Steve sent through a few mobile video clips on his Motorola Q for everyone to check out, commenting, “I just got back from Disneyland and I got to say the Innoventions exhibit was pretty amazing.I decided to check it out after a post you had awhile back.

At the core of the house network was Windows Vista,  HP and Life-Ware computers. I didn’t see the home server, but I’m sure it was there. Everything in the house was controllable from many different control monitors positioned through-out the house. This all includes your TV, Music, Lighting, Security cameras, windows shades, you name it. They also showcased other HP boxes, Zune Xbox and Games for Windows.”

Here are links to the clips:

http://qik.com/video/258424

http://qik.com/video/258435

http://qik.com/video/258442

http://qik.com/video/258458

http://qik.com/video/258469

http://qik.com/video/258476

Sounds like a great exhibit that I really must check out when I’m next in LA. If you’ve visited, what did you think? Thanks Steve!

More Info: Disney

• Add-In: WL3 for Windows Home Server
• HAI Now Shipping WL3 Home Automation Software
• mControl for Windows Home Server - Automate Your Home
• Innoventions Dream Home Opens at Disneyland, California Featuring Windows Home Server
• D-Link DSM-750 Extender for Media Center Firmware Upgrade Now Available

I have two of the original Squeezebox units attached to my home network (in the kitchen and the main bedroom), and you’ll remember that we also featured a review of the Squeezebox Duet earlier in the year.

Here at IFA in Berlin, Logitech have announced the Squeezebox Boom, a newcomer to the range with new file formats available for playback, and most importantly, the added convenience of integrated 30W speakers.

As everything is in one box, there’s no need to buy and attach separate speakers with the requisite cable mess - you can simply plug it in, find your home network wirelessly or via Ethernet and go.

It’s a great looking device that works seamlessly with Windows Home Server - if you enjoy your music and want an easy way to distribute and play it around the home, the Squeezebox Boom looks like a winner.

Features are as follows:

• HP MediaSmart Server Update - PVConnect Doesn’t Play Nicely With SlimServer
• Review: Logitech SqueezeBox Duet and SqueezeServer
• Weekend Home Server Maintenance - MediaSmart Server and Squeezebox Upgrades
• HP MediaSmart Connect X280N Now Available to Pre-Order at $349.99
• D-Link DSM-750 Extender for Media Center Firmware Upgrade Now Available

This week, Samsung announced the release of four new digital photo frames - two 8 inch frames (the SPF-85H and Wi-Fi enabled SPF-85V) which hit the streets next week at $129.99 and $199.99, then in October you can get your hands on a 10 inch frame, the SPF-105P (also $199.99) and finally in November, the top of the range SPF-105V will be released, sporting both a 10 inch display and Wi-Fi.

Interestingly, both Wi-Fi enabled frames are optimised to stream images directly from Windows Live Spaces via an integrated service called Live Now Share Now and offer full RSS feed subscriptions from publications like USA Today as well as around 400 other feeds from Frame Channel.

Specs of each frame are as follows:

Samsung SPF-85H

The Samsung SPF-85H is an 8-inch digital photo frame that comes with an energy saving auto On/Off feature.

• 800 x 600 High resolution
• 1 GB internal memory
• Auto on/off function
• Auto Photo Resize
• SD/MMC/MS/XD card reader, USB memory slot

Samsung SPF-85V

The 8-inch Samsung SPF-85V has a built in wireless feature optimized for use with Windows Live Spaces for easy photo sharing.

• 800 x 600 High resolution
• 64 MB internal memory
• Auto rotation function
• 802.11b/g wireless photo frame
• Rechargeable battery
• SD/MMC/MS/XD card reader, USB memory slot
• InfoLink free information service (News, Weather, Stocks)

– Frame Channel Service gets over 400 channels of news, sports, cartoons and more. www.samsung.framechannel.com
– USA Today

Samsung SPF-105P

The 10-inch Samsung 105P includes a rechargeable battery for easy portability.

• 1024 x 600 High resolution
• 1 GB internal memory
• Auto Photo Resize
• Rechargeable battery
• SD/MMC/MS/XD card reader, USB memory slot

Samsung SPF-105V

The Samsung SPF-105V is a 10-inch digital photo frame that includes wireless connectivity, auto rotation and a rechargeable battery.

