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Best ways to preserve our Premier components?

josh

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With the Premier line being de-emphasized and eventually EOL'd, I'm wondering if I should change some long-held behaviors towards my components in order to keep them running as long as possible.

I've always kept my 3U server and my vault powered on all the time. Would it make more sense at this point to power them both down, using my encore equipment as much as possible, and then powering on the premier equipment only when I'm looking to play a "legacy" title from that system?

I suspect that will preserve my old components and keep them running for many years to come, unless someone tells me that power cycling is worse for it than keeping it running for weeks or months on end without being used?

--josh
 
I’m not a Premier expert, but that’s what I do with my Disc Server (which plays through our Altos). Most of the time we watch via the Strato (costar) but keep the Alto on and the Disc Server powered down via Home Automation. If a movie pops up with “insert disc”, we have a button on our remote to turn on the AC power for that component. When I purchased the disc server I spoke to the support people and they didn’t see any issue. When the occasional firmware update comes out, I also just power up. There’s not an actual power button on a disc server, but using HA worked better for integration as it also turns it back off (e.g. tied to other lighting, alarm setting, etc.).
 
Powering On/Off regularly is not recommended because of the added power cycles to the components, and added stress to the drives. That said, I do have several friends that have been shutting their systems down regularly without any problems up to this point.

Jim
 
I spent 25+ years designing telecommunications and consumer electronics products.

Initially it is the infant failure, after that you get to the design.

Telco world - You get the old ATT/BellCore/Telcordia specs, how to fail after a lighting hit.etc on a line,, open in the telco world so you don't drain the Telco's batteries.

If you design it right, it survives, but may not after enough hits...

As long it does not fail in a shorted mode.

Consumer electronics you do the design,

Now out of your control -

Then they take parts out to make it cheaper

If fails, (enough), they put the last part back.

My thoughts are -

if designed correctly, power down when not using for a period of time,

As the heat, dust, lack of air flow, etc - wear out parts, caps fail, power hits, too much heat,

I review what I have keep, most off and save $ on electricity

And blow out the dust on a regular basis ,

Turn on and update, turn off when not using for period of time -

And re-heat sink items as needed.

As after the initial infant mortality,

It is all about the design and care and feeding of the monster,

Hopefully you have a well designed monster to care and feed.

If questions -

review what is going to be the biggest failure item -

the hard drives -


And all parts have a lifetime,
 
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What is the most "modern" component that can hold the grandfathered dvd ripping status?

The 1U+ is the last Premiere server produced (still available), but it does not allow for DVD imports UNLESS you have an older Grandfathered server that you return to Kaleidescape in order to have the DVD import rights transferred to the new 1U+.

If you are asking about servers that already have Grandfathered status, then it would still be the 5U, 3U, 1U, and C1, that were produced prior to the settlement date. If Grandfathered status is critical to a buyer, you should email K support to confirm and not just rely on "dates," because there are exceptions, for example, if a buyer purchased more than one server for a single system, only one of those servers will have the status (this was especially true with some 5U systems. Back in the day, we often sold multiple servers for one system because of the size of a collection and the smaller drives available at that time. There is also a possibility someone has already transferred the status to a new server, didn't return the old server per RMA, and subsequently lists the old server for sale. Point is, if important to the buyer, confirm before purchase.

Jim
 
In thinking about these designs, besides the hard drives,

it is the fans, and their MTBF (mean time between failures), which blowing out the dust helps reduce...
 
and power supplies, if all design well, clean out the dust bunnies on a regular basis,

Key is design,

example is some I know that had issues with power hits, and failed,

Issue was ground planes that went from big to small, and now no long an ground, now an antenna and it causes issues -

Just helped out on a job that devices and kscape device had burned on the motherboard,
 
And as for power hit's, bought a 1u with 4TB drives, for parts, then a M500 for parts, and still waiting for the DV700 for parts, plus a m300 included for parts,

Same seller from same location, I think a yacht...

1u smoked motherboard, m500 smoked motherboard. rest of 1U and m500 looks to be ok,

Good 4tb set, power supplies. etc,

Current common denominator is both area look near to the Ethernet port, have not done any reverse engineering at this point,

But the m300 is the key, as has an external power supply.
 
What's the connection....? (Tempest)

Jim
 
Aye, sounds interesting @kirkreid When you say “power hit”, do you mean a power surge from mains or power surge from Ethernet?

I know we are all vocal on here about issues, no one posts recurring messages to say their equipment is still working 😊 but would I be right in thinking you are suggesting there is a potential weakness with the power supplies into the motherboard and/or way it is designed itself or how they operate within the component?
 
Sorry more a reference that when failures happen, looking at the cause, and path the failure happens, helps in improving the design. Tempest, EMP, ESD, etc are things that in some designs have to be dealt with as well. I know of one business class router that some older models had occasional issues with inductive related to the external power supply requiring a TFTP firmware reload, some failed after a few of those hits, Newer model so far have not see the issue,
 
In my review of the router, couple of versions had a ground or power trace on the board when from large to small.

Which makes an antenna, in dealing with military designs, you test for various things, a power or ground trace become an antenna for inductive.,etc ,

Anyway enough shop, remeber putting a MOV, just drops the voltage down, on a hit, now you have to deal with the current which is a increased by the same factor of the voltage reduction
 
I personally turn off the power to all my components when not in use and haven’t had an issue. Once a year I pull components and physically open them and blow them out in my shop.
Trying to preserve the system.... Recently contacted K to order new power supplies for Kplayer 5000, M500’s, M300 and my 3U.
Has anyone tried to replace the DVD drive in a k5000? They no longer stock the DVD drive. I have 3 I use for importing and one isn’t behaving.
 
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