Onkyo SC5508 Surround processor [No Price Talk] - Page 81

Been a bit down which is usual at this time of year for me. I also have been having computer problems which entailed a new boot disk and now the hard disk with all my media on it. There currently isn't enough disk space to back up the whole thing but I have a replacement disk that I will install as soon as I have the cables I need which will be later today. Fortunately the disk has not failed completely so hopefully I'll get the new disk installed before it does.

I have my own reasons for not liking the run-up to Xmas too. On my HTPC I use two RAID arrays of 4TB each. These hold about 750 DVDs at this time I think. It took so long to rip all those discs that I decided to go the RAID route as I am sure I could never face ripping them all again after a crash! If I need more capacity later I can add a further RAID disc simply by daisy chaining them (they are FireWire 800 connections). Good luck with the new drive!

Bad time for a new disk. . Prices are high due to floods in thailand. However some USB drives are still not too expensive. W7 has a good back up scheme. Good to use smaller disk for os and 2nd for data and compressed os for back up (e.g. Acronis). raid works but so does a 2nd backup disk. Prices should come down by next summer.

Good luck and best wishes for the new year.

Yes indeed. The benefit of RAID, for me, is that I don't have to do anything to get a perfect copy of all my files, made on the fly. I checked the disc prices recently following the Thai floods and was amazed to see that the two RAID drives I have now cost approximately 50% more than when I bought mine about a year ago!

I purchased the new hard disk before prices went up, I just didn't think I urgently needed it until a few days ago. The cost was $100 for 2 TB. Luckily SSDs didn't go up in price as that is what my boot disk is. I've got about a TB of movies/TV too which precluded backing them up, with the new HD I should be able to. I already moved all my music off the failing disk.

Get crashplan and back everything up online as well. Cheap, fast and unlimited. I already have 8TB backed up with another 15 TB to go.

There's not enough clearance for proper-sized tumblers for milk and the stacks of cookies would have to be placed side-by-side rather than as a correct vertical array.

A fifth of whatever and several shot glasses will fit very well indeed

Cheers,
SB

The disk failed just minutes before I was going to back it up. Lost all the videos on the disk. Currently trying the extreme measure of freezing it and then thawing it out to see if this lets it work for a couple of hours to back it up.

while freezing may help you I would say it is likely to be an arm failure and no amount of freezing is going to fix that issue

I doubt that it'll work either but what do I have to lose? Didn't know that about the arm failure. It took several days to fail, at first the computer just experienced short freezes that I thought was a sign of the SSD failing so I replaced that first. At least now I'm not experiencing the freezes and the drive I replaced the bad one with is 500GB larger (2TB total) which will allow me to back up any movies/tv shows I rip to disk.

Sorry to hear about your problems there, Theresa. Hope the freezing works - not heard of that before.

I always found on large storage hdd's it pays to leave 5-20gb's free space as this holds the structural integrity of the hdd

if you go over this magic marker you will find alot issues happening.

defrag once and a while..

if you're starting to hear noise from the hdd no amount of physical freezing is going to help..

ssd's are great given the medium they're based they will fail the most often

if you start to get sluggish response times from the hdd time to start dumping files as you have broken the magic marker state of the hdd for safe operating parameters.


my initial response in physical freezing was related to data recovery that's all I would say you are likely to have a reading arm failure prior too the disk platter failure requiring extreme measure of/for data recovery..

each brand of high capacity hard drive whether it be 100gb or 3+tb in size, so the amount of free space will vary for safe operation, 5-20gb is a broad example only it can be more or can be less pending on brand names formatted ability...


people tend to forget the capacity after format diminishes and they temd also forget operational overhead the hard drive requires to operate safely..

I feel badly as this is so off topic. The drive actually didn't make any noises I heard, just failed after seemingly hanging off and on.
I had at least 100 GB free on the drive, probably more like 300GB.

Theresa, we are "in the same boat", -off topic- ;-) so here I go, what is the best all in one remote for the 5508/5509? The problem is, that no one of my family, knows how to use the original remote, and we use the AVP for both movies, Music , tuner e.t.c. , "every day use".
I have installed various remote apps on my iPhone, Onkyo remote, Oremote, but they don't integrate all my components, Tv,Ps3...
I've looked at Logitech Harmony 1100, do you know if it's difficult to "program" this? Is it too old, should I go for the Logitech Harmony Link instead? ( it hasn't come to Denmark yet )
I have "sniffed" to the Irule too, are anyone of you using this?
Kindly
Jan

The one thing I do not like about the harmony 1100 is the touchscreen. It is resistive (i think) so you have to keep your finger there on a button a little longer than you would with touchscreens on smartphones.

I use the Harmony 1100. It does everything, is easy for 'non-technical' family members to use as it is activity based - e.g. "Watch TV" or "Play CD" and so on. Programming it is easy - Logitech has a database with 300,000 devices and codes in it - you download the device codes for your gear and then set up the activities you need. It's a menu-driven process.

I actually like the included remote but also use Android app's too. I guess I'm just nerdy/geeky.

Thanks buddies, think I'll go for the Harmony 1100 or Harmony Link then, as it seems to they are the ones for "non nerds".
Anyone using Irule remote?
Kindly
Jan

I miss the original Pronto, I had it programmed for all my gear at the time. Sadly the screen cracked.

Sadly :-(
Is the Pronto discontinued, think so....?

Yes, discontinued and before they discontinued it they were producing only very expensive models, unlike the first couple of generations.

unless tv supports bluetooth as remoter control you're going to be stuck with the ps3 remote for ps3 function as it is bluetooth only unless the uni remote supports bluetooth..

Yes I'm aware of it, hmmmmm, SONY..... Grrrrrrrrrr

I cast another vote for the Harmony. I have an older model the 688 that is very basic compared to the current models now available. I would be lost without the 688 as would be my family. The 688 makes using multiple components with multiple inputs so much easier than juggling multiple remotes. I have a few friends with systems as complex as mine and they still have multiple remotes on their coffee tables. I keep preaching the Harmony way but they aren't listening. I will not name names but they are members here and will be laughing if they see this post.

Bill

After 880 dies shot a harmony Logitech One. Very. Ice

I'm interested in obtaining the 5508 but have a couple of questions.
If I connect a USB hard drive, can wav's or MP3's be played? Is there some sort of player on the 5508 to do this - select tracks, playlists etc.?
I plan to connect a Oppo bluray perhaps using it to process audio. I assume this is doable with the analogue in's. I wonder if this is sonically superior than using the Onkyo for that purpose?

I don't think attaching a disk to the 5508 but you can attach it to the Oppo. I keep my music files on my computer and sometimes access them from the 5508 which is attached through a router to the computer. I do intend to get the Oppo 93 but right now am cash strapped due to computer and printer failures.

Manual - USB storage begins here.

Darn it! Missed that. Please forgive me. And I use that button frequently to select NET.