• 1024 x 600 High resolution
• 64 MB internal memory
• Auto rotation function
• 802.11b/g wireless photo frame.
• Rechargeable battery
• SD/MMC/MS/XD card reader, USB memory slot
• InfoLink free information service (News, Weather, Stocks)

– Frame Channel Service gets over 400 channels of news, sports, cartoons and more. www.samsung.framechannel.com
– USA Today

More Info: eHome Upgrade

• Streaming21 and WNC Debut WiFi Media Frame Connected to Microsoft Windows Home Server at CES
• Zoostorm Silenced Windows Home Server
• Samsung Attempt to Discover World’s Smallest Niche With the MediaLive Extender
• How to… Install a Battery Back Up Power Supply to Your Windows Home Server
• HP’s Top 10 Recommended Routers for Windows Home Server

As many of you will know, TV Manager automatically moves Recorded TV files from your Media Center machine over to Windows Home Server for management and storage.

Here’s the details from Brent:

The biggest feature of TV Manager is the ability to watch your recordings in Media Center as if they were sitting in your Media Center record path.

You can delete recordings from the Windows Home Server Console or using Media Center. You can also play the recordings on non-Media Center PCs using the Windows Home Server Console or Windows Explorer.

TV Manager is free of charge and the client works with Windows XP Media Center 2005 and Vista Media Center. The TV Manager add-in works with or without Windows Home Server Power Pack 1.

Changes Since The Last Beta:

• Fix: TV Manager Service setting permissions.
• Fix: Compatibility with limited user accounts.
• Fix: Launch recordings straight from the Windows Home Server Console.
• Fix: Changed how recordings were moved (to fix ghost file issue) but lost the ability to monitor progress percentage.
• New: Added Media Center Extender compatibility.
• New: TV Manager Add-In interface redone.
• New: Experimental ComSkip feature (disabled by default)
• New: Regenerate the Xml in case of cache corruption without tester.exe.
• Small things were changed and fixed.

Download: TV Manager 1.0

• Add-In: TV Manager (Beta) Released
• Add-In: TV Manager Beta 3
• Add-in Update: Recorded TV Manager Vista Media Center
• Add-in: Recorded TV Manager for Windows Home Server (Beta)
• Add-In: Recorded TV Manager

• Support for 1080p TVs and video files
• Look of the Home page altered to improve navigation & readability
• Online Media icon added to the home page
• Support for Rhapsody music service
• Support for Live365 Internet Radio service
• Support for vTuner Internet Radio service
• Remote control support changed to support Xbox 360 remote
• DVR-MS playback A/V sync issue in MediaLounge mode resolved
• Control point (aka “slave mode”) access enabled for playing video and music files from a compliant UPnP server
• Browsing music & video media files/folders now supports only List mode (no thumbnail browsing).
• Photo files/folders supports browsing by thumbnail or list mode
• “16:9″ and “4:3″ renamed “Widescreen” & “Normal” in A/V Settings Menu
• Default device name is now “D-Link DSM-750″
• Audio tracks button improved to support multiple audio tracks in supported video files
• Entering a wireless security key is now readable until entered
• Reduced the amount of marqueeing text in the music player page  

Check back for our thoughts on the D-Limk Extender soon.

More Info: Chris Lanier | Download

• Controlling Media Center From Your Windows Mobile Device
• WebGuide for Windows Home Server (Beta) Released
• HP MediaSmart Connect X280N Now Available to Pre-Order at $349.99
• Add-In: WebGuide for Windows Home Server
• TweakMC for Media Center Released by Microsoft

We are holding a FREE All Day training event at the Microsoft office in Waltham, Ma in partnership with Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard.

The event is called “The Connected Home Day”. It’s a full day training for novice computer users who want to learn how to build and secure a home network, use Microsoft Media Center to it’s full potential and use Windows Home Server to store and backup their important documents and precious Digital Photos and Videos. We will also be covering the Analog to Digital conversion in Feb 2009 and what it means to the average person.

It sounds like it would be a nice event to go to and learn a thing or 2.  Being that it is sponsored in part by Microsoft, I would not be surprised if they had free copy of something for the attendees.  I wonder if my company needs anyone in that area in mid-September…

• Join Microsoft and HP Online to Hear About the HP MediaSmart Server
• Join Me on June 25th For An Add-Ins Webinar With HP and Microsoft
• Windows Home Server Session at TechEd 2007
• Budding Photographers - Learn How to Integrate Windows Home Server Into Your Workflow
• Add-in: Digital ArchHound for Windows Home Server

Don’t forget to check the WGS Wiki for updated versions of this tutorial, and for other great tutorials!

