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| Registered: January 4, 2008 | | Posts: 2 |
| | Posted: | | | | I have a collection of 1200 or so titles and recently invested in a custom-built HTPC - got the spec. from an article online. I weighed up the cost of shelving - and the esthetics and decided it was time to put the boxes and discs away and do something more 21st century. I'm currently in the process of ripping the entire collection to hard drive and packing the original discs and boxes away securely. I'm into my second Terabayte of data so far with some 300 or so movies done - it's taking some time (using 4 DVD-RAM drives simultaneously), but it's looking good. At about $120/1TB, it's cheaper than shelving. I'm streaming through my PS3/blu-ray, and any other wireless web device in the house (I can stream to the www also). I love the convenience of sifting through the collection 'online' and picking something to watch. Plus, it provides me with the security of knowing I'm playing the backup - and my originals are stored away safely  gajit. |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 5,918 |
| | Posted: | | | | What kind of HTPC? I've built my own and I'm curious as to what others have done. I've ripped most of my DVDs as well and all of my HDDVDs. My Blu-Ray writer currently won't eject or I've have done those too. | | | | Last edited: by Dr. Killpatient |
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| Registered: January 4, 2008 | | Posts: 2 |
| | Posted: | | | | Here's the specs. I haven't invested in a blu-ray drive to rip from yet. Maybe once I get a significant quantity of those - and those TB's become a little cheaper.
What are you using to rip your blu-rays?
4xLG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner w/ SecurDisc Tech Black SATA
3xWestern Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drives
GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core
CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-8500C5
HIS Hightech H465FS512P Radeon HD 4650 512MB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card
AVerMedia AVerTV Combo PCIe ATSC/NTSC/QAM TV Tuner Card (White Box)w/L-P Bracket 7 95522 96058 0 PCI-Express x1 Interface
ICY DOCK MB455SPF-B Multi-Bay Backplane Module
Koutech IO-PSA420 32-bit PCI SATA II Controller Card
Belkin Wireless NIC 802.11g
SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-550HT 550W ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply
All residing in a COOLER MASTER Stacker 830 Evolution RC-830-KKN3-GP Black case.
At the moment I have 12 SATA ports at my disposal - so I can have any combination of DVD-RW/HDD - when push comes to shove the burners will make way for more disk.
I underestimated my requirements a little - think I was going to be able to go with 5 or 6 TB's, but those box sets are a killer - combined with the fact that I chose vob passthru over some of other ripping options (I'm something of a 'phile when it comes to the audio and video quality).
WD also have 1.5TB drives (and a TB) - I'll await reviews on those before considering them. The WD have great reviews - certainly compared with Seagate/Hitachi drives.
gajit. |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 5,918 |
| | Posted: | | | | I'm at work so I don't have the full specs handy but I use an XP box as a NAS which holds all my hard drives for the DVD's as well as backing up other computers on the network. It currently has three 1TB drives, two 750GB drives in a RAID0 for backup (not worried about redundancy here as I have other backups), and a 500 GB system drive. I have two free SATA ports plus plans on purchasing a 12 port SATA card when those are used. The fans and drives can get noisy so I have the NAS isolated. On the NAS, I have a directory shared with sub directories that I mount each drive onto so no matter how many drives I have in the NAS, there's only one drive letter consumed on remote PC's. Since I don't back up the movie drives, I name each directory the serial number of the drive that's mounted onto it. When I make changes, I kick off a batch file which dumps the directory tree and then back up that file to another server. Media PC Case:  I have space for a max of three HD's in there plus one CD/DVD drive. This box was my DVR (using SnapStream's BeyondTV) until recently and I'm working on utilizing it's built-in touch screen for movie selection and viewing. Right now, it's currently a toss up between a Yahoo Widget I'm coding (utilizing DVDP's XML export) or using DVDP (with mediadog's LoadDVD plugin) and stream the movies from the NAS over the gigabit network I wired my house with. Video out is over HDMI. | | | | Last edited: by Dr. Killpatient |
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| Registered: May 26, 2007 | | Posts: 117 |
| | Posted: | | | | I would love to rip my movies and store them all on a hard drive but funds are really low right now. I was planning on starting this project using an apple TV and streaming all content from external drives but after some research I don't think this is feasable. I currenty have built my own shelves out of wood and made so that they can be made as modular as you want . If anybody want I can send the dimensions I used. The ones pictured here I primed and painted black, you stain them if you wanted.  |
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| Registered: May 19, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 6,730 |
| | Posted: | | | | @verdejt Local paths do not work for pictures (this is not an upload, but a link). If you want to show pictures in this forum you'd have to publish them via an image hosting service like photoshack | | | It all seems so stupid, it makes me want to give up!
