MediaSmart Home - News, Rumors and Gossip

EX470/475 Discontinued?

RomeoGolf7 — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:52:30 GMT

I spoke to an employee at Fry's today. They are discontinuing the server. Are there plans for a new line to be released soon??? I was hoping to get an EX470 but they are all sold out.

OfficeMax has 470EXs for 299.99

kcarlasc — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 01:16:27 GMT

Just ordered one tonight... 299.99 for the 470 and 399.99 for the 475... Should be here in a few days...

HP Mediasmart center EX470 SALE!

KYyada — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:39:41 GMT

For anyone interested HP has them on sale right now for 399.99, but if you go to live.com and search for it you can get 25% back from your purchase. I just bought one and got an e-mail from live.com saying I get 100.00 cash back!

HP Announces Policy Change Regarding MediaSmart Server Memory Upgrades

Cindy W — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 15:19:18 GMT

Based on customer feedback, HP will now offer a path for consumers to upgrade the memory on the HP MediaSmart Server without voiding the hardware warranty. HP customer feedback and research shows that some customers are installing multiple add-ins and/or additional software to the MediaSmart Server, which can lead to a need for additional memory. Upgrading the memory, in and of itself, will not void the warranty on the MediaSmart Server. Damage to any part of the MediaSmart Server during the upgrade may violate the warranty, however, leaving the cost for repairs the responsibility of the customer. Customers should perform a backup to an external device before adding additional memory. HP is only providing information on a customer memory upgrade path at this time, and customers will not be able to send their MediaSmart Server to HP to perform the upgrade. Customers may be able to find technical assistance for the memory upgrade, however HP is not recommending or training authorized resellers to conduct the memory upgrade on a MediaSmart Server. HP has not qualified any particular DIMMs, but compatible memory includes 1GB or 2GB - DDR2 667 MHz DIMMs. Customers should not upgrade beyond 2 GB of memory. Other...

Microsoft Releases Home Server PP1 Fix

Community Headlines — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:24:45 GMT

It wasn't all that long ago that Microsoft unviled Power Pack 1 for Windows Home Server , which among many improvements, fixed an important data corruption issue. Microsoft today released another important patch for Windows Home Server owners, putting behind them what will hopefully be the last of problems associated to data storage and management on the Home Server OS. As described in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 950193 , unpatched users running PP1 could cause files in duplicated folders to become unrecoverable if a hard drive goes unexpectedly missing or fails. The severity of the issue is unknown, or how likely you are to experience any data loss as a result of these events, as the typical user doesn't usually yank drives from the Home Server without removing it properly through the OS. Drive failures are a fact of life in disk based storage, but are hardly an everyday occurance for users. The short time between PP1's release and the patch today means that few users would have seen this problem. Regardless, any issue that can affect your precious data shouldn't be overlooked. Take the time to run Windows Update on your Home Server today and obtain the patch. If...

HP Insider News Coming Thursday, Sept 25

Cindy W — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 21:14:05 GMT

If you haven't done so already, you will want to sign up for the MediaSmart Home Newsletter on this site. You just might find some good news in Tuesday's Thursday's edition - our first site Newsletter. If you are registered on this site, but not signed up for the Newsletter, you can sign up here . If you aren't a part of the community yet, you can register here . Stay tuned for Thursday's news!

Legally copying protected DVDs to your MediaSmart Server

Cindy W — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:34:23 GMT

Real Networks has just announced RealDVD, a program that lets you legally save the contents of protected DVDs to a PC hard drive. Once you've saved the DVD to disk, you apparently can't copy that file to another drive. But, if you save it orginally to the Server, you will be able to stream it to your other devices, such as your TVs or other PCs. The software is in pre-release. Larry Magid has an article on the software . Has anyone tried to copy DVD movies to their MediaSmart Server using this new software?

Would you like to get the inside scoop on future products?

Cindy W — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:25:00 GMT

Would you be interested in signing up to be a potential future MediaSmart insider? From time to time, HP needs help testing upcoming products and getting feedback on product usability, features, and roadmap plans. Your input and insights are very important to us, and can help us design and build better future products. If so, please send me a private message, indicating your name and contact information (phone number, email address, mailing address). Thanks!