[sitkom]

I've been reading some of the threads on playing dvds from your HD and was wondering if anyone is working on some playback code to turn a large drive into DVD jukebox? Usability seems to be a big issue considering the drive name remapping necessary to launch the movie in the software DVD players. Although, one could use Talisman to make that process more 'friendly'.... hmmmm. Any other thoughts out there?


This is the only reason why I don't use HTPC for DVD playback... because I have a 301 disk dvd changer. Granted, 301 dvds will consume about 2.5 terabytes, but I'd be happy with a 10 or 15 disk selection on a 160GB hard drive and eliminate the D/A - A/D chain in the DVD player-dScaler setup that I have currently for the movies we watch most frequently.


I have about 70 disks... so if I did a 5x160GB RAID... I'd have about $1500 invested... hmmm. Seems more and more feasable as I talk myself through it.

 

[sitkom]

wait... can you do RAID with a 5400 rpm IDE?

 

[Mark Rejhon]

Another option: SDI upgrade for your DVD Jukebox, using an SDI connection to a HTPC that has an SDI card. (Or a scaler with SDI input.)


The picture quality will be like software DVD, or even better because of superior deinterlacing of video material and bad edits.


Yes, RAID can be done with 5400 RPM IDE... DVD requires well under 2 megabytes per second throughput ....(at 8 bits per byte, that's less than 16 megabits per second throughput ....) Typically it's approximately 1 megabyte per second.


Today's hard disks can do well over 20 megabytes per second throughput. No need for striping or even RAID. Although RAID could be useful to make one mammoth drive out of multiple drives - you just need the right software and hardware to do IDE RAID though.

 

[sitkom]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mark Rejhon Another option: SDI upgrade for your DVD Jukebox, using an SDI connection to a HTPC that has an SDI card. (Or a scaler with SDI input.) The picture quality will be like software DVD, or even better because of superior deinterlacing of video material and bad edits. Yes, RAID can be done with 5400 RPM IDE... You just need the right software and hardware to do IDE RAID though.

Thanks Mark! That's a great idea. I assume you're talking about using dScaler with a SDI-equipped BT8X8 capture card?


I have a Pioneer Elite DV-F07 301 changer. Who can add SDI-out of that? I haven't seen any service offering for that unit yet...


-Ted