Network Storage and Media Tanks etc???

[RogerS]

Nice front end on the WDTV - a lot nicer than my LaCie that's for sure - and cheap too. So, what are you going to spend the other 900 quid on Martin??

Edit:- Apart from the big external HD, obviously

Cheers, Pete

The onscreen keyboard would drive me mad and unless you have HDMI then composite out kills it for me...mind you, same problem with the xbox.

 

[wizer]

If you start getting fussy like wanting keyboard support then the price starts to rise. The ultimate way to do this is to have a small form factor PC at the TV which you can run the software of your choice and have wireless PC and mouse. But no matter how much money you spend, it's the ugly option and takes more configuration to get it working like a normal set top box style on screen display. Then integrating that with either sky or virgin or freeview. Thinking about this, the PC near the TV is the option I would opt for. But then I am very fussy about file storage and functionality. For someone who 'just wants it to work', I highly recommend the above units. You don't get complete control, but they are designed to work out of the box with minimal config.

 

[petermillard]

The onscreen keyboard...

There's an onscreen keyboard - that's a big advance on the LaCie...
Seriously, how often do you expect to use a keyboard in a menu-driven interface?? Shouldn't be necessary at all, really, apart from the odd search where you can't remember where you saved something.

BTW, I'm pretty sure you can plug any old USB keyboard into an X-Box and it'll work OK - it's the hardware that I wouldn't trust, personally (my son's on his 4th X-Box360, all failed just out of warranty). If you already have an X-Box then it may be worth a punt, but I'd never buy one just for this.

Cheers, Pete.

 

[Jake]

Seriously, how often do you expect to use a keyboard in a menu-driven interface??

You are talking to a man who wishes to type in 'large hadron collider' into his media server and have it serve up a list of works sorted by composer, orchestra, date of recording, and venue.

 

[mahking51]

Both of the above look like interesting units and certainly appear to be very good value for money.
Has anyone looked at the Popcorn Hour and Netgear products and have opinions?

Regarding the NAS at the PC end of things, how exactly would one store a dvd on this? Disc image? Straight disc copy?
Would the info for the cover and menus be therein?
I have heard that you can get a system where the covers of your DVD's or CD,s appear onscreen and you scroll them and then pick one to play.

Do these things operate within the 'shell' of Windows Media Centre?

Sorry for all the questions but just trying to get my head around all the options.
Martin

 

[mahking51]

Found what looks like useful info here:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/netw...rotection-performance-configuration-more.html
Checking it out now!
martin

 

[wizer]

AFAIK, to get the DVD and CD covers to display you will either need to scan them in or search for the cover online using something like google images. Getting the DVD or CD on to the PC\Hard Drive isn't as simple as direct file transfer. I'd suggest you need to do at least some encoding to save on disk space. Certainly with audio. This will require software, but there are plenty of free options for this.

I've just had a quick look at the Netgear EVA700. My initial thoughts are that there is no HDMI connection and it seems to rely heavily on Intel's Viiv processor being on a master PC. With the two units I referred to earlier, you can link them directly to a NAS file server without having to have a PC turned on.

Another quick look at Popcorn Hour suggests this is a better suited solution but at higher cost. I'll look into this further tomorrow and give you my thoughts.

 

[mahking51]

Cheers Tom!
martin

 

[wizer]

I just read a couple of reviews of the popcorn products. The a100 started out looking good, but the only benefit over the Asus is it can hold an internal drive, which is not particularly essential. Their c200 unit is a step up, but I don't see that it's worth the extra money and by all accounts, the firmware is not robust enough yet.

None of the units we've discussed so far have the capability to have a thumbnail image for each album or video. The only one that looks like it might do it is the TVIX products, but I can't find a review which clearly states this functionality. If this is important, you may need to look at the HTPC option.

If you are worried about the ripping\encoding thing, then I could probably help you out with this. It's not a big issue. There would only really be a problem if you already had gigs and gigs of media that was encoded in many different ways.

I think my opinion on all of this is to get your storage solution sorted and then buy the cheapest media player we've discussed here. Then when all your media is stored, you can play with it. Only then will you know what's right for you. If it turns out that you don't like it, the media player will probably reclaim most of it's money on eBay and you can upgrade. The beauty of this system, is that the files on the server will not need to be altered. The player is just like a front end. So you can chop and change without much hassle.

 

[Streepips]

and a ups? a powercut could make a mess of a setup like that.

 

[bob321]

what i would go for is:

a backup server (need not to be very big depend on no of clients)
a file server (need dicent spec depends on media use)
a hardware firewall and catche
a web server :shock: (to host acess media around the world)

8)

all this protected by a ups or 2

and connected togerther with gigabit network or fiber :shock: 8)


iv got a file server and it has a SCSI port so i can make a HDD farm to expand storage :twisted: 8)



bob321

 

[RogerS]

Suddenly that bookcase with all the DVDs and CDs lined up neatly seems such a much more attractive alternative.

Jake...I'll try and explain in simple words for you why onscreen keyboards are naff. I'll keep the words easy.

My Humax has an onscreen FIND facility to locate any upcoming programmes. First flaw..the input field has the data last entered. So we need to clear it. here are the keystrokes. Down Down Down Down Down Down Right Right Right Right CLEAR CLEAR CLEAR CLEAR CLEAR CLEAR CLEAR CLEAR CLEAR CLEAR CLEAR . Now to enter in the new programme being looked for. UP UP UP RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT RIGHT W UP UP UP UP LEFT LEFT LEFT LEFT LEFT LEFT LEFT A ......get the message? We haven't even got to the rest of LLA ...as in Wallander..which, incidentally will also pick up Wallace and Grommet so maybe we need the N as well.

