The first beta release of WebGuide for Windows Home Server has been released for download and testing. WebGuide extends Windows Home Server to allow you to view and stream your media (DVDs, Videos, Music and Photos) remotely whilst away from home. If you have a Media Center PC on your home network, WebGuide also supports remote record scheduling and Live TV streaming.
Content is viewable in a browser, Windows Mobile device or Media Center via an add-in.
Here’s the release notes from the author, Doug Berrett:
Features:
- Full music library, with streaming.
- Streaming videos/DVD’s
- WHS Integration
- - Adds link to home and user pages
- - Uses WHS login
- Picture browsing with thumbnails, full-view, EXIF data, and downloading.
- Links to MCE/Vista machines via “WebGuide Prism”
A few notes:
- WebGuide can’t be installed via the console. For now you have to login to the server via remote desktop to install.
- Music is still read from the Media Player library. Thus, you need to login to the server via remote desktop and confgure WMP to access your music library (usually on “d:\shares\Music”).
- There is no MPEG2 decoder included in WHS, so if you want to stream MPEG2’s or DVD’s, I’d suggest downloading and installing the decoders from the WebGuide download page.
- When creating user accounts in WebGuide, use the same username as the WHS account. WebGuide will then try to auto-login for you. If not, then you will be prompted to login.
- Mobile and Media Center pages should still work, although there has been less testing done.
- The “accounts” functionality is new to this build, so is still a bit rough around the edges. It does work, however, and makes it much easier to set the accounts that WebGUide will use to access your media.
This looks like a fantastic application for WHS - help Doug out by downloading and testing the beta build and reporting any issues on his forums.
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