Control4 newbie need advice

[Sid]

Hello everyone, was hoping for some advice, I currently have two Sony dvp-s777es which are about full, 780 dvd's. I was planning to get a third 777es for dvd and a Sony 7000es for Blu Ray. I would like to have the dvd's play throughout the house (4 rooms and the media room). Had a Control4 dealer over to my house and he recommended getting a hard-drive to store my dvd's and Blu Rays, and not to get the third changer and Blu Ray changer. He also said I could sale my existing players and add those dvd's (780) on the hard-drive to stream through the media server.

So my question is would it be better to store my collection on a hard-drive and stream through a media server or keep existing changers and ADD the third 777es and 7000. If so what hard-drive and how many terabytes will be needed and what media server should I use. Also for future use can it be possible to watch the dvd's through out the house (4 bedrooms and media) at diffierent times. Which way will be better, thank you.

Main concern is keeping the PQ in the media room with DVD and Blu Ray.

Also, what Control4 equipment will be needed to accomplish this, and to have the coverart on the screen and touchscreens.

thanks Sid

[dogdvr]

If you truly relish pq then stay with the Sony BD changer, Also I you like to use menus, stay with the sony players. If you don't mind the time to select and start playing a movie, stay with the changers.

Just my opinion

[henniae]

Have your dealer give yo the cost of both systems. One with the DVD and BluRay players and one with the media players and disk storage.

Do you currently have a video distribution system in your house?

[xc420]

I would keep the 777's. You can always add a media server as well. Do you have an A/V switcher? If so how many inputs are open?

[cyblog]

If you create DVD .iso files from the 780 DVDs you'll need about 5TB of disk storage.

[thecodeman]

If you create DVD .iso files from the 780 DVDs you'll need about 5TB of disk storage.

Assuming worst case scenario of DVDs being dual layer & 9GB each, he will need 7.02TB of space.

[Sid]

I would keep the 777's. You can always add a media server as well. Do you have an A/V switcher? If so how many inputs are open?

I currently have a Pioneer elite sc-25, that i have the 777es running to, have one more component video and three more hdmi's, probably gonna need a matrix to feed the entire house.

A 5tb harddrive will cost more than what a 777es and 7000es will cost

[piratemonkey]

Since you have so many movies it may be best as others note to stay with your changers.

It'll take a LONG time to rip 700+ movies and if you want to maintain pq you're looking at about 4tb minimum in storage @ 5gb avg file size (full iso rips)

Personally I prefer streaming & media storage and have my 350+ bluray collection on my NAS but it takes a lot of time and space......if you have the ability for both than the decision will be tougher

Good luck with your research and decision

[wingzz]

unless your willing to futz with ripping the movies and putting them on a nas, (you wouldn't get a 5TB drive as 2 is as big as they go, you would use a nas) stick with the changers, there are pro's and con's both ways, it just depends on how much you setup you want to do.

If you want to just stick a disk in the player and have it available, changer is the way to go.

NAS is faster load time, easy to distribute

[Sid]

Since you have so many movies it may be best as others note to stay with your changers.

It'll take a LONG time to rip 700+ movies and if you want to maintain pq you're looking at about 4tb minimum in storage @ 5gb avg file size (full iso rips)

Personally I prefer streaming & media storage and have my 350+ bluray collection on my NAS but it takes a lot of time and space......if you have the ability for both than the decision will be tougher

Good luck with your research and decision

piratemonkey

What is the PQ of the Blu Rays from the NAS, and how much storage is 350 blu rays.....Dont really mind doing the setup, especially the Blu Rays since collection isnt as big as the DVD's, but perhaps the way to go is getting a NAS for Blu Rays and keeping the changers (three) for the DVD's. Are u using the EVA 9150 for the server, and will all this work with control 4 and the coverart.

Would like to distribute the dvd's throughout the house, what matrix would everyone suggest, and what Control4 is needed for what I have described wanting to do.

I appreciate all the responses so far, a really good site

Thanks Sid

[Sid]

unless your willing to futz with ripping the movies and putting them on a nas, (you wouldn't get a 5TB drive as 2 is as big as they go, you would use a nas) stick with the changers, there are pro's and con's both ways, it just depends on how much you setup you want to do.

If you want to just stick a disk in the player and have it available, changer is the way to go.

