You can't unless you rip it open, create a connectin for the onboard video adapter to your monitor by creating a cable from scratch, then install a CD rom. And you'll have to buy a separate copy of WHS. Kind of ridiculous to get a vanilla install.

All you really need to do is upgrade the ram.

MediaMonkey said: I would do that (see http://www.homeserverhacks.com/2007/12/upgrade-memory-in-your-hp-ex470.html ) and also follow his other instruction on slapping in a new processor. it is SOOOOO worth it! As shipped, the WHS is a complete dog-- even without any addins or any of your files on it. In order to keep the price down they went with the BARE minimum to give this thing a heartbeat... so do yourself a favor, be brave, and follow those instructions exactly to have a hummin' fine server!

MediaMonkey,

 I agree. I am a newbie and have had my HP MSS for two weeks now.  I love it.  I went out last night and bought a 2gb stick of ram and will be putting that in today.  I also saw his article on replacing the processor.  What do you think?  Is that a good idea or will you see enough improvements by just upgrading the ram?  I am going to be running apps like sharepoint on mine so I definately need the ram, but not sure what I will get out of upgrading the processor, if it is really worth it.

Thanks

The processor is not very expensive at all and if you are opening it up, you might as well do the whole deal while you're in there. And I'm telling you it's a 1-2 punch that is well worth it. Mine doesn't slow down at all-- I have (re)loaded 4TB worth of mp3 and DVD's. To test it, I simultaneously did the following: had iTunes copy all my music to the share drive, uploaded files to WHS from 2 PC's, and streamed 3 different DVD movies to 3 apple TVs, while streaming a blu-ray DVD file to another PC and playing music from an xbox360... wow! The only thing I didn't try stressing it with was doing all that while pulling files via a remote login connection.

It never flinched as I went from room to room during the hour I did this. Trust me, I did a dance of joy :) as this was the first time I've actually got all this to work!

The console absolutely flies, loads instantly and there are no annoying pauses when I switch to another tab within console, and installing software on the WHS doesn't phase it either. It's behaving like a PC now instead of a common cheap little storage unit!

The only occasional problem I still have is the annoying "bad disk" error. When I upgraded the WHS software, I see it turned on disk duplication-- when I shut that off, the problem goes away. I just back up the WHS to a port-muliplited e-SATA tower to keep copies of what is on my WHS.

Those screws are very touchy, I'll agree. I think one of my was stripped from the factory actually. It barely held when I was removing it.

I'm still configuring the server, as the xbox wasn't seeing any video files and I guess I have to add either WMP11 or the Zune player to get it to do that. I still have more of my library to put on the server too (non-dvd video files). But I see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Regarding the rest of this thread, when I am talking about digital files I am assuming they are backups of DVD's you own:

I've spent the last 6 months doing the "DVD dance" as I call it. I've tried all the various methods and ways to convert purchased DVD's to digital files--- but only if they maintain the same quality.

It makes no sense to lose quality when TV's and video accessories get better and better every few years. 5 years from now, the people who converted their DVD's to sub-DVD quality now will be complaining like crazy.

The Xbox is horrible for video compared to the apple TV's, so I was streaming music to it. But apparently if I have WMP11 or Zune on the WHS I can stream video to it.. I'm trying that now. You have to install more software (of course) to get an xbox360 to play videos. If WMP11 or Zune don't work on the WHS I'll try installing the "media extender" from MS directly on it.

You can stream divx or the apple format... but I don't want to do that. i want 100% DVD quality as that is what I paid for... so my goal is to stream UN-converted DVD files. The VOB files are converted enough :)

DivX is fine for your home movies. But not for a hollywood blockbuster!

That said, here are a few things I've learned:

1) You will most likely need to keep 2 versions of a digitized DVD, one for HDTV's and full-screen viewing, and a smaller sized file for portables and smaller TV's. So plan accordingly :)

2) Converting DVD's to digital files is a painful process, still. It is not quick nor easy. There are a million settings to worry about, assuming the software you use actually gets it right the first time converting (I've had to re-do about 1 in 10 conversions as the final file contains errors).

3) Regarding conversion, there are 2 steps: ripping (back) to digital, and conversion to any other format if desired.

