Question: I’m using Windows Server 2008 at my home office. I put all of my video and audio files into server and share the files with the rest of my family members. I want to connect an XBOX 360 to the server to watch my video files on the TV. Windows 2008 does not provide a video stream. The media sharing option is missing. Why? Answer: Windows Media Player is integral part of the Windows Server 2008, but media sharing is not enabled by design. Windows Media Player 11 includes the UPnP AV server for sharing media across the network, but for security reasons, this feature is diasabled on Windows 2008. Few years ago Microsoft developed Windows Media Connect for delivering audio and video streams to digital media receivers for home users. It allows media content to be streamed to and from Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) AV enabled devices such as the PS3, Xbox 360, and Roku SoundBridge. The application’s network protocols are based on UPnP and HTTP. You have two options: A. Use a Windows 7 or Vista workstation as a mediator. Map a network drive to your folder that holds your video files. Run the Windows Media Center. Add this network drive to the Media Center’s media library. Allow Media Center to communicate with XBOX 360 or PlayStation (see Extender). B. Try to install Windows Media Connect 2.0 on the server. Steps are followings: 1. Download Windows Media Connect 2.0 from Internet. Bing or Google for it, or try to get it from here. The wmcsetup_en.zip file contains the installation package that is no longer provided by Microsoft. 2. Create a program folder and name it like C:\Program Files\Media Connect. 3. Copy these files from the downloaded EXE or ZIP archive into that folder: wmccds.exe, wmccfg.exe, wmcsci.dll. 4. Run at command prompt to register wmcsci.dll: regsvr32 “C:\Program Files\Media Connect\wmcsci.dll” 5. Run at command prompt: “C:\Program Files\Media Connect\wmccds.exe” -installwithfiles 6. Use the Service Console GUI to establish Windows Media Connect service, or run at command prompt: sc config “WMConnectCDS” depend=none 7. Run at command prompt: sc config “WMConnectCDS” depend= upnphost/HTTP . Windows Media Connect is based on a specific set of network protocols, such as UPnP A/V 1.0 (with MS UPnP extensions), UPnP 1.0, HTTP and TCP/UDP/IP. We have to support it. 8. UPnP Media Renderers are discovered by the normal SSDP notification. Windows Media Connect sends out SSDP NOTIFY messages every 15 minutes. Enable the SSDP Discovery Service. Run at command prompt: sc config “SSDPSRV” start= demand 9. Enable the UPNP Host Device Service. Run at the command prompt: sc config “upnphost” start= demand

10. Run wmccfg.exe and do the initial setup like setting media library and allow devices, as your XBOX 360 or PlayStation. By default connected devices are disabled.

11. Windows Media Connect is based on a specific set of codecs. Video forms are WMV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and AVI. If you want to install media codecs for Windows Media Player on the server, K-lite’s free mega Codec pack is available for you at http://www.free-codecs.com. Note that Windows Media Services, Windows Media Player and Windows Media Connect are different animals.