Digital Home Thoughts: HP's Forthcoming MediaSmart Windows Home Server Software Update

"HP Video Converter allows your home server to automatically convert videos placed in you Video shared folder into mobile quality and high quality H.264 (MPEG-4) files, for playback on a wide range of mobile and other playback devices such as iPods, iPhones, digital media receivers and games consoles. It will not, however, transcode copy protected DVDs or videos with DRM security."

HP MediaSmart Windows Home Servers have, since the beginning, had a fair amount of "secret sauce" added into them - they do more than any other Windows Home Servers on the market today. This new update from HP adds a variety of software services beyond video conversion: streaming to iPod Touch and iPhone hardware, remote video streaming, improved media collection, and a few fixed. The update should be out later this month, and it's only for owners of the new HP EX485/487 models, not the older models.