Media Streaming

[DigeratiPrime]

Anyone know if the Media Streaming option in \Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings\ in R2 RTM can be used? If one clicks on the Choose media streaming options... link it displays "The page failed to load".

I installed the Desktop Experience feature, but it still seems broken.

Would this work when the Streaming Media Services role is released for RTM?

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsme...odinfo2008.aspx

[cluberti]

I believe that code is a part of the homegroup code, and as such won't exist on 2008 R2, even with Desktop Experience enabled.

[Ben_j]

Same problem here ! It really really sucks, as I want to use my server as an upnp av server, to watch videos from the server on my TV, etc. Anyone succeeded ?

[cluberti]

Technically this is what Windows Home Server is for.

[Ben_j]

Yes but I don't have access to Windows Home Server. I only have Windows Server 2008 / 2008 R2 on my school's MSDN

Edited December 10, 2009 by Ben_j

[Ben_j]

After looking everywhere on the net, I found this on another forum :

Although I currently have no idea how to enable the sharing button in WMP in Server 2008, I have figured out that you can install Windows Media Connect on server 2008. Media Connect was the predecessor to the Media Sharing in WMP and has been somewhat revived in Windows Home Server to serve up media. The beauty of it is that it does not depend on WMP at all so there's no need to install the bloated Desktop Experience feature and can be configured to run all the time. This provides a very clean simple alternative to the 3rd party DLNA media sharing apps out there.

Here's how you do it:

1) Find a copy of Windows Media Connect 2.0, this is no longer provided my MS but can still be found around the web. Another place you could potentially find it is in the file umupnp.exe on the Windows Home Server installation media.

2) Now out of the box this won't install on Server 2008, so don't bother trying, you need to extract the files from the archive. I used Winrar, other archiving tools will do it too.

3) Create a folder, for example C:\Program Files\Media Connect (I'll assume you used this folder for future examples)

4) Copy the following 3 files which were extracted from the archive mentioned in the last step into your new folder: wmccds.exe, wmccfg.exe, wmcsci.dll

5) Run regsvr32 "C:\ProgramFiles%\Media Connect\wmcsci.dll"

6) Run "C:\ProgramFiles%\Media Connect\wmccds.exe" -installwithfiles (This is an undocumented feature of Media Connect which installs the service without paying attention to pesky details like OS version).

7) Run sc config "WMConnectCDS" depend= none

8) Run sc config "WMConnectCDS" depend= upnphost/HTTP (These 2 commands are essentially an easy way to remove the HTTPFilter service dependency which does not exist on Server 2008. It's functionality now resides in HTTP, I could of done this from the registry as well but in my experience that requires a reboot)

9) Enable the SSDP Discovery Service by setting it to manual startup from the GUI or using sc config "SSDPSRV" start= demand

10) Enable the UPNP Host Device Service by setting it to manual startup from the GUI or using sc config "upnphost" start= demand

11) Run wmccfg.exe and do the initial setup.

From this point you've got media sharing running that is basically the same as the WMP sharing feature (maybe even a bit more appropriate for a Server environment), and it can be reconfigured using wmccfg as needed.

As a side note this works for both x86 and x64 versions (including Server 2008 R2). It also works in Vista and Windows 7 as well for anyone who wants to avoid Media Player on their desktop and still use Media Connect sharing.

Sounds good. I'm gonna try it on 2008 R2.

I think it's really stupid from Microsoft to disable this feature on WS 2008 and 2008 R2...

edit :

I found the WMC 2.0 install, but when I unpack everything I don't have the same files as the one indicated in this tutorial Anyone has this umupnp.exe ?

Edited December 10, 2009 by Ben_j

[cluberti]

Windows server is designed as a business server, and has Windows Media Services for streaming business-class media. Streaming personal data is why WHS was designed. While you might not agree with this decision, it's not stupid by any means, Windows Server is not marketed or tested for home users as a home server, but WHS is (hence the product name).

[Ben_j]

I understand, but still, they could have let the option. And Windows Home Server is based on Windows Server 2003, which is 6 years old now.

[nitroshift]

I understand, but still, they could have let the option. And Windows Home Server is based on Windows Server 2003, which is 6 years old now.

As cluberti stated above,

Windows server is designed as a business server

and I don't think businesses would be too pleased if their machines and bandwidth were used to stream movies (or music, etc...) across the network. That is exactly why Home Server was designed. Think of it as a security measure against the so-called "adminz", if you know what I mean (yes, they still exist out-there). And Home Server doesn't need the amount of security and features available in server 2008 as it was never designed for use in a business environment.