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Another new(bie) system

K

k2tsai

Member
Folks,

Brand new to Kaleidescape. Have known about them forever, but it had always been out of my price range previously. I'm starting to put together a system, and I'd like to bounce some thoughts off the greater collective. :)

I'm definitely going to have DVDs and BRs that are not in the K Store. I don't see that changing ever. Based on what I've read, that means I'm going to have to go with a Premiere system, Co-Star, and Encore to get the full monty, so to speak.

I've got a 1500, M500, and DV700 on the way, so the Premiere side has begun.

So, here's the question: How much storage to buy for the Terra?

Here's my thinking and where my internal debate sits: Since I'm always going to have a Premiere system, The only thing I actually need the Terra for is 4k downloads. Yes, I can have all downloads going to the Terra, but I don't have to because of the Premiere. So I think it boils down to cost of storage?

Retail pricing, Terra 24T is ~$12k. Buying a used 3U can be as low as $2k, and new 6TB disks appear to be ~$1k each? What are the current drive options and prices, anyways? Last link I found to a price list was really old and clearly out of date. I've seen references to the 1U+ w/ 30TB - that would be 10TB drives?

Basically, adding storage to the Premiere side seems to be a LOT cheaper than the Terra.

I'm definitely going to get a Terra, so the question boils down to 2 options:

1) Premiere server sized for DVDs and BRs that aren't available as digital and buy the biggest Terra I can afford
2) "Smallest" Terra for 4k downloads, and send all the downloaded SD/HD content to the Premiere. Add more Terras when pricing comes down (hopefully)

3) Actually, building on the minimal Encore idea, I could go with a Strato S, but I'd really rather not. :)

Thoughts?
 
Premier - max drive size is 6Tb for a 1U or a 3U unless you went for a 1U+ then it is 10 Tb (10 Tb drives only work in a 1U+). Max storage on a 1U is 18 Tb based upon 4 off 6 Tb drives (1 drive is for parity) and a 3U it is 72 Tb as 1 drive is for parity and 1 drive is the hot spare (there is no hot spare on a 1U). If you want to import DVD's then it must be a 'grandfathered' Premier server otherwise you can't import DVD's.
Terra - go for the maximum you can afford as you will be surprised how quickly space gets used and you can set NON 4K downloads to go to your Premier system so as to preserve space. If combining Strato with Premier line you will need a co-star switch to link your Strato player to your M500 so as to see all you library in one view.
 
Your thinking on this seems pretty solid to me. I will give you two tidbits to think about.

First: I bought a 40TB Terra thinking that I would basically never fill it up. It's more than half full already. Moral of the story -- it's easy to use more storage than you thought you would.

Second: I have gigabit fiber at home. Downloading an HD movie to my Terra takes maybe a minute. If buy-then-watch-immediately is a use case you think will apply to you with any regularity, you may find yourself wanting to download HD to your Terra at least sometimes. If not, then no worries. My most frequent "watch immediately" use case is rental, and HD rentals will go to your Terra anyway, since only Strato/Terra support rental movies.
 
Also, assuming you don’t “opt-in” with Disney on the Premiere system, all your Disney downloads with go to the Terra (not just 4K).

John
 
At the speed we are getting catalog titles re-released in 4K, investing into the Encore side makes more sense. You will see in 2-3 years time, you will start to delete more and more HD downloads from your premiere servers to upgrade them to 4K. For example, you will delete a 50GB HD download from your premiere and now you need 70-100GB room in your Encore for the 4K version. If your HD version resided in the Encore in the first place, you would only worry about the size difference.

In other words, every time you upgrade a movie in Encore, you repurpose that storage space. Every time you upgrade a movie in Premiere, it becomes unused space. I would size my Premiere system for the number of discs I have and those movies I am pretty confident will never get the 4K version.
 
The other consideration is that with Premiere being EOL, the 1U+ (with 10T drives) is basically off the table for a while. As with basically everything else in this category, go with the most storage you can afford, because if it is there, you will find a way to fill it.
 