What you will need

• Remote Desktop Connection or Advanced Admin Console
• Bonjour - Yes, this is in fact required.
• Firefly Media Server - The most current version is build 1696, and does work on Windows Home Server
• Firefly WHS Add-In - Download this to your “Add-Ins” directory on the server.

What to Do

First things first, download the installer files to your Windows Home Server, either directly to the desktop, or copying them to a network share. After you have done that, install Bonjour. Bonjour is a required component, as it is needed to properly talk to iTunes. Don’t blame me, it is how apple wrote iTunes.

After Bonjour is installed, run the setup for Firefly Media Server. First it will give a splash screen with general info. Click “Next”. Then it asks you to Agree to license agreement. Read through it, and click “I Agree” if you do agree to it. Installing to the default location is fine, so click “Next”. The next path is the default location for music. Set this to “D:\shares\Music”, because the installer will not let you choose a network location. This is fine. Click “Next” and it will install the files, configure the program and start the service. Click “Next” and then “Finish”. If you have used remote desktop, you will notice a new system tray icon.

Now load up the console if you aren’t running everything from the console already, and install the Firefly WHS Add-In. Once the console has restarted, you can access the settings for Firefly in the settings page for WHS.

Done

Now you are done. There aren’t a whole lot of options for FireFly, but there is a number of plugins for it. I may cover those later, but for now, you have Firefly!

Additional Info

FireFly Media Server will index all of your files in the folder you specified. This may take a while, and it will not be available properly until it is done.

Also, when FireFly Media Server tries indexing corrupt files, it crashes. I’ve personally ran into this problem, and many others may also. So I’m going to post the method to fix it that I found on the MS WHS Forums:

1. Once you are at the console, use notepad to edit “c:\program files\firefly media server\mt-daapd.conf”
2. Change (or add, if it isn’t there) an option called “debuglevel” with a value of 5 in the “[general]“ section.
3. Then, delete the “songs3.db” file (in “c:\program files\firefly media server”) and start the firefly server.
4. It will crank around, indexing the music for a while. At some point it will crash. When it does, look at the log file in “c:\program files\firefly media server\firefly.log”.

   Find the last song it tried to index and move it out of the way. Then start it again and repeat as necessary.

Credits

Thanks to ssart over at MS WHS forum for posting the solution, and to Ron from Firefly forums for writing the solution.

• How To… Install Add-Ins
• How To: Play Media Stored On Your Playstation 3 With Windows Home Server and PVConnect/TwonkyMedia
• Add-In: Firefly for Windows Home Server
• How To… Automatically Download Audio and Video Podcasts Via RSS With Windows Home Server
• Installing PHP for IIS on Windows Home Server

You know, I thought a lot of this media sharing stuff would have been sorted out by now. Wireless networks are now prevalent in millions of homes around the world, with four flavours (B, A, G and N) to choose from; wired networking is now easier than ever with ethernet over power adaptors carrying data over your electrical cables; networked devices are scattered across various rooms, printers, digital photo frames, audio adaptors, digital media receivers and so on.

It’s all there, so why is getting all of this stuff to work together such a giant pain in the backside?

Networking standards, Digital Rights Management, media sharing standards, poor firmware, poor software, poor UI – this list of frustrations goes on. In time, I’m sure we’ll look back and laugh but right now, halfway through 2008, sharing media around the home is fraught with difficulties.

Most people will agree, one of the most natural homes for presenting digital media is the TV – big flat screen, surround sound, comfy chairs scattered around, it’s the perfect setting for viewing your videos, music, photos as well as your TV programmes. Back in 2004, Microsoft invested heavily in creating Windows Media Center, a new application to bring the Windows OS to the living room - and for a few years, it physically brought a computer into the living room in those households that wanted to use it. Hooking a PC up to the TV was a challenge in itself, and the end result was actually pretty good, if you were happy staring at a big slab of plastic next to the TV every evening.

With the advent of Windows Media Center 2005 and the launch of the Xbox 360, Microsoft launched Windows Media Center Extenders – dedicated consumer electronics devices that replaced the PC in the living room, and networked wirelessly or over ethernet to a Media Center PC in another room. Much more quiet, far better aesthetics, and a big step forward, although not without their issues – the Xbox 360’s fans being loud enough to wake the dead, and the first wave of extender devices from Linksys and D-Link proving to be underpowered and, quite frankly, a bit rubbish when it came to presenting the excellent Windows Media Center experience on screen. Those latter devices didn’t make it out of the USA – probably with good reason.

