I have tried the media streaming feature with video from my new WHS 2001 Server at three different computers in three different locations (one sitting right beside the actual server). I am beginning to migrate from my tried and ture MSS EX 485.

All of the videos I try have bad white strips of artifacts and have real trouble with parts in the video where there is only a slight change in colors or shading. Really pretty awful and while the interface is nice and quick---the artifacting makes the movies unwatchable.

I have tried changing various settings in the streaming quality (Best, High, Medium, Low) in the Dashboard with no luck.

The videos range from farily large .avi's to short .mp4's and even tried some .mov files----all same results. I have also copied over some converted videos from the Converter in the MSS EX-485 and get the same results---banding white artifacts

The server has a AMD Quad B55 Processor running at 3.2Ghz and 8 Gigs of DDR RAM running at 1600----my guess is that this is PLENTY of computing power.

Motherboard is an Asrock AMD 880 chipset MicroATX with onboard Realtek Gigabit Lan----Router is a Dlink DIR 655 and am using the free .homeserver.com domain.

All the computers I tried to stream to were latest Win 7 SP1 machines with latest patches for Silverlight.

The video streaming ability is one of the reasons I went to WHS 2011 and really want to get this to work well---but frankly---the quality of the MSS was so much better even if the interface was slower and a bit clunky.

Anyone have any ideas----why don't these video transcode better in WHS 2011??

Thanks for any help------John

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WHS 2011 with 12 TB storage, 5 connected PCs: 1-Win 7 Ultimate 32 Bit, 2-Win 7 Ultimate 64 Bit, 2-Win 7 Home Premium 32 Bit, DLink DIR-655 Wireless N Gigabit Router, HP MediaSmart TV, Roku Media Player, Apple TV2, iPhone 4, iPad2 3G

SOLVED!

It was the Processor and a feature called Advanced Clock Calibration in the BIOS.

This particular processor (Phenom II X2 Callisto Black 555) has two hidden cores which when unlocked by Advance Clock Calibration give it four cores and a Business Chip designation of X4 B55. I had it set to use ACC and unlock the additional four cores.

No issues showed up when I stress tested all four cores of this "B55" and used Memtest86+ to test the memory........but there was a definite issue with either ACC or one or both of the additional cores-----or------Transcoding on a WHS 2011 does not like AMD x4 chips (highly doubtful-----maybe someone has a server with an AMD X4 that they can tell us that it works ---or doesn't).

My best guess is that it's the ACC or a not quite up to snuff core that didn't display problems during stress testing.

I have bought tons of these as the price is $70-80 and you wind up with a powerful X4 processor with a simple BIOS switch setting on almost all AMD 870, 880 and 890 chipset motherboards. I have NEVER had any issues with this procedure until now.

But that was the problem because when I went back to the processor's default specs----VIOLA!-----transcoding works flawlessly on the "Best" setting.

What's the old saying......."you get what you pay for!"

LOL, that be me....

John

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WHS 2011 with 12 TB storage, 5 connected PCs: 1-Win 7 Ultimate 32 Bit, 2-Win 7 Ultimate 64 Bit, 2-Win 7 Home Premium 32 Bit, DLink DIR-655 Wireless N Gigabit Router, HP MediaSmart TV, Roku Media Player, Apple TV2, iPhone 4, iPad2 3G

I greatly appreciate you sharing your findings on this issue. I have a test unit running WHS 2011 and have a few people testing the media streaming functions out with various test videos to compair the video streams out between my primary server and the 2011 test unit which is currently only running with a BE2300 duel Core Processor because I have those on my shelf. I am basically on the sidelines here trying to determine what I should do for a build but I have much to test before I jump onto the 2011 band wagon but your post did shed some light on an issue I was not aware of and will keep that in mind when the time comes to do a build if I go that route.

On another note I have no immediate plans on abandoning WHS v1 because with that I know it works for me and serves me well but if anything at all I want to run the two servers in tandom having 2011 access my media from my WHS v1 server which is something I hope to test out as soon as things at work slow down so I can better concetrate on the task at hand.

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Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

Good plan-----I am not abandoning WHS v1 either. It is too good a product----and why just can all that storage space.....and a working, sweet little box?

