Yanking the NVS talk from D&D thread

[Rod.H]

NVS meaning Networked Video Storage/Server

I remember reading of a system that you'd transfer all your dvd's onto and access the contents of over a network. I think it was even Sony that was pushing a model of it.

The largest 3.5" "home desktop" drive I've seen is 3 TB and they're in the AU $270-$370 range atm. 2.5" 1 TB drives are currently AU $180 for standard SATA-2 and $370 for server grade SATA-3. I've also seen a 5.25" drive enclosure that lets you use four 2.5" drives off one sata connection, it comes in two versions; one with hot-swapable raid the other plain.

I've contemplated transferring DVDs to a file but I've only got 2 TB of NAS storage mostly being used for iTunes backup and offloading downloaded files to a central location.

As for plugging a media interpreter to my telly to watch 'puter friendly video, aside from some iTunes stuff, I don't need to do that as my telly & Blu-ray player can do that for themselves. So the only such device I'd be considering plugging into the TV would be the Apple TV, and then it would only be the first gen one with it's built in storage.

--Rod.H

[Wiregeek]

On the smaller side of things, I recently replaced my home router with a Linksys e3000, which has a USB port.

Being a curious sort, I plugged a USB microphone into it and yelled at it. No response.

USB keyboard provided no joy either.

an external SATA dock and a 640gb disk I had lying about, however, proved a LOT more interesting.

Per the router, and per my experimentation, the hard drive is now available as a UPNP/DLNA media source, so devices such as my PS3 should be able to play appropriately formatted video directly off that disk without the intervention of an (expensive, power hungry) server.

So on the bottom-bottom end of this discussion, you can have a PS3 head end ($399) fed off of the wifi from your Linksys e3000 ($160) that gets the associated movie data from an external hard drive enclosure ($85) with a pair of Seagate 3tb disks in it ($240 each), which gets you an absolutely massive 6tb onto your screen for $1124

The kicker being that you can setup with a Linksys e3000 ($160), an El Cheapo Grande external enclosure ($30), and whatever hard drive you have lying around ($70 for 1tb), and use a laptop or 'spareware' PC for a head end, and get started for $260 - which kicks the pants off of most commercial/higher end setups, for people who don't need or want all that excess capability.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Rod.H]

Head end wise I can use a Sony BDP-S370 which will play some xvid encoded video that the kdl-40ex700 won't. Both can access my NAS & shared directories on my PCs. I've surprised family when I've selected the Play To option my Win7 machines have. As it switched the tv on remotly, and I've used it to make them think I've somehow picked up BBC2 by streaming Top Gear to the tv.

[VladimirTherin]

Mythtv with certain plugins will do exactly the same thing with the dvds and such.

[Black Aeronaut]

Re: External hot-swappable HD docks...

I'm of the opinion that if you need to sneaker-net more than a terabyte of data, then you might as well transport your whole machine. This is primarily to avoid lengthy data transfer times. Have you ever transferred a terabyte of data? It takes a few hours to do, even if you're using an eSATA cable because as fast as SATA is, it's all dependent on the drive itself... and the really fast ones are as expensive as all-get-out.

Best bet? Get a super-fast 2.5" SATA disk of a reasonable capacity and use it as the portable. Anyone that wants stuff from you in an even greater capacity can bring their machine over and hook into your network with a hard line. While transporting a machine is a chore, it will be less time consuming than:

1) Plug in two-terabyte drive A, fill up with data. Time: 2hrs.

2) Plug in two-terabyte drive B, fill up with data. Time: 2hrs.

3) Transport via sneaker-net.

4) Plug in drive A, transfer data. Time: 2 hrs.

5) Plug in drive B, transfer data. Time: 2 hrs.

That's about eight hours. And you don't want to do simultaneous transfers because it's self defeating. Transfers always go the most quickly when you do one transfer at a time... and leave the machine alone.

[Wiregeek]

BA, you misunderstand the purpose of the external drive dock - its just there to provide storage for the e3000. File transfer would occur over the network.

And transfers always go in multiple stacks. Once you've setup the first bulk transfer, you browse the storage media until you find something else you want, which you then start the copy of. Repeat until you've completely IO soaked the machine, then go make a sammich.

About as non-optimal as you can get, but it's the normal real-world procedure, at least for me
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Black Aeronaut]

I wasn't thinking of networking. I was thinking about sneaker-netting some files to the guy down the road (say you got a friend in the neighborhood that would like to trade some anime with you). Machines in-house would naturally use the network.