Media Streaming With Windows 7 (and Windows Home Server)

By on May 13, 2009 in Digital Media Receivers, WHS v2, Windows Home Server

Have you been following the Engineering Windows 7 blog? It provides a really detailed insight into the thinking behind the development of Windows 7, and highlights many of the new features of the platform – add it to your RSS feeds, it’s a great read.

Of particular interest to Window Home Server owners is the recent Media Streaming with Windows 7 post, which details new features in Windows 7 media sharing, utilising the open DLNA standards as well as new Windows technologies such as HomeGroup.

You’ll be glad to know that in Windows 7, the guys over in Redmond have worked on improving media sharing support with a wide range of devices, including Windows Home Server.

Windows Explorer will automatically discover and provide access to shared media libraries on other HomeGroup PCs. In addition, Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center will automatically discover shared libraries from:

  1. Windows Media Player 11 and 12
  2. Windows Home Server
  3. All DLNA compliant media servers (e.g. network attached storage)

Make sure you also check out the new remote streaming capabilities of Windows 7, automatic transcoding of content to match bandwidth available, as well as a very cool new feature which can convert video files to a range of file formats depending on device compatibility.

The great news is that all of this new in-box media sharing should be provided with “Vail”, the next generation of Windows Home Server, which will be based on the Windows 7 platform. Can’t wait.

More Info: Engineering Windows 7


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About Terry Walsh

Terry Walsh is the founding editor and owner of We Got Served. Since February 2007, the site has provided detailed coverage and analysis of the emerging home server category, and has subsequently grown into a trusted outlet for digital home news and reviews.
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  • Nineset

    This gives me two irked feelings:

    1. I'm still running on a 3 month trial which won't make it until Vail's release (kind of a bummer).

    2. This makes me feel like we will be missing out for a while on the windows 7 goodies like remote streaming (still haven't found a reliable service for this (wish I had gotten an HP media smart at this point)), updated virus protection, and the integrated use of libraries, etc until the release of Vail.

    I was kind of hoping instead that we would see a larger service pack for the windows 7 release to integrate with some new features.

  • Richard

    Installed 7 RC1 the other day on my laptop. Very smooth OS in comparison to when I was using the Final Retail of Vista at release. Also no driver problems, all devices were installed from first boot, with no discs required! This is the best OS I have used since 2000 came out! And were not even at final reatil yet! Well done Microsoft.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

    Not so for me, my beta worked like a charm but I've noticed some problems with the x64 RC1 on my laptop: fingerprint driver doesn't work which was provided by windows update. Bluetooth didn't install all the drivers for some odd reason and iv'e noticed much more app crashes then the beta. I'm glad to see libraries has taken more of a backseat then the beta. Im yet to test the media sharing on the RC1. Anyhow I'll likely purchase a full retail ASAP once it releases which will be the second only retail purchase of a windows in my family ever 0_0 (windows 98 was the other). Goes to show if MS puts effort in they will reap the rewards cough vista cough

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

    Oh to add not sure how homegroups fits in with WHS, they seem to have the same purpose??

  • http://gcoupe.spaces.live.com Geoff Coupe

    Of course, being on the bleeding edge of technology is not without its problems. I've documented my experience with the "Play To" feature here:
    http://gcoupe.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!6AA39937A9…

    And so far, I haven't got the Homegroup feature to work properly, but that's for another day.

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