CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

stefuel

I have about a 350 DVD collection. Since my Momitsu died, I've been considering a change. I've been toying with the idea of a Mega changer. Then a thought popped into my head. What about building a large media server? Could that be done without the use of a mouse and keyboard but be controlled via IR or RS232 so that I could control it with my Crestron system. That would be the cat's a$$. Perhaps something like this already exists. I need feedback and this is the place to get it.

Anyone but Pete Wink

Chip

Gary Murrell · Joined: 05 Apr 2006 Posts: 590 Location: Kentucky

that can easily be done dude, you could setup a PC even with a SDI output, many software frontends work from IR or even better RS232

but be warned, HTPCS are a POS setup IMHO, every person I have ever talked to was in awe after they dumped their HTPC and moved on, it is staggering at the shear numbers of these people that are out there, I am one myself even Wink

that said, I would grab the Sony 777ES, SDI mod it, use the RS232 built in and be done, the Sony decoder is top notch and you will be thrilled, you can use 3 together with separate RS232 codes and you can rig up a SDI input output scheme that will will work between them

alternatively look at getting 2 or 3 of those huge hard drives, load all the flicks and hook them via USB to one of the many DVD players that will playback dvd from a hard drive (like a Avel or etc.) you have a PC type setup with no PC

-Gary

**kal** · Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 12:02 am Post subject:

Personally I've never understood the idea behind having 'movies on demand' in the home either through a multi-DVD player or a media server.

How long's the average movie? 2 hours or so? How long does it take you to walk to the DVD rack, pick out the movie, and pop it in the player? About 60 seconds?

Music is another story. I understand the idea of movie on demand so that you can queue up and randomize 100's of 3 minute songs. But movies? They're 2+ hours each! Exactly what is the point? And putting all the movies on a HUGE terrabyte array... it would cost you hundreds and hundreds of dollars and take you 50-100 hours to rip them all just so that you could save 15 seconds when you want to watch something? Not to mention every time you buy a new movie you've got 10-20 minutes of ripping/customization to get it on the array.

Sorry, I really don't get it!

Kal

Gary Murrell · Joined: 05 Apr 2006 Posts: 590 Location: Kentucky

I used to think the same Kal, until I put my 2 Sony 995 changers in, being able to sit back in my seat and flip thru all 800 DVD's on screen, sort thru them via genre or etc. really is something magical for me, others obviously may disagree, also allowed me to rid myself of a huge and I mean huge DVD storage section that I had to look at all the time and thumb thru to find something to watch

it's strange I like this because I really am a collector that loves my collection displayed and babied, but I just love the changers

-Gary

**kal** · Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 1:32 am Post subject:

Yeah, I guess I still don't get it... I like to thumb through my collection by physically looking the cases. I have a alcove with 3 walls full of DVD's all organized by "genre" so we want to watch something we flip through there.

Also easier to pick a movie when there are 5-6 of us that want to watch something. We each pull out 3 or 4 titles and then we argue/choose. Can't do that as easily the 'virtual' way.

And what what HD-DVD/Blu-Ray? No way it can be cost effective to put those on a media server (20-40GB each) and there's no 300-400 HD-DVD or Blu-Ray changers yet...

Hey, to each their own I suppose!

Kal

stefuel · Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:22 am Post subject:

Get this Kal, All my home office/HT stuff is in a unused bedroom. The kids are getting too old to share a room. So all my stuff is being relocated to the garage. You have to walk outside to get into the garage. Not so easy to change a DVD in that situation.

emdawgz1 · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 7949

Tom.W · Joined: 09 Mar 2006 Posts: 6635

For Gods sake Chip looks like there slowly kicking you out ! Wink

Phil Smith · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 7717

I have enough storage for about 700 ripped SD DVDs, but the real reason I have that much is to eventually start ripping HD DVDs.

It's definitely cool to have DVD on command, but like Kal pointed out, there's really no practical reason for it.

I would take it a step further and say there's really no reason for owning a bunch of DVDs--period. How long would it take you to watch 350 DVDs? I would think a LONG time. At 2 a week, it's pushing 3 1/2 years to watch them all once. That's almost 7 years to watch them twice! You'll spend a good portion of time watching new releases, so that leaves even less time to watch movies you've already seen. Some movies that you really like you watch more than twice, so even less time available to watch the rest of your collection. So say 10-12 years to get thru them all--at least. If you watch many new releases, doubt very seriously that you'll ever watch half of what you own again. For people that have really large collections it's even worse. I bet there's a LARGE portion of their collection they've never watched even once, and never will! There's just aren't enough hours in a day.

Since there's no point in owning any DVD if you don't watch it at least twice (I would say at least 3 times), collecting really makes no sense. Renting, especially as cheap as it is now, is far more practical.

But lots of people have big collections, so I guess people enjoy them on a collector's level. They enjoy looking at shelves and shelves full of DVDs. Thumbs Up

emdawgz1 · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 7949

Phil Smith · Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 7717

**kal** · Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 4:06 pm Post subject:

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 9:11 pm Post subject:

[quote="kal"]

stefuel · Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 10:51 pm Post subject:

OK, close the thread. Sorry I have so many DVD's.
Everyone's invited to my house for a silver skeet shoot 8)

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

I've been thinking about the same thing, and checked into hard drive prices. At this point, 500gb drives are running around a hundred bucks - which gets you enough storage for about 15 hd/bluray movies. So two hundred bucks for 30, which would mean you'd be looking around three grand worth of drives, plus another K for computers to run them if you're frugal.

Honestly it's not that much - four grand to store several years worth of high def content when a line doubler would run you quadruple that five years ago, and the 350gb drive that they stored Ep1 on to show it digitally in 1999 was a Big Deal.

We're used to thinking of 4k as being really expensive for computer equipment now, but in 1985 that four K would barely have gotten you a 5mhz CPM box with a 10mb drive and 1mb of RAM. And that was a cheap-ass computer. So, in the scheme of things, it's a pretty good price/performance ratio - and if I was making a hundred thousand a year, it'd be a no-brainer in terms of convenience and the pure 'cool' factor.

(Oh, and what I like about the idea of having a ton of movies 'on tap' is that I could build a library of stuff I find random places without even watching it, and when I have some buddies over we can say, "Hmm, let's watch a '70s kung fu flick" - et voila. Not necessarily that I'll have seen everything in the collection, or PLAN on watching it.)

**kal** · Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 12:18 am Post subject:

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

If it was a choice, my $4k would be spent on a new blue tube... Smile

but if I had a budget that allowed for that kind of discretionary spending I'd consider it worth it. Not so much for the time savings as for being able to say, "HMm, I must have a '70s kung fu flick in here somewhere" and sort through and find it. 300 DVDs on the wall would make it pretty hard to find something based on those specs without keeping them alphabetized and cross-referencing IMDB with the movies you own, etc...

But yeah, on a total $6k budget for home theater for the next two years that'd be a bad decision. If nothing else it makes vastly more sense to buy drives as you need them since the price/gb drops every month.

stefuel · Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:21 am Post subject:

**kal** · Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 1:34 am Post subject:

Yep - sorry for derailing.... Your money, do as you please of course!

Kal

perisoft · Joined: 29 Aug 2007 Posts: 2920 Location: Ithaca, NY

If you're going to go either megachanger or mediaserver, i'd say the server route is a nobrainer if you're technically proficient (or will enjoy learning). The flexibility would be worth it in spades - recording HD stuff off cable/sat/OTA, downloads off teh intern3ts, etc... And that stuff is only going to get more important.

Ten years ago I considered getting a 200 disc CD changer. Think about how that idea sounds now... Very Happy