I have Windows Home Server beta running, and it is running well. One thing missing though is media serving capabilities. I have multiple Vista PCs running Media Center, but I have several DVDs ripped to my file share on Windows Home Server. I wanted to be able to bring that media to a central location and watch on my TV in the family room. We have a theater room that has a projector and Media Center PC, but the family room has no PC connected to it. I could opt to have the media stored on the WHS and purchase another Media Center PC, but to have one that looks good in the family room usually will run many hundreds or hit the thousand+ mark.

Anyway, I did some research into new network media gateway devices. These support all the popular codecs, providing access to photos, music, and video. I decided on the Dlink DSM-520 (pictured), since it also supports resolutions up to 1080i, HDMI, and composite output and costs under $200. First I installed the software that comes with the DSM-520 on my WHS machine, added the shares to the software. Hooked up the DSM-520, pointed it to my WHS, and we're off.

Now I am able to view all my media on the family room TV, and still maintain a centralized media store for the Media Center PCs, and other devices throughout our home. The Dlink has worked without a problem, no stutters, no issues at all. We do have a wired house so all PCs have a 100MB and the WHS is 1GB so that helps out. The combination of WHS and the Dlink DSM-520 provides me with a complete solution for backing up, storage, and centralized media capabilities, my opinion? They Rock!