Can Xp Media Center Do This?

[Rob00GT]

OK, so before I take the plunge into XP Media Center Edition 2005 I need to know if it will do a few basic things that are important to me. My plan is to build it myself and use the media center pc as a "media server" for my house. It will be placed in my office where no one will notice all the fan noise and a media center extender (or some other silent thin client device) placed in the living room and bed rooms, connected by 100MB/s ethernet.

Now here is where I'm foggy on the details. I want to copy my DVD collection onto the hard drives of my "media server" so that a movie can be called up by any of the extenders/thin clients any time. No I'm not looking to make a bunch of pirate copies of DVD's, I just want to have a single device (the extender) next to the tv that can serve up all my media. I'm tired of having VCR's and DVD players in every room with the associated media strewn across the house. With kids you never really know where your DVD's might end up and having them playable "on demand" eliminates the problem.

OK, now if that is possible what about assigning rights to individual extenders? For example, an extender in a child's room can view any movie rated PG or G, but not rated PG-13 or R. Is an extender that smart, is Media Center that smart, or can I place the movies is different folders based on ratings and allow only certain extenders to see them? Since XP Media Center Edition is based on XP Home and not Pro I know that Active Directory is not an option.

Finally, I want to do the same thing with MP3 files. Playable on demand from any room but able to set rules. I want the kids to be able to play their stuff, but they're too young for Eminem, Limp Bizkit, and some other harder-edged artists.

Your advice is appreciated.

Rob

[DigeratiPrime]

first i dont think all the fan noise is necessary, if you manage airflow correctly you dont need 6 80mm fans, I suggest aiming for (2) Low RPM 120mm fans.

As for ripping dvd's you sound like you know how to do this, the easiest way I found is with DVD shrink or DVD Decrypter (both are Free) set to rip directly to ISO.

XP MCE doesnt come ready with a "My DVD's", this is the plugin for that (donation-ware):

Review:

http://www.htpcnews.com/main.php?id=mcedvd_1

Homepage:

http://www.binnerup.dk/mce/mydvdcollection/

Unfortunately I have little knowledge about the eXtenders. Please report back, Im interested in doing something like this myself.

[Rob00GT]

Fan noise was one consideration, it will also be a pretty big box that isn't very sightly in an entertainment center in my living room. The large case is necessary for the 4 hard drives in a RAID5 array. Of course I could go with a network attached storage (NAS) solution but that would just add more traffic to the network. I'm running with about 400GB of storage right now (with no DVD's saved to disk yet) in a RAID1 setup but I'm planning to expand it anyway. That box is currently running Windows Server 2003 and hosts my web site, acts as file and print server, and is the repository for my 65GB of MP3 files.

Since I converted my entire CD collection to MP3 files all my CD's have done is collect dust in a closet. I'm looking forward to stacking my DVD's in the same closet.

More suggestions are welcome!

[DigeratiPrime]

Good News:

Here's straight from the "My Movies" FAQ:

How does the parental controls feature work?

"My Movies" has built in the parental control features of Microsoft Media Center Edition 2005, whithout any additional setup or settings than the ones already set in your Media Center. This means that if you whish to use parental controls, you should set the required settings directly in the "General" part of the Media Center Settings. You should note that parental controls information for a movie title is based on the set or imported data from the "Edit collection" program, and not from the movie itself - this also mean you should be aware of the "Block unrated movies" setting, since potentially more movies have not parental information set for it.

When using parental controls I am asked for a PIN # both when opening a title, and when playing it, why?

This is because of parental controls working in both "My Movies" and the general Media Center Edition - when opening a title on the collection overview in "My Movies", you will be asked for a PIN # before entering the title view, which is because your children should not see the large cover and description text for titles with parental control limitations, the PIN # you are asked for here is "My Movies" that checks your parental controls settings against the title movie rating in your collection database, if you then play an offline DVD, or a online DVD that has kept rating informations, you will be asked for a PIN # again when playing the title - this is Media Center Edition itself asking for this, to be able to play a DVD.

MCE has built in Parental Control features for both TV and DVD. The aformentioned plugin, integrates with those controls as well. I dont know much about Extenders as mentioned, but you can also visit xpmce.com and thegreenbutton.com for more information.

BTW a case that might 'fit' what you need, is something like the Antec Sonata, Reviews:

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/sonata.ars

http://www.procooling.com/reviews/html/ant...case_review.php

It's Quiet, somewhat living room freindly, and can house your hard drives.

Newegg, has it for $100 + SHP. http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc....watch&ATT=Cases

and if your building this yourself, dont forget to buy the MCE remote.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-100-851&depa=0

Wow I only have 20 something GB of Music and alot of that is Lossless, haha. Use a program like Tag & Rename or Abander TagControl to 'tag' all your music files and albums properly. Its especially important in Media Center, because you will want the thumbnails to appear and to be able to sort by genre, artist, etc.

[Marsden]

CDs and DVDs playing on the MCE cannot be listened to or watched on the extenders.

Media Center Extenders cannot access any desktop functionality available to the MCE PC.

Media Center Extenders can play videos in the MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and WMV9 formats.

Media Center Extender supports remote playback of content that is protected by Personal Digital Rights Management (PDRM) and Windows Media DRM (WMDRM).

You can play the following types of protected content.

--WMA audio ripped, or copied from a CD using Windows MP with the Copy protect music check box selected.

--Premium content WMA music downloaded from websites.

--Premium content WMV videos downloaded from websites.

TV content that the broadcaster has marked with Copy Generation Management System -- Analog (CGMS-A) bits cannot be viewed on Media Center Extender. This feature may be allowed in a future release of MCE.

[Marsden]

Other helpful hints...

MS recomends some serious hardware if you are going to use more than 3 Media Center Extenders like:

CPU- 3.4GHz

RAM- 1GB minimum

Component Video (red, green, and blue connectors) are your best connections.

MS recommends wired network connectivity.

If you use wireless then you want 802.11A or 802.11G with "A" prefered over "G", and you can forget "B." B does not have the bandwidth for streaming media.

[raskren]

MCE does have a "My Videos" section, right? I don't know exactly what file formats it expects to see (besides the obvious) but you might be able to copy the VOB files from your DVDs and place them in the "My Videos" watched folders. Your DVDs would then be treated just like any other video file.

[Rob00GT]

OK, so I guess the most important question is: can a media center extender play a DVD from the servers hard drive (if the DVD has been ripped using DVD shrink)? If I can't convert my DVD collection to some format that can be efficiently saved on a hard drive then then viewed remotely there is no point in going forward with this.

If it isn't possible using the media center extenders, what about using another type of "thin client" instead? Anybody with any experience doing this?

[JPry565]

Depends on the DVD software.

[JPry565]

What type are you running?

[Marsden]

CDs and DVDs playing on the MCE cannot be listened to or watched on the extenders.

What part of that do you not get? If you can't live with that restriction... use another product.