Is Windows Media Sharing supported in Windows Server 2008? I am using Server 2008 RC0 now for a month, and I cannot find a way to use Windows Media Sharing, I've found out that the "Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service" is missing in local services page and also these files are missing in "Program Files\Windows Media Player" folder: wmpnetwk.exe wmpnscfg.exe wmpnssci.dll And also a file missing from "Windows\System32" wmpmde.dll These are what I've found by comparing my Vista Ultimate with Server 2008, Also the "Tools->Options->Library->Configure Sharing" is disabled in Windows Media Player 11 in Server 2008. So my question is that Will windows media sharing be supported in release version of Windows Server 2008 or is it possible to install this feature somehow (I've tried to install the service manually from registry but somewhere it gets an error), because I need this on my server 2008. Thanks for your time, Sadjad Bahmanpour

It's not implemented as a feature and is thus not available. You do have media services which will let you serve content from your server. If you really really need it in your network I'd recommend installing Vista on server hardware.

I also have a need to Share Media via Server 2008. I was quite dissapointed that the Media Sharing functions were removed from MP11 on Server 08'. Suspect this is to help promote Win Home Server. (which is not available on Technet!) I am amused at the suggestion to use Vista to serve the media. Vista machines are my clients, I need to serve media to them. I expect to be able to use my Enterprise level O/S to serve media. Very dissapointing MS.

The "server-version" of media sharing is the media server, which lets you stream both video and audio to your clients.

Sorry, but I do not understand this. I also have a Windows 2003 Server at home and like a normal server, it has all my data on it, including media files. Now I want to stream my photo's and music to my Xbox 360 or other PC's with Vista. In found out this is not possible with Windows 2003 Server and now I read it is also not possible with Windows 2008 Server, since 2008 (probably) also does not support Upnp? How can I stream media from a Windows Server ? I am looking already at Windows Home Server but since this cannot be a domain controller/AD I would rather not use it.Could someone advise me on this?Thanks in advanceOlaf www.stambomen.net

Tis a shame ain't it? If they'd just let us put on Media Player 11, as it is on XP, we'd be OK. Instead, I have to run a third party freeware/shareware solution or use Nero Ultimate edition. Nero's not bad, although, I have a bad taste for the little SCOUT application that crawls all over the server, even if I've told it not to. While I also maintain entertainment files on my Win2k3 double DC in-home network, I also maintain sensitive client and personal material that I don't want divulged by this little annoyance, should someone make a connection to my network. Come on Redmond! Just because you can use it for entertainment purposes doesn't mean that's the ONLY use? Windows Server product, I love them, I earn my living by them, they serve up virtually anything else and every other protocol, even when they shouldn't have--but no, not my music/audio recordings or surveilance footage. (I'm too lazy for spell check, sorry) Bob

I don't know why MS Support is leading everyone in circles here... The Media Sharing service was moved from WMP11 to an add-on feature built into 2008 Server. I suppose they decided to give it higher importance than to run from WMP11. Just open up the server manager, go to features, and install "Quality Windows Audio Video Experience". It has most of the same features and basically provides the same service to share your media across the network. Come on support... Jonathan

Very cool! I've been holding out on playing with 2008 server, but now's the time! This is a good enough reason for me to check it out. Thanks for the tip Jonathon. Do you know of anything that will stream DVD content stored in folders? .IFO and .VOB stuff. Non-copy protected. As of now, I open 'from a folder' with either WinDVD or Toshiba's HD DVD software--it'd be really smooth to stream from a server and just use Media Player as a client. Bob

OK, been working on this all night, and still not happy with the options I have with media sharing from MS2K8. I use media sharing in my home to serve movies to our PS3 and other PC's around the house. After learning that DLNA is the service that pushes our media content around the network, I decided to hunt around for better products. And man did I find one! TVersity, doesn't just share media directories, but it also provides changing my movies etc on the fly when they are requested by my PS3. Huge impact since I always had to encode them to play first. Plus, it adds a nice simple flash site that lays out listings of all the content in your directories for other devices to use from a web browser. Windows Media Sharing is out for me... http://tversity.com/home/ Forgot to mention.. It's completely FREE!!! Good Luck!

I've just todayinstalled my first 2008 server, so going to give that a run first. Nero MediaHome/Media server also 'on-the-fly' transcodes content to the requesting client's needs, but I found that it didn't handle my MP3s at all. For my MP3 music collection, I just had to set it to deliver in native format, which the PS3 handles just fine (no way do I want to convert all my MP3 into WMA.) The reencode of video content is decent, although it's CPU intensive on the server. I've still not found a reasonable way to take all my DVD movies that I left in native DVD IFO format under a folder name\video_ts... Media player and the PS3 can play these files, however, doesn't really associate a group of them as relating to a single movie. In the past, using a Media Center PC, with WinDVD, I'd simply open a DVD from a folder instead of from a drive--which worked well. Vista and XP Media Center's native dvd play doesn't have a similar method of opening from a folder, so when I list ALL VIDEO in the library, I get hundreds of VTS_01_0.IFO, etc, one for each movie that resides in it's own separate folder. Since these files apparently don't have much in the way of header information, Media players methods don't work effectively. I like to leave them in the original format so that I can dump them to DVD-R when needed and never lose any quality from re-encoding and whatnot. Overall, I've not found DLNA to be very effective in handling my library that I've built over the past 10 or 15 years, either I have to find something else, or change my classic style of managing my content with simple folder structures. Things that worked well with old WinAmp and WinDVD don't seem to fly nowadays. I'll have to check out the tversity that you seem to be impressed with. Does the 2008 service not deliver via DLNA? I was pretty stoked when DLNA was supported in Media Player, which made it available to Media Center. Now though, I'm still toying with my media center pc, but also really want to get the PS3 to do it. It's wierd, in the PS3, I can browse my pictures by folder, but not my music or video. The XMB is very typical of other DLNA players that I've tried... If only WMP11 would handle DVDs in folders, I'd be happy. Bob

The easiest thing I've found for making my DVD folders usable is DVD Shrink. Change the setting to output to multiple .vob files and then convert the final .vob to a .mpeg (renaming the files works perfectly). You can also set compression on it to change the 4GB worth of movie to a 2GB .mpeg.What was that about Quality Windows Audio-Video Experience? I've installed the service, but can't find any way of configuring it.

Jonatan,Can you help me with my problem.I have a DLNA (Philips 9603) TV. I have installeed Tvesity on winser 2008. My tv show the icon ov Tvesity but not de folders. I see in the status, Error Could not execute SQL statement , when i tried to connect to the server. Did have also this kind problemens. Any solutions.Thanks a lot.