MattyJames Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Hello all!!! Ive recently had a theater installed in my new home complete with the control4 system. Keep in mind that I am by no means electronics "savy" and fairly clueless when it comes to the ins and outs of my entire system. Basically, I told my builder what type of room I wanted to build and he built it. same for the Audio/Video. I told them what I wanted in the room and how much i wanted to spend and they installed it. So far, I am really enjoying the control4 aspect of the whole system. However, There is just one issue that I am trying to resolve without having to take out an extra mortgage on my home. I have a huge dvd collection (Around 1500) that I want to consolidate into the system somehow. I have seen pictures of people that have their movies in thumbnails on the main screen, can search through them, hit play and WhaaLaa. There it is! My installer told me to look into the Sony DVP-CX777ES unit for this as it is compatible with the Control4. After some research, I have found several of them at a reasonable price but have yet to purchase. The reasons for me being hesitant are for starters, This seems to be fairly old technology. I don't understand why Sony discontinued these and haven't created an upgrade that works directly with control4 (that i'm aware of) and finally, i have read some awful reviews on this piece stating everything from serious power issues to gauging of the discs. I guess I was just hoping some of you with much more knowledge than myself could steer me in the right direction. Is the Sony DVP-CX777ES a good decision? Are there any other multidisc players out there that will do the same thing? Ive read about a blu-ray version of this that is supposedly coming out but it will probably cost $836579696769 and be 1st gen. My apologies if this is in the wrong section and for being long-winded. Just thought i would here the opinion of some knowledgable Control4 user.Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Yes, it is the only multidisc changer that returns Table of Contents information over RS232 that I am aware of. You could use the Sony 995 DVD changer, but you would need to enter all the movie information manually as it does not have RS232 control. Also, there is currently a 200disc blu-ray changer, the HES-v1000, that you could look into (there was a post here about it too, it's the "Sony Home Entertainment Server") but I can't speak for it as I haven't integrated it for anyone yet.Sony is making a 400 disc blu-ray changer as you noted. Unfortunately it seems that Sony is the only company making DVD or Blu-ray changers anymore.Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 The Sony777 is a great piece, I have one of them at my house that is chuck full of movies. I recently decided to go the digital route, because my DVD changes was full, and I didn't want to buy another one with it being old tech like you said. The other reason was that each Sony777 can only play one movie at a time, which can be a problem if you have two different people that want to watch two different movies.I personally bought an EVA9150, also known as the Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite. These can be purchased for just under $400 each, and can stream digital video off any network storage device. Figure your DVD's are between 4 and 7 GB, we'll use 5.5 GB as an average. With 1,500 movies that is going to be just over 8 TB. You can purchase network storage devices with this type of capacity for relatively cheap (~$1,500). This is a much better solution in my eyes. It interfaces with C4 seamlessly (just like the Sony 777, I actually can't tell which movies are digital and which are on disc!) and the bulk of the investment is on HDD's, which you will always have a use for.You could buy a pair of EVA9150's, and a 10 TB NAS, probably for about $2,500. If you only wanted one EVA9150 you could probably do it for $2,000. That is less than the rumored price on the Sony unit rumored to come out late this year, it is available now, and can stream multiple videos at one time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyJames Posted June 3, 2009 Author Share Posted June 3, 2009 Wow- Thank you for the quick, informative posts. I just learned more in the past 10 minutes than I have in a month. -lol- I'm off to check out this Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite. Thanks for the help!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akg4y Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 I agree with going digital, but man 1500 DVDs is not only a ton of space, it would take a heck of a long time to digitize all of that. Assuming 5.5GB/disc if you can taper down your list to say 400 that would be 2.2TB or so. You could get the D-Link DNS 343, buy 4 1 TB discs or (if it supports them) 4 1.5 TB discs and digitize away, using the 9150 as a player. The remaining 1100 DVDs which you will probably never watch again can always be put into a DVD player the old fashioned way...Total cost would be under $1300-1500. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyJames Posted June 3, 2009 Author Share Posted June 3, 2009 Alright...I guess this leads me to another question (isn't that always the case?)What would be the fastest way to upload these discs and what format/program would I use? I mean, I have made copies of movies for friends before but it was basically directly to another disc. I would use DVD shrink (I think) and then just rip the ISO file to disc using sonic or something like that. Ive never backed up any of my movies before. It was always more a "Pride" thing displaying all of my cases but it's just ridiculous at this point. Ive thought about backing up my movies to hard drive before anyway. I'm to the point already that my dvd cases are sitting in storage and the discs are in slip cases, in boxes alphabetically so this is another reason why this EVA9150 is so appealing to me. Maybe it's time to move on. Oh yeah, Does the EVA9150 provide any on screen navi such as thumbs of the movies or does it just read what is on the hard drives?Again, pardon my ignorance and thanks for the help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Yes, the EVA9150 offers the same interface for your movies through Control4 that the Sony 777ES does. I've installed them on a couple of projects and helped ILoveC4 with his a bit.As far as "backing up" your movies, that's a legal grey area that's best suited for other discussion boards or emails, but there are a few threads on the 9150 and doing this already. Sorry to be the party pooper.Make sure you have a good computer. I custom build mine and built a good one that was "near" top of the line in 2007. I have 4 DVD drives (one of them bluray, two are HD DVD) and can archive my media quite quickly. I'd say 4 every 30 minutes or so. HD takes longer to rip and also has to be re-encoded to a format easily played on the 9150. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyJames Posted June 3, 2009 Author Share Posted June 3, 2009 Yes, the EVA9150 offers the same interface for your movies through Control4 that the Sony 777ES does.Ive never actually seen what this navigation screen/interface looks like through control4 before. Any pics I could see or links? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Yes' date=' the EVA9150 offers the same interface for your movies through Control4 that the Sony 777ES does.[/quote']Ive never actually seen what this navigation screen/interface looks like through control4 before. Any pics I could see or links?Something like this, though these pics are old. You can hardly find good shots using Google, all show the Circle of Power. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Yep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyJames Posted June 4, 2009 Author Share Posted June 4, 2009 Thanks guys.Alright...So.....If you haven't noticed, I'm also not much of a "Computer guy" either which makes all of this that much more confusing. However, I'm thinking of going the route of the Eva unless I can scoop up the 777 on the super cheap. A few more questions....NASIs this necessary to run the Eva9150? Do I have to be hooked up to my home PC to run the 9150? If not, Why could'nt I just use a few large external hard drives? I'm not sharing these files throughout the home. We keep the theater exclusive from everything else. It is the only place that we watch film and entertain. Is the reason that you have recommended a NAS so I could share the files throughout the home?If I understand the way this works, The Eva9150 does all the work right? So In theory i could just store all of my media on externals, plug them into the Eva9150 and let it and control4 go to work correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Yes, you have to have a Network Attached Storage for your Control4 system to connect to. This NAS will store the video files. It can be a standalone NAS like the Netgear ReadyNAS line or a share on a PC that you leave on all the time.External hard drives will not work as Control4 doesnt look for video media on USB drives plugged into the controller. You could try to make the external drive plugged into the Netgear a shared drive, but in the end your dealer has to map the network share to the project - so you have to be able to access it like \\ipofserver\share. Besides, you dont want to put all your eggs in one basket and very few external drives come with raid or any other data protection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blub Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 The media is sored on your NAS network drives and the netgear reads the info from the files/data over your network connection and includes the files in its database.Whenever you play a movie, the netgear reads the data from the drives, decodes it with its internal processor and outputs it over HDMI or YUV.Control4 only connect your C4 system with the netgear. Control4 reads the netgears database and includes that information in its own media library.When you play a movie over C4, the system tells the netgear just what to play and there you go :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyJames Posted June 4, 2009 Author Share Posted June 4, 2009 Alright cool. So there are indeed standalone NAS. These are designed to work without having the home PC's turned on to work? We do not technically have a home pc. My wife and I just use personal laptops that we use on as needed basis. In my case, It is few and far between that I even get on my laptop at home. If I am understanding correctly, something like the readyNAS would allow me to access all of my files at any time through control4 without actually having to have one of our computers even turned on? If thats the case, Thats what I want. = ) Also, Doesn't the EVA9150 already have like 500gb internal? Do people typically use this storage for movies and such as well?Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akg4y Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 I would say if you are keeping your theater separate from everything else then you could get by with external drives, or even multiple internal drives which you can easily swap with the 9150, but as thecodeman stated you would be taking a risk of losing the data on each drive if the drive fails, whereas a good 4 drive NAS would be able to be run in RAID5 or XRAID and backup the data at the cost of using the space on 1 of the 4 drives.For example, if you had 4 1-TB drives in a Netgear NV+ then you would have approximately 3 TB of usable space (a little less, but around there) and the fourth TB would serve as a backup. If any of the 4 drives die then you just pop out the dead drive, pop in a new one of the same or greater capacity, and you'll be up and running again, and in a few hours you'll be fully backed up again.EDIT: After reading your last post it sounds like you could benefit from a NAS that wasnt just in your home theater... maybe one that is connected to your entire network since you use laptops. That would be helpful so that all laptops could access the same data. If you're looking for a cheap 4 bay NAS I would look at the DLink DNS343. The more expensive ones have more features and capabilities, but if youre not a computer guy those will probably not benefit you. Im a computer guy and as far as I can tell they dont even benefit me since I just use the NAS to stream music and video. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 One of the big benefits of using a NAS is that you don't have to have a computer turned on all the time. I have not yet purchased a "NAS" per se, but I am instead using several large drives I have in a local PC, that is on all the time. This works well, but for several reasons pointed out upthread is not the ideal.I am getting really close to purchasing the ReadyNAS NV+, but I am holding out until I run out of HDD space =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyJames Posted June 4, 2009 Author Share Posted June 4, 2009 Thanks for all of the help and info. Looks like I have some homework to do. On a side note, i was talking to my wife last night about all of this and telling her what my intentions were. (She loves reaping the benefit of having a designated home theater but is always complaining about cost) I can not count how many times I have ended a conversation with her with the infamous line "Now, all we need to get is a ( Insert expensive item here) and it will be complete!" I am slowly learning the hard way that it is NEVER complete. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Yeah, thankfully I have a wife that enjoys it, even if just a little. I'm holding out for a new blu-ray player as I havent decided which one I want yet and she's always bugging me about it because there's something she wants to watch in HD and she cant watch it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 I found myself using the "Now, all we need to get is a.....and it will be complete" line until I realized it was just a dream. It is never complete.My wife bitched and moaned for months as I was shelling out cash for equipment and spending so much time running wire all over our home while it was being built. To this day, she still bitches when I spend too much time on the computer adding functionality, but she loves the system and relies on it for everything. I even got her to tell me once that we will never have another house that doesn't have it, and she doesn't know how she ever lived without it.She would probably deny saying that, but I heard it once. This stuff is awesome, to say the least.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akg4y Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 I just have things appear at the front door and hope she doesnt ask how much they cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyJames Posted June 4, 2009 Author Share Posted June 4, 2009 I just have things appear at the front door and hope she doesnt ask how much they cost.HAHA - I did that for years. Now after 10 years of marriage she has caught on to my ways. Although I still handle all of the finances, she will randomly check and see whats going on. If there is any large purchase that looks out of place, she inquires. She used to get mad and yell at me....Now she just goes out and makes an equally large purchase for herself knowing that she can justify it. Damn woman!!! That's why now i come up with a good pitch before purchasing to make her feel as if it is for BOTH of us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILoveC4 Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Although I still handle all of the finances, she will randomly check and see whats going on. If there is any large purchase that looks out of place, she inquires. She used to get mad and yell at me....Now she just goes out and makes an equally large purchase for herself knowing that she can justify it. Damn woman!!! That's why now i come up with a good pitch before purchasing to make her feel as if it is for BOTH of us. That is the exact situation at my house. Hell, it happened three weeks ago. I bought a new bike, she bought a tennis bracelet. I long ago learned that anything I buy costs at least double, so I have to be much more careful.That is still why I'm on the fence with regards to a 7"WiFi. I could probably swing that, but the retaliation on her part is what will sting the worst =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVSA Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Hey GuysOn the subject of money, I’m looking at purchasing my first "real" Audio Visual system.I currently have a HC-300, but purely for lighting control. I would like a 5.1 surround sound system, but because of the wife the speakers need to be indiscrete, but still powerful enough to satisfy. Im also not sure whether to go the blu ray route or just invest in a netgear EVA9150. Any advice would be appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecodeman Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 Hey GuysOn the subject of money, I’m looking at purchasing my first "real" Audio Visual system.I currently have a HC-300, but purely for lighting control. I would like a 5.1 surround sound system, but because of the wife the speakers need to be indiscrete, but still powerful enough to satisfy. Im also not sure whether to go the blu ray route or just invest in a netgear EVA9150. Any advice would be appreciatedMight be a good idea to start a new thread for your surround sound help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akg4y Posted June 4, 2009 Share Posted June 4, 2009 I just have things appear at the front door and hope she doesnt ask how much they cost.HAHA - I did that for years. Now after 10 years of marriage she has caught on to my ways. Although I still handle all of the finances' date=' she will randomly check and see whats going on. If there is any large purchase that looks out of place, she inquires. She used to get mad and yell at me....Now she just goes out and makes an equally large purchase for herself knowing that she can justify it. Damn woman!!! That's why now i come up with a good pitch before purchasing to make her feel as if it is for BOTH of us. [/quote']Haha yeah I guess either Im still in the early phase of that (5 years of marriage) or Im just lucky The other day after we walked out of Star Wars and were driving home I had zoned out thinking about how our new bedroom 46" Sony LCD looks so much better than the 50" plasma that is 4 years old and is currently our main TV in the family room... she asks me what Im thinking about and Im like 'I was just thinking we need a new TV for the family room.' I was actually thinking that because of the picture quality, not size, and she was like 'Yeah I didnt want to say anything but I think we need to get like a 60" TV for the family room.'Awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.