Quote:
basementjack wrote:
 I've been using DVD fab too, great program!
personally, I don't think Xvid looks as good as the original DVD in a good upscaling dvd player - so I've used my server mainly for tv shows, kids movies, etc.
my xvids play over the network to a number of devices - the xbox 360, the klegg media share, and I hear the PS3 works also, so long as your file size is below 2gb.
I have not tried a ps3 so I can't comment on that, but the klegg blows away the 360 for media playback. The klegg can play whole dvd's ripped to your hd as .iso files, as well as xvid files (and many others) I plan to add a sticky on the klegg when I have time to write it up properly. The klegg is available in the USA from frys - I have seen it on sale there twice for $129
as for storage, if you are good with PC's and have access to software, then building a small server is the cheapest/best way IMO. On the other hand, if you have no experience with that, or you don't have any OS you can use, and you would have to shell out $$$ for windows, then those stand alone network hard drives really begin to look attractive.
however you look at it, you'll need a backup - I use a combination of internal drives in the server, and external drives for backup.
Internal protection schemes like mirroring and raid 5 are not adequate as they don't protect your investment from accidental deletion or corruption.
For your needs, you'll probably want 2x 1 terabyte hard drives - one internal, and one external to backup the internal. you should be able to get roughly 500 movies on the drive if you use xvid.
if you build a small server, I'd suggest a small drive for the OS, and use the 1TB drive for storage. |
Most definitely. It comes down to how much you're willing to shell out, and how valuable your data is. I use a combination of things myself. I have multiple servers and operating systems doing various things, but take this as example. My main Dell XP box has twin 160 Raptors in raid0 for performance reasons. This volume's backed up externally via USB to a 500G WD MyBook drive. That in turn gets copied to the Terastation NAS which I back up via Exabyte drive to tape. So not only can I rebuild/restore my main XP gaming/console PC at any point (via Norton Save & Restore), I also never lose any of my other collected data, which is all on tape.
You can easily build a standalone Linux box as your NAS, either using software raid, or getting a dedicated controller or two or three, etc. But, when you price out the parts, the Terastations come really close, and already run Linux and have a great feature set.
Anyways - it's just one way that's worked for me, and it's scalable.
J