HP updates its Home Server software

If you have one of the second-generation HP MediaSmart devices (EX485 or EX487), you can look forward to a substantial upgrade later this month. Here are a few of the main features:

• Automatically convert your library of videos (including unprotected DVDs) for your viewing enjoyment.
• Create a mobile version of your videos that you can download and play on your iPod, iPhone, PlayStation Portable, and other popular mobile devices.
• Stream music, photos and video from your server to any Internet-connected computer or to your iPhone.
• Additional enhancements to the MediaSmart Server including an improved mobile streaming experience, a more robust Media Collector (which consolidates music and photo files form individual PCs and stores them on the server), improved Apple Time Machine configuration, and the ability to create public and private albums in the Photo Viewer.

I’ve been running beta releases of the new software for a few weeks, and it’s pretty impressive. I’ll have more details and hands-on impressions as the official release gets closer.

Note that this update will not be available on the first-generation MediaSmart servers (EX47x), which don’t have the CPU horsepower to perform most of these media tasks.