Fast forward a couple of years to today and we see a new range of Extenders released for Vista Media Center, cunningly renamed “Extenders for Windows Media Center” – the next generation of devices, launched by Linksys and D-Link again bring more power and richer features to the TV – if you’re plugged into to the Windows Media Center world, things are getting better…. slowly.

Outside of Microsoft, there have been a variety of solutions available, many of which have now overtaken Media Center in feature set, if not user experience. Products from Sage TV, and Netgearamongst others allow you to playback a wider range of file formats, and offer downloads and streaming from sites like Flickr and You Tube, although configuring these devices can be a challenge, and I’ll save my rant about poor firmware for another time.

For those of us wanting to use Windows Home Server as our digital media hub, media playback on a TV has been a challenge. We’re all fully aware of Windows Home Server’s lack of compatibility with Windows Media Center – getting the two to play together nicely is a bit of a dark art, and extenders can be limited in the range of file formats they playback. Other Digital Media Receivers can work really well – again, configuration can be troublesome, and you often don’t get the option of Live TV.

At CES 2008, HP announced a couple of new additions to their MediaSmart range, which have been designed specifically to bridge the gap between Extenders for Media Center and other, more flexible digital media receivers – the HP MediaSmart TV is a 42 or 47 inch flat screen LCD with built in media receiver (and is only available in the USA) whilst the HP MediaSmart Connect is a standalone digital media receiver which includes both Extender for Media Center compatibility as well as its own DMR software, which means it can aggregate and display the widest possible range of content from all sources in the house.

Sounds too good to be true? We Got Served got its hands on a pre-release version of the HP MediaSmart Connect – let’s take a look at what it can do.

What’s in the Box?

Our pre-release version came without the final packaging, but you can expect to find the following components when you get your HP Mediasmart Connect home:

• HP MediaSmart Connect
• Power adaptor
• HDMI cable
• Software Installation CD
• Remote Control
• Quick Setup Guide (poster)
• Installation and User Guide

Our system also came with a $20 CinemaNow voucher, but that may not be included in the final package - unfortunately, as the MediaSmart Connect blocks access to CinemaNow from outside of North America, we couldn’t take advantage of it.

As usual with HP products, it’s a pretty comprehensive package. Inclusion of the HDMI cable is a big signal of the Connect’s High Definition capability, and the user manuals are very comprehensive. Most users will be able to get up and running straight off the Quick setup guide, and the manual gives much more depth where required. You can check out the documentation via the following links: Quick Setup Guide - Page 1, Quick Setup Guide - Page 2, Product Manual

First Looks

Compared to other digital media receivers we’ve seen recently from Netgear, Linksys and D-Link, the HP MediaSmart Connect is a real beauty - much smaller in format, with integrated wireless antenna, and a glossy piano black finish with HP’s “Zen” pattern imprint, the unit sits nicely under the TV, without drawing attention to itself unnecessarily - a long way from the days of hulking your desktop PC around the lounge!

The Connect is indeed really small (D: 8.5″ x W: 8.5″ x H: 1.8″ - 215.9mm x 215.9mm x 45.7mm) and weighs around 3.5lb. It’s not too much bigger than a Nintendo Wii, as you can see from the photos above. In these days where we’re stuffing more and more kit into the space under the TV, this is a really important consideration. 

Around the Back

The rear of the unit is a pretty simple affair, with all of the connectors you need to hook up the Connect to your TV. From left to right: a reset button, power input (the Connect takes power from 100-220v, but currently comes with an attached US plug - however, if you’re outside the US, you can use the Connect fine with a simple US travel adaptor), Optical audio (TOSLINK), HDMI, Component Video, analog audio, Ethernet (10/100) and USB 2.0.

It’s worth mentioning here that if your flatscreen TV only has a DVI socket, you cannot use a HDMI to DVI adaptor and still receive a digital signal - you have to use a Component to DVI adaptor.

All of the wireless capability of the Connect is tucked away internally (the Connect can connect wirelessly via 802.11a/b/g and n) ensuring the system looks as neat as possible.

Around the Front

The front panel of the Connect has a single light blue/yellow status LED which lights when the unit is switched on or in standby. If you ever see this light glow red, you’ve got problems! The LED intersects two halves of the front panel, which, when lowered reveal a button to switch video resolutions between 720p and 1080i, a second USB port and HP’s Pocket Media Drive bay which can be used if you have a Pocket Media Drive from another HP system.

