Use this thread for pros/cons and for/against WHS+MCE concept.

100% behind the idea of a tuner farm hosted by WHS as long as it can remain headless and allows extenders and/or PC's to access these tuners.

Not sure about using the WHS as an MCE interface itself. When I think about the number of times I've had to restart an MCE PC because of a failure of some kind, I would not want to be restarting my WHS as frequently.

Still scratching my head at why MCE wasn't integrated into WHS in the first place??? SageTV got this right by having their software integrate with WHS. I have an HP MediaSmartServer which is on 24/7, makes no sense to have another PC on just so I can utilize MCE in a device like the Xbox360.

dbone1026:

Still scratching my head at why MCE wasn't integrated into WHS in the first place??? SageTV got this right by having their software integrate with WHS. I have an HP MediaSmartServer which is on 24/7, makes no sense to have another PC on just so I can utilize MCE in a device like the Xbox360.

I completely agree. Until WHS can stream to extenders I consider it a failure in respects to the HTPC realm.

I find it more ideal to have WHS and MC seperate.  We all spend some time tweaking, fixing, and modifying our MC especially with the many builds of Win7.  I wouldn't want to lose access to my server everytime I update a driver or a new plugin or maintaining said plugin for that matter, not to mention all of the OS updating as of late.  My server is always available through these instances.

 

I've got mixed feelings on this.

On the one hand, having a lightweight server like WHS to also run MC would be nice. It seems like there could be a lot less to go wrong, since you'd only have the essential components running, instead of a full blow windows install.

What I would really like to see is the ability to use storage pool's like in WHS, but on a regular windows install.

I don't see a huge benefit from combining the two, but I'll admit, I'd probably use it if the did. But I can't see a very big market for it.

The most obvious pro would be power consumption.  I already have a total of 5 pcs and 4 extenders (3 2100s and 1 xbox) .  Currently, I have a OEM copy of WHS but I will not use it. I refuse to build another unit to compliment a dedicated Vista MC.  Sure I am missing out on the back functionaility but in this day in age, power consuption is vital and will become more important in the future.

In my opinion, this is a Must Have if MSFT wants to compete with the "Whole Home DVRs" from the cable companies/ FiOS. It's a real PITA to record at separate TVs and then set up a batch process to copy the shows down to the server so that all the TVs can have access to them. If I could have multiple tuners on WHS recording shows, I could have all the other PCs off/asleep or even XBOXs instead of PCs to view the content on the WHS. As it is now, it's way too cumbersome and expensive in my opinion.

qwert:

In my opinion, this is a Must Have if MSFT wants to compete with the "Whole Home DVRs" from the cable companies/ FiOS. It's a real PITA to record at separate TVs and then set up a batch process to copy the shows down to the server so that all the TVs can have access to them. If I could have multiple tuners on WHS recording shows, I could have all the other PCs off/asleep or even XBOXs instead of PCs to view the content on the WHS. As it is now, it's way too cumbersome and expensive in my opinion.

I'm confused. I already do this with my existing 7MC box. It records everything, and my 3 xboxes all have access to it no matter where they are in the house. There's no copying needed.

I don't think the expense would go down much, if at all. You still need a PC running as the server. What's the big difference between running a dedicated 7MC vs. WHS + MCE?

I'm just getting into WHS, so maybe I don't know what it can do, but it seems like other than the auto-backup's and storage pooling, it doesn't do a lot. How does everyone use this with their media centers?

I figure I'd just move all my DVD's/Pictures/Music from my current media center to WHS because it's easier to add storage too.

Because we still want the server features of WHS for automated backup, the storage pool, etc, but also are running MediaCenter.  So, it's either two PCs, one of which is a server and one of which is a Media Center, or one PC that is both.

And considering the media is all hosted on the WHS, the network setup with extenders is inefficient currently.  It's streamed from the WHS to the 7MC computer, and then streamed from there to extenders.

The biggest con is no softsled yet, and that extenders can't play MKV content natively.  Don't get me wrong, 7MC is a big step forward with the automatic transcoding built into the operating system.  However, for me at least, it'd require an upgrade of my WHS with more RAM and a faster CPU, since I went for power efficiency with that machine.

WHS also serves as a backup repository for the other PCs in the house that are used for school work and so forth. It's not just a media server. Sure, you could use a VMC / 7MC as the server for that as well (as I've tried), but it gets even more complex.

There was a huge thread over on Microsoft's Home Server forum about this. Why bring it up again?

There is a huge thread somewhere on the Internet about everything, why have more than one site on the Internet?

Why not have MCE integrated into WHS and leave it up to the user whether or not they want to use it??? Some people have expressed concerns about having MCE on WHS because they are constantly tweaking MCE, etc.... and I completely agree with this. However, give the user the option, some people may prefer to use MCE on a dedicated PC, while others (myself included) would rather have it working through WHS. The key is choice, where right now MS has already made the decision for us.

I've wanted this for ages.  However, I think it is important that it is combined with a SoftSled release as there are limited numbers of Extenders available and many of them do not have decent codec support.

I keep a WHS in my Garage with an array of hard disks.  I would like to put my TV tuners on this WHS and have it act as the Media Center server.  I would not ever directly watch content on it but would like it to serve content to the rest of the house.

I could then replace my Media Center PC with a smaller, quieter and lower power consumption version that never has to record content and just streams it off the server.

Additional benefits would be:

• Power savings as only having to keep one PC on all the time
• Recorded content always available (my Media Center PC goes into standby when not in use)
• No Wake-on-LAN issues with extenders as server is always on

I hope Microsoft are doing this as it would make my home digital experience so much better!