(no subject)

[ffutures]

Does anyone know anything about this network hard disk server?

Looks like the sort of thing I'm after, but they don't say much about its features - most notably power management, maximum drive size, etc.

Comments

[saranjeuhal.livejournal.com]

Couldn't tell you too much about this, but most of these SAN units are much of a muchness. I use the D-Link DSM-G600 which is both network and/or wireless and allows for the addition of two external USB drives as well as the main unit drive. I can heartily recommend that unit if you're looking for something decent. I've got a 500Gb HD in the main drive and a couple of 200Gb external drives as well.

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

I think you mean NAS (Network Attached Storage), not SAN (Storage Area Network). Or is "SAN" another term for high-end stuff that's been hijacked by makers of consumer-level stuff to make themselves sound cooler? The SANs I'm used to have several more zeroes on the pricetags than the box discussed here...

[saranjeuhal.livejournal.com]

Yup. Cold-addled head. It should be NAS.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That sounds pretty good, maybe a little overkill at this stage - I just want 100gb or so that can be accessed throughout the network, so that I can watch videos from any PC or my laptop.

[saranjeuhal.livejournal.com]

You don't want to do it over the network unless you're going to be wired. And 100Gb won't do much. I've got about 300Gb of media files on the NAS (:D), but wireless pretty much sucks, so I end up copying files locally and watching them that way. The NAS is simply for storage. All my MP3s and other media and data files are kept on it.

The set up I've got has me extracting the disc files locally to an external hard disk, then using Handbrake to convert them from a batch file. This way I have several DVD sets that I copy the discs for a season to the external USB drive, and encode overnight. Another batch then loads them into iTunes, and I sync two episodes at a time. This allows me to watch on the latop, on the iPod, or on the TV using TV out. It's not the most ideal situation, but it works for me and allows me to get through the several seasons of Buffy and Smallville that I recently bought.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

It's a wired network and it'll be sitting next to the router - there's 11g access for the laptop. I'll copy files to whichever PC I use to view them, then delete them afterwards. Periodically, as I accumulate full seasons of programs, I'll burn DVDs and maybe delete the files from the server - in the long run a bigger hard disk may be needed, but 100gb will probably last me a couple of years.

[saranjeuhal.livejournal.com]

If you're wired, you'll be fine. Remember that network throughput on a wired network is really about 60% of the rated. So if you're on a 100Mb connection, you'll stream up to about 60Mb at a time. Make sure you stick in a fast HD into the NAS. That extra bit of speed will help. I can also recommend using VLC to watch with. I used to use BS Player as it had a good streaming cache function but since they've got spyware/adware heavy I don't use it any more.

I thought that a 150Gb drive was initially going to do me, but it turned out it didn't :D Of course, what I tend to do is put images of each of the disc for a season onto a drive and then run a batch file to encode all of them in one go overnight, with each file taking about 30-45 mins to encode. I could easily just do it a file at a time, but I can't be bothered with the hassle of that. That's the same reason I ended up getting an iPod. I could easily manually manage my podcasts subscriptions, but iTunes keeps track of play count and then deletes podcasts when listened to and syncs to the iPod. Extra money for functionality I didn't need, but found indispensible because of the PITA of manually organizing files.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Videolan is what I use - much the best program for this sort of thing. The 100gb drive is simply the largest drive I have that can easily be moved - it's the second hard disk in one of my PCs, and is only used for media files anyway - the stuff I want to move to a server.

[celestialweasel.livejournal.com]

Make sure you know their returns policy :-) We had one and it didn't really work (they seem quite fussy about the drives they will take). I understand from another person that they had a similar problem.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Maplins are OK with returns - never had a problem. My aim at the moment if I buy it is to try this out with a 100gb drive, if that works OK put something really big in.

[lawbag.livejournal.com]

the next storage unit I go for will have a built in RAID compatability. sharing information around a network is all well and good, but I need security of the kind only RAID can offer.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

This isn't for anything sensitive or vital - the idea is simply to download episodes and save them to a single location rather than having them on five drives in three PCs as before, then access them as needed from any of three PCs.

[murphys-lawyer.livejournal.com]

From the page: "Supports 3.5inch IDE / FAT32 HDD" So if you're happy with a 4GB file limit, fine.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That shouldn't be a problem.