relay recorded TV info to all MC PCs. So I have two tv shows set to record from PC "X", PC "Y" should see those two shows as marked for recording. 

4: Go the Slingbox Route: Allow all music, videos, and Recorded tv shows to be streamed to any compatible device through the internet, wired and wifi. So lets say I'm at a hotel and want to catch the episode of Entourage I recorded last sunday I can go to my MC on my laptop (or required program on a UMPC or smartphone) and browse my home selections as if I was browing MC at home.

5: Backup- For the love of God let WHS backup all my recordings. I don't even care if you guys wrap the back-up with drm just BACK IT UP!

Yes, tuner farm and connection such as what vista has for sharing music.

I am not sure if you could use existing technology.

MCE running in mutliple virtual pcs (so we can have different guide data for different tuner types and have more extenders) but save data to the same location so any extender can see the recorded tv.

Having this look like one big MCE would be great with the ability to select a MCE from the main screen.

Green Hornet:

Yes, tuner farm and connection such as what vista has for sharing music.

I am not sure if you could use existing technology.

MCE running in mutliple virtual pcs (so we can have different guide data for different tuner types and have more extenders) but save data to the same location so any extender can see the recorded tv.

Having this look like one big MCE would be great with the ability to select a MCE from the main screen.

YES! WHS should integrate all Vista MCs and MCEs into one seemless MC across all PCs and media extenders.

Yes, WHS would have one menu. To select a MCE to connect to.

And be able to use either Vista or MCE 2005. This would allow Extender 1 users to coexist. Whoops, went into a dream state for a moment.

I still would like to see tv tuner support for virtual server. This would allow WHS to use existing technology to at least be able to have one box handle all my needs. 

1 pc = 1 Home server + 2 virual pcs = 4 tuners + 10 extenders. This would be enough for me.

Personally I'd like to see both:

1.  A media server option where I can throw all of the tuners and large HDs in a box in the basement and let it serve, without a monitor or keyboard, to all of the Media Center PCs and Extenders in the house.  Any other Media Center or Extender would need to be able to schedule recorded TV on the server from the standard MC GUI - just instead of "setting up" a local tuner, you'd set up a single remote tuner that feeds programming requests to the server (and the server looks after conflict resolution and running all 1+n tuners - n being many).

2.  What we have now, except add the ability to easily share Recorded TV between VMC PCs for the non-technically inclined.  I still believe that there is a very significant number of people who want to be able to purchase a Vista Home Premium PC, without a tuner, use it primarily as a computer, and run Media Center on it to access media, including Recorded TV from their existing, "2 tuner", Media Center PC (without necessarily the requirement of being able to configure recordings at all - basically what we have now but with a simple GUI to set up the shared Recorded TV and add it to the Watched Folders).  Many of us already have this working, but I know many of my buddies who don't and all of them can't believe that Media Center can't share Recorded TV right from the Media Center GUI (to them Vista and Media Center is all about sharing media over the local network and this must be easy to configure).

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STB w/R5000HD USB I/O, Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4, Quad Q6600, 4.0 GB RAM, ATI HD 3870 512MB, Ultra XVS 600W PSU, 3x SATA 500GB, 2x SATA 300GB, LG GGC-H20L, PVR-250, Toshiba 51H83 (51" HDTV), Yamaha RX-V2400 Amp, 5x Energy Speakers, SVS Sub, Harmony 880 Remote

I want to be able to convert/copy recorded TV to my Zune. Right now I have to use Movie Maker to convert shows to a format I can sync to my Zune and it takes a long time.

I also want to have a tuner farm like you describe. I shouldn't have to build a whole PC, especially one that requires the hardware to run Vista well, on every outlet for watching my shows.

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Big Bad Mike

BigBadMike:

I want to be able to convert/copy recorded TV to my Zune. Right now I have to use Movie Maker to convert shows to a format I can sync to my Zune and it takes a long time.

What does this have to do with home server?

I like the tuner farm idea, even if it does sound a bit fishy!  Seriously... I see no point in having more than one 'always-on' box so it's logical that WHS should host n tuners and serve that locally recorded content to the network, be it to Windows PCs running Media Center, a non-Media Center PC running a software client, a hardware extender, whatever.  It's also logical for the WHS box to host shared music, photos etc as WHS already represents a natural place to do this.

