Questions About K Components

[Ceebsceebs]

Walt's a friend, and the information above is accurate, you won't have any problems in transacting with him.

Jim

Walt, I might be interested in doing a deal if we can as I shall explain below.....

Morning all, ( it's 715am Uk time here )

I've been an inactive member for 7 years. Just paid premium so I can chat away. I bought a house with a bonkers expensing Crestron Home Automation system and inherited at the same time a Kaleidescape players and 3 U, K Vault and 1 U server with several players too.

Both the 3U and 1U are grandfathered. I've replaced a couple of the drives in the 3U but it looks like it won't power on now.

The incredibly helpful Rusty, senior K Scape technical engineer pointed me to this forum. So thanks for that Rusty.

He said either there has either been a catastrophic disk failure as it went into quarantine, or there is a power up problem, in which case he said I should try and get a used 3U chassis.

Thin from a risk perspective, probably better to trade up.

Give. I am a total novice would the forum be able to answers a few questions for me please

1) is it worth effort cost and pain of trying to fix 3 U server? It's got 1200 movies on it. Circa 10TB used with some 20TB of free space.

2) does the grandfathered 1U server have any value. I will try and find the storage capacity of it if that makes a big difference.

3) how painful is it to transfer 10TB or movies from 3U to say Walt 48 Terra? The movies are on disks in a 3U chassis that won't power up. Is that a problem?

4) I've got some spare K or M players upstairs, are they worth anything?

5) any idea what my idiot government will charge to land Walt's server here in the UK. I believe you have to pay VAT on the entire costs which includes the duty and shipping. Talk about double taxation

Sorry for the long post, but I am a total novice. I nearly bought a new to me system off a AV company in Scotland until Rusty said that system only stores movies downloaded from Kscape store.

Big shout out to Rusty!!!

 

[Ceebsceebs]

It won't let me edit, saying opps there is an error, so I have amended typos and cut and pasted below

Walt, I might be interested in doing a deal if we can as I shall explain below.....

Morning all, ( it's 715am Uk time here )

I've been an inactive member for 7 years. Just paid premium so I can chat away. I bought a house with a bonkers expensing Crestron Home Automation system and inherited at the same time a Kaleidescape system and a 3U, K Vault and 1U server with several players too.

Both the 3U and 1U are grandfathered. I've replaced a couple of the drives in the 3U but it looks like it won't power on now.

The incredibly helpful Rusty, senior K Scape technical engineer pointed me to this forum. So thanks for that Rusty.

He said either there has either been a catastrophic disk failure as it went into quarantine, or there is a power up problem, in which case he said I should try and get a used 3U chassis.

I think from a risk and pain perspective, probably better to trade up.

Given. I am a total novice would the forum be able to answers a few questions for me please?

1) is it worth effort cost and pain of trying to fix 3 U server? It's got 1200 movies on it. Circa 10TB used with some 20TB of free space.

2) does the grandfathered 1U server have any value? I will try and find the storage capacity of it if that makes a big difference.

3) how painful is it to transfer 10TB or movies from 3U to say Walt 48 Terra? The movies are on disks in a 3U chassis that won't power up. Is that a problem?

4) I've got some spare K or M players upstairs, are they worth anything?

5) any idea what my idiot government will charge to land Walt's server here in the UK. I believe you have to pay VAT on the entire costs which includes the duty and shipping. Talk about double taxation

Sorry for the long post, but I am a total novice. I nearly bought a new to me system off a AV company in Scotland until Rusty said that system only stores movies downloaded from Kscape store.

Big shout out to Rusty!!!

 

[Rooster]

imo, unless there is a lot of content you want to watch on the 3u, its better to not bother with it. The premiere stuff is getting up in age and likely will be only harder to service in the future. I guess an easy litmus test is if you look at the content on the working 1u’s, is it very valuable stuff that you think you *really* want? Odds are if you value whats on the 1u, you’d want to see whats on the 3u then

The stuff you mentioned does have decent value (even the dead grandfathered 3u). If I were you I would sell them and just enter the encore line with a terra/strato C

(I have a few overseas family members that I am helping do the same thing - sell off their premiere stuff)

 

[cinelife]

First, welcome to the Forum (officially ), and no need to apologize for "the long post," more info is better when seeking answers.

