So, when are you going to get a media server with a few TBs of storage to rip all those DVDs to?

As soon as I can get 4+ usable TB in a RAID-5 or RAID-X configuration for less than than the cost of a small car!

Yea, 4+ TB would definitely cost a bit. You can pick up SATA 500 GB drives for about $130 (during a sale). That's only $1170 (9 drives total unless you want it to ACTUALLY be 4+ TB. Then you'd need bigger drives). Then a low end pc (since it will only be doing file serving), SATA cards and a nice case with adequate cooling. I could see it done for $1500 or so. I guess that's the cost of a small car (albeit a pretty crappy one).....
=)

For good performance I think you'd need to get an actual RAID controller, which would raise the cost a fair amount. And being an A/V geek now we'd have to get a good front-end on this through an HTPC, which would probably run about another $750 or more once it was tricked out with HDMI graphics cards and appropriate software.

Honestly I think the biggest issue with media servers for video right now is that they are solving a problem that doesn't really exist yet. People don't really shuffle movies like they do audio, and without a legitimate online distribution system we're all buying shiny discs anyways.

As soon as legit online movie distribution starts up providing quality as good as BluRay/HD-DVD then I think the market for media servers and associated home-RAIDs will really take off.

I just looked at your renovation pictures. Your condo layout is similar to mine and I've wanted to put shoji screens in the hall to bring in more light. Did you put those in yourself? They look great.

I swear I'm not sitting here all day watching this post! I just got back from a dinner.

The screens are actually lexan, by a local new york company called Raydoor. They were a major part of the renovation, and I love them. Each one is pretty heavy (about 100 pounds!) but they slide very smoothly.

We had our contractors put them in, which I'm glad we did. Getting all the tracks perfectly aligned and all the doors balanced was a fair amount of work.

Nah, you don't NEED a hardware raid card. Linux software raid works quite nicely. And I guess I was under the assumption that you already have an HTPC...

The nice thing for me about a media server is being able to browse your entire library and having it all "on demand".

if you are looking for a plug and play raid 5 solution. get a few 2TB Buffalo Tech terastations. I have my entire 400 disc collection digitized on these. They are about $800 each. CHEAP and Raid 5. I lovw being able to call up box art and scroll through to find a movie with guests over. Its awesome. Email me if you want more details. I runa 65" panasonic 1080P plasma and a 1080P JVC projector to a 106" screen in my loft. LOVE IT.

What rack is that?

Hi Randy,

I was looking at the Infrant ReadyNAS. Though right now without more downloadable media I'm not seeing a very good price/performance ratio for the $1K expense as compared to just tossing a DVD into my player. I keep the catalog in DVDpedia on my laptop.

The rack is a Raxxess 42 space 19" rack. It's on casters so I can spin it to access the back.

I use a long chain of firewire drives for my media storage. It's nicely scalable, expandable without cracking open a case or using a sled, faster than gig E in practice, and they can spin up and down as needed.

I started with about 500GB several years ago, and have about 6TB online now, cycling out smaller units. It's still not enough for all the DVDs and it's not RAID'd (which is pointless in this case anyway). You'll get completely adequate performance with a 7200rpm spindle and a 3ghz+ processor. You could get away with 4500 and 1.25ghz if you stored the DVD images instead of transcoding to another compressed format.

I agree with the not needing RAID. Since you would already have back-ups (the original DVDs), it's just the time investment that's lost if one or more drives goes down.

Even external 0.5TB drives are going for $200 now (good Lacie ones). They stack well and don't look half bad either.

I have a similar set-up (but only with 1TB) attached to a box that contains a VIA Epia. While it's a bit slow to rip, it only consumes 30W or so, so makes it worth it for a computer that's on all of the time. While you might want a faster computer if you want to record HDTV, even for ripping movies or recording SDTV, a 1.5GHz processor stands up pretty well.

One question I have about ripping movies is what the utility is. If you own the movie, what advantage do you get by having it on disk rather than disc. I guess I could see an internal distribution system if you had a big house with multiple TVs that you wanted to feed.

Max, your place looks great. I used to really know my stuff when it came to home theaters and had a nice one. But since the new media center PCs have come out I have been confused. Right now, I am in need of a new TV/monitor since the one I have is outdated. I also want to link this into a home theater network. I am in the process of getting a new PC (laptop) and am wondering if Windows Media Center will do all I want as far as storing movies, music, etc. and being able to access it directly through my home theater. If some of you have recommendations let me know. I know I am going to also need some external hard drives for all the media storage. Thanks!

Oh cool, my post is back! There have been a few changes since this was first posted. We've upgraded the projector to a new 1080p model, replaced the old receiver with a new HDMI capable one, and added a Blu-Ray player for hi-def movie fun.

Guitar Hero II is on heavy rotation in the Xbox360, and is probably the best party game ever. Nothing beats having friends over to do some drinking and channel our inner rock-gods.

The front speakers are in that "black bar" you see under the screen. The rear speakers are mounted up on the rear wall. The sub is behind the couch. You can see it in one picture with the remote on it. I've since replaced that Pronto remote with a Harmony (so much nicer!) and installed a small shelf behind the back of the couch to hold it out of sight.

It's so sexy when you see all the technology they crammed into this space and perfectly managed to make it seem like they didn't use any. lol So much better than the classic LCD and boxy speaker settup. lol (Those make me laugh)

Regarding all those DVD's - having them on demand on digital storage is the ultimate, but if you're keeping the disks, you can easily cut down on the storage space required. I took all of my DVD's and software discs, and placed them in those cheap zippered cases. I don't need to look at the cases they came in to be able to enjoy them, and it cuts down on shelf space exponentially. (It also cuts down on lost software media) We put the original boxes in storage for a couple of months before finally tossing them because they're so unnecessary. My wife even covered the cases in nice fabrics so that they look better than the standard issue black nylon. A little "Real Simple" perhaps, but highly effective.