Debating on hardware set up for whole home media center

[Jade10145]

Hi all,

So I have recently been doing some thinking about stepping up my hardware to suit a whole home media experience.

My problem is figuring out the hardware set up. Intially my though was to buy a used server and set this up as the base of operations. The plan was to set up the server with WHS and migrate all my files on my HP mediasmart over to it. I also wanted it do the following,

act as a network tuner with a usb connected infini tv.
act as a recorder for my ip cams
act as a remote access warehouse

I have found some issues with my intiall plan though,

If a set up the inifini tv as a network tuner all the recordings will have to be done on the local clients since whs doesn't have wmc. I was hoping that I could just user the server as the recorder but there doesn't appear to be a way to do this. On top of that I would have to dedicate a seperate tuner for each client and each client would do the indipendent recording.

What I really would like is a way to centralize recording tv to a central machine. Is there any way to do this except having a seperate tv tuner for each machine? Would the Ceton echo maybe fit the requirements better then setting up clients at every tv?

This maybe a question for outside of the forum, but I hear it's quite difficult to move files off of whs v1 to whs v2

[barnabas1969]

The best way to do what you want is to use extenders. Yes, the Echo will do that.

[Jade10145]

The best way to do what you want is to use extenders. Yes, the Echo will do that.

OK so there doesn't appear to be a way to get away from running Windows 7/Windows Media Center on at least one machine. There wouldn't be anyway to connect the extenders (the Echo for example) directly to a box running Windows Home Server since WHS doesn't have Windows Media Center.

As a whole I was hoping to connnet the Ceton to the WHS and feed the extenders from the WHS. This way I wouldn't have to run two machines 24/7. Any workarounds?

[Jade10145]

The best way to do what you want is to use extenders. Yes, the Echo will do that.

OK so there doesn't appear to be a way to get away from running Windows 7/Windows Media Center on at least one machine. There wouldn't be anyway to connect the extenders (the Echo for example) directly to a box running Windows Home Server since WHS doesn't have Windows Media Center.

As a whole I was hoping to connnet the Ceton to the WHS and feed the extenders from the WHS. This way I wouldn't have to run two machines 24/7. Any workarounds?

[barnabas1969]

What's your reason for using WHS? Is it only to store your media? If so, then just put plenty of disc space in the Media Center machine.

Also, you don't need to run the Media Center PC 24/7. It can sleep when not used, and wake for recordings/extenders/updates/etc.