The prospect of a digitally connected home with centralized music, DVR and video storage may sound like a dream unless all of your media is in iTunes. Now you can keep your music in iTunes and eat your home media server cake too with the new HP MediaSmart line.

The new HP MediaSmart line is built around Windows Home Server to give you centralized access to your music and videos. The entry model includes 750 GB of storage space while the higher end model boasts 1.5 TB.

The 750 GB ex485 also has a 2 Ghz processor and 2 GB of RAM and retails for $599. The high-end ex487 model comes in at $749 for the larger hard drive capacity.

The most useful thing about the MediaSmart line is the ways that HP extended Windows Home Server. HP built its own Media Collector and Publisher applications to help users manage and share media.

HP also included cross-platform compatibility with Mac systems. The MediaSmart servers can access and stream files across Mac and PC systems throughout the home. This also includes a server that interacts directly with iTunes.

Other MediaSmart Server ex485/ex487 features include:

• HP Media Collector: conveniently schedules the MediaSmart Server to copy and centralize digital files and libraries from networked PCs
• Media Streaming: remotely streams photos and music to any Internet-connected PC or Mac
• Server for iTunes: centralizes iTunes music libraries on the server for playback to any networked Mac or PC running iTunes
• HP Photo Publisher: easily upload photos to Facebook®, PicasaTM Web Albums and Snapfish(3)
• HP Photo Viewer: allows easy sharing of photos with friends and family
• PC Hard Drive Backup: backs up networked PCs via the Windows Home Server backup feature
• Mac Hard Drive Backup: backs up Macs running Leopard using Apple Time Machine software
• Server Backup: duplicates designated shared folders to a separate hard disk drive
• Online Backup: duplicates designated folders to Amazon’s S3 online backup service for an additional layer of protection
• Smart Power Management: can schedule times for server to go to ”sleep” and ”wake up,” saving on energy costs
• Processor: Intel® Celeron®, 2.0 GHz 64-bit. Two gigabytes (GB) of 800-MHz DDR2 DRAM now standard on MediaSmart Server
• Expandability: additional drives can be added for up to 9 terabytes (TB)

Related:

Entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 9:50 am under Media players, Microsoft, Software, Storage, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Jeyes.
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