Category: Windows Home Server

SageTV 2.6 and Windows Home Server 2

~ rbonini ~ 2 Comments

Got my shiny new Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T 500 – Dual Digital Freeview TV tuner and hooked it up to the server.

Driver installation was painless. the server picked it up with no problem.

I installed the SageTV V2.2 Add In via the console. At this point, I have to say that it offers zero settings to configure either on the tab or under settings. On one had it does wonders to the confusion factor. On the other, being unable to do something as pedestrian as changing the storage location is frustrating . Since this is for WHS, you should know that the system partition is 20GB and it makes no sense to store video files there. Try a Share.

As long as you remember to download the SageTv client off the site, it works fine.

Channel set-up was a breeze. My only beef is the EPG via tvtv.co.uk. 90% of the channels don’t show up in the EPG yet for some reason. I’ll give it time to load all the channels up before emailing tech support.

To test it I had to do some acrobatics with the cable coming down from the antenna. I’ve not tested it with both tuners in action. I’m going to get the TV guys down here tomorrow to turn it into a permanent set-up with both tuners working.

The quality is amazing on the client. The user interface is well designed and unobtrusive.

Some points from a first impression.

Talking of the user interface:

  1. I wish you could expressly dock the window to the taskbar like you can do with the  video window of the Windows Media Player Toolbar.
  2. Being able to remap the channels could be a lot easier.
  3. Choosing channels could be a lot easier. Instead of giving the user an exhaustive list of every free-to-air digital channel in Europe, simply show the ones found in  the channel scan. Make the huge list an option.
  4. Configuring the screen size could be less confusing. Took me a while to realize what to do.

The whole EPG thing could be improved. Surely you could pick this information up from the Tv signals themselves? How come my set-top box does it quite easily? I’ll have a play around and see if there is that option.

I’m a wee bit confused about the license structure. In 15 days, what do I do? Do I buy a SageTV license for both Client and Server?  

And finally, when can we expect a release?

Looking ahead. I plan to get the Extenders for the Tv’s at some point. And I plan to grab another dual tuner to make sure everyone can watch what they want.

I love it when a gamble pays off big. 🙂

TV Tuner for WHS

~ rbonini

I’ve just ordered the Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T 500 – Dual Digital Freeview TV tuner from amazon.co.uk and it should be here tomorrow.

I’m dying to tryout the SageTV Add-in and Placeshifter ( they are both Release Candidates, but then again, what on the server isn’t?) and will play around tomorrow (assuming Amazon’s delivery estimate is correct 🙂 ).

We Got Served says:

SageTV is designed to be your “always on” digital entertainment hub that’s accessible at home or over a broadband connection. Put any Video, Music or Photos onto your SageTV Media Server and enjoy them on any TV, PC or Mac screen.

  • Enjoy all your TV, Video, Music or Photos anytime, anywhere using SageTV Placeshifter to connect to your Windows Home Server from any broadband connection
  • Connect your TVs at home to SageTV on Windows Home Server with SageTV Media Extender
  • Handles nearly every Video, Music and Photo format
  • Works with Cable, Satellite and Broadcast TV around the world including NTSC, ATSC, PAL and DVB

    • As long as it works in the UK, I’m happy.

    Download | More Info

    WHS Add In: DHCP

    ~ rbonini ~ 3 Comments

    Now I’ve tried getting the built in DHCP server that is part of the underlying Windows Server 2003 working and it didn’t turn out very well.

    Now, however a new Windows Home Server Add In takes the pain out of DHCP. DHCP4WHS is great. I just spent ten minutes getting it working.

    This thing handles anything you care to throw at it: Remote Access, Remote desktop, VPN connections.

    Basically I ticked the box on the Router setup page ( I have a Linksys  W54WAG gateway/Router) for DHCP Server Relay, typed in the the static IP address I’d just set up for the server (be sure to do this first), get the nameservers from the DSL  status page and finally, amend the port forwarding on my router to get Remote Access working. The nameservers are the most important bit as you need them to get online.

    In the DCHP4WHS config page, if you do change settings, be sure to restart the service for the new settings to take effect.

    I’ll grant you that a DHCP Server isn’t very sexy… but it does have something very unique that I think is worth bragging about… as far as I can tell DHCP4WHS is the first and only DHCP server written in C# and/or for the .NET Framework.

    It is quite an achievement. I’d love to see the source.

    In the finest tradition of Windows Home Server, DHCP4WHS “just works”.

    It gets my Code2Fame vote.

    (Thanks to MS Homeserver blog and We got served for the info)

    SageTV for WHS

    ~ rbonini

    If you’ve been reading my blog lately you’ll know I’m installing SageTV for WHS. The idea is to eventually have Freeview (for those outside Britain its free-to-air Digital TV) on all PC’s and Tv in the house come through WHS.

