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I'm So New and So Confused

oldjoe said:
RAID array will lessen the chance for data loss but mechanical failure is eminent.
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Truer words were never spoken! It's rather annoying when the fail the day after you get the system up and running:(
 
The best way to lessen the chance of getting hosed by a mechanical drive failure is to not use the drives. Take an old PC and load it with 4 500gb drives (2Tb) - throw it on the network and leave it off. Once a quarter, fire it up and copy anything you really liked from your HTPC over to it.
And then turn it off.

If there's something on it you wanna see.... fire it up (for 9 minutes) and move it back to the HTPC. If stuff gets full.... look it over and delete what you decide is no longer a "must see again" - you'll be amazed how priorities change.
 
There are a number of ways to lessen the odds and prolong mechanical failure but no prevention. Larger drive capacity, more platters. more to fail.
 
I like the Back-up Drive Idea

Look let's look at this realistically, I can buy a 500 GB drive to hold 333 movies if they are around 1.5 GB each. That translates to 300+ discs and storing them in some organized fashion. The cost is the same for this method and compression. The cost changes if a backup drive program is implemented, but the "I've got it" factor would be solved. We all know that a DVD is a really poor method of saving anything (regardless of the manufacturer), a method that I believe the movie producers knew was a way to turn us all into repeat buyers (excluding Disney that has a disc replacement policy).

Another reason for this plan is that we might be able to find them!!! Do you know what 3,000 titles looks like? I have two 7 foot X 7 foot bookcases triple stacked with titles. If I could get it organized, my family could watch movies till my grand children die and never repeat a movie. My husband is insane and out of control. And you know what is worse, he keeps buying more movies!!! OK, I've vented, I'm OK now.

Back to what I thought would be the most compact way to solve this problem. I was told that 1.5 GB would be similar or compared to the cable reception that we currently get on our TV. Since what we get from the local cable company is fine for us old farts, I thought 1.5 GB would be a safe bet. Now, this could be misinformation, and I welcome what kind of settings would be best for this level of quality. Most programs talk about fiddling with the ratios and OMG I have a headache. What tutorials in here will give me an idea as to what I should expect while attempting this project.
 
Ultra_Sunshine said:
This forum is for power users. I am so confused here and so intimidated. Every post here is full of information and creates a new question in my mind, but I am not sure if it is applicable to my situation. What I want to do is put my movies in MP4 format onto a hard drive and output it to a TV.

What do I need to buy and install. OMG, ???RATIOS??? ???DRM??? ???WHAT BURNER??? (at least I know about using the right medium and make sure to defrag) ???Which software??? I don't even know where to begin in asking a question to accomplish this task.

First bit of confusion: The impression that I get is that AnyDVD will decode a movie for me so that I can convert it to the MP4 format or essentially capture the movie to a temporary file on my hard drive. Would I opt for the mobile version or do I need to change the captured movie with some other program. ...

I am here with the hopes and dreams of finding a solution and it's like hitting the afterdark forum with it's "don't bother posting if your are a newbie to this forum because we are way above you and there are tons of posts outlining the procedure." Well, I'm so new I can't navigate through this information in order to get out of the newbie status. In other words I'm a bit overwhelmed.

I could really use a roadmap to this site with maybe an overview of the general procedures/programs required in order to accomplish this task along with terms so I can effectively search and post to the forum (and links) for information pertaining to this type of task.
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How about just making a DVD backup copy of your original DVD movie using the CloneDVD2/ AnyDVD software on your computer. Then take the copy and play it on your home DVD player. Seems this would be a much easier process for you. However, if your really wanting to run a movie from your Media Center PC, I would suggest you call your PC's tech support and have them walk you through the copy DVD to hard drive process, cable hook up, and configuration process of using the TV OUT feature of you video card. They will not help you copy any DVD which has copyright protection! Make sure all the equipment, TV, Computer, Video Card, and cable, you plan on using for this process is of high quality. Otherwise, you will not achive the desired results. Now, if you just want to make DVD copies of your commercial DVD movies and do not undestand the copying process. I would be glad to walk you throught it, step by step. In an easy to understand way. Just in case you can't get in touch with me here in this forum for some unknown reason. your may contact directly at my personal email address. kf6pp(at)comcast.net

Darrell
 
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There's a time factor also. I just took a title (Knocked Up), and shrunk it to 1.5gb (MPEG2-DVD Format) with DVD Shrink 3.2

It took 2 passes to get it that small, and took almost an hour. No matter what compession you use (and I reccomend MPEG2 to retain full DVD compatability) It's gonna take *around* an hour per movie for a relatively fast machine to do it. (Hint, Do pass #1 from the DVD to your system drive and then pass #2 from the system drive to the final storage drive.)

Soo.... to do 3000 titles.... expect to spend 375 work days (8 hour days).

Granted... you don't have to sit there and watch it do it... but still expect to invest 5-10 minutes real time per movie (once an hour) to do this work.

-W
 
Ultra_Sunshine said:
Another reason for this plan is that we might be able to find them!!! Do you know what 3,000 titles looks like? I have two 7 foot X 7 foot bookcases triple stacked with titles. If I could get it organized, my family could watch movies till my grand children die and never repeat a movie. My husband is insane and out of control. And you know what is worse, he keeps buying more movies!!! OK, I've vented, I'm OK now.
Click to expand...

You must feel like you live in a Blockbuster store... heh. :D

I agree that for ease of storage and cost... hard drives might be your best overall solution.

Staples is selling 300G Maxtors this week for $69............. :)

-W
 
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