This is my take, others may have additional opinions or info based on their own experiences.

1. This is a personal question, only you can decide if it's worth the effort/cost to try and get the 3U working. Being unable to power it On indicates either a power supply problem (and a replacement may be available from "Sparkle Power," they make a few at a time based on demand). Replacing with a new PSU "may" solve the problem. That said, Rusty's comment regarding the drive set seems to indicate he thinks there may be multiple drives that failed. You won't know if that's the case without either a confirmation by K (assuming they can see logs from the 3U), or being able to move that drive set to another EMPTY 3U server.

2. Yes, the 1U does have value, assuming it powers On. Yes, value is a function of server condition and storage capacity, as well what a ready, willing, and able buyer is willing to pay (obviously). You might get more for it being in the UK do to the cost of buying new K gear in the UK, or buying from US (used) and shipping to UK. A working empty 1U averages $1500 to $2300 in the US.

3. Not painful at all, because you CANNOT do that. The Premiere products (what you own) are not compatible with Terra/Strato products.

4. Yes, depending on condition.

5. Depends on the value claimed in the shipping docs, or based on their assessment. Others in UK can better comment.

Jim

 

[Ceebsceebs]

First, welcome to the Forum (officially ), and no need to apologize for "the long post," more info is better when seeking answers.

This is my take, others may have additional opinions or info based on their own experiences.

1. This is a personal question, only you can decide if it's worth the effort/cost to try and get the 3U working. Being unable to power it On indicates either a power supply problem (and a replacement may be available from "Sparkle Power," they make a few at a time based on demand). Replacing with a new PSU "may" solve the problem. That said, Rusty's comment regarding the drive set seems to indicate he thinks there may be multiple drives that failed. You won't know if that's the case without either a confirmation by K (assuming they can see logs from the 3U), or being able to move that drive set to another EMPTY 3U server.

2. Yes, the 1U does have value, assuming it powers On. Yes, value is a function of server condition and storage capacity, as well what a ready, willing, and able buyer is willing to pay (obviously). You might get more for it being in the UK do to the cost of buying new K gear in the UK, or buying from US (used) and shipping to UK. A working empty 1U averages $1500 to $2300 in the US.

3. Not painful at all, because you CANNOT do that. The Premiere products (what you own) are not compatible with Terra/Strato products.

4. Yes, depending on condition.

5. Depends on the value claimed in the shipping docs, or based on their assessment. Others in UK can better comment.

 

[Ceebsceebs]

Cheers Jim

That is helpful. And in reply also to the other post, my DVD collection to date are films that you struggle to get either online or on DVD nowadays.

So what is being said is my old system is dead, and I can't get it back working, I lose 1200 DVD's Ive burned to the K raid drives and there is nothing I can do about it?

That seems quite bonkers.

In the round it doesn't make it that attractive to upgrade. That said, if the thing is dead I am between a rock and hard place.

 

[JohnJ]

Maybe I missed it, but what is the deal that you wanted to do with @Wal99? If there really isn’t a proposed deal, then you have buried his/her ”For Sale” post.

John

 

[cinelife]

You lose access to imported content with multiple drive failures (or with some other physical failure on a board) AND no available space for RAID to recover content on a failed drive . You mentioned you had 20TB of available storage in the 3U, so that would be enough to have RAID recover the content on a failed drive, and given your comment that only 10TB's was currently being used for storage, with 20TB available, even two drive failures should have been recoverable (automatically) by the RAID, again assuming there was no other internal failure. (John, a K engineer posting here on occasion, may have more to add, he's the expert on these things).

