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PostPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2011 11:32 pm 
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Hi everyone. Sorry if this is very silly questions, I have read about WHS 2011, and off-the-fly-transcoding, and WMP, WMC and now I am very confused. I have a lot of old .avi files (from the mini DV camorder of many years). I just bought a new Panasonic viera TV 46", P46S30 model. It has DNLA. After I enable DNLA on my main home PC, I can browse to video folders, but when I try to play .avi file, there is message popped up on TV - "File Cannot be read".

Since I don't want to have to convert all old videos to new format, I was thinking to create a WHS box, where I can move all video, music, phootos, and stream from there to TV. I also read that Windows Media Player will do automatic on-the-fly transcoding to automatically send the correct format to the TV. I set this all up in a spare 64-bit laptop (with WHS 2011). But i see the same problem, and I don't see any way to control the transcoding. So I have some questions which are so simple that it may be irritating for some people, but I want to ask it because I'm afaid if I do more research, I will only get more confused:

1. Do I need a Windows Media Extension box? ( I just read about this too). If yes, will the this box take care of playing all kinds of formats (.avi, avchd, divx, etc). How does it do this...by installing codecs?

2. If I create the above box, then other than automatic backups, is there any benefit of WHS, over say Win 7 or a NAS box (since its just streaming)

3. I want to drop my cable tv service (since all i watch is OTA channels). I plan to buy a ATSC antenna (the "Leaf" on amzn), and add a tuner card to capture and store the tv programs. Is it better to do this setup be done on Extension, or WHS/Win7 box? (Note: I will not be running WHS on the laptop forever, right now its only for testing the setup)

4. Finally, is the WD LIve a media center extension box? its only $99, so if it satisfies my needs above, I don't have to spend time on building a new one.

thanks very much!


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PostPosted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 9:43 pm 
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Hi everyone,

I did more research today. Looks like I can use WD Live Plus as a media center extender, so I bought one today. It will play all the formats that I have (.avi, m2ts, mp3, aac).

I also tried a sample backup with WHS2011 last night. I make my desktop PC in 'sleep' mode, and it woke up correctly and did a backup on schedule. however, it did not go back to sleep, which is something I thought WHS does.

Well, I guess I have only question #2 above, which is if all i'm going to do is use it for backup, should I just get a NAS, instead of building WHS box?

thanks you again.


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PostPosted: Tue Aug 30, 2011 8:57 am 
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I am a former NAS user and 3 yrs ago I packed up my NAS Units and put them in the closet. I simply found that WHS was more versitile and flexible. One thing I really like about WHS is if the server encountered a problem I still could pull the drives and access my data. Try that with a NAS. The backup and recovery of clients in WHS v1 is bullet proof and while I have yet to play with this in WHS 2011 I expect it to be the same but I continue to use my WHS v1 servers to backup my clients because if its not broken why fix it?

The remote access functions, ability to setup websites, do media streaming online, access my data from anywhere makes WHS a complete solution for me where as a NAS would only be able to do a few limited things requiring another computer to run software to basically do what WHS can do and then access whats on the NAS and deliver it in a meaningful way.

The other thing worth noting is that in terms of storage capacity it can grow beyond the box depending on how you build the unit. Now you can do this with FreeNAS but WHS is very special and more flexible. So you should look at your storage needs both today and where it will be down the road.

While WHS2011 is the new kid on the block the missing DE Component hurts leaving the OEM or enduser to develope a plan for how they wish to manipulate the storage capacity and redundancy. Fortunately DE replacement software is currently being developed and when that is complete I think it will be then that WHS2011 will truely shine. The other alternative would be a RAID Configuration. In terms of RAID it really has to be done properly and while some do this with consumer class drives and report it to be running well they will surely experience drives dropping out of the arrays because they are not designed for a RAID Environment. To do RAID properly means its going to cost you more. This is where the DE Replacement software comes in and if they get it right then you will had good redundancy of your data and still be able to use consumer class hard drives which are very inexpensive. While there would be some initial loss in performance with the DE Replacement Software compared to a RAID Solution the sacrifice in performance would not be noticable for the average person or family after all we are not operating a server with high utilization 24-7. In the end the average enduser should find the performance both acceptable and very cost friendly.

As you seek out opinions of others its important to find opinions from those who have used a NAS and WHS to get a proper recommendation. You will find some who only have ever used a NAS or WHS and will have stronge feelings to their solution but for the few who have used both you will get different opinions. What I will say about a NAS is that if you needs are very limited and you just want good file access then a NAS is for you but if you want flexibility then WHS maybe for you.

You do have other options available besides WHS and NAS and you can explore all the options to see whats the best fit for you. Just make certain that what you chose in the end will meet your current and future needs and is a good fit for your comfort level. In the end your the one who has to use what you chose and we all have different wants, needs and desires.

Good Luck with chosing your solution......

_________________
Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

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~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
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