Remote Control

The remote bundled with the Connect is a pretty high quality affair - clearly laid out, illuminates upon a button push and best of all, can not only control the Connect, but is programmable and therefore can also control a whole host of devices in your home. One thing I’ve not discovered is the ability to power all device on and off simultaneously (ie. your TV, Connect and Surround Sound) - this would be the cherry on top of the cake, but even without it, the remote is easy to use in both Media Center and MediaSmart Connect modes.

Setting Up The MediaSmart Connect

Setting up the HP MediaSmart Connect is conducted through a wizard which walks you through a series of steps to get everything up and running. After choosing your desired language (English, Spanish and French are your options), it’s a two step process to configure your main Media Center PC to share its photos, music and video and then connect the TV to your home network.

At the appropriate time, the Connect prompts you to place the accompanying setup CD into the Media Center PC, and follow the installation wizard. This wizard installs the CinemaNow application, HP MediaSmart Connect Gateway along with a few other bits and pieces. Following installation, a web browser window opens and you can set up various accounts with CinemaNow, Snapfish and HP itself, should you so wish.

With the HP software installed, all that remains is to add the Extender to Media Center – your TV will have an eight-digit code which you type into the relevant screen in Media Center, and after a short time, the Media Center menu will appear on your TV. Success!

Using Media Center

Full disclosure – I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Media Center over the years. It remains one of the best user experiences I’ve had on any computer, anywhere – the user interface is sublime, and it’s no surprise that many have tried to copy it, and few, if any, have bettered it.

On the downside, Microsoft have neglected European TV standards for years and have instead toiled over US-oriented technologies such as CableCard. Online content outside the US also leaves a lot to be desired - hey guys, there’s life on this side of the pond too! Let’s hope the next release of Media Center (codenamed “Fiji”) brings better news for us outside the USA.

On the HP MediaSmart Connect, the Media Center experience is very close to using it on a PC – there is a very tiny bit of shuddering as you scroll through the menus (nothing too distracting) but the interface is responsive, and great to use. If your Media Center’s library has been set up with all of the content on your home server’s shares, then it’s all viewable for playback via the Media Center interface, and of course, you now have full access to Live and Recorded TV as well as a suite of additional online content (region depending - the UK online offer sucks) via your Media Center PC. So far, so good.

Using the MediaSmart Connect Interface

Of course, the real beauty of the MediaSmart Connect is its ability to act as an Extender/Digital Media Receiver with non-Media Center PCs, and that, fortunately for us, includes Windows Home Server. The Connect is fully compliant with Windows Media Connect, so works reasonably well with any Windows Home Server system, and if you have PVConnect/TwonkyMedia installed, you’ll find that you also get thumbnail views of your photos and music also. There are no additional installation steps to get the Connect working with your home server - it should work out of the box, although I found a small issue where I couldn’t locate my home server via the Connect as I’d reached my limit of 10 client connections on the home server. This was easily resolved and we were good to go. 

The MediaSmart Connect interfact looks great on a big TV, with giant icons for Photos, Music, Online Media, Pocket Media Drive/USB, Servers, Windows Media Center, and Videos. At the bottom of the screen you see a “What’s New?” section from which HP can fire messages, tips and software update notifications at you periodically from the Internet, a Settings Menu and a Help guide.

Accessing each of the Content menus (Video, Photos, Music etc) gives you numerous ways of accessing your media - if we take the example of Music you can pull up a list of all music on all connected PCs in the house (although I found this didn’t work well for me - I have a large music collection (blame a previous career in a music store) and found that the Connect just sat there trying to aggregate all of my music, and never got round to displaying it to me). Other options work much better, viewing your Music by Genre, Artists, Albums, Online Music, Playlists, Folders (your WHS Shared Folders) and Favourites (that you can nominate on the Connect itself).

Apart from the issues with the “All Music” option, the Connect does a decent (if a little slow) job of aggregating your media across various PCs in the house, although for expediency’s sake, I found myself reverting to the folder view, which worked really well.

A wide range of playback formats are supported in MediaSmart Connect mode (more so than in Media Center mode), and my hunch is that more may be added in the future via software updates, but that’s a guess. In the meantime, here’s what you get out of the box:

The Connect is not without it’s bugs though - I sometimes found my unit to be unresponsive (for example, when I tried (unsuccessfully) to access online content, but was blocked due to being in an invalid reason, I couldn’t get back from the error message to the main menu, on other occasions, having watched a video from the home server, the server would go missing from the list of available servers and required a reboot of the Connect to re-appear. Minor annoyances that I’m sure will be worked out in future software updates.

