Your world in high definition

The future is here, and it's bringing big, beautiful movies to your home via the Internet. Artists are releasing their newest records directly from their Web sites. Even your technology-phobic uncle has a digital camera and is sending you more pictures of his parrot than you have time to view. Everywhere you go, media and information is converging into a digital medium and clearing extra room off your bookshelves. That's a good thing, but it also means that more of your world is being stored on a flurry of various computers and devices. Take a look at these various scenarios and see if anything looks familiar.

Musical mayhem

If you're like most people, some of your music is from online download sites, while others are still on CD, vinyl, or tape. Maybe part of your digital collection is on your old computer in the den and the rest is on your laptop, or perhaps you have managed to get most songs onto a portable audio player. Wouldn't they be nice is if they were all in one place? The MediaSmart Server can make that happen, synchronizing with iTunes libraries from multiple computers seamlessly, streaming to home digital media devices (with UPnP technology), like an Xbox 360.

Photo overload

Digital cameras are everywhere, and the price keeps dropping on memory cards, so it's easy to keep shooting and shooting. That's all well and good, but chances are that you end up with a kazillion pictures on your computer. You can transfer them to recordable discs, but you really want your mom and dad to see them. MediaSmart Server lets anyone you choose view your pictures through a special program called Photo Webshare. Once you send anyone you choose a login and secure password, they can access designated photos from any Internet connection. It also lets you upload pictures from your camera when you're not at home so you have more room for additional photos, along with the comfort of knowing they're safely stored at home.

Film frenzy

You go down to the video store and they're out of the new comedy about Alaskan ice fishing you've been itching to see. Or perhaps you have to work late and miss the cliffhanger of your favorite primetime drama. Don't despair! Web sites such as CinemaNow offer movies, videos, and TV shows for purchase or rent. They're broadcast-quality or even better, if you get the high-definition (HD) versions. With a home server, not only can you watch shows at your leisure but you can access them from any PC or notebook on your home network.

Watching downloaded movies has a couple demands, though. Feature-length movies, especially high-definition versions, eat up storage space. And it's important that they play smoothly and reliably. That's why the MediaSmart Server features internal SATA hard drives starting at 500 GB (gigabytes). That's about 140 hours of DVD-quality video. It can be expanded to 4 TB (terabytes) and beyond.

Backup bonanza

Not only is it tough to keep track of what you have and where -- it's a challenge to ensure that it's safe and secure in the event of a problem. This goes for both media and data files. It's not always obvious how much you come to depend on your computer until something bad happens. Many people use their e-mail as a storage system for family pictures, personal letters, tax documents, or online shopping receipts. It's important to keep that information secure. The best way is to regularly back up your stuff. Using the new Microsoft Home Server software, the MediaSmart Server offers various options for automatic or manual backup. It automatically performs incremental backups, only updating files that have changed since the last time. For critical files or business data it can even back up on more than one drive for double the security.

The MediaSmart Server comes with a HP PC Restore disc to restore an entire hard drive or computer's contents.

Figure 2 illustrates the process of backing up media files.

Enlarge image

Next up
These are only some of the uses for the MediaSmart Server. Coming up, you'll see how it connects to the Internet to remotely provide secure access to all of your digital media, data, and applications that are at home when you're not.

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