The point is, this may be a power supply failure, but the only way to know for sure is to change the power supply. Rusty's comment may have been made based on other things he was seeing that I do not have access to (in addition to the fact he's forgotten more than I know).

If available, you might first try replacing the power supply, but you're on your own in acquiring and replacing it. I have not personally replaced one, but one of my client/friends indicated it wasn't that hard to do. I think the replacement that Sparkle Power is selling is less than $300, but you'd probably need a US contact to ship to you, it's doubtful they ship to the UK. As Rusty mentioned, you might also look for a replacement empty 3U to try that as well. Another option is to purchase a new 1U+ Server, these are available in 18TB and 36TB to replace the 3U. You would still need to get your disc based content into the 1U+, so you would either re-import your discs, or assuming the drive set is still good you might be able to borrow a 3U chassis to use with your current drive set to be able to "replicate" your content from the 3U to the 1U+.

Jim

 

[cinelife]

Maybe I missed it, but what is the deal that you wanted to do with @Wal99? If there really isn’t a proposed deal, then you have buried his/her ”For Sale” post.

John

Good point, the Terra server being sold by Walt would not help you solve your problem with the 3U (hence my answer above). The Terra servers require Strato players for playback, and can only accept downloaded content purchased from a K Store. They are not compatible with Premiere components (with exception to the K Vaults). (Comment directed @Ceebsceebs)

Jim

 

[Ceebsceebs]

Maybe I missed it, but what is the deal that you wanted to do with @Wal99? If there really isn’t a proposed deal, then you have buried his/her ”For Sale” post.

John

You have missed it.

I was enquiring if there is a deal to be done, expecting a reply of it's available, and technically acquiring the 48 TB server will be a workable solution, or it's been sold, noting I've come on here asking for best way forward.

Not sure how you come to the conclusion I have some how scuppered Walt's advert.

 

[Ceebsceebs]

Thanks all.

Very helpful.

And as of now it's transpires the Terra server wouldn't achieve want I want to achieve which is to keep my DVD collection in perpetuity.

Unless I am missing something, I am staggered Kscape don't allow you to transfer content to the latest platform.

If that's the case, easy answer, I will sell all of it, and cut my losses.

 

[Ceebsceebs]

No problem Walt. It's looking like it's not an option anyway. Because I am not prepared to throw away my DVD collection.

Joining this forum and paying 80 dollars has been my best investment in 2023. Saved a very expensive mistake.

 

[JohnJ]

You have missed it.

I was enquiring if there is a deal to be done, expecting a reply of it's available, and technically acquiring the 48 TB server will be a workable solution, or it's been sold, noting I've come on here asking for best way forward.

Not sure how you come to the conclusion I have some how scuppered Walt's advert.

Thanks. This went right over my head.

John

 

[MikeKobb]

Unless I am missing something, I am staggered Kscape don't allow you to transfer content to the latest platform.

The new product line is, indeed, based entirely on downloaded content.

However, we fully recognize that there are customers such as yourself who have valued content that has not become available for sale as a downloadable version, and that's why we do still sell new Premiere servers such as the 1U+ that Jim mentioned. A single 1U+ server would have more storage than your 3U. Depending upon how big your other 1U is, you might well be able to replace both servers with a single 1U+ that would have brand-new drives and a full factory warranty, and you'd save quite a bit of rack space and some power consumption. I did this myself, recently, replacing my 15-year-old 3U server with a 1U+.

And the 1U+ and Premiere components, by the way, are fully capable of downloading and playing movies from the Kaleidescape store if you want to purchase new content that way (in Blu-ray disc-equivalent quality). If you want to get into 4K content, we have solutions available to allow a 4K-capable system to be "paired" with a Premiere system so that you can see all of the content within a single user interface with seamless playback.