Summary

At last, it seems that we’re on the journey to a more seamless integration of media on Windows Media Center and Windows Home Server - right now, the HP MediaSmart Connect is your best option for large-screen TV playback from both WHS and Media Center with a small footprint, great looks, easy set-up, intuitive controls and a wide range of media playback formats. It’s not without it’s faults - I’d love to see an even more responsive UI and media aggregation could be a whole lot faster, but right now, the HP MediaSmart Connect is a highly recommended purchase for all Windows Media Center and Windows Home Server owners.

Purchase: HP MediaSmart Connect | Product Website

• CES 2008: HP to Announce HP MediaSmart Receiver with Extender for Windows Media Center Support
• HP MediaSmart Connect X280N Now Available to Pre-Order at $349.99
• Add-in: Sage TV 6.26 Release Candidate for Windows Home Server
• Smarter Connections for Your Digital Home
• How Do You Integrate Windows Home Server and Windows Media Center in Your Home Setup?

Up until recently, the solution to this was to install Packet Video’s PVConnect/TwonkyMedia DLNA-compliant media serving software, which works well with the PS3. However, a recent software update by Sony changed the UPnP handshake string that it sends out to identify itself to media streamers. This caused the PS3 to once again be unable to play files from Windows Home Server.

WGS Forum user ctewsley posted a fix for this issue over at our forums.

Below are the steps to follow for getting PVConnect / Twonky to recognize your PS3 correctly again:

1) Open a remote desktop connection to your home server.

2) From windows explorer go to the following path: C:\TwonkyMedia\resources

3) Open the file clients.db (use notepad don’t worry its just a text file)

4) You will find an entry marked ID:060 It will look like this

ID:060
NA:PS3
HH:PLAYSTATION3
DB:FIX
XM:DLNA10
XM:DATETIME
DL:MP4DLNA
HP:chunked
MT:mpeg,mpeg2,vdr,spts,tp,ts video/mpeg
MT:m4a audio/mp4
MT:avi,divx video/avi
AV:no-m3u

5) You need to put a space between PLAYSTATION and 3 so it should look like this: PLAYSTATION 3

6) Exit notepad saving your changes.

7) From the windows home server console select PVConnect

Select the Media Receivers Tab

9) Click on reset list

10) From the PS3 scan for media center under any of the Photo / Music / Video search for media centers or whatever it is

After that PVConnect (aka Twonky) will recognize the PS3 as a PS3 and your video problem will be solved.

Let us know how you get on with this fix. 

• HP Respond to Criticism on MediaSmart Server Performance Issues
• HP MediaSmart Server Update Arrives, With New Media Streaming, Anti-Virus Capabilities
• HP MediaSmart Server Update Now Available
• CES 2008: PVConnect Coming to Windows Home Server
• Tranquil PC M one Media Server - Now Available to Pre-Order

So how do you get your movies into MC? Well there are two ways, and I have to start off by saying that ripping a commercial DVD is illegal, so only do this for non commercial DVDs… First of all you can install AnyDVD and this will let you rip and entire DVD folder structure to the hard drive from within MyMovies. This works well, but the resulting ripped DVD will not play on MC extenders as they do not understand a DVD folder. The second method which I use is to rip the actual Movie from the disc using a programme called Smart Ripper. This creates a VOB file which is identical to that on the original disc. I then use VideoRedo to convert the VOB into an MPEG file. As there is no video processing going on the whole process takes about 20 min per disc. You are dealing with several Gbs with DVD’s so it’s never going to be as quick as ripping a CD! As the second method is just creating an Mpeg of the film you don’t get any of the extra features, chapters or indeed any of the menus, but they do work perfectly on the extenders, which is why I do it that way.

There are other ways of displaying a DVD library and Media Centers Built in DVD library is a great way of viewing your collection. I have tried this but it’s a bit of a hack to get going and unless you live in the US you don’t get any of the cover art or access to the extra features like the cast & crew list.

Overall MyMovies is an excellent plug-in and one you should add to your collection. It’s perfect for anyone who has a collection of DVD’s they want quick access to (I myself will use it to store my daughters children’s DVD collection, no more missing or scratched discs!) and having a simple way to view movies trailers is an added bonus. It even got my WAF last night, so everyone is happy!

• How To: Play DVD’s in Windows Media Center Stored On Your Windows Home Server
• Open Media Library Goes Open Beta
• How To: Play Blu-ray and HD DVD Movies from Vista Media Center
• WMC Plugin: MediaControl 5.3
• How to: Convert VHS Tapes to a Digital Format