HP's reworked MediaSmart home servers now get along better with Macs, function better as photo-video servers within your home on across the Internet, and use faster processors. They will, for instance, automatically convert and rip to the server any DVD video on your PC. Any unprotected DVD, that is. The two models are the MediaSmart EX490, $550 with one 1 TB hard drive and Intel Celeron processor, and the MediaSmart EX495, $700 with a 1.5TB drive and an Intel Pentium Dual Core processor. Earlier versions, including the HP MediaSmart EX487, have won PCMag.com's Editors' Choice award for home servers.

One of the most useful new features is the Media Collector, which searches for and copies over media files across Macs and PCs. But if you've got, say, 12 copies of the same song, it only copies them over twice, once for the studio version that runs 3:51 and once for the live version that runs 4:08, along with pointers to all the locations.

Video including (unprotected) DVDs will be converted to MPEG-4 so you can stream it on home media devices or remotely. iPods and iPhones can download an app that streams music, photos, and video off the server. It's controlled by an improved Web-based home page and can be managed from Mac or PC. Anything you can see on your local PC you - or relatives, or clients if you're a small business - can see online if they have the proper permissions and passwords.

HP launched the MediaSmart line two years ago. Enhancements last year improved the Mac's ability to work with the MediaSmart servers. Now as then you get a four-bay network attached server (NAS) with one bay filled, running Windows Home Server, and the ability attach more drives externally via USB and eSATA ports, allowing up to 15TB total inside and out, HP says. Think of it as a shoebox full of hard drives that connects multiple PCs over the network or Internet, not just one PC via a USB cable. The MediaSmart servers will automatically back up data on one drive or two drives, giving you a duplicate copy if needed. This is boring but valuable stuff, especially if your Windows or now Mac PC goes south and you need to do a bare metal recreation of the hard drive including  the operating system.

If you just want backup, there are cheaper solutions available and more efficient ways to use disk space. (A RAID 5 array, not employed by HP, lets four drives store as much duplicated data as six standalone drives.) HP's MediaSmart servers aim to combine backup, ease of use, and more bells and whistles than most other home or small business servers. Cheap is good; idiot-proof may be better.