I have read a few posts and the wiki about how to install WMP11 on the server. I just can't figure out why this is done. I don't have WMP11 installed on my server, and I can stream video and music using just the media player on my Win XP pro laptop, Windows 7 laptop, or Win XP Pro desktops.

Please explain the advantages of having WMP11 on the server too. What funcion does it do there? How is it started? How is it better than running the application from the clients PC?

Thanks for all your patience with this server noob!

Mark.

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My Server : Case - Broadway Com Corp, m-ATX, 500W Motherboard - ASUS M4N68T-M V2, SATA, Gigabit LAN. CPU - AMD Athlon II 3.0GHz Dual-Core :Disk Drives - Two 1TB Hitachi Deskstar 3.0Gb/s, Memory - 2GB DDR3. O/S - WHS PP3.

I have WMP11 installed on my WHSv1 server because only WMP11 (and WMP12 in Win7) support the DRM scheme that is used for Zune Pass music. With WMP11 installed on my server, I can stream Zune Pass DRM-protected music from the server to DLNA clients (such as other Win7 computers, and an old Roku SoundBridge M1001).

Can't the Zune player play the music file if its pointed to it on the server share? Maybe I'm not fully understanding the impact of DRM encoded files.

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My Server : Case - Broadway Com Corp, m-ATX, 500W Motherboard - ASUS M4N68T-M V2, SATA, Gigabit LAN. CPU - AMD Athlon II 3.0GHz Dual-Core :Disk Drives - Two 1TB Hitachi Deskstar 3.0Gb/s, Memory - 2GB DDR3. O/S - WHS PP3.

You can stream DRM content via the built in media streaming in WMP11 rather than directly navigate to the files storage location.

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Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
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The advantage over streaming is that it is a way around the 3-device "authorization limit" of Zune. Since it is the server itself that handles the DRM in the case of DLNA streaming, the device doing the playback doesn't have to be authorized on the Zune account. There are very few devices (that are not Windows computers) that support DRM via DLNA streaming provided by WMP11/12. I just happen to own one of them (the now discontinued Roku Soundbridge -- even the new Roku hardware does not support DRM streaming -- not sure why they decided to remove the feature on their new devices, but they did -- perhaps some licensing issues/costs there).

Outside of getting around the Zune 3 device limit issue, is there a performance advantage to having WMP11 on the server? In other words, does the WMP11 on the server change the file format, (for example an .AVI home video) to something that takes less bandwidth to send to the client PC?
Or is the source AVI file sent to the client PC directly same as without having WMP11 on the server?

I ask because I have a lot of .AVI on the server, and they are big bandwidth hogs. In fact they only play back smoothly over the cat5 cable. Its too much to play smooth over the wireless G. Although an MPG video will play back smooth as silk over the wireless G.

Also noticed wifes Windows 7 laptop will play back 1080p 30fps MOV video smoothly over the wireless G. My Windows XP Pro laptop can't play that smooth over the wireless.

Just trying to get a handle on what is actually happening when accessing the server media files, and what is the best way to do it.

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My Server : Case - Broadway Com Corp, m-ATX, 500W Motherboard - ASUS M4N68T-M V2, SATA, Gigabit LAN. CPU - AMD Athlon II 3.0GHz Dual-Core :Disk Drives - Two 1TB Hitachi Deskstar 3.0Gb/s, Memory - 2GB DDR3. O/S - WHS PP3.

So this is now a very different question than what you started with, and probably would have been better to start here. WMP11 does not do any transcoding or transrating of files. You'll likely want to convert your files to another format, possibly a lower bitrate, and that will take some experimentation to find what works well for your network and setup. Tools like Handbrake have presets to make converting easier.

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Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins?

Ok, so if I understand this correctly, there is no advantage to having WMP11 on the server other than a few specific situations where its a "work around " to a problem.

If that is true, why do so many people put WMP11 on their server? I think I am not fully understanding the what the point of wmp11 is on a server.

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My Server : Case - Broadway Com Corp, m-ATX, 500W Motherboard - ASUS M4N68T-M V2, SATA, Gigabit LAN. CPU - AMD Athlon II 3.0GHz Dual-Core :Disk Drives - Two 1TB Hitachi Deskstar 3.0Gb/s, Memory - 2GB DDR3. O/S - WHS PP3.

We have some more reasons in the Wiki: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/wiki/in ... _Player_11

WMC 2.0 that comes with WHS is old, with limited file support, and not DLNA compliant. WMP11 offers more than WMC 2.0.

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Alex Kuretz
Remote Notification: Monitoring and alerting for your Home Server via email, Twitter, text message, RSS, push notifications, and on your Mac desktop
Have you tried our Add-Ins?