4) Ripping to digital, there is only 1 piece of software that frankly works and is reasonable in price. You can spend almost $1000 and get a commercial-grade application which will do it nicely, I found one that I SOOO want to buy--- but who the heck wants to?! Opting not to spend that much, I've spent nearly $500 trying several cheaper ones instead, mind you. And most of these smaller companies were good enough to refund my purchase when I said their software did not work as I required. I use DVD-Copy V and swear by it right now. It will convert your DVD's to VOB files without fuss, and almost perfectly every time. I am unable to get their blu-ray application to work for me, however.

5) Converting to "commonly playable" format requires another piece of software... and you want one which is flexible enough to handle anything in either direction. Again, after spending almost a grand trying 15 different "converters" and being disppointed over and over again, and then "handbrake" or other snapple-related software and other freebies, I settled on CuCusoft's Ultimate converter suite. Very nice, though takes a bit to learn, but I can now take ANY of my video files and convert to ANY other stinkin' format I choose! Yay! Never a problem with quality, syncing/mis-muxing of audio to video... I just point to the DVD file, specify the final format, and away it goes.

6) DivX is absolutely horrible. There are no converters out there that work like the DVD-Copy and Cucusoft combination. And you can use Cucusoft to convert to DIVX, however the problem lies in the DivX codec as there are a million of them to use-- trial and error is the only way to find the right one and you waste alot of time trying... so I don't bother. And to be honest, installing and uninstalling and trying various codecs really MESSED UP MY MACHINE. Be very careful with your codecs... you can corrupt ones that currenty work!!! I had to do alot of damage control at various points, from trying all these unprofessionally made conversion programs. Heck, even the slick, expensive ones messed up many registry settings and codecs!

Definitely back up your registry and set a system restore point before installing or trying ANY video converting software! You don't need to do this if all you do is rip directly to VOB files though.

7) Trying to get a tiny file, while STILL maintaining true DVD quality is almost impossible. So, if you have a WHS, and terabyte drives are getting cheaper and cheaper, why fuss about it. Keep your files as VOB's until the day comes when someone actually makes a program which will shrink them without ANY loss of quality, and can do it without you having to tinker with dozens of settings all day long until you get it right (and the next movie might need different settings mind you).

Movies are mostly 9GB in size, though older movies and some newer ones are 5GB. That said, on average you will get 190 full=length, DVD-quality movies on a 1TB drive. (Blu-ray movies are 25GB and up in size).

Shrinking them down will get you about 5-6x the movies on a single TB drive.

8) Bottom line is that I will have all my DVD's on a central location (I have over 500 so this will take a while...). When I need to, I can pop one of those VOB files into cucusoft, to make a smaller, universal file which will play on my iPod or phone, or car player. Otherwise, I can just stream my full-quality DVD video anywhere in my home, in HD. That includes my laptop.. as all I have to do is stream over the net to my laptop.

I've compared the VOB file to converted output on a 50" HDTV and you can easily tell the difference-- can see what got compressed! However, on my old 1993 projection TV, the iPod, or the Nokia, I cannot. It's all about the resolution. It's your call :)

9) Blu-ray is QUITE challenging but worth it :) I'm still experimenting with the process of ripping content. I end up with dozens of mt2s files, which play with the PowerDVD Ultimate package (only) but I hear I can re-name them to mpg and they will then play on anything else. I've yet to try that. I'm too busy now trying to digitize my DVDs!

Final thought...

I'm not condoning any kind of theft of hollywood's material... and if you do make copies of your own stuff please do NOT put it on the net or give it away to friends and family (who can post it without your knowledge). Doing so will only raise the costs of everything hollywood makes, as well as force them into further complicating the formats and processes we now have. Look how blu-ray is different and how you can't use the same applications as you do with DVD's... the technology behind the blu-ray was augmented so as to prevent any copying... so please don't give the world the movies you paid for... let them buy their own copies :)

(I can't wait to stream my first blu-ray backup from the WHS!)

MediaMonkey, Thanks a lot for all that information. I learned a lot from what you have posted. Wow, that is a nice DVD collection. I only have about 150 and yes, I only want to put them on my serve to stream and have a back up copy of. I purchase everything I want and do not share it, I agree with you on that. I just want to be able to sit back and stream a dvd. I will let you know what I end up doing. Good luck with your iTunes setup, hope it all works out.

Thanks again

I hopefully will be getting my HPhomeserver in a few days, so i'll be here if I have any issuse. As to streaming to my xbox 360. I have been doing this thru my pc using TWonky server. It was the only good server I found, and it works perfectly...Hope the TWonky server on WHS works as good. Reading these post it adds feature not found on the PC's side.
Any infor would be appriciated.
The Genearl