In terms of what it should "look like" from the client end, I'd like to see the addition of the server as a 'watched place' in Setup.  Thereafter I don't need to be aware where a certain piece of content is stored, I just want to find the movie, programme, whatever, in Media Center as easily as if it's on my local PC.  It's in my library, so I expect to be able to browse it through "recorded TV" etc or to be able to find it with "search".

Allow me also to say what I don't want it to look like.  It mustn't put DRM issues in user's faces.  I appreciate there will be serious DRM considerations to the Home/Media Server hybrid project but please allow the systems to do their work without involvement in the user session.  DRM adds nothing to the user experience.  If it's necessary to involve the user with DRM issues at all, do it at the time the server resource is added to the library.  Maybe some form of 'activation' mechanism could be used to add an approved client to the restricted-size pool of 'client licences'?  Users are familiar with product activation so such a scheme wouldn't feel completely alien.

Thanks for listening. 

cheers,
Ben

I'd like to see the selection of watched folders on the WHS be centralized. You choose the folders once from within a WHS interface and then everytime you set up a new Media Center computer, you just point it to look for media on the WHS. The WHS would then manage which folders should be watched by the Media Center Computers.

And please correct the current bug/feature where you can't select which folder should be watched for specific media. For example, watch the folder "My Photos" for photos, but do not watch for it for videos. Watch the folder "My Music" for music, but do not watch for it for photos. (Plus, it shouldn't find any media files that are hidden: i.e. "folder.jpg". And it shouldn't display empty folders.) The WHS should be able to manage all of this.

I agree that you should keep it simple. Allow us to put all tuners on the WHS box and any MC computer or extender can be used to schedule recordings and watch live TV. That way, I can keep all TV cables going to one central hidden location. And only the WHS box needs to be on 24/7. And by all means, get DirecTV to work via a tuner card or USB connection to their HD receiver.

Davieboy:

BigBadMike:

I want to be able to convert/copy recorded TV to my Zune. Right now I have to use Movie Maker to convert shows to a format I can sync to my Zune and it takes a long time.

What does this have to do with home server?

Here's the scenario:

1. Record shows with WHS instead of on the MCE
2. WHS can convert shows to portable content automatically
3. I set up my laptop to sync my zune with the folder on WHS where the converted content resides
4. My zune then picks up my shows without me having to spend hours converting the content.

So, the features in WHS are:

• Centralized recording (tuner farm)
• Centralized storage
• Automatic conversion utilities that are configurable by show/series to formats for portable devices

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Big Bad Mike

Id prefer to see the single box (WHS) serving Extenders with all the tuners in the WHS box, and no media center interface on the server itself. This would seem to be the most straight forward solution, as all that needs to be done is;

Adapt the MCE services to run on Windows Home Server

And actually release some Pika Extenders!

This would be perfect for me. Trying to pool numerous tuners on machines all over the house sounds like its going to be a recipe for unreliability, plus Id rather have an extender drawing 35watt when in use than 5 computers each drawing 200watt all day long. Electricity costs money here in Europe!

 

Media Center should never REQUIRE a server setup, imho. It should be able to place nicely w/ a centralized media server scheme (like WHS) but also peer with other MCE (like the recording broker guy said :-) ) where one of the MCE can take over as Library master and guide master

Jess,

A receiver farm is #1.  As others have posted, DRM allowance to other V2s and MCEs is a requirement.  More than four (4) tuners?  Wow, I thought I watch alot of TV!

The ability to watch my shows from a remote sight is #2.  My family travels alot and cannot go without watching Rescue Me! (we use Slingbox)

The ability to attach a Disc Changer (DVD or BD- HD DVD in the future) #3.  The availability of V2s to have a disc player built-in would minimize the pain without.

Finally, in my very humble opinion, CableCard needs  to be squared away for this to take off.  There are many folks out there who subscribe to satallite and cable services.  I fully appreciate the position Microsoft is in with DRM issue.  I have seen more Apple iTV ads than Vista ads!  HD is a huge selling point and should be optimized prior to this move.  An ad marketing this new WHS which is integrated with Vista is what people need to see.  Non MC people who buy new machines with Vista have no idea what MC can do, let alone know they already have MC with there new machine.  Look at what Microsoft did for Windows 95.  The home PC industry took off because of those ads.  START ADVERTISING WHAT VISTA MC CAN DO!

Troy

Integration with Microsoft Mediaroom would be pretty cool, in addition to a tuner farm.