[mythtv-users] dvd jukebox

[Stroller]

On 18 Feb 2007, at 05:30, Jared Greenwald wrote:
> ....
> I'm currently searching around for a program/setup that will allow  
> me to backup and possibly re-play DVDs.  Possibly even have a  
> central repository and serve up the content across my network.
>
> ... I just need to setup a backend server running the mythtv  
> backend and then setup client machines to get the content from the  
> server and replay the video.  I'm not even really interested in the  
> tivo aspect of things as I already have an actual tivo to do that.

I think that - having set up MythTV for playing your DVDs - you're  
liable to find that preferable to Tivo for TV, too, in the long-term.

> I'm mainly just sick of having to buy and re-buy DVDs for my kids  
> when they constantly scratch them to a state beyond playable.

Great! A technological solution to a social problem.

> I have a few spare machines laying around (and even possibly a  
> tuner card too), but I'm considering parting them out to buy a  
> newer box for my backend and for newer storage options (all my  
> stuff is 160G IDE or slower/smaller) - figure it might help to get  
> something that can handle 3-4 SATA drives and get a couple 500G  
> SATA2 drives or something and some Gigabit network cards for faster  
> net performance (yes, my network can handle Gigabit traffic).

I think it's up to you. Older machines of c 1 ghz are plenty for  
playback of SD quality video (ie: DVDs) and surely for network  
storage of them, too. IIRC a 100mBit network card is fine for a  
couple such streams and EIDE / SATA won't make any difference, either.

The great thing about Linux (you don't say if you've used Linux  
before?) is that you can swap in a new motherboard (processor & RAM)  
and the installed o/s will just work on it. So you don't need to buy  
new hardware straight away, but use your old hardware as proving  
ground, and only upgrade should the necessity present itself.

> Anyone have some recommendations on how much storage is really  
> needed for keeping movies around and possibly TV shows?

As indicated by Mr Campell, our 160gig hard-drive should be good for  
c 16 - 160 movies. MythTV's storage groups feature will allow you to  
add hard-drives flexibly as required.

> Also, should RAID be employed in order to not lose the copies?

This depends how important old TV shows are to you. Many here use  
RAID for their Myth storage, but I don't consider TV shows valuable,  
myself. One can always re-rip DVDs should they become lost.

Stroller.