Windows home server as a htpc media unit?

[Five_Star]

I’ve got a sff HTPC in the living room that I built up for use in my old house. In the new house I’m lucky enough to be able to store a full size case under the stairs which is conveniently right behind where the TV is mounted.

I want to start using Windows Home Server to consolidate all the music and pictures etc in the house, but I feel it would be unnecessary to have both the WHS and the HTPC.

I know WHS works without a keyboard, mouse and screen attached and is supposed to be administered from the WHS console on a client machine, but is it sensible and / or practical to use it as a regular machine?

If I make the WHS sufficiently powerful to replace the HTPC I currently use for HD movies and music in the living room can I use WHS to play movies and iPlayer and scrap my HTPC?

 

[ChileanLlama]

It's feasible, but not recommended.

WHS is based on Windows Server 2003 - it doesn't have a Media Center as part of the install. You can't add Media Center to the build - so you would be looking at a third party media player/center solution.

You'd have to be very selective with your hardware to ensure that they support Windows 2k3 - I'm thinking graphics, TV Tuner & sound cards together with a remote control. Also, have you thought how you would control the WHS remotely if it's located under the stairs?

My personal opinion is that WHS and HTPCs both fulfil different roles, and if you have a HTPC already I'd go down the route of having a separate WHS and HTPC.

The other alternative would be to upgrade your HTPC to be a central store based on Windows XP, Vista or 7 with Media Center and find other solutions for the WHS features you'd lose, such as automatic backup of clients, folder duplication etc.

 

[edgedemon]

It can be done, there are people who are using custom plugins to do it, head over to wegotserved and browse the forums, but unless you are desperate to get rid of your htpc I would recomend building a server and using it to consolidate all your digital media. I built one for £250, coolermaster 330 case, athlon x2 5050e, gigabyte mobo, 2 gb of value ram and used some old drives. I've underclocked the cpu to 900mhz and the power draw is under 50W.
It holds nearly 500 dvd's (ripped to mkv) all my tv series, music and general filestore.
I use media portal as my htpc app, and the missus absolutely loves the mytvseries and moving pictures plugins - its my only IT project that has full wife approval
The more I use WHS, the more I like it and its on MSDN..

 

[Skeeter]

I wouldnt recomend ditching the HTPC for a server box. They are 2 very very different things. WHS servers don't need to be powerful (mines a Athlon 2100+, 512MB RAM on an old nForce 2) so I would recomend getting a cheap server up and running and spending the money on some decent drives for it, and a decent wired network atleast to your HTPC. Then you can store all your media on the server, stick it in the cupboard and forget it exists. Then you can use the HTPC as a HTPC and build it for that. I know i definately wouldnt want a full size case full of humming hard drives under my TV as my HTPC. Ive recently swapped out the HDD in my HTPC for a 2.5" on and moved all my movies to my server to make my HTPC cool and quiet.