NAS is faster load time, easy to distribute

How is the NAS easier to distirbute, and can I have more servers to access DVD's throughout the house at different times, example bedroom 1 watching dvd of Finding Nemo, while in Media watching DVD of Fight Club and master start a third dvd. Not to concern with distributing blu rays, just want PQ in the media on my Pioneer Elite or Projection.

Thanks Sid

[piratemonkey]

Since you have so many movies it may be best as others note to stay with your changers.

It'll take a LONG time to rip 700+ movies and if you want to maintain pq you're looking at about 4tb minimum in storage @ 5gb avg file size (full iso rips)

Personally I prefer streaming & media storage and have my 350+ bluray collection on my NAS but it takes a lot of time and space......if you have the ability for both than the decision will be tougher

Good luck with your research and decision

piratemonkey

What is the PQ of the Blu Rays from the NAS' date=' and how much storage is 350 blu rays.....Dont really mind doing the setup, especially the Blu Rays since collection isnt as big as the DVD's, but perhaps the way to go is getting a NAS for Blu Rays and keeping the changers (three) for the DVD's. Are u using the EVA 9150 for the server, and will all this work with control 4 and the coverart.

Would like to distribute the dvd's throughout the house, what matrix would everyone suggest, and what Control4 is needed for what I have described wanting to do.

I appreciate all the responses so far, a really good site

Thanks Sid[/quote']

Hi Sid...pq is perfect & a very important part for me as well since I did not want to diminish this

I rip the full movie with no compression.

For me I'm averaging 22gb per movie so I'm slightly above 7tb right now

I bought a 12tb ReadyNas Pro Pioneer which nets 9tb after redundancy

I justify it by figuring on avg the cost of 400 blurays would be $4k+ and the NAS/drives cost $2k

Yes, I use the EVA9150 and it works perfectly with my C4.....coverart is seamless just like with the changers

The only con be it slight to me right now is I cannot stream audio in pure lossless true hd or DTS hd but I still rip the core audio with hopes one day this will be available......audio still plays beautifully via the EVA9150 and my surround system.....audio is just compressed.....not a deal breaker for me

[Sid]

Since you have so many movies it may be best as others note to stay with your changers.

It'll take a LONG time to rip 700+ movies and if you want to maintain pq you're looking at about 4tb minimum in storage @ 5gb avg file size (full iso rips)

Personally I prefer streaming & media storage and have my 350+ bluray collection on my NAS but it takes a lot of time and space......if you have the ability for both than the decision will be tougher

Good luck with your research and decision

piratemonkey

What is the PQ of the Blu Rays from the NAS' date=' and how much storage is 350 blu rays.....Dont really mind doing the setup, especially the Blu Rays since collection isnt as big as the DVD's, but perhaps the way to go is getting a NAS for Blu Rays and keeping the changers (three) for the DVD's. Are u using the EVA 9150 for the server, and will all this work with control 4 and the coverart.

Would like to distribute the dvd's throughout the house, what matrix would everyone suggest, and what Control4 is needed for what I have described wanting to do.

I appreciate all the responses so far, a really good site

Thanks Sid[/quote']

Hi Sid...pq is perfect & a very important part for me as well since I did not want to diminish this

I rip the full movie with no compression.

For me I'm averaging 22gb per movie so I'm slightly above 7tb right now

I bought a 12tb ReadyNas Pro Pioneer which nets 9tb after redundancy

I justify it by figuring on avg the cost of 400 blurays would be $4k+ and the NAS/drives cost $2k

Yes, I use the EVA9150 and it works perfectly with my C4.....coverart is seamless just like with the changers

The only con be it slight to me right now is I cannot stream audio in pure lossless true hd or DTS hd but I still rip the core audio with hopes one day this will be available......audio still plays beautifully via the EVA9150 and my surround system.....audio is just compressed.....not a deal breaker for me

Thanks for the response.........So perhaps that would be best for me, to get the 12tb ReadyNas Pro Pioneer for the blu ray collection (approx 68) as the lossless audio isnt a deal breaker either, but would like to have it one day.

How many more Blu Rays do you think you will fit on the NAS you already have and can you add additional NAS down the road when you fill up your first NAS. So have total of 800 blu rays (just planning the future in case nothing new comes out like yellow ray

By the way your last response was exactly what i was looking for, as i'm not all that familiar with servers or NAS, always assumed i would use changers and get an Escient and crestron..... But Control 4 looks pretty slick, with the cover art and pricing.