The challenge that needs to be solved here for your situation is to establish whether your existing disk set is still usable. One way to do this is to see if you can locate a dealer who has a working 3U server available.The server can be powered off, the drives removed, and your drives inserted. If the server boots up, then it will be possible to assess the health of the disk set. (Better still if you can find a dealer with an empty 3U chassis available, but that may be challenging.)

If the disk set is working, then your options would be:

1. Attempt to replace the power supply in your chassis to see if that was the issue.
2. Replace the chassis and put your disks into it
3. Purchase a 1U+ server and replicate your content from your 3U onto the new 1U+. This takes about a day per TB, so probably on the order of 10 days to replicate your content. You'd need to have that borrowed 3U chassis for the duration.

As mentioned above, #3 does have some benefits in that you have all-new hardware with full warranty. But it's certainly the most costly approach.

I hope this helps. Do you have a dealer, currently? This sort of situation is really best handled with the assistance of a good dealer.

 

[Ceebsceebs]

That's fabulously helpful Mike Cobb.

I have now established the disks are fine. It's gone into quarantine because either the RAM has failed and / or the power supply has failed.

I can't find the link the to sparkles website to order new power supply. If anyone has it then could you post it please.

If the RAM has gone, it's only 256mb so a cheap fix.

I've got a spare 1U server. Mike, you seem to be saying the 1U server has larger storage over the 3U.

Kscape have told me the 1U can store 900 DVD's where as the the 3U can store 10800 DVD's.

So I don't think my 1 U server is an option given I'm already at 1200 DVD burnt already.

 

[MikeKobb]

I've got a spare 1U server. Mike, you seem to be saying the 1U server has larger storage over the 3U.

First, just to clarify: a 1U and a 1U+ are different. They are the same form factor, but the 1U+ has a new motherboard. The 1U+ currently ships with 36TB of capacity (four 12TB drives, with one used for RAID protection).

You said your 3U has 10TB of content on it with 20TB free, for a total capacity of 30TB. So the 1U+ at 36TB is larger.

If you replicated all of your movies from the 3U to a 1U+, you'd have ~26TB free. I don't think you've said what the capacity of your 1U is and how much if any content is on it currently. It sounded like your content was primarily on the 3U, or am I wrong about that?

So, my point was that I believe you could move all of your content from the 3U, plus anything you have on the 1U, and it would most likely fit on a single 1U+ server with room to spare.

I mentioned that I recently did something similar. It may be a useful example. In my case, my 3U had 14 drives in it but drives had been added over time and so were a mix of sizes. It had about 34TB of storage in total and it was full. It was also 15 years old (although many of the drives were newer). I replaced it with a 36TB 1U+ which is smaller, quieter, and uses less power. After replicating all of my content, it still has a little space remaining. I'm almost never importing discs anymore since most of my new purchases are downloads and they go to my Terra server. But for the occasional movie that can only be had on disc, I can still import to the 1U+.

I hope that's helpful!

 

[Ceebsceebs]

It is. Thanks.

It's a 1U server. Not 1U+. Do you have a link to the sparkles new power supply. Can't find it. But someone did post it last week.

 

[cinelife]

Sparkle Power is the company. They have supplied power supplies to K in the past. You'll have to check with them regarding availability, they make them in small batches (<5 at a time unless they have higher demand). They told me that after a batch is sold out they wait for enough demand to build more, so availability depends on timing. Not everyone that answers the phone knows about Kaleidescape, you might have to be persistent. I think they only sell the PSU for 3U's (K5000 server), you'll need to confirm before ordering.

Contact Us | SPI POWER INC.

Sparkle Power specializes in research & development, design and manufacturing for ac dc power supply in ITE, cloud & server, industry and more applications.

sparklepower.com

Jim

 

[Transepoch]

If you replicated all of your movies from the 3U to a 1U+, you'd have ~26TB free. I don't think you've said what the capacity of your 1U is and how much if any content is on it currently. It sounded like your content was primarily on the 3U, or am I wrong about that?

Classic 1-Us top-out at 18T, so there'd be some space left regardless of the current configuration.