But why should I give up, when it all seems so stupid?
Registrant since 05/22/2003 |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Posts: 489 |
| | Posted: | | | | My wife has decided for both of us. (  ) That we are going the Elfa route, along the lines as others have done. She was looking at the way I use them for my books in my computer room, and decided that is the way to go. Bobb | | | | Do Cheshire Cats drink evaporated milk? |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 736 |
| | Posted: | | | | I've thought about making the move to HD storage, but until prices plummet and storage increases, I'll have to stick with shelving (even though it takes up nearly every inch of a room). I did some quick number crunching on a project I was planning for my brother. He and his wife recently discovered that they are having their first baby come November. I thought about all of the Disney DVDs I've bought over the years and maybe transferring the titles to an external HD, rather than lending him the discs and risk damage. So I did some work using VSO Inspector to find out the disc size of each title. On 98 Disney feature films (including the direct-to-video titles), the numbers came out to 593.42 GB if I only entered the first disc (if I included all two-disc sets, it climbs to 733.45). This doesn't include any Pixar films yet, or the Walt Disney Treasures, or any of the animated TV series (like TalesSpin, DuckTales), etc.... Now, these are the unedited titles, not stripping away extras or anything. I would guess that a 1.5 TB drive would be necessary if I left everything the way it is. Now, I have nearly 14,000 profiles. If I were to expand this out to include all 2 disc sets and the many missing sets without child profiles, it is easily far over 15,000 discs. The math seemed to average out that 150 discs = 1 TB. So that means that I would need at least 100 TB to move my collection to a HD! Not feasible at the moment, I'm afraid. But considering how quickly drive space has increased, I'm sure 100 TB drives will be available within a few short years. Then my real work will begin.  |
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| Registered: May 26, 2007 | | Posts: 117 |
| | Posted: | | | | goblinsdoitall thanks for the info. when I get a chance I will upload using a service. |
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| Registered: June 14, 2007 | | Posts: 2 |
| | Posted: | | | | I thought about building my own shelves for some time, but I didn't have the space in my apartment. Also I am lazy and a perfectionist. Meaning that I keep adding features to my plan until the cost in time and money are too much. I decided to just buy something that would be quick to assemble and hold a lot of movies. I found these racks from boltz.com. I have been very happy with them. This is one rack with two extenders connected. Off to the left, you can see another rack running along the hallway.  |
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| Registered: March 11, 2009 |  Posts: 18 |
| | Posted: | | | | The stuff from boltz.com looks very nice. The only problem, as so often, is the big puddle called the Atlantic that makes the shipping quite expensive.
Does anyone from the UK know of any similar vendors here? Grateful for any tips/links.
Cheers, Mike |
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| Registered: March 17, 2007 |  Posts: 183 |
| | Posted: | | | | I know that it isn't that pretty, but it works.. and cheap    Yes.. I still have my VHS tapes..  My cinema gallery, the movies me and my friends saw in cinema. With our ratings beneath each poster.   And my tiny little blu-ray collection.. | | | | A simple movie lover.. |
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| Registered: December 22, 2008 |  Posts: 76 |
| | Posted: | | | | Eserage, looks like an efficient storage design. However, in one picture you have some DVDs on display in direct sunlight in a window. Just be careful they don't get so hot from the sun that the disc inside warps!  Poo |
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| Registered: March 17, 2007 | | Posts: 183 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting I-Fling-Poo: Quote:
Eserage, looks like an efficient storage design.
However, in one picture you have some DVDs on display in direct sunlight in a window. Just be careful they don't get so hot from the sun that the disc inside warps!
Poo I'm aware of the problem, normally the curtains block most sunlight. But I had to let the sun shine to get better pictures | | | | A simple movie lover.. |
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| Registered: March 19, 2007 |  Posts: 700 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Eserage: Quote:
normally the curtains block most sunlight. But I had to let the sun shine to get better pictures  And your shelfs are futuristic in look if somebody askes tell it is designer made.. or art. | | | | We are all at the same age, only at different time... |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 181 |
| | Posted: | | | | | | | | Last edited: by kovacs01 |
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