Thanks Sid

[Sid]

piratemonkey,

Last question, I promise what do you use to rip your blu rays....

thanks Sid

[ms2bmw]

Hands down anydvd HD is the best ripping software you can buy right now. Check it out at www.slysoft.com

[wingzz]

unless your willing to futz with ripping the movies and putting them on a nas' date=' (you wouldn't get a 5TB drive as 2 is as big as they go, you would use a nas) stick with the changers, there are pro's and con's both ways, it just depends on how much you setup you want to do.

If you want to just stick a disk in the player and have it available, changer is the way to go.

NAS is faster load time, easy to distribute[/quote']

How is the NAS easier to distirbute, and can I have more servers to access DVD's throughout the house at different times, example bedroom 1 watching dvd of Finding Nemo, while in Media watching DVD of Fight Club and master start a third dvd. Not to concern with distributing blu rays, just want PQ in the media on my Pioneer Elite or Projection.

Thanks Sid

Maybe easier was the wrong word but it is much quicker and the disks load right now, most good NASA's will stream at least 2 streams, if your only streaming DVD's I would think 3 would be no problem, you would just have a media player in each location you want to stream to and one NAS, maybe one for Blue's and one for DVD's

[piratemonkey]

piratemonkey,

Last question, I promise what do you use to rip your blu rays....

thanks Sid

Yes you can add additional NAS units

I only went with the Pro Pioneer since it had 6 bays & I wanted the most space from a consumer NAS

You can get 400+/- blurays to fit on the 12tb NAS (9tb usable space after xraid)

I agree with ms2bmw, ANYDDVDHD is the best tool out to rip/backup your dvd or bluray collection

[ILoveC4]

Here's my .02.

Keep your existing DVD changers. There is no point in scrapping them and spending hundreds of hours rippings those DVD's to digital copies. Then, buy a good NAS. You can buy a diskless ReadyNAS Pro Pioneer for about $1,200, then buy a couple of 1.5 TB or 2TB drives. As your need to storage expands, buy more drives. You don't need to plunk down for all 6 at once. I would just buy them as you need them, that way you can hopefully take advantage of larger capacity drives becoming available as time goes on. Buy a Netgear EVA9150 or two, pair it with the NAS, and you're good to go. If you have a distributed video setup you may be able to get away with one EVA9150, it just depends on how many digital movies you want to watch all at once.

The other thing is that it may make sense to buy the Bluray changer, as opposed to ripping the bluray discs to the NAS. You need to calculate how many Blurays you plan on getting and how much the hard drive space will cost you (not counting the time to rip the movies). If the average Bluray is 40GB, 400 bluray discs would take up 16 TB. If you factor two ReadyNAS Pro Pioneer units that each has 6 x 2TB drives, you are going to invest roughly $4,200 + tax on the NAS units, just to house those 400 bluray discs. You can buy the changer for less than half that and not have the hassle of ripping all the discs. That being said, if you're going to have ~100 or so then it may be more cost effective to use a NAS.

Here is what I did. I have a Sony DVD changer that is full. Instead of investing in another DVD changer, I bought a ReadyNAS NV+ (got it with 2 x 500GB hard drives for $329 at Fry's) and two EVA9150's. For me, the biggest attraction to digital for my DVD's was the fact that two movies could be played at the same time. My bluray collection is not very large yet, I am waiting for the cost of Bluray discs to come down, but currently I rip my Bluray's to the NAS. I plan on purchasing the Bluray changer just because of the size of the Bluray rips and the cost to store them.

That being said, as the cost of digital storage continues to drop I may be swayed away from the changer.

I think if you plan on amassing a large bluray collection in the next 6 months (large being 200 or more discs) the changer makes more sense. ESPECIALLY if you don't have distributed video and you are only viewing it at one local source.

Holy crap, that is a long post. I was interupted about 10 times, once for more than 30 minutes. Hopefully everything makes sense. Oh yeah, AnyDVDHD is the best tool out there.

[ERDrPC]

Dan,

Quick question - how many separate simultaneous streams can you run off one EVA 9150/9100??

Thanks

Peter

[akg4y]

One

[ILoveC4]

Dan,

Quick question - how many separate simultaneous streams can you run off one EVA 9150/9100??

Thanks

Peter

akg4y is correct, just one. You need to look at it like a DVD player. It only has one video out. You need one EVA9150 for each simultaneous stream.