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Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server

By on October 6, 2009 in Reviews, Windows Home Server Reviews

Installing the HP MediaSmart Server

When installing the EX495, if you’ve owned an earlier generation model, you’ll notice that HP have changed the default name of the server from HPSERVER to HPSTORAGE, for reasons unknown. That said, it made life much easier for me running both an EX487 and an EX495 on the same network. Your installation experience will look as follows, cumulating in your first glimpse of the new MediaSmart 3.0 software!

1 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 2 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 3 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 4 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 5 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 6 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 7 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 8 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 9 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 10 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 11 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 12 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 13 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 14 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 15 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 16 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 17 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 18 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 19 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 20 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 21 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 22 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 23 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 24 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 25 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server

The New MediaSmart 3.0 Dashboard

HP appear to have put a lot of design work into the new MediaSmart Server’s user interface. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, we can easily compare three generations of MediaSmart Dashboard, starting with the EX475, then the EX487 and now the new EX495.

3411 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 24211 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server 25 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server

The new dashboard offers a richer overview of your home server, thanks to the Tour which brings to life the core features of the product in a simple, visual manner. Great for first time home server owners.

26 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server

A new System Status page offers a one-glance dashboard view of what’s happening on your home server, including reports on storage, network, memory and CPU utilisation, a notification area for any issues with your home server, details of remote access as well as add-ins, power management and software updates available.

27 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server

The Mac Overview unsurprisingly gives a brief outline of the Apple Mac features available:

28 thumb Hands On: HP EX495 MediaSmart Server

The Media section is the largest area of the dashboard, with specific areas for in home and web/iPhone streaming, Server for iTunes, HP’s Media Collector, Video Collector and Photo Publisher as well as configuration of the Media Server software included from TwonkyMedia.

All of the HP MediaSmart Server’s media features have been bundled together more neatly in the dashboard with redesigned controls, and in the case of the HP Video Converter, a number of new features. It’s not all upgrades with the 3.0 software, however, as the Amazon S3 powered Server Online Backup feature seen in the previous generation has been de-coupled from the dashboard and relegated to a downloadable add-in.

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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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  • Martin

    Brill thanks for that!

  • Alex

    any news on the European Market ( United Kingdom area)

    I've been looking at upgrading from a ex475, as far as I can tell not available yet

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/tezzer Terry Walsh

      Amazon.co.uk have the EX490 listed for pre-order – no news on the 495 as yet….

  • http://www.mediasmartserver.net Alex Kuretz

    Nice review Terry! I suspect the issues you saw with MKV's was due to multi-channel audio. In the previous version of the Video Converter I experienced the same issue with multi-channel audio tracks in mkv files, but found that 2-channel stereo tracks converted with the audio intact.
    http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2009/04/23/forum-…

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/tezzer Terry Walsh

      Great wiki, Alex – did you ping HP re: the multi-channel issue? Would be good to see if they can fix!

      • http://www.mediasmartserver.net Alex Kuretz

        I did not, that's a good idea. I'm not familiar with the Arcsoft software they use for the Converter so don't know if/how it handles downmixing multi-channel audio to stereo, but it can't hurt to ask!

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

    Full client backups of the mac dont count for the 10 computer limit? hmmm.
    Anyhow nice review Terry.

  • James Cocker

    Liking the improved Mac features. However anyone know what the disadvantages of having to use SMB as opposed to AFP on a Mac are?

  • Lee Ladisky

    Anyone know of an easy way to migrate from a 475 to the 495? Can I just put the System drive of the 475 into the 495 (along with all the other drives used) and do a Server Recovery to avoid the slow copy process????? Anyone with thoughts on this? There are a few comments between 475 and 485, but nothing that goes cross processor/platform… concern obviously being about drivers, etc…. thoughts?

    Lee

    • http://www.mediasmartserver.net Alex Kuretz

      The EX48x and EX49x are very similar, the problem will be in the licensing, I don't believe WHS will auto-activate. I instead recommend the Server Recovery route as I described in this blog post.
      http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2009/08/28/using-…

  • Alex

    I wouldn't think that would work from an amd system to an intel system ( definitely get a blue screen if you had a monitor hooked up )

  • Tom

    Any word on HP releasing an update for the EX48x. I really want the updated Mac experience!

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/tezzer Terry Walsh

      I think there should be an update coming from HP soon on this….

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  • davidob

    For the 47x crowd that used WebShare and switched to PhotoPublisher, what has been your experience? Do you have to recreate existing albums or do they migrate, can you limit access to albums per user, etc?

  • http://bluppen.com deriksen

    @davidob. Was wondering the same thing. Without any Macs in the household I'm a bit hesitant to push for the 3.0 upgrade. I'm quite a heavy Photo Webshare user. Any insight from other readers would be very welcome.

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