So in other words the forthcoming WHS version does *not* support the "full" mce functionality (i.e. the menus which appear when you press the green button) unless you have a dedicated Media centre machine *in addtion* to your WHS server box.

Thats understandable, but a real shame. Using 2 boxes to have Media centre and WHS functionality is mad - but I guess thats an MS design decision we have to live with, at least for now.

 

FYI, If you are a beta-tester for WHS, help test the first beta of WebGuide for WHS.  As you would expect, most of WebGuide's features are carried over from the MCE platform - streaming music, videos, DVDs, picture browsing , etc.  Left out is the program guide and live TV features.  However, if you have an MCE/Vista machine running WebGuide, you can setup a "WebGuide Prism" connection to that machine to have access to recorded TV.

Features:
- Full music library, with streaming.
- Streaming videos/DVD's
- WHS Integration
 - - Adds link to home and user pages
 - - Uses WHS login
- Picture browsing with thumbnails, full-view, EXIF data, and downloading.
- Links to MCE/Vista machines via "WebGuide Prism"

A few notes:
- WebGuide can't be installed via the WHS console.  For now you have to login to the server via remote desktop to install.
- Music is still read from the Windows Media Player library.  Thus, you need to login to the server via remote desktop and confgure WMP to access your music library (usually on "d:\shares\Music").
- There is no MPEG2 decoder included in WHS, so if you want to stream MPEG2's or DVD's, I'd suggest downloading and installing the decoders from the WebGuide download page.
- When creating user accounts in WebGuide, use the same username as the WHS account.  WebGuide will then try to auto-login for you.  If not, then you will be prompted to login.
- Mobile and Media Center pages should still work, although there has been less testing done.
- The "accounts" functionality is new to this build, so is still a bit rough around the edges.  It does work, however, and makes it much easier to set the accounts that WebGUide will use to access your media.

Chime in and let me know what you think and/or want from Webguide for Windows Home Server.

http://www.asciiexpress.com/webguide/forums/Default.aspx?g=posts&t=1519

Thanks.
Doug

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Currently I'm using Transcode360 to do streaming avi's (xvid/divx).  With the 360 functionality, does this do avi streaming to the 360?  Transcode is a little quirky as well as a pain for the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor)

Yes.  It works much better on Vista than MCE2005.  It depends on the codecs, but in general, I've been able to get all popular formats working - mpeg2, wmv, avi (divx, mp4).  If you get an error, you may need to try a different decoder.  I believe I've used Divx, 3ivx and Xvid. You can look at the log-files to see which decoder it used.

 

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Ok, I've got it to start a stream, but there's no video.  Where can I go to check out the encoder it's using?

In the WebGuide "app_data" folder.  There should be a "streamservice_log" file there.  Scroll down until you find your stream session and it should show the list of filters.

You also my want to check the WebGuide forums to see if anyone else has seen something similar.

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I have installed WebGuide 4.1 fo Vista and everything works except the guide. It says it cant find one to use.

The guide is working in Vista and up to date.

Does anyone have any ideas how to fix this?
Thanks,
Leom.

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Leom.

So I installed WebGuide earlier this evening and Cassini won't start up... on top of that, I keep getting this error when I finish the setup and try to access Webguide in the network tab for internal acccess;

 

Bad Gateway

The following error occurred:

[code=DNS_HOST_NOT_FOUND] The host name was not found during the DNS lookup. Contact your system administrator if the problem is not found by retrying the URL.

 

This couldn't be a router issue could it?  Not when I'm doing local access.  I want to get local access working first before I start screwing around with my router...

 

Also when I start up cassini manually I just get a "This page cannot be displayed" error..Should I just scrap this and reinstall or something?

That looks like an error from your router.  Try accessing the site with a "localhost" URL.

Like:  http://localhost:1234  (substituting 1234 with the port you chose for WebGuide).

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That error maybe because Ascii Express is having problems with their website provider.  As of 9/23/07 http://www.asciiexpress.com/ is down. So any connection to the asciiexpress.com domain will fail. I dont know for certain, but since the site when down and Im also having the same error, its possible.   I contacted the Administrative Contact for them, hopefully they will have it up soon.

EDIT:  Silly me, I see that Doug just posted, didnt realize that he was the administrative contact.

Isn't the local host thing the same thing as when you click on internal access after you've configured webguide?

I'll try it again tonight... Too bad it's not a simple install and play kind of program :(  If I have to muck around too much with my network settings and stuff, i'm afraid I'm just not interested in doing all that stuff.

Since Doug replied yesterday, I know that he is monitoring this thred.

Doug - I have seen a lot of posts with questions about how to get the prism functioning when you have WHS and a separate MCE box running. I saw one post where a proxy server was recommended, but in some of your posts (even in this thread) you state that the prism feature is what allows WHS users to access the MCE box and gain access to the extra functionality (streaming TV, Guide, Recorded TV).

What do I have to do to make it work? I have forwarded the proper ports in my router to point to the right box, but still nothing. Do you have a FAQ that can set us all straight? I know I am not the only person to have this issue.

Thanks,

Steinway

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AMD Athlon 6400+ BE (watercooled)
Nvidia 8600GTS
Hauppauge HVR-1600
Razer Barracuda AC-1
2GB DDR2
1TB HDD
Vista Ultimate W/ TV Pack

Okay, PERFECT Localhost worked.  I don't know why but I literally typed in just what you said http://localhost::portnumber

But external access is STILL not working...

I've even allowed my port # to be accessed in Linksys by assigning it to "Webguide" as the program... What am I doing wrong?

 

 

( Steinway)

Yes and no. (don't you love that answer) ? 

Prism is an aggregator, not a proxy.  As such, it can pull the meta-data from several machines to display in the main interface, but when you go to stream the actual media, it will redirect (behind the scenes) to the host machine itself.   As such, it is helpful if you have several machines, but in the end you will still need them all to be accessible to the net in order for streaming to function. 

I really wanted to build a streaming proxy in WHS like the RDP proxy, but that is a very heavy lift to get working - especiialy for one person.

Maybe I can convince someone at my new gig to take up that challenge. :)

Thanks.

Doug

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So - to try and play captain obvious...does that mean by default WebGuide will not be able to stream from multiple sources if one of the sources is a WHS PC?

Thanks again for the great product Doug.

Steinway

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AMD Athlon 6400+ BE (watercooled)
Nvidia 8600GTS
Hauppauge HVR-1600
Razer Barracuda AC-1
2GB DDR2
1TB HDD
Vista Ultimate W/ TV Pack