Home Media Server Information

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Home Media Server

A home media server is a stand alone home computer capable of storing various digital media. These include purchased movies, music, pictures, and home videos.

Also known as a home audio server or a home digital media server, this a device that simply stores and shares media. This can allow several different devices to be called a home media server. From a simple Network-attached storage, a Windows Media center PC, a slingbox home media device, an apple TV box, or a Mythtv system. In the home, a media server acts as central device for storing digital information.

Access to all of your stored media is then available from any computer or device attached to the home network.
This site is dedicated to:

Choosing a home server vs. media server
Configuration & wiring for home computer media
Features of typical home media server solutions

TechTV – Revisited?

This may be a little off topic, but I wanted to take a minute to talk about the ‘old’ TechTV and what geeks today use to get their tech shows.

For the unacquainted, TechTV was a cable network that was bought a few years ago by G4. Before the merger, I enjoyed many shows on TechTV:
-The Screen Savers

-Fresh Gear

-Unscrewed w/Martin Sargent

-Call For Help

The Screen Savers (youtube link) was the favorite among me and all my techie friends. We religiously watched it every night for the latest on gadgets, gear, and tech news. When it went away (it’s now known as ‘attack of the show’ and isn’t as good), I was very disappointed.

So here we are, 3 years later – and where do I get my tech shows? Why, the internet – of course :)

The tech content today comes from a variety of sources. My favorite two – Revision3 and TWIT – were started by formed TechTV personalities.

Here’s my viewing list of the top tech shows:

Revision3:

-Tekzilla

-Diggnation

-Web Drifter w/Martin Sargent

TWIT:

-MacBreak

-This Week In Tech (TWIT) – Audio Only

-MacBreak Weekly – Audio Only

CNET:
-CNET TV

-Buzz Out Loud – Audio Only

Ziff Davis:

-DL.TV

-Cranky Geeks

If you do the math, you’ll see that there are more excellent shows (and podcasts) now than there ever were on TechTV. I believe that with this much excellent content, the ‘old’ medium of television has been replaced….at least for technology programming

Backup Your Media!

If you’re like me, you’ve accumulated a an amazing amount of media on your various systems (including your home media server).

iTunes music, movies, TV shows – as well as ripped CD’s, family photos, and home movies. All stored on the main home computer, or, if you’re more advanced – on a home media server. While this makes the data easy to find and use, it also makes it vulnerable. Without a solid backup system that you use often, all of your important media could be wiped out by a power surge or lightening strike.

Luckily, you have alternatives. There are many different ways to backup your data – I’m going to touch on a few:

DVD’s
Most computers today ship with a built-in DVD writer (burner). The standard DVD writer can burn CD’s up to 4GB (8 GB with a multi-layer writer) of data. While this may seem like a huge amount of data, it can be limited. Sure, if you’re just backing up photos – a DVD writer may do the trick. However, if you start adding much music (iPods can hold 160GB now) or movies – those DVD’s can fill up quickly. What’s more, DVD’s have not been proven for long-term storage. In fact, some inexpensive DVD media has been known to deteriorate over a relatively short period of time.

Tape Drive
Yes, it’s still possible to backup data to a tape drive. The benefits of a tape drive are large storage capacities – and long data life. The drawbacks are the fact that it’s a tape drive – which can be prone to errors, and is sometimes hard to configure. While most backup software will recognize a tape drive, it’s usually not the best solution for home media.

External Hard Drive
Probably the most popular option today. An external hard drive can hold as much data as most in-system drives. Drives with capacities over 300GB are relatively inexpensive, and their easy to configure and use. When shopping for an external, always go with a name brand. Something with a Hitachi, Samsung, or Seagate drive will give you the best long term performance. There are drawbacks to the external drive: drive failure. Yes, any time you put ‘all your eggs in one basket’, there is a risk of hard drive failure – and you can lose all of your data. This brings me to the final and most robust option.

RAID Array
RAID has been a common fail-safe data backup system for many years. Until recently, it’s only been used in the Corporate or Business IT environment. Traditionally, a RAID system required very specialized hardware and software, and professional configuration and maintenance in order to function properly. Lately there have been several products released that provide RAID functionality, without the complicated configuration and hardware. One of the best is the DROBO system, from Data Robotics. This system uses standard Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives to create a RAID array automatically. Drobo will even automatically update itself when you install a new drive. This means that your data backup system will grow whenever you need it to. As soon as I can, I’ll be ordering this system.

--SW

Home Server vs. Media Server

Many times you may just want a central place to store & backup all of your files to. This option would be for a Home Server.

A home server device would simply be attached to your home network, usually in an inconspicuous place. You then power the device on, configure it through your web browser, and copy all of your files to it.

If you’re looking for a device to connect to your HDTV, you probably want a Home Media Server. These devices look similar to DVD players or cable boxes, and can be connected directly to your TV. They often have a RF or infrared remote, and can play a variety of files. Many times, they do not have much storage capacity. Instead, they stream the files from your other devices (PC’s in your home, or your Home Server)