I plan on using my WHS V1 as a place to backup REALLY critical files like my Home Videos----Pictures----Taxes and other documents I just have to have. I have experimented with SyncToy 2.1 and setting up an automatic command line task in the Task Scheduler to run a Sync of certain folders in WHS 2011 to WHS V1 once a week The Sync between two different server shares each sitting on a separate server, (one WHS 2011 and one WHS V1) seems to work just fine. SyncToy 2.1 Help File walks you through the process to set up an automated task in the Task Scheduler---seems pretty straight forward.

My setup is 6x 2 TB drives and an external 2 TB USB drive for Server Backup

2 drives are mirrored using the built-in software mirroring of WHS 2011-----and they house the C: and D: Drives/Partitions----this gives me redundancy on my WHS 2011 System and almost all my critical Data in the Sever Shares in D:

The other 4 Drives are in a software RAID 5 also using the built in capability of WHS 2011----this RAID 5 houses all my Computer Backups, HS Baseball Game Films (I am a HS Coach)----and any other data that I need to protect----but is slightly less important

Am hoping the RAID1 and the RAID5 gives me the extra protection of my data that I was looking for since Folder Duplication and Drive Extender is not available in WHAS 2011. Volume Shadow Copies IS available though so that is also a plus for WHS 2011

I also do a twice a day complete Server Backup to the standalone 2TB USB using Windows Server Backup built into WHS 2011 (minus client computer backups---takes too much space and you have that darn 2TB limit for complete Server Backup in WHS 2011). And my REALLY REALLY critical stuff is backed up to a cloud at Amazon S3 using Cloudberry.

Is WHS 2011 turning out to be a pretty good product?....YES, definitely.... but It needs a lot of technical expertise if you do a DIY.

Is WHS 2011 going to be successful as "the server for the rest of us"---a true consumer based product for the everyday home? Not a chance.....Not unless an OEM builds a sweet little package that takes away all the setup options, has a decent hardware set---and just works without a lot of interfacing from the average Joe.

Kind of like my MediaSmart EX-485......

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WHS 2011 with 12 TB storage, 5 connected PCs: 1-Win 7 Ultimate 32 Bit, 2-Win 7 Ultimate 64 Bit, 2-Win 7 Home Premium 32 Bit, DLink DIR-655 Wireless N Gigabit Router, HP MediaSmart TV, Roku Media Player, Apple TV2, iPhone 4, iPad2 3G

I've been using my WHS 2011 DIY build for about a month and I agree that it would be difficult for a novice to setup. However, to be honest I do not think it was much more difficult than building a DIY box with WHS v1. Yes, the loss of DE forces decisions to be made on storage in WHS 2011, but even WHS v1 was an "oem" OS with basic functions in any DIY install. I give HP enormous credit in that the EX series was brilliant in design and in integrating tools, support, and instructions to allow a novice to install and manage a multimedia home server. Perfect? No, but they developed the value add that I think WHS 2011 is missing at this point. Jury is still out whether there will be another oem to step up but it is very early.
In my config, I use software mirroring (RAID1) for each of my primary drives. I considered RAID5 and it is easy to do in WHS 2011, but I am not comfortable with striping using a software based RAID and non-enterprise level drives. Too risky for corruption, IMHO. The biggest technical challenge for me in WHS 2011 is the 2TB system backup limitation. What a pain! I now use an external 2TB drive for essential stuff but that is only a temp solution. If I still had my EX470 (it died, RIP) I would use SyncToy to copy files over to it. At this point, I'm trying to decide whether to build a small WHS v1 system, leverage an existing Win 7 box, or consider a different approach. Not sure.

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WS2012E R2
AMD Phenom II X4 905e 65W Quad-Core / ASUS Sabertooth 990FX MB / G.SKILL 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3 Memory
120 GB Kingston HyperX SSD OS/Boot Drive / 6TB Storage

John----good point----the original WHS was really no different in the fact that it would take more expertise to set up than a normal home user has.

It took an OEM like HP to make it really useable for a "common man".....

Perhaps some OEMs will step up to WHS 2011.....

Here is hoping!

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WHS 2011 with 12 TB storage, 5 connected PCs: 1-Win 7 Ultimate 32 Bit, 2-Win 7 Ultimate 64 Bit, 2-Win 7 Home Premium 32 Bit, DLink DIR-655 Wireless N Gigabit Router, HP MediaSmart TV, Roku Media Player, Apple TV2, iPhone 4, iPad2 3G