Media storage question

[Lason]

OK Im about to start ripping my DVD and Bluray collection to drives and use a HTPC to access them. My question is what is the advantage to using a dedicated NAS instead of a seperate drive on my primary computer?

I bought a 2tb drive yesterday but its bad and I need to exchange it and it got me thinking about this.

[roliath]

The advantages for me is I have a low watt (65w) nas/pc that can share out to alllll my devices on the network. Its quiet, tucked away and I get great speeds off of it.
Its up to 4.8TB now, I have some 2.5tb drives and will eventually expand it to 10TB.

[Lason]

But couldnt you do that with more drives in your primary PC also?

Oh also what kind of NAS do you use that you can add drives? All the ones Im looking at have built in drives without any kind of expansion.

[roliath]

I built my own NAS using an itx atom mobo.

I could do it with my primary PC, but I dont' want that noise/heat/monitors on 24/7.

[goofygrin]

If you can get a NAS (or something like that) with RAID, you'll be somewhat protected in case a drive fails (and right now, due to the market issues, drives are failing a LOT).

Personally at home I use unRAID on a cheap box that I had laying around (it's not free software though). I like that the data is not striped across the drives, so in case of a catastrophic failure (multiple drives), I can get the data off the non-failed drives.

At work, we have a FreeNAS setup and it's working pretty well (when I built my unRAID, FreeNAS was in it's infancy). As the name implies, it's free.

I put a QNAP device in for one of my clients and it's pretty slick. Not cheap though.

Throwing drives into your desktop is asking for a drive to fail and you to lose everything (and if you're like me and have hundreds of DVDs + downloaded media + pictures + documents, that is a BIG deal).

Also, get a UPS that's big enough to keep the NAS up for a while in case of a power outage.

[TeknoBlast]

OK Im about to start ripping my DVD and Bluray collection to drives and use a HTPC to access them. My question is what is the advantage to using a dedicated NAS instead of a seperate drive on my primary computer?

I bought a 2tb drive yesterday but its bad and I need to exchange it and it got me thinking about this.

What software do you guys use to rip DVDs? Been wanting to do the same to my collection, but dont know which SW is reliable.

[Lason]

What software do you guys use to rip DVDs? Been wanting to do the same to my collection, but dont know which SW is reliable.

Ive been using 123copydvd platinum. Does blu rays also.

[Rafa]

I need to change how I store mine. I just have multiple drives(3x1.5TB). Would suck if one them goes out. At one time I was working on a HTPC, but was having trouble using it on my HT system. Come to find out, it was my receiver. Plan on redoing it later this year and work on a NAS or something.

All I rip are BR's. I used AnydvdHD(decodes the protection to rip) and TxMuxer to rip only the movie/audio. Right now I stream about 90% of them to ps3. Rest of them I have to play from pc itself due to format they are in.

[TeknoBlast]

Ive been using 123copydvd platinum. Does blu rays also.

The software only required or does it need something else like AnyDVD to bypass the protection.

[BajaBob]

I have this, http://www.synology.com/products/pro...11slim&lang=us

DS411slim


AMAZING NAS. The Web UI is flawless, and integrates with iTunes and every pc in my house flawlessly. Best of all, it fits in the palm of your hand. 4 laptop hard drives inside, phenomenal error reporting, all kinds of raid configurations, quiet, low power consumption... The list goes on. Oh, and it was really easy to setup as a sharing server so I can access it away from home. I use it primarily for code backup but I have all kinds of music and pictures on it. I really like Synology's product line, they have a solution for everyone.

[BajaBob]

One I get a bigger gun safe I will be putting it in there so it has a good chance of withstanding a house fire.

[Lason]

The software only required or does it need something else like AnyDVD to bypass the protection.

Nope it bypass's copyright, rips to hard drive and/or burns to disk. Does it all. I believe it will also convert for iphone and other formats too if you want.