HP MediaSmart Server? - Page 9

Originally Posted by Gunserotti

I just received my new HP WHS 490 with CPU upgrade. I have a few questions about ripping blu-rays. Currently I use Clown BD and AnyDVD with an external bu-ray drive on a windows Vista system. Works great...thanks Damian.

Can I install clown BD and anyDVD on my WHS and proceed with the ripping process via the HP console using my external Blu-ray drive (that will be attached to the WHS)? If so can you give me a little hint here.

Aaronwt: I see that you have had success with the my movies plugin. Can you confirm if you can just select the main movie and a single English audio track only? Otherwise I guess you would be ripping all the extras and each and every audio track.

Originally Posted by npradeepkumar

Hi,
Today, I tried to copy some files (video) from my desktop to my WHS. I felt that it was quite slow (around 1 to 2 MBPS). I do not have a Gigabit ethernet port on my Desktop. I think the EX495 is gigabit, but I am not sure. I have connected both of these to a CISCO WRT 610N (Gigabit router). Not sure if this is what is expected typically from this kind of a setup. Also, I noticed that the network utilization on my desktop was quite high. I started seeing stutter on my extenders as I was trying to play back some recorded content at the same time. Again, please advise me if I am doing something wrong or if this is typically expected from such a setup.

Originally Posted by jmpage2

I routinely see transfer/copy speeds of 30-40 MB/s from my EX495. Something is not right with your setup. How is the desktop client connected?

Originally Posted by InterestedUser

hi aaronwt and other MSS fans,

As the MSS units do not allow Bluray drives to be connected directly to the unit, I understand some of you use USB attached Bluray drives.

Of the USB Bluray drives I understand you can either purchase a prebuilt USB bluray drive, or purchase a Internal Bluray drive and install them in a enclosure (eg. Vantec NexStar DX).

I am interested in compatibility of these drives and the HP MSS boxes. Does anyone have any specific recommendations in terms of drives and enclosures?

Does USB 2.0 limit throughput or is this immaterial to the performance of the drive? I noticed the Vantec NexStar DX units has a version with e-Sata as well as USB. I'm wondering whether it makes sense to get the e-Sata enclosure or is it irrelevant and waste of money?

Do specific device drivers need to be installed?

Thank you for any help.

Originally Posted by Greg Haynes

I'm thinking of installing a BD ROM drive in my desktop PC instead of the MSS to save cost on the enclosure and to avoid clutter with another device on the desk. What time differences would I expect if I did complete rip over the network to the MSS compared to having the drive hooked directly to the MSS. Just trying to determine disadvantages.

Originally Posted by dbone1026

I would actually recommend ripping to your PC and then transferring to your MSS when done. This is how I do it, and I actually found it quicker then trying to rip directly over the network

Originally Posted by aaronwt

Yes even with the 100mbs connection the desktop has your transfer rates should easily be at least 90mbs.

Originally Posted by aaronwt

I rip everything into the ISO format. So everything on the disc is there.

I have three USB BD drives attached to my MSS. I just stick the BD in, and the my Movies Add In(along with Any DVD HD being installed) automatically rips the disc to the ISo format.

Originally Posted by npradeepkumar

When you rip the movies in the ISO format, do you store each movie in its own folder? If you leave the movie in ISO formats, are you able to play them back using Media center or media center extenders. If not, are there other devices that you use to play them back on your TV?

Originally Posted by npradeepkumar

I am not sure what you mean by 'desktop client being connected'. I am just going into windows explorer and copying these files from my desktop to the server. I am not using the console or the home server client. Let me know if I am doing something wrong. The desktop is directly connected to the router with an ethernet cable. I am sorry, if I am missing something obvious in your question.

Originally Posted by jmpage2

Do you have a wired or wireless connection on the desktop and the home server? What kind of network equipment are you using?

Originally Posted by jmpage2

Can you access the shares on the server from you XP boot?

Originally Posted by 404Ender

I can see HPSTORAGE when I enabled "viewing uPnP devices" and go to My Network Places, but since none of the software has been installed on the server yet I don't think I can do much else other than see it's on the same network. I couldn't even find what it's IP was from there.

Originally Posted by jmpage2

try turning off any anti-virus and firewalls you have and see if you can install the software.

Originally Posted by yuxmyyg

Need help to streaming BD ISO BDMV to Popcorn / WD Live from WHS or Windows Vista/7 ?

