MASSIVE Computer Undertaking ...

[Protege5Gurly]

OK, storage space is quickly running out for DVDs at our house. We have close to 500 and some dont even have spots on the shelf, they are just laying around the room. So, anymore we get will get thrown about as well.

This is what I want to do (if its even possible)

Build some sort of server (yes I know it will be in the 5+ terabyte range) that I can access (remote, pc, dont matter) that I use to hold all of my movies and then stream them directly to our TV.

1. Is this possible
2. How much would something like this cost
3. Who would be willing to help out
4. What necessary inputs would I need on the TV - outputs would be dealt with by the server I would assume?

ANY help would be appreciated since neither me nor my fiancee have ANY clue as to how to do this sort of thing. He said just get a few MEGA DVD changers, but thats kinda crappy

Pe@ce

 

[yashooa]

We have a 600 disc DVD tower at work. We just use it for data archiving.
It's in the basement in our N.O.C.C.

 

[peepsalot]

Well, DVD's are something like 4.7Gigs. So 4.7 x 500 = 2350GB(ie 2.4TB) of storage space you would need to store them all.

http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20050714/index.html
So I guess you get 5 of these and a RAID controller that can take 5 drives.

 

[Protege5Gurly]

^ that would be sweet

Pe@ce

 

[peepsalot]

Actually, better make it 6 drives, one extra for parity.

 

[yashooa]

Ripping 500 DVD's would suck!
I just built a cool little external SATA tower for a user at work. It has 4 300 gig, 16 meg cache drives in it RAID 5.
The controller card is an Adaptec 64 meg caching controller that will support 8 drives. He wants to add 4 more drives in a few months. This would still be a bit short of your goal and with RAID 5 you basically loose one drive.

 

[Protege5Gurly]

Yes it would .... do like 4-5 a day with a couple extra on weekend ... 3 months tops

Pe@ce

 

[LinuxRacr]

What a good idea! Keep us posted.

 

[peepsalot]

don't forget to setup an FTP (shady)

 

[toucci]

I might be getting my server set up with a script to mount, rip, and archive dvds automatically when they're inserted into the drive. this would make things easy. Plus, you could do multiple dvds at a time if you bought 2 or more dvd drives.

 

[Protege5Gurly]

Hehe FTP for connection at friends houses --- the Feds would love me otherwise.

Honestly I think the best way to go about this would be a modular system since buying 3+ terabytes off the bat would be $$$$$$$$$

I figure start with maybe 500 gig or even 1 terabyte and add on as I go?

Pe@ce

 

[peepsalot]

Hehe FTP for connection at friends houses --- the Feds would love me otherwise.

Honestly I think the best way to go about this would be a modular system since buying 3+ terabytes off the bat would be $$$$$$$$$

I figure start with maybe 500 gig or even 1 terabyte and add on as I go?

Pe@ce

I think it wouldn't work too well if you were doing RAID. ALthough I really don't know a whole lot about it. Seems like you'd have to start from scratch each time you add another drive.

 

[Protege5Gurly]

Wouldnt want to start from scratch each time I added a drive ... cuz even if I did go for a full 5 terabyte -- when I max that, starting over would be living hell

Pe@ce

 

[RyanJayG]

um, have you looked into some 200+ dvd changers? hell of a lot easier than ripping 500 dvd's, though it would be cool as hell. you could get some Radio Ra equipment and use the server to totally integrate the house as well.

 

[Protege5Gurly]

The changers are ok but still are kinda big plus i havent seen any that have decent reviews or are progressive scanning. Also, I would need a list of what DVD is in what changer and at what slot.

Pe@ce

 

[tiwing]

with raid5 I believe you would have to start over each time, though it is the most effecient use of drives (essentially 1 drive for parity, though parity info is stored across all drives). Raid 5 read speeds are excellent (which will be your primary use of it), though write speed is slow because of the parity calculation - though you won't be writing much so I wouldn't worry about it. With Raid 5 it's also best to use identical drives where possible, since the array will be limited to the (size of the SMALLEST disk)x(the number of disks-1). My array is old and is built with 120GB disks. I started with 3 drives and went to 4 - and the 4th 120gb drive was overall slightly smaller so I lost some space overall from the other 3 drives as well. ... something to keep in mind.

Promise makes some excellent RAID controllers, affordably priced. Something to check out. What you're doing "can" be built in a tall desktop tower with an appropriate power supply. My recommendation is to build a tower/server, dont' even bother hooking up a monitor to it after the installation and PCAnywhere into it (free versions can be found online) and lock it in the furnace room in a large breathable cabinet... hard for thieves to find and steal in the event of a break in. Also consider hooking up a decent UPS to it to protect your investment and keep the server running in the event of a minor power failure... (all things I've done over years of playing with stuff ... )

With the bandwidth that a raw DVD file would use, you would need 100mbps over your lan to play on a desktop PC, assuming with S or Component video output to the TV/Video processor. Unless there's new technology I don't know about. I don't know of any wireless that would not skip / shudder. I've done this for my CD collection on a 4 disk 300GB raid 5 array and copied all my DVDs to DivX... it's a big undertaking. Good luck!

 

[hazeXban]

http://www.inteset.com/cnsmr/products/TP420-S/

 

[Protege5Gurly]

Wow ... yea I have no idea what u said lol -- im very inexperienced when it comes to computers.

Yes this would be wired into the network (gigabit)

Pe@ce

 

[kakarot]

Consider anything like the Buffalo TeraStation? 1TB storage, multiple networking options (including gigbit ethernet), can be set-up to run in a couple different RAID arrays too. It's not cheap though, best price I've seen is about $900.

 

[hazeXban]

http://www.inteset.com/cnsmr/products/TeraRAID/