In a forum posting today on their company forums, PacketVideo revealed that they have ceased development of the standalone TwonkyMedia Server add-in for Windows Home Server. Users who wish to continue using newer versions of the company’s DLNA media server will be forced to install the standard version of the produce, most likely via a remote desktop session. The company’s Product Manager announced:
We’ve decided to move away from dedicated TwonkyServer builds for WHS starting with TwonkyServer 6.0. In a few days we’ll be posting detailed instructions telling all of you how to install the regular version of TwonkyServer on your NAS. Of course, we’ll continue to support HP on their MediaSmart servers as we have in the past.
Although this might be a disappointment for some, I think you’ll find the normal versions of TwonkyServer to much more stable and better performing — because they get a lot more testing. You’ll also find that bugs are fixed much more quickly on these releases. I will be happy to collect any WHS requests of problems with TwonkyServer 6.0.
Support for the standalone add-in has been sporadic with releases and updates being skipped or shipped late. Reading between the lines of the forum post, it seems that the company recognise the add-in has not had the quality and performance testing it really should have.
With the forthcoming next version of Windows Home Server offering in-box DLNA compatibility via the Windows Server 2008 R2 codebase, the company may have seen the writing on their wall for their software.
More: Twonky Forums