    Now the Website isn’t entirely clear on exactly how SageTv 6 integrates with WHS.

    Does it use the console? Does it run as a service (a big thing for WHS software since no-one is logged in most of the time)? How does it deal with the WHS folder structure? Does PlaceShifter integrate with the Remote Website?And a million and one other questions.

    Now I was just browsing through the feature list for SageTv and it is impressive.

    Here are my favorites:

      Multiple Tuner Support
      Record two or more shows at the same time! No limits to the number of tuners allowed. I can’t seem to find a card with more than two tuners so expandability is great.

      SageTV Studio Development Kit (learn more)
      Let’s you customize or develop new applications for SageTV . Need I say more?

      Support for multiple formats across multiple tuners (can mix MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/DivX hardware encoders). Better and better.

      Favorites ManagerTM
      Never miss your favorite shows whether it’s first runs, re-runs, or all episodes. This is good since I currently have Google Calendar remind me of shows 🙂 .

    Sounds too good to be true. I’ll let you know how it plays out when I get it. It might be soon, it might not. Stay tuned.

    Windows Home Server Updates

    ~ rbonini ~ 1 Comment

    Well, here’s another update.

    The extra  1GB RAM is in and is working its magic on server performance (2Gb in total) .

    Next, I’ve got to choose a TV tuner card (details here). And then there is SageTv to install and configure.

    I also hear that Diskeeper 2007 has a WHS edition.

    Diskeeper automatically keeps all of the hard disks (both internal and external) on your home server defragmented to optimise the speed and performance of the server. Unlike the standard Disk Defragmenter application included in Windows Home Server (and other Windows SKUs), Diskeeper runs as a service in WHS, and continually works on defragmenting your disks whilst the server is idle. Access the server, Diskeeper stops. Server idle? Diskeeper gets back to work so there’s no noticable performance hit whilst it’s running. They call it Invisitaksing.

    Sweet. I checked the disks yesterday and most had more than 30% file fragmentation.

     I wrote a quick Vb console app to defrag all the drives automatically (using defrag.exe and the task scheduler), but I’m still testing it and I’ll post the code when I’m done. (its a stop gap, I know 🙂 ). So I’m desperate for Diskeeper 2007 to be RTM’d ( that’s Released To Manufacturing).

    The homeserver.com domains are being registered. I just checked and swapped my domain over ( thanks to this reminder ).

    And we have estimate retail pricing for WHS. Its a rumor that has yet to be confirmed.

    I’m not sure weather to belive the ÂŁ150 price tag. On the one had its rather cheap given the fact that Vista Home Premium is going for ÂŁ135 from amazon.co.uk ( Home Basic: ÂŁ79). On the other hand, it makes perfect sense since this is a product targeted at home users and should be in the same price range. On second thoughts, it also makes sense since people who buy WHS off the shelf most likely have spend money already building their server and won’t baulk at the price tag.

    Update to the Update: Philip Churchill of the Ms Home Server blog suggests that it’ll go for £88.74 here in the UK.

    Cheeky question time: if you’ve built a home server either for yourself or someone else, does that make you eligible for OEM prices? 🙂

    WHS Update: Dell Customer Service

    ~ rbonini ~ 2 Comments

    Well, yesterday I ordered  1Gb in new memory for my Windows Home Server from Dell. I intend to install a Tv Card and SageTv and get more bang for my buck out of said server, thus the new memory.

    Since I was lazy, I originally got a Dell PowerEdge SC440 for Whs to run on.

    However, the memory I ordered yesterday was/is incompatible with the SC440 (this being despite the fact that I went to Memory Upgrades for the SC440 on Dell’s Website). So Dell Helpfully called to inform me of the fact.

    Within minutes, the old order was canceled and the new order submitted and the earth once again revolved on its axis. Easy as pie.

    Well, not quite. The new memory is not quite twice the original amount I paid- once again blowing the budget out of the water.

    Nevertheless – congratulations to Dell.

    So I’ll need to wait slightly longer than anticipated for the TV card.

    I’ve not decided between:

    Hauppauge WinTV-NOVA-T 500 – Dual Digital Freeview TV tuner

    and 

    Hauppauge WinTV HVR4000 – True HD TV tuner – Quad mode (Analogue, Digital, Satellite both DVB-S and HD DVB-S2)

    (For those outwith the British Isles, Freeview is our version of free-to-air digital TV)

    In typical fashion, the first is half the price of the second.

    Not exactly Media Centre Edition, but the whole idea here is to the extend functionality of the Server – which spends most of its day idiling (truth be told, its only really busy between noon and 3pm when it backs the pcs up and SyncToy moves files to to the server). Though, Ill have to fiddle around with the backup times once the Sage is Installed.

