I have seen a few people try running Windows Home Server as a virtual machine on Windows Vista as a way of combining WHS and Media Center together (with limited success) but I haven’t seen it done ther other way round. Andrew Grant posted about running Vista Media Center on Windows Home Server using VMware and since VMware supports USB devices Vista Media Center can use a USB based tuner. This approach has some advantages like being able to use Windows Home Server drive architecture for expanding and mirroring folders but there are some limitations such as only working with USB tuners, needing extenders to watch TV and the Home Server needs sufficient power to run a virtualised session of Vista
My feeling is this setup is absolutely workable, and could work very well, but the spec of the host machine is likely to require more than the MediaSmart Server hardware can support.
Since my whole purpose was minimizing the footprint of both machines instead of switching back to a large form-factor server I’m more likely to purchase a dedicated machine such as a Dell Studio Hybrid or Mac Mini for Media Center purposes, then have it record to a network share. These are avenues I’ll probably explore in the new year.
I have WHS running virtually (at least as a backup server) and it is working quite well. I’m going to be doing a write up about the install and I’ll post a link. Hopefully will have some time during the holidays.
I have investigated this option, but rather than use USB tuners, I was planning to use the HD Homerun (DVB-T LAN tuner)when available in Europe. My WSH is a quad-core Opteron with 3GB of RAM, so should be up to it 🙂
@kingtone – A LOT of people have virtualised WHS, that isn’t the topic here…
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Does anyone know if VMware supports FireWire?
I’m using a firewire based FireDTV.
I have WHS running virtually (at least as a backup server) and it is working quite well. I’m going to be doing a write up about the install and I’ll post a link. Hopefully will have some time during the holidays.
I have investigated this option, but rather than use USB tuners, I was planning to use the HD Homerun (DVB-T LAN tuner)when available in Europe. My WSH is a quad-core Opteron with 3GB of RAM, so should be up to it 🙂
@kingtone – A LOT of people have virtualised WHS, that isn’t the topic here…