Torn between SSD vs non SSD Terra server for first time owner

markrubin said:

I know many have sold their large server and bought an 8tb SSD but I want all my movies available and not have to continually delete movies to make room
I finally moved to a 120 tb HD Prime server: it has two quiet fans in the back which are near silent, but you do hear the hard drives working. I also observed the Prime server ran very hot, but simply unlatching the front door brought the operating temperature down by 10 degrees C, and I can feel warm air coming from the front edges with the door partially open: a good thermal design should have addressed this, especially for the cost of the server.
I think keeping the drives as cool as possible (SSD or Hdd) is essential for a long life ( my business is cooling for high power electronics)

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I was addressing the same issue. I have the 120TB Terra Prime Server as well and it was always running 53 to 54 Degrees Celsius, which is towards the max safe operating level. All I did was open the front panel so it's slightly ajar and not accumulating dust. Drive Temp dropped 8 Degrees Celsius, which is a lot. I'll be keeping things this way from now on.

andy said:

Wanted to add my 2 cents...

How you use K can change once you get hooked on the system. It certainly did for me.

I have 50TB of storage that has long been filled, and I hate when a title isn’t already on my system. Part of that is the immediate access, but it’s also the time I’ve put into curating my collection. When I remove a movie, it loses its place in my custom collections, along with any metadata or cover art changes I’ve made. Having everything downloaded matters more once you’ve invested time in making that library your own.

My viewing habits have changed, too. I often enjoy watching shorter portions of movies, sometimes jumping through six or seven titles in an evening. I don’t necessarily know ahead of time what I’ll feel like watching next. With limited storage, that kind of spontaneous browsing becomes an exercise in deciding what to delete and what to download.

If your routine is to download a movie, watch it, and move on, smaller storage may suit you perfectly. But there’s a whole other side to K and that's building and curating a collection that’s ready whenever the mood strikes. It’s worth considering whether that might become part of the appeal for you, because storage starts to feel very different once it does.

Andy

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This describes my situation as well. I want all my core movies and current interesting movies in 4K Cinematic, and I want them instantly. All of them. 50TB of bought-new HDD storage covers me well for relative value and relative reliability.

My cover wall represents my curated collection of my favorite movies over the past 100 years, plus anything you might want to see that came out recently. I like tinkering with that in my spare time, rearranging and re-sorting the titles, and making it all available to my family and friends.

I have Plex running as well, but prefer Kaleidescape as my default player in my theater. My Plex now largely patches holes in my Kaleidescape lineup and serves my kids their repeat-view movies to the living room.

My connection is 1GB fiber via Ethernet.

I am running FIOS 1 gig service and am happy with download speeds.
FIOS is now offering 5 gig service: I tried to upgrade when they first offered 2 gig speed, but they force you into their new TV box which was a mess: RF remote only, a tiny box meant to mount on the back of the TV: so I cancelled the upgrade.
I also learned that rodents seem to like FIOS cable: they have chewed through mine more than once: Verizon is very good about fixing it.

markrubin said:

I am running FIOS 1 gig service and am happy with download speeds.
FIOS is now offering 5 gig service: I tried to upgrade when they first offered 2 gig speed, but they force you into their new TV box which was a mess: RF remote only, a tiny box meant to mount on the back of the TV: so I cancelled the upgrade.
I also learned that rodents seem to like FIOS cable: they have chewed through mine more than once: Verizon is very good about fixing it.

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XFINITY here in Houston is 2 GIGS on Coaxial but pushes out 2.2 Gigs all the time - They are now doing asymmetrical data and speeds on coaxial will go to 6 to 10 GIGS with DOC SYS 4.0 Modems within 12 months.
The Bottleneck at that point will be the 2.5 G speed of the Compact Terra ... and Kaleidescape servers.
I have 2400 Movies on K and more coming - there is no end to Storage as I said before - and also it is lifestyle dependent - I dont have the time to play around with scenes etc when I am in my theater - these days movies are so long you walk and think If I doodle around 30 minutes I just cannot finish the movie once I start it.
To each thier own...

todo said:

XFINITY here in Houston is 2 GIGS on Coaxial but pushes out 2.2 Gigs all the time - They are now doing asymmetrical data and speeds on coaxial will go to 6 to 10 GIGS with DOC SYS 4.0 Modems within 12 months.
The Bottleneck at that point will be the 2.5 G speed of the Compact Terra ... and Kaleidescape servers.
I have 2400 Movies on K and more coming - there is no end to Storage as I said before - and also it is lifestyle dependent - I dont have the time to play around with scenes etc when I am in my theater - these days movies are so long you walk and think If I doodle around 30 minutes I just cannot finish the movie once I start it.
To each thier own...

