Media server / NAS - Windows 7 media center?

[adam_m]

Hi all,

I have an Xbox360 that I'd like to talk to a Media Center server (decided on Windows 7 as couldn't get WHS to play nice, not in a VM anyway for testing).

I'm thinking a low powered (Ion based) box that'll be headless with a couple of 2Gb drives sharing media to the 360, an Apple TV (running Boxee) and an Airport Express for music streaming (would run itunes on the server too).

Can anyone see any issue with this?

1 thing I did notice whilst playing is that Media Center seems to want each video file to be in it's own folder which is pretty annoying as this doesn't play nice with the way my Apple TV Boxee library works.

Anyone else run something similar? Is 7 stable enough for such a server in the first place??

Part of me is thinking that I should build a HTPC and be done with it, the 360 is a bit loud and annoying anyway, but I'm struggling to justify the extra box under the TV that still wont do everything I need and sit there wasting power when it'll just be acting as a NAS most of the time.

Cheers,
Adam

 

[adam_m]

You could do it with a NAS tbh - most have DNLA and iTunes servers

I already have a WD My Book World NAS but iTunes doesn't support Airport express streaming and the 360 isn't DLNA compliant so you dont get artwork, video file metadata etc..

Cheers,
Adam

 

[adam_m]

Thanks people ... problem is that I'm under pressure to keep the box count low in the living room which is why I'm going down the 360 extender path for now

Am only choosing Windows7 as it runs what I need, would run it on Linux if it could run iTunes in a heartbeat.

...I'm thinking that down the line it'll end up as a HTPC of some kind, just need to get it in the door first disguised as a 'media server'

Either way ... a dual core Atom/ion board sounds like it's up to the job.

I'm assuming that if I were to use it as a HTPC it'd wake itself up when called upon to do NAS duties? Must admit I dont like the idea of it randomly spinning up in the living room when the TVs not in use - another reason to hide it away elsewhere in the house and let the 360 do the front end?

Cheers!
Adam

 

[adam_m]

All depends how you configure it. Problem is that I can't see the Apple TV or the 360 sending a magic packet to wake the Server/HTPC for access. You can set them to wake on all access, but that normally just results in it waking up for no apparent reason all the time.

I personally think that life is much easier if you have one box that is low power, very quiet and on all the time. The only thing you will be able to hear every so often is the drives spinning.

As to linux and I-tunes, give Amahi a go as it supports it through an adaption of Firefly:

http://www.amahi.org/

Don't use itunes myself so that is untested, but the rest of the functionality is spot on, the community are helpful and obviously the app is free

Hmmm .. thanks for that link, interesting stuff. I've not found a concrete answer but it seems that FireFly media server doesn't support streaming to airport express without iTunes either though

Cheers,
Adam

 

[adam_m]

Get an old Apple G4 PowerMac from fleabay for about £50. Get a pci-x sata card for around £40 and stick a couple of 2Tb drives in it. Run Connect360 for your Xbox360 streaming, run Itunes for music and run SharePoints for your AFS / SMB shares. I run this set up (although I just sold my appleTV in favour of an Ion based W7 Media Center).

I can stream music to my airport express, controlled by my iphone, stream movies to my XBox and to WHS.

Mine is an old G4 Sawtooth (450) running OS X10.4.

I can run an FTP server, DHCP, Apache Webserver etc as well

I just VNC into the server to make changes, as I run it headless.

Mushii

Hmmmm...now that is an interesting proposition!

I've scrapped 360 streaming, MCE on it sucked and simple sharing using connect 360 not functional enough. In the end I bought an Acer Revo dual core and put XBMC on it, but that's just the front end - my trusty WD NAS is still serving the files.

For the G4, can I put a gigabit LAN card in that thing?

Cheers!
Adam