About Tranquil PC

Tranquil PC manufactures and sells a line of Windows Home Server computers that is based on the Intel Atom central processing unit.  Tranquil's design takes advantage of the Atom CPU's power efficiencies in a way that they are able to produce computers with a small form factor with a fan-less cooling system.  Included with their Windows Home Server systems is their AVA Media  Add-In.  The AVA Media version 1.5.0.1 is a video and audio server that is customized specifically for Tranquil computers.

Installation and use of AVA Media Windows Home Server Add-In

The installer file that is downloaded from the Tranquil website is in a .zip format.  Unzip the file to the WHS' Software\Add-ins folder.  A license file is provided by Tranquil and must be copied to the Software\Add-ins folder before starting the installation process. Open the Windows Home Server Settings window from the Console and navigate to the Available tab in Add-ins.  Click the Install button for the Tranquil PC AVA Software Package installer. As the installer progresses, Network Health messages display when the Windows Media Encoder 9 and SQL Server are being installed.  These messages warn not to turn off or reboot the WHS and are automatically removed when each is installed.

Upon completion of the installation, the WHS Console closes.  Reopen the WHS Settings window from the Console and select the AVA General option.  It is here that AVA Media is configured and status of the SQL Server Service and SQL Browser Service can be managed.  Select the country to use as a data source and make database and debug configurations.

Click the OK button to commit the configuration settings.  A Network Health message informing that the AVA Media License has been successfully applied appears next.  Click the OK button and the WHS Console closes.

Reopen the WHS Console and click the Settings option.  The Windows Home Server Settings now includes options for AVA Movie Disc Copier, AVA Movie Monitor, and AVA Music Disc Copier.

• The AVA Movie Disc Copier option configures the data formats of DVD, Blu-ray and HD. Identify the WHS shared folder to store the data files. . The disc copy runs as a service and the status of the service is displayed;
• The AVA Movie Monitor option configures the movie monitoring, recognized movie file extensions, and meta data storage. The movie monitor runs as a service and the status of the service is displayed; and
• The Music Disc Copier option configures the music data target options such as audio codec, meta data, and information to sync with mobile formats. The music disc copier runs as a service and the status of the service is displayed.

After configuring the three services, the WHS Console tabs for each service are functional. 

To rip an audio CD, click the AVA Music Disc Copier tab and insert the CD in the optical drive.  AVA Media detects the CD and automatically copies the music tracks and meta data to the WHS.  When the copy has finished a Network Health message is generated to inform that the copy was successful and is waiting for conversion.  This message is automatically removed when the conversion finishes.

More CD Discs can be added and AVA Media manages the growing list of the music library.  An easy to use interface permits cover art and ID3v1 meta data to be managed from the Ava Music Disc Copier tab.

The AVA Movie Disc Copier's function is similar to that of the AVA Music Disc Copier.  When a DVD, Blu-ray, or HD disc is inserted in the optical drive, a copy process is automatically started.  AVA Media will not make copies of copy protected discs, in which case it will collect the meta data from the movie and display a listing of this information.  A Network Health error message is created for each copy protected movie.  Movies that are not copy protected are copied to the WHS.

The AVA Movie Monitor automatically identifies movie folders in the WHS and adds meta data for each movie.  This information is available to Windows Media Center, other media center devices, and the My Movies Client software program.

Our Experience with AVA Media

The AVA Media Add-in was evaluated in four main areas.  Each area can be awarded up to 25 points.  The Setup evaluated the installation and configuration of the product.  The Features & Interface evaluates factors including ease of use, ability to perform features, logical presentation, and data migration.  The Performance evaluates the responsiveness and scalability of the product.  The Service & Support evaluates the documentation, website and support forum, direct support and date of the last upgrade.

Installation & Configuration - 25 points

We found that the installation of the AVA Media Add-In was very simple and straight forward.  The configuration of the SQL Server, AVA Movie Monitor, AVA Movie Disc Copier, and AVA Music Disc Copier services were very comprehensive and by accepting the default values made the installation very quick.  The logs produced by the services is an excellent resource and permits you to overview the activity performed by AVA Media.

Features & Interface - 20 points

We are very pleased with how AVA Media collects movie and music information in a seamless integration that permits listening to music or watching movies on different Media Center devices that are attached to the Windows Home Server.  We liked how AVA Media automatically detected new media and added it to the library.  The music and movie libraries are easily accessible to many devices throughout the home.

We were not able to migrate our existing music and TV files into AVA Media.  The music files had been organized in folders by artist and sub-folders by album and were placed in the Music shared folder on the Windows Home Server.  The TV programs were .mkv files.  The files were placed in the Recorded TV folder but only the folder name appeared in the My Movies Monitor tab.

• AVA Music Disc Copier:  We liked having the ability to choose among the lossless or the .mp3 formats and to select formats to use for syncing with mobile formats.  The meta data is automatically inserted for the album and each track.  There is a very easy to use interface to permit changes to this information.

• AVA Movie Disc Copier:  We were very impressed with how AVA Media provided supplemental information about the movie.  The movie's meta data is stored and displayed in the tab and supplemental information is available regardless of the use of copy protection.  Copy protected movies cannot be copied to the WHS unless the AnyDVD option is enabled.  The use of AnyDVD may be ilegal in some countries; however.  The meta data cannot be directly modified by AVA Media.  The meta data can be changed by using the My Movies Client software program. 

• AVA Movie Monitor:  If you already have a library of movies stored on the Windows Home Server, this service automatically identifies the movie folders and adds the meta data to the database.  The service will continue to detect new movie folders that are added to the Windows Home Server.

Performance - 24 points

We found that opening the Windows Home Server Console took a little longer to open than prior to the installation of AVA Media.  The overall responsiveness of media center was not adversely affected.

AVA Media is written to use SQL Server and its corresponding database. As a result, the scalability of the product is limited only by the 20 GB limit of the Windows Home Server's system drive.  If other relational database management systems such as MySQL are installed for use by other products, there could be a further limit to the size of the database. 

Service & Support - 19 points

We were not able to find any documentation for the AVA Media Add-in.  We evaluated the support website for AVA Media and found all questions that were posted in the forum were answered with good explanations.  There is an option to use "Live Online Support" during normal business hours.  We did note a slight version discrepancy.  The support website indicated that the current version is 1.5.1; however, the Windows Home Server installer indicated version 1.5.0.1.  The current version of the AVA Media Add-In is 15 April, 2009.

Summary

We awarded a total of 88 points for the AVA Media Add-in.  For those who are looking for an easy to use out of the box experience we highly recommend the Tranquil PC line of Windows Home Servers.  The Tranquil PCs are small, quiet, and economical to operate.  The AVA Media Add-in is not only value added software for the Windows Home Server, it extends the power of the Windows Home Server to view your movies or listen to your music throughout the house.