What am I missing?

[Fuddyduddy]

Hi

As a non-Linux-user I'm still in the process of trying to weigh-up what the fvdw firmware (ver. 15-3) recently installed on my NS2 can do for me better than, or outwith the scope of, what the NS2 could do when running the native LaCie firmware. Even I can readily appreciate that the LaCie f/ware has pretty restricted functionality, especially when compared to fvdw's. However it's also the case that using only Windows (and being helpless in Linux) I'm not at the moment seeing how I might exploit more than a small proportion of the additional functionality built into the fvdw f'ware.

So far, I have it set up as simply a media-file server whereby I'm recording/playing-back live TV to/from the NS2 over my LAN (with DVBViewer's "Recording Service" software running in Windows as the front-end interface on my HTPC + TV tuner). Albeit fvdw-sl provides more flexibility in that role - which is welcome - essentially that's pretty much the same thing the NS2 was doing when it was running LaCie's.

Apart from that, I've availed myself of the ability to have the NS2's HDD spin down (a facility not available - SFAIK - with LaCie's f/ware) and have been able to bring my semi-retired usb external hard drive back into service by attaching it in 'Host' mode to the NS2's front port (giving me much-needed backup storage for the NS2 HDD's contents).

Beyond those modest improvements I'm currently unable to see any other useful ways in which, using Windows, I could exploit the fvdw f/ware, and I'd welcome any tips anyone cares to offer. That's the reason for this post.

Perhaps I ought to mention that my own favoured idea (before I actually installed fvdw-sl and was able to start poking around in it) was to make use of one or other of the built-in media servers - although I was not attracted to Twonky which (had I been) I could anyway have been using already in conjunction with LaCie's own f/ware. Although clunky in its user interface I've yet to find any other PVR software app to beat DVBViewer, and I can't see how any of the media servers packaged with fvdw-sl could, because they're not designed to. The impression I've so far formed is that they're all designed solely to stream to a hardware media player (or smart TV) with an own proprietary front-end PVR app built-into it, and at the moment I'm not seeing any way in which that would be an improvement over what I have now. (Since I don't currently own a smart TV I'm unable to try-out how any of fvdw's media servers would perform in conjunction with one of those).