I haven't purchased a server as i am still in the process of storing my movies to my external hard drive. The question is are there media servers once installed have a feture that can reconize a movie and get the cover art for it. or do I have to find the art for each movie? If so How do I do that.

I haven't purchased a server as i am still in the process of storing my movies to my external hard drive. The question is are there media servers once installed have a feture that can reconize a movie and get the cover art for it. or do I have to find the art for each movie? If so How do I do that.

You need to figure out what UI you plan on playing your movies back. For instance, SageTV, XBMC, and Windows Media Center all have different naming conventions/setups for art (particularly cover art). For Windows Media Center you can use a program like www.metabrowser.com which will scan you collection and automatically assign art. Same can be done for XBMC with Media Info Plus. I believe MediaPortal has its own internal scraper that it uses.

I still don't have any Idea as I am still researching trying to find out the best for the money. I am saving all my movies as iso file. Do you have any suggestions on a good media player

I still don't have any Idea as I am still researching trying to find out the best for the money. I am saving all my movies as iso file. Do you have any suggestions on a good media player

Right now my set up is I have an HP Media Smart Server w/ Esata Port Multiplier and 8.5TB of space, which streams all my media throughout my house. I stream to a bunch of different devices but mostly use HTPCs (I have 2). Popcornhour is a solid player that plays almost everything you throw at it, but the UI can be a little ugly. There is talk of a new device called Xtreamer that is being discussed, but none have made it into the wild. I honestly prefer HTPCs because of the flexability, but the price can be a little more expensive and of course it is a PC so normal maintenance is required. It sounds like there will be quite a few new media players announced in the coming weeks/months.

Can you watch gone with the wind in 1 room and watch superman in the other? and what is a UI (soory I am Green) but Learning fast. Also how can i look at an esterport Multiplier. it sounds like something I need.

Can you watch gone with the wind in 1 room and watch superman in the other? and what is a UI (soory I am Green) but Learning fast. Also how can i look at an esterport Multiplier. it sounds like something I need.

An Esata Port Multiplier allows you to add additional storage to your media server. For instance, my HP MediaSmart Server comes with 4 bays for 4 HDDs. If I want to expand then, I can add an Esata Port Multilpier (which connects via the Esata Port hence the name), which for me adds another 4 bays, giving me a total of 8 HDD bays for use with my Server. It is not necessary, all depends on how much storage your server allows for and if you need to expand. The server is capable of streaming media to multiple locations at the same time. You will need a separate Media Player at each location though, so if you have two different media players hooked up to 2 tvs, one could be playing GWTW and the other playing superman at the same time. Of course ideally you are going to want to stream your media via wired (i.e. Cat5/6, even possibly powerline or Moca). You can accomplish this with wireless but will not have much success if you are looking into streaming HD content. UI stands for User Interface, sorry about the abbreviations, I get a little carried away at times.

Thanks and you have been most helpful. will the H P Mediasmart server Upconvert SD to 1080p ? See I abbreviated!!

Thanks and you have been most helpful. will the H P Mediasmart server Upconvert SD to 1080p ? See I abbreviated!!

The MediaSmartServer is just that, a server, it simply streams your media to a media device for playback. It is the media device (such as an HTPC, Popcornhour, SageTV HD200) where upconverting if any would take place. Pretty sharp on the abbreviations :D