Thanks a bunch for the responses so far. Every response has included new info to me which, of course, just raises more questions! :)

Thanks everyone for the additional food for thought
 
Just a quick update... Things went sideways a bit. :)

Based on the feedback here, I picked up 2x 1U servers. One has 4x 1TB drives, and the other has 3x 2TB drives. I then picked up a 1U with no drives as a spare parts unit. I also snagged a DV700 and M500. With this, I figured I would be set for the Premier side of the house, and started thinking about the Encore side.

So, what went sideways?

Well, the plan was to buy 4/8 new drives if I needed more space for the Premier system. Instead, I was able to pick up a 3U with 14x 4TB drives for 48 TB of usable storage for less than it would have cost to upgrade the drives in the 1U.

The good news is that I was still able to use one of the 1U servers to do a Premier to Strato upgrade, and CineLife has a 48TB Terra and Strato on the way. :)

So, since the movie credit buy back for the 1500 series servers is no longer available, does anyone want to buy a couple of 1U servers? One unit has no drives. I tested it by powering it up with the drives from one of the other servers and it worked fine. The second unit has 3x 2TB drives. Both servers were checked with K, and they are both grandfathered and clear.

I'll create a For Sale posting in the classifieds shortly.

Cheers!
 
Hi,
I am having similar thoughts as to what next.

I am working away from home with my family medium-term at the moment I have 2 distinct systems, a Strato S 6TB which is in my 'work' house with reasonable 1/2 gig internet, and my premier system (M300 and M700 with a 1U server with 4 x 2t b) in my own home with HD and slow internet.

The Strato S is probably a little small but I am ok moving stuff as the mood takes me and in the medium, to long term I will expand the Strato/Terra storage. I am currently using my premiere system to catalog my disks, which are being slowly transferred to digital, once that is complete I will look at what I would like to load up on my M700 and server.

As K2tsai says the cost of disks on the premier side does seem cheaper, although in my view still fairly expensive per TB. I am also seeing a reasonable amount of my content still only HD/SD.

I have around 600 movies and some 20 series on Blur ray/DVD, so just upgrading my 1U to 6tb disks (6-18tb) would probably not cut it for the whole library but would enable me to fill my M700 and probably be fine for my non 'digital' content but struggle for the whole library. However, by adding a second 1U with reasonable-sized drives should be able to store everything at HD or below.

Apologizes these questions will have been answered before but being new to Kscape I am struggling to remember it all.

How many 1U servers can I put on the same system?
How many 3U servers can I put on the same system?

In terms of Terra V Compact Terra, what are the differences - the 1/2 width form factor doesn't really help me. I understand that the Terra has user-replaceable drives which appeals to me, are there any other differences? in terms of performance and connectivity.


Many Thanks In advance

Stuart
 
Sep297 said:
How many 1U servers can I put on the same system?
How many 3U servers can I put on the same system?
Click to expand...
Players with storage are limited, but servers aren't.
Sep297 said:
In terms of Terra V Compact Terra, what are the differences - the 1/2 width form factor doesn't really help me. I understand that the Terra has user-replaceable drives which appeals to me, are there any other differences? in terms of performance and connectivity.
Click to expand...
My search-fu is weak tonight, but I'm sure a post with the official answer is lurking around somewhere. The only point I'm finding is reduced playback zones (10 versus 5.)
 
Key differences are capacity, form factor and number of simultaneous playback zones. Replacement drives - you can replace a failed drive on a Terra server yourself but it is a like for like replacement and only a drive from Kaleidescape will work - you can't buy a 48Tb Terra server and swap drives to make it a 72Tb server.
When it comes to capacity - in the end it will generally run out so go for the maximum your budget allows to get the maximum return from your investment.
 
Mark H said:
Key differences are capacity, form factor and number of simultaneous playback zones. Replacement drives - you can replace a failed drive on a Terra server yourself but it is a like for like replacement and only a drive from Kaleidescape will work - you can't buy a 48Tb Terra server and swap drives to make it a 72Tb server.
When it comes to capacity - in the end it will generally run out so go for the maximum your budget allows to get the maximum return from your investment.
Click to expand...
Obviously your are referring to the full size Terra. Compact versions are not drive field replaceable. SJ
 
I was hence the reference to only the 48Tb and 72Tb devices :)
 
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