Tom...re CD artwork etc. On my Mac I run a library program called Delicious (sorry, naff name, I know). To enter any CD or DVD is easy-peasy, just hold the barcode up to the inbuilt iSight camera and it reads the barcodes, goes off and gets the artwork from somewhere or other plus other information. So the information is out there. Browsing the 'virtual' bookshelf is pretty straightforward.

One other thought and that is DRM. That could put the kybosh on some things. Can one copy and access commercial DVDs to a NAS?

EDIT: This is quite a good article especially the video snip as it seems that he has achieved what the OP is after.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/12/canvas_and_the_connected_home.html

 

[misterfish]

We have a home network with a Netgear wireless ADSL box with 4 standard RJ45/Cat5 ports.

Attached to this is a Buffalo NAS only 500GB but larger multidisk RAID equipment is available from other manufacturers. This is just a box like an external hard disk that lives in the understairs cupboard and is managed/configured remotely from any PC on the network. Before buying this I read loads of reviews which were mostly horror stories, but after assessing the info went for the one with fewest reported problems. i followed the instructions to set it up and it has worked without problem for over 3 years. It also has two USB ports - in one we have an external USB hard disk that is now part of the NAS and in the other we have the printer which is controlled bu the NAS's built in print server providing priinting for all the computers that use the network.

The other device connected (by cable) to the network is a Popcorn Hour A110 Network Media Tank. This connects to the TV by an HDMI lead. It also has a 500MB hard disk which also provides NAS facilities to the network. So far we have not found any files (audio or video) that the Popcorn cannot play. Updates to the Popcorn firmware are released from time to time and simply installed just using the TV display and the Popcorn remote. The only thing that isn't simply available on the Popcorn is the BBC iPlayer, though there is a workaround for that which I haven't bothered with (yet).

So having used this all for a while I can say that all these facilities are very useful. My NAS has software included that allows me to run backups to or from the attached USB drive or (I think) to a PC on the network. The Popcorn makes viewing much more comfortable on a 32" HDTV (and listening to music files with the MP3 infor displayed on screen).

I would thoroughly recommend all the kit we have. It has been nice to sit in the lounge and watch episodes of 'Norm' when the TV has been so dire.

Misterfish

 

[wizer]

Brilliant, a real life review. Go for it Martin!

 

[mahking51]

Hi Misterfish,
Sounds like pretty much what I am after. Always good to hear that soeone is happy with their setup. Do you have DVD's stored on the system? If so what is the playback quality please?
Presumably the Buffalo unit under the stairs is cabled to the Netgear hub?
Does cable length become an issue?
I am guessing but Iwould think the cable from my router to the TV area would be about 25m or so allowing for bends and corners etc.
Tom,
Could you please have a look at the specs on the Buffalo products for me and comment?
I agree that I am going to get the NAS sorted first and loaded with my media and thenplump for the Media Unit when researched a bit more.
Does all seem that it will come in under budget which is good news.
Can the cabling be run without connectors (smaller holes) and then the ends put on (how?) afterwards?
Sorry to have so many questions.
Cheers,
Martin

 

[wizer]

Martin, Cable length won't matter much in this situation. With just a single load on the network, you shouldn't get any quality degradation over this distance. However, the homeplugs are inexpensive and may be a neater solution. I will check if there are any comments as to their performance with streaming video.

 

[wizer]

MisterFish, what type of RAID are you using with your Buffalo?

Also, can you give me a link to the iPlayer work around.

 

[yo_chuci]

Only just found this topic so sorry if i am repeating or posting what others have posted.

I'm just gonna look into setting up a server (NAS or otherwise) to store all my movies etc on. as atm they are just stored on the pc and i want something more efficient and quieter...

i have the pc wired to a router/hub and to watch it all on tv i have an old shape xbox that i softmodded and then installed Xbox Media Center.
it works brilliantly at streaming my movies which i have ripped to the pc using dvd decrypter (which isn't being developed anymore but can still be downloaded, just google)
i rip them as .avi's and about 800meg to get good enough qual.

now tho (and this is how will go) is to make a small pc that sits under tv and probably install XBMC 9.11 and use that to stream movies etc and also then have the ability to check mail, youtube etc. it could prob (but don't quote me) have a wireless card and stream that way. and as its a pc upgrading hardware to cope with HD etc will be easier.

 

[wizer]

Martin, I think you will be fine with a Buffalo Linkstation Quad. The Terastation is very slightly better but quite a bit more money. The linkstation has everything you need, including RAID5 which is what I think you need to be using for the best type of redundancy.

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/net ... tion-quad/

As I said before, if you need a hand ripping all your media, give me a shout.

 

[RogerS]

This has got me thinking about what I need to do - especially as the house is in upheaval - about networking for any future media server. This is a question for any networking gurus.

Current set-up is broadband router (wireless capable) feeding a switch which then feeds everything else in the house. iPlayer is important to us (which is why I favour the PS3 route rather than Popcorn) and so if I was going to try and get a network cable from the TV room to the internet, does it plug into the router or the switch? I've thought about wireless streaming and also HomePlug but get conflicting reports re suitability for streaming.

Of course, there is also FreeSat and they are talking about iPlayer for that ...not sure how that one goes...