After I have read so many people have done successfully streaming their videos to Popcorn / WD Live, I decided to get media + storage server or HP EX490/495. But before I jump in, it came to my mind to test streaming first. First I built a Vista PC and then a Windows 7 Ultimate PC ( NFS capable ). I had a GigE D-Link 655 wirelss router and wired my a Vista PC ( not wireless, I know), a Windows 7 Ultimate PC , Popcorn A-100, WD Live by Cat5.
But the result is not inspiring. I have tested the followings.
1. large file copy speed is about 18-20MB/s ( Get this from Windows) from PC to PC.
2. large file copy speed is about 2-3 MB/s from PC to Popcorn.
3. Play SMB shared video 720p MKV 90% OK, stuttering occasionally on Popcorn.
4. Play SMB shared video 1080P MKV 10% OK, stuttering a lot on Popcorn.
5. Play SMB shared video TS remux leaves stuttering always, not watchable on Popcorn.
6. Play SMB shared video BD ISO stuttering always, not watchable on Popcorn.
7. Play on WD Live got the same results as Popcorn. (They all are100Full).
8. Play ALL SMB shared video (720, 1080P, TS, BD folder/ISO) from PC to PC 90% OK.

After I have tested this, I got confused. Am I doing something wrong ? I know many of you have a success. I have so many question to figure out.
1. What is wrong with my enviroment, network, PC Vista, PC Windows 7 Ultimate, Popcorn, WD Live ? Where is bottle neck ?
2. Should I get HP Smartmedia instead of Vista PC/ Win7 ? Which aspect is better for HP WHS which I am not aware of ?
3. Any media player ( WD Live Plus, Popcorn C-200, Dune base 3.0, Xtreamer, ...) has GigE port which can play BD ISO/folder without issues ?
4. What exactly enviroment ( Cables ? Routes ? WHS? Hard drives (RAID)? NAS? OS (Linux, WHS)? SMB/NFS? DNLA? UPnP ? TVerity, PS3MediaServer...) do I need to streaming BD ISO/folder to media players instead of Wintel PC?
5. I have tried so many combinations with no luck. I know many of you can provide a success case or best practice.
6. At current technology, streaming BD ISO/folder is mature and practical ?
7. Can anyone give a reason to buy HP Smartmedia or other WHS for streaming BD ISO/folder ?

Thanks,

Originally Posted by 404Ender

I have no anti-virus installed, and I turned off Windows Firewall completely.

Originally Posted by chpwaman

Have you tried this forum - http://www.mediasmarthome.com/

Originally Posted by jmpage2

Absolute peak bandwidth for Blu-ray when streamed over a network is 54Mb/s which is well under maximum capacity for your wired 1GB network.

Unfortunately many things can be at fault, from a possible misconfiguration on a network speed link (PC thinks it's 1GB but network switch thinks it's only 100MB/half, etc), slow hard drives accessing the files, overhead on the machine sourcing the file, etc.

The best thing to do is simplify things as much as possible. Potentially create a new user on the PC doing the sharing and use that user to share the file. Make sure no other programs are running. Use perfmon.exe under Windows to monitor counters for swap, ram, cpu, etc, and make sure that you aren't already under a load before you start to test.

You might even try a direct connection between the PC and the Popcorn hour with a crossover ethernet cable... be aware that if you do this you will need to give both devices static addresses. You could also consider running Wireshark on the PC sourcing the file and get a trace of what is going on when doing the transfer.

Many people report poor results with the PCH products and SMB. You could switch to a different sharing protocol which might result in higher performance.

The only time I've had performance issues and buffering of my large BD .mkv files to my PCH was when my server was going a huge copy of a 250GB file between drives, one of which was the drive the movies were on. Other than that I haven't had any performance issues streaming BD rips from my EX495 to my PCH A200.

Originally Posted by yuxmyyg

Strictly speaking, I just want to use WHS as shared folder (NAS), not streaming ( which needs transcoding) because I do not want to lose video or sound quality.

I have tried everything to tune in the performance. Basically I had no issues to play BD ISO/folder from PC to PC, just from PC to media players. It meant no big issues with Router and cables.

1. Tried SMB/NFS network share.
2. Tried Tverity/PS3 Media Server ( no transcoding ) .
3. Stopped all programs, network share only.
4. Tried to remove all, just leave one PC and one Popcorn/WD Live.
5. What eles I should try?

