Home Server Plus

Experience Level: Standard

Asset is a free media server which improves the audio streaming capabilities of Windows Home Server.

Typically audio files are stored on a server and multiple audio devices around the network can play audio from the server (devices such as Linn DS, XBox 360, PS3, etc).

Asset features:

• Designed from the ground up as an audio UPnP server,
• Album Art support,
• Customizable browse tree with advanced search facilities (Album by Release, Style, Composer, Conductor…),
• Configurable Wave / LPCM decoding (no quality loss) for devices which cannot play specific audio types,
• ReplayGain can be applied to Wave / LPCM stream, volume matching across tracks for devices which have no support,
• Extensive tagging ’standards’ compatibility,
• Wide-ranging audio support: mp3, FLAC, Apple Lossless, WMA (inc Lossless), m4a, AIFF, Wave
• Windows Home Server (WHS) specific install, with WHS Connector configuration,
• Windows 2000 / XP / Vista compatible,
• Runs efficiently in the background detecting new & changed tracks (as service),
• Free

Developer: Illustrate

More Info: Download | Support Forums

Release History

v2.1 (8th January 2010)

• Streaming Fix, compatible with Reciva line of devices
• Registered install able to register on installs where default install path was not used.

v2 (Beta) 27th May 2009

• Added Internet Radio (in Asset Configuration >> Advanced >> Edit >> Restore the browse tree to add internet radio).
• compatible with denon systems
• keeps a static port address, this allows items in a play list to be kept through restarts of Asset
• When updating tags keeps the track ID the same (allows an item stored in playlist to remain)
• album art handled much more efficiently – only one saved per album, also single art url given out for control points (will speed up a track listing where all album arts are the same)
• Internal Tag reader will self quit when main program terminated
• Automatic ‘drilling down’ to next level, for example have tree as Artist (no listing) >> A to Z >> D, previously A to Z would have to be selected, no it does not
• added mp3 encoding option
• bug fix: ps3 and streaming would play the track too short: bitrates were off (and PS3 uses these)
• bug fix: would close asset when a user was logged off (even though asset was running as a service)
• bug fix: tag reader could leave the file open
• bug fix: could return restricted for metadata browse on an item

v1.1

• Windows media audio (inc lossless) added to WHS install
• Bug fix for where tracks could appear multiple times (do ‘Rescan (Refresh all)’ if have duplicated tracks)
• Bug fix compilation ‘0′ tag was being picked up as a compilation

V1.0

• Inital release

asset, digital media receiver, dlna, dmr, media server, playstation, ps3, upnp, xbox 360