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Do you have LAN gear (especially ports) that can handle more than 2.5 GB speeds? If not, then you are likely over configuring and over paying.

Does anyone know if K-scape will repair a server that is out of warranty for a fee?

GregblurayHD said:

Does anyone know if K-scape will repair a server that is out of warranty for a fee?

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For non-field serviceable Terra compact HDD, nope. It’s a boat anchor, same as with the SSD ones. No swapping in hard drives either. They’ll know it.

jmpage2 said:

Well all, I have gone ahead and placed an order with a very well known forum member for 30TB Compact Terra server and K series player. While it is a lot more than I anticipated and I'm going to miss the faster download speeds/performance of the SSD unit I have to look at my habits with previous formats and realize that I will start converting a portion of my collection to KScape over the next couple of years and it might become tedious to have to swap titles in and out constantly.

Another thing that factored into my decision is that the 30TB unit will probably hold more of it's resale over time if I upgrade compared to the smaller size SSD unit. This will potentially become even more apparent as KScape file sizes continue to grow.

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Another consideration: constantly writing new movies on a small SSD will also wear out the SSDs. SSD’s have limited life. They work great and lifespan is not an issue if they are mainly used for reads. However, since they’re generally smaller,
people would have to recycle their movies thereby causing man writes which affect SSD lifespan. I would expect that Kaleidescape chose enterprise quality SSDs which last much longer than non-enterprise. I also expect they choose enterprise hard disks which are more resilient than non-enterprise hard drives.

I have 8x18TB Plex that I started years ago. I have a policy to put older movies there and movies that are not available in K. Also, occasionally we put NEW 4k movies in plex that I and family members really really want to be able to see from anywhere (anywhere meaning be able to watch from Apple TV, Nvidia Shield , people’s iPhones or iPads - basically anywhere a Plex client is supported). Then, if I I was really ODC, I’d also use D2D and hope I can get the $5 D2D. But in general, for most new movies, I using K for quality and convenience.

Definitely jump to the Strato K if you're getting the Bravia 9! On an 85" flaghsip screen, the difference in bitrate and dynamic range with the new high bitrate files is going to pop way more than it would on a smaller set.

jmpage2 said:

I think I've decided to order the 8TB SSD Terra server and the K Strato player. This will immediately get me into cinematic and if I find it irritating to be re-downloading titles periodically then I can just get more storage at a later time as it will take a bit to fill the storage, which is just augmenting Plex for those titles I want to view in the best quality possible.

Thanks all for all the input.

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I currently have a K and a 22tb server.

Current FIOS is 1G but moving to 2G in my neighborhood soon. I then plan on adding the 8tb SSD for better download speeds.

Once that gets near capacity, (I checked with Kscape support) I will delete rarely viewed movies, then turn off my 8tb SSD, and redownload the movie from Kscape server to my larger 22tb if I want to keep it handy for grandkids. They also indicated that the Kscape store will seek out my 8tb SSD first for new downloads when both are “on”.

So in summary I will have both servers operating but can move movies to the larger older 22tb by turning off my 8tb SSD and redownloading deleted movies. Seems ideal for me.

It’s interesting reading discussions about storage here.

I’m sort of glad I don’t need to worry about it.

I’m currently not in a position to afford any of the storage, and it was a stretch even to purchase my Strato E at a secondhand price.

So I always knew that I would be using this as a standalone player and additional storage has never entered my mind.

Maybe that helps me enjoy on the Strato E without wringing my hands about if I could have a better experience with an additional server. It’s already providing me with the experience I hoped for. My download speeds are between three minutes and maybe eight minutes for HD titles in between eight and 15 minutes for 4K UHD, which is fast enough to scratch my “ want it now” itch. And I never have to worry about storage space, since of course, all my movies can live on the K servers.

I am someone who likes to be able to not necessarily watch a whole movie every night, but sometimes just skip around the scenes. I want to see you on various movies.

Being able to store between 6 to 12 movies (depending on how I mix 4K with HD titles) has been plenty to allow me that type of pleasure. And it just seems easy enough to delete movies to download others.

Again, I get why if you can afford a server why that would be even more attractive.
But I’m quite happy with the standalone player experience.