"XPe's Windows XP Embedded Update Rollup 1.0 makes it fairly easy to configure and use HME on Windows Embedded systems," writes the Windows XP Embedded (XPe) team developer on the XPe team blog. "This turns Windows Media Player into the core of a set-top-box system."
Selecting a server's Media Library via the Home Media Ecosystem (HME)To build an image with HME, Gimenez writes, developers simply create an XPe image that includes the Windows Media Player 11 and the Winlogon components. All other dependencies will be brought in upon dependency resolution, including the new Windows Media Format Runtime 11 component.
When the image is first booted, however, HME is not enabled by default. To enable HME, just share some media from the embedded box.
According to the article, HME allows any remote systems on the same subnet to access all media on the servers Media Library. They must be Windows Vista systems or other embedded devices, such as an xBox 360, however, since the Windows XP version of Media Player 11 does not have an HME client, Gimenez notes.
This is very similar to regular Windows file sharing, writes Gimenez, except that there is no authentication, since it is meant to work in a trusted environment. Access to the server is "blazingly fast" compared to a traditional Windows file server.
To read the Home Media Ecosystem article, click
here.
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