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New 4Tb Harddrive! Almost!!

P

Panamar

Well-known member
Hi

We all knew this would happen at some point but I still find it surprising to see it laid down on the written page.

Hitachi have produced a 3Tb single hdd planned for 2010 with the promise of a 4Tb single hdd in 2011 (if not pipped to the post by WD)!

Now lets consider this, a 3U server will then hold 7'200 dvd's or 30-40 BD's :p

Rgds

Pan
 
I am curious, what is the average actual volume of BluRay movies now. I know they are 50GB capacity, but I doubt they are all totally full. A DVD is 8.4GB but they figure 6.7GB for an average disc right now, so would that put 40GB for BluRay or something different?

Even at 40GB per disc, a fully loaded 3U with 4TB drives would hold about 1200 BluRay titles. Not too bad.
 
Hi

In my experience the average BD movie is 20Gb - 25Gb. But with all the extras you would be very close to the mark. I personally have a fairly large BD collection but will likely put only films I know I will watch again and again, like musicals, onto the server and continue to use sd dvd for everything else.

I wonder if K would offer any hdd support for their system if things didn't quite go their way in the courts!? How could a third party possibly step in and take over.

Rgds

Pan
 
To step in and take over for K? I don't know about that with regards to online monitoring for hard drives and hardware, but you need to be able to sell replacement gear to make that profitable.

The database is a lot of work, as there are not just the scans and data you see, but also the bookmarking and aspect ratio information.

As far as the hard drives, I would think that as long as a person had the program to format the drives and configure them, it wouldn't be hard to keep that part of the service afloat.

Then again, even if things don't go their way in court, they are not shut down. Granted, DVD serving is the backbone of their system, but they also have CD serving and that is not being challenged. There is also the option of partnering up with Netflix, Hulu or other media supply companies for direct downloads. Finally, there is the quite distinct possibility that even if they lose, it won't be totally over and appeals exhausted until BluRay's media server option is rolling along.

The reality, however, is that the existing installation base of Kaleidescape systems is quite a large investment and hard drive replacements would be the easiest part of the hardware chain to continue supporting. I don't see it very likely that the courts would block the company from selling replacement hard drives and even if they did, how would they prevent an industrious person from offering them on the side over the internet? The only real hurdle would be to get the drive cages. Formatting the drives is just software on a specialized computer. Replacements wouldn't need a new drive cage unless that hardware failed.
 
Just wondering how Kaleidescape is tracking to these advancements in drive capacity. Looks like 3TB drives are here and 4TB ones are near (http://www.hitachigstwhatsnext.com/en/Future_Technology/4TB_hard_drive/). I'm now at 50% on a 3U fully loaded with 2TB drives. But most of that is DVD/CD content. The commercial and home video blu-rays I've been importing are eating capacity fairly quickly. Just wondering if kscape might be coordinating a move to higher capacities with the introduction of the IDV in 2011.
 
My experience is the average BR is closer to 30-35gb. The new ones tend to be closer to 40-45. If I were to make a guesstimate on storage Id use 40.
 
K uses 40gb average for BR discs.

Forget about the litigation, it's really a non-issue.

I'm sure K will eventually move to larger drives (as always), but at present, to my knowledge, none of the normal suppliers has released an enterprise level drive above 2TB. That has to happen before K can select a supplier (after testing the drives of course).


Jim
 
Makes sense. So, right now i have a single 3U server with M500s and a speed reader connected to it. If i want to expand capacity, i can add another server, right? So, how does that work from an end-user perspective. Say i pop a blu-ray into an M500. Which server would the M500 stream the data to? How about the speed reader as it imports a stack of DVDs and CDs. To which server does it send its data? Is there the concept that imports should fill up a server before populating another? Would the two servers join in a cluster and reallocate the content across the two servers, such that the cluster acts like one, big RAID array?
 
You can have as many servers as you want- when you go to play a movie it just plays. Well, Im sure there is a theoretical limit to servers and players but I think its so high that it doesn't matter. Im running 2 3U servers and there are no problems. I believe you can create different groups if you wanted to have one server say for one group of players and another server for another group of players but in my home/ family application theres no need.
 
Yeah, you really don't need to overthink this. This is how adding another server works.

1. Plug in tht server's network and power cord
2. Flip the switch to power it up
3. Go to a computer, pull up the installer web interface at http://my-kaleidescape/installer
4. Choose components tab
5. Select the new server's pull down box and add it to the group your existing server is in (group 1 probably)

DONE. Really, it is that easy.
All the rest of the stuff is handled by Kaleidescape automatically. You don't need to worry about which server has which film, which ones are being loaded into, etc.
 
Joe said:
Makes sense. So, right now i have a single 3U server with M500s and a speed reader connected to it. If i want to expand capacity, i can add another server, right? So, how does that work from an end-user perspective. Say i pop a blu-ray into an M500. Which server would the M500 stream the data to? How about the speed reader as it imports a stack of DVDs and CDs. To which server does it send its data? Is there the concept that imports should fill up a server before populating another? Would the two servers join in a cluster and reallocate the content across the two servers, such that the cluster acts like one, big RAID array?
Click to expand...

In order:
Yes, you can add another server once the slots run out. (Come on larger (4T) HDDs... *clings to edge for life*)
Content is supposed to go to the grouped server with the most space, so no, it won't try to top-off.
They can be clustered (grouped) if you follow Poindexter's instructions, but will not re-allocate previously imported content.

And as to a size limit, I would expect that list to get mighty unruly long before any technical limits. *imagines bringing up the player, hitting "W" and going off to get a drink while it scrolls through tens of thousands of listings*
 
You can add as many Servers as you like, BUT, there is a functional limitation relating to performance. At some point, it becomes a bit sluggish when searching for content. Player's have a limit of 8,000 titles when displaying movies (or they did under the older KEAOS, not sure if that's still true). There are things that can be done to display more titles (like designating new groupings), assuming that is even necessary with the latest KEAOS.

As of about a year ago, IIRC, the largest installation included 11 Servers. There is also an installation that has 87 Players!!:eek: (That might be Jerry's home.:D)


Jim
 
cinelife said:
As of about a year ago, IIRC, the largest installation included 11 Servers. There is also an installation that has 87 Players!!:eek: (That might be Jerry's home.:D)


Jim
Click to expand...

I would love to see pictures of that house though I suspect it is likely a commercial application / installation....


Joel
 
I can confirm thats most certainly not my home. We only have 86- the 87th is in the Lamborghini Jim loaned me :D
 
JerryL said:
I can confirm thats most certainly not my home. We only have 86- the 87th is in the Lamborghini Jim loaned me :D
Click to expand...

JerryL:

And I thought that it was your vacation property as surely yoru main home is much bigger than that...:D

Joel
 
Vacation property? Don't confuse me with Jim and his stable of Lamborghinis, each outfitted with a streaming link to his master K setup. He has a "vault farm" :)
 
JerryL said:
I can confirm thats most certainly not my home. We only have 86- the 87th is in the Lamborghini Jim loaned me :D
Click to expand...

He only has one Kaleidescape player in his Lamborghini? He shouldn't have gotten the cheap model.
 
yeah, yeah, yeah......you guys are hilarious.......just for the record it's a Veyron.....and K's license only allowed one Player......bigger problem is it's now a single seater because of the MDV in the passenger seat.:D:D


(seriously, that would be very cool, but then they'd probably pass some stupid cell phone like law that prohibits watching your K while driving....:()


You guys all have a happy and healthly New Year!!


Jim
 
I was thinking it would be fun to be watching Rendezvous while driving the same route in Paris and seeing if you could beat the driver in the video.
 
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