WHS will do something better than any PC (Win7/Vista) ? Or WHS is optimized for NAS or streaming ?

Originally Posted by jmpage2

You are streaming the file though. Your media player basically transfers the file over a chunk at a time. The server is just hosting the file, but it basically works out very similar to streaming.

If any chunks get queued up in the server or the server is slow, you will see hiccuping or buffering just like with 'streamed' video. Likewise if the network loses a chunk then the streamer has to re-request that piece of the file which results in buffering.

The WHS is nothing other than a Server2003. It just has some nice stuff put on top such as the ability to back up all of the PCs (and if HP your Macs) in the house and has some other easy to use stuff. The hardware is relatively robust for the price and the storage is easy to expand.

If that suits your needs then get it. If not then just use a regular Windows/Samba box to do the file sharing.

The performance of WHS is really no better or worse than any other NAS type solution when it comes to throughput.

You should have no problems transferring/streaming large files at good enough rates to play full BD .iso images. If you are having problems then there is something wrong in your playback device, in the server, or in the network. Period!

Originally Posted by yuxmyyg

Thank you. After extensive research, I have figured out the bottle neck.
1. Static IPs required instead of DHCP for PC sharing and media players.
2. Stop all network activities including web browsering, downloading, internet radio, file transfering...
3. Reboot router.

After I did above, the playback was more smooth than before. Although I have not tested extensively, it looks like no big issues with 720P mkv, 1080p mkv, TS remux, and BDMV folder. I have not tested BD ISO.

I am almost ready to pull the trigger to get HP mediasmart. I like the form factor and many features than regular PCs, 4 bays, quiet, remote access, software, good support. But I still have 2 questions about hard drive management and power management.
1. How HP smartmedia handles multiple hard drives, uses different Driver Letters D:, E:, F: ... or just one big volume or \\shared_folder ? How to do disk mirroring or RAID 5 ? I may just use concatenation. If I remove one hard drive, the data is still there ? If I put one removed drive to an external enclusure, the partial data is still readable ? I heard other RAID NAS devices use propriatory, you cannot remove any disk from RAID and put into an enclusure. What about HP smartmedia ?
2. How HP smartmedia handle standby, sleep, hibernation ? Can media player wake up HP WHS if I play from media server ? I know I can record TV even though the PC is in sleep mode. But I don't know how HP WHS deal with sharing access. Please shed some light if you know.

Thanks,

Originally Posted by yuxmyyg

Thank you. After extensive research, I have figured out the bottle neck.
1. Static IPs required instead of DHCP for PC sharing and media players.
2. Stop all network activities including web browsering, downloading, internet radio, file transfering...
3. Reboot router.

After I did above, the playback was more smooth than before. Although I have not tested extensively, it looks like no big issues with 720P mkv, 1080p mkv, TS remux, and BDMV folder. I have not tested BD ISO.

I am almost ready to pull the trigger to get HP mediasmart. I like the form factor and many features than regular PCs, 4 bays, quiet, remote access, software, good support. But I still have 2 questions about hard drive management and power management.
1. How HP smartmedia handles multiple hard drives, uses different Driver Letters D:, E:, F: ... or just one big volume or \\shared_folder ? How to do disk mirroring or RAID 5 ? I may just use concatenation. If I remove one hard drive, the data is still there ? If I put one removed drive to an external enclusure, the partial data is still readable ? I heard other RAID NAS devices use propriatory, you cannot remove any disk from RAID and put into an enclusure. What about HP smartmedia ?
2. How HP smartmedia handle standby, sleep, hibernation ? Can media player wake up HP WHS if I play from media server ? I know I can record TV even though the PC is in sleep mode. But I don't know how HP WHS deal with sharing access. Please shed some light if you know.

Thanks,

Originally Posted by dbone1026

1. WHS, which the HP Mediasmart uses, utilizes JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks), so you can m ix and match any size HDD. All drives are part of one main data pool, so you only see one volume and not multiple volumes (you can however keep a drive out of the data pool, and if so then it will appear as its own volume). If you want to protect your data WHS uses duplication, which is very similar to RAID 1. With the current WHS you can pull out a drive and still read the data off of it on another PC

2. The HP is meant for 24/7 access, but there are several add ins such as Lights Out or others that allow for Sleep, WOL, etc...