As subject states- Lookin for any recent input on WHS at home, with Xbox, iPhone, etc. There's a ton of OLD information on the previous versions, but no one's really reviewing the current builds. Looking at one of the higher-end HP WHS boxes to stream video/music to XBOX at home. Does the current version function with XBOX as Media Center Extender? I'm very eager to get away from the alphabetical scrolling in the standard media sharing from my Mac today, as 150GB makes this very tedious.

Anyway, just looking for any feedback. Also, if you are running it, what kind of hardware? Core2duo? Atom?

 

I've never even used WHS. I am set up to stream from my XP machine to my 360 though, that's really easy to do.

I built a new Home Theater PC running Ubuntu 10.04 and XBMC and I love it. I'm typing on it right now.

I'm not sure what features you're looking to use a WHS for, but you might be able to do it all better with a HTPC than streaming stuff through your XBOX.

 

Get a linksys router with network attached storage This will provide you with the same functionality at a fraction of the price. It uses DLNA so it's compatable with Playstation or XBOX. You can purchase a external HD of any size, then you can add more HDs with a USB port splitter.

 

187sks, have you looked at using the XBMC live cd? I use that as a base. Then I add the nightly build PPAs from XBMC. Then I add MythTV to work with my HDHomeRun and record television shows. Then I use mythicalLibrarian (my program) for transferring the programs into XBMC.

 

No I haven't. I like being able to start or stop XBMC and then use it as a computer also. I'm not sure if you have that functionality with the live CD. Live CD's are pretty cool, but I have hated how slowly they run. I have a Knoppix live DVD and it's great except for the speed.

 

The advantage of the Live cd is that you can install XBMC the way it was designed to be installed. I think it's important for a media center. The developers designed XBMC Live to be run as a platform all on it's own. You can install all the niceties afterwards... Nautilus, Gnome.... all of that stuff. I just think that the Media Center experience is best when run as it's designed to be run.

So, I install the Live CD to the hard disk, then build around it... My upgrade routine is: install XBMC Live from CD, then apt-gets are mythtv, mythweb, curl, ssh, tightvncserver, and a few others.. while running apt-gets I have some data on my desktop which gets transferred over. Also, I keep all of my mythtv and XBMC settings on my desktop in order like /usr/share/xbmc/system and /home/xbmc I just transfer that entire thing over to the new installation of XBMC and it's ready to go with my remote and network attached storage already set up upon reboot.

Maybe that won't work for you, and it's off topic as well, but that's just me. I bought a small, cheap, $300 Walmart computer for my TV to be a dedicated media center.

But yeah, the Network Attached Storage is an invaluable tool for a network. No need to buy a name brand like Microsoft. They are all designed to store information on your network. My girlfriend and I transfer files across the network by dropping them onto the NAS. We both keep our iTunes libraries in the same folder on the NAS. I archive my TV shows to my NAS. My NAS also serves as a uPnP DLNA server so that it will stream music. It really is a hub which allows everything to be in-sync.

About the only thing which could be better is if Ubuntu-One worked faster. It works on the same principal as the windows home server for Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu One synchronizes your contacts, files, music purchases and other things between your computers and mobile devices. It also allows you to publish files on the internet. It does not allow sync with XBOX or PS3, but I've heard Windows works with it somehow.

I still think that going with a cheap option is the best. I have not found anything which justifies the cost difference between a $90 Linksys WRT160NL router with high gain antenna and a $100 terrabyte hard drive. So, for $200 in upgrades you get everything you need to do what you want in a smaller package.