    And second, the Current PVR is hopelessly deluged with recordings that are usually watched weeks later (its only got 100GB of space).

    And third, finally, I’d rather keep the recordings for than delete the everytime the space runs out.

    I’ll keep you posted.

    And kudos to Dell, again. for their customer service (and I don’t really mind the extra costs as a result 🙂 )

    WHS Add In

    ~ rbonini ~ 1 Comment

    Last week, on the advice of  the We Got Served blog  I downloaded and installed the OnTheFlyUnzipper (download link).

    It works like a dream. it allows you to upload multiple files as a zip archive, saving time and bandwidth.

    Other options or functions:

    – unzip only archives with a special prefix in the filename (if you don’t want to unzip every archive)

    – delete the archive after uncompressing

    – create a folder for the contents of the archive

    – select the shares that should be monitored for archives

    – runs as a service

    – languages: English and German

    Now I haven’t actually needed to remotely upload files, but I’ve seen this add on at work. All  the zip archives in the folders that are being watched have been unzipped, even though they weren’t  uploaded.

    Summary: its pretty neat. I’d love to peek at the source.

    I think I’ll pick another Add-in to try from the We Got Served Add-In Page.

    Windows Home Server Anti Virus 2

    ~ rbonini ~ 2 Comments

    I’m following up this post ( which, in turn, follows up this post that dealt with Norton’s offering) on an Anti Virus Solution for WHS that doesn’t break the bank.

    The MS Windows Home Server blog has a run down of a few options that work ( although none are specifically for WHS):

    Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 10. Only available in 5+ user packs @ ÂŁ186.83. Expensive and not much good when we only need 1 copy.

    Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows Server (also known as Kaspersky Anti-Virus for File Server) @ ÂŁ225. Another expensive option.

    NOD32 for NAS Server Licence and NOD32 LAN Update Server @ under ÂŁ120 or ÂŁ154 for 5 Licences. The BEST paid for option at present.

    Comodo AntiVirus. FREE but very hard to setup.

    ClamWin, the open source anti-virus software. FREE but it does not have a TSR, but you can schedule scans to run and it works OK. Probably the best FREE option available.

     

    The first few are obviously out as they are rather pricey. 

    Isn’t Open Source Anti Virus a bit of a contradiction in terms?

    Now, by way of We Got Served, comes news that Avast is releasing a made-for-WHS edition of its software that will cost between $39.96 and $50.

    In terms of actual formal announcements of a made-for-WHS solution, only F-Secure have done so. 

    All I can say is that I’ll sleep better at night knowing that I’ve got anti virus software installed on WHS.

    I have a Windows Home Server Vision

    ~ rbonini ~ 1 Comment

    While I’m not that concerned about offsite backup for my Window Home Server. The problem has been dealt with in detail by a few fellow beta testers.

    Check out a detailed look at the problem here and a further look at setting up IDrive-E with WHS ( the chosen solution) here.

    Now, it seems pretty clear that an offsite back-up solution is a gaping hole in Windows Home Server. This is the case for one of two reasons. Either Microsoft deliberately decided that it was not going to bother ( possible, but unlikely in my view). or Microsoft has something up its sleeves ( if not for this first release of WHS, then then for the next one).

    Now entirely by coincidence (sarcasm intended), Microsoft announced a limited private beta of its Live Folders service.

    At the moment its limited to 500Mb of storage.

    What if Microsoft integrates the two services together (Live Folders +WHS)? I mean, think of it.

    • Your OS files don’t need to be uploaded since Microsoft already has the original files (Since you are using a Microsoft OS). Only the Changes need to be backed up.
    • Microsoft products like Visual Studio, Office and Flight Simulator ( all three are the largest installed programs on my PC) don’t need to go since Microsoft already has the original files
    • This leaves us with your personal files. Once all your stuff is up, only changes need to be moved, making it much faster.

    Once 20 Million households (the current MS estimate for the WHS market) all upload their data, Microsoft can literally organize the worlds data far more conveniently than Google.

    Not that I’m being alarmist, but its a scary thought.

    I can see Google coming out with a similar app, but in the form of a Universal Binary to reach a cross-platform audience (case in point – a friend of mine mistakenly reformatted a UNIX drive. WHS could not have been used to recover lost data. Any suggestions on recovering the data on the drive?).

    In closing, Mary Jo Foley says, ominously:

    Software+Services (S+S) is Microsoft’s alternative to software-as-a-service (SaaS). Unlike Google, Salesforce.com and other pure-play Web 2.0 companies, Microsoft is making sure that there’s both a services and a software component to all of its products, going forward. That’s the crux of S+S.