Movie / Series Storage

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MikyMouse

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Hi Guys,

I am looking for a storage solution for all my movies and series, I currently use a Verbatim 1TB external HDD which I connect to my TV or PS3. Sometimes however I do need to disconnect it and take it to my girlfriends place and watch on her TV or even connect it to my Mac Book Pro and watch what I need to on there.

Is my best bet sticking with an external hard drive off the shelf either completely portable or even a desktop one that I just un plug and replug? I also saw some people mentioning getting an enclosure and putting in a hard drive? I am clueless as far as this goes I must admit.

At the end of the day I need to upgrade because I need more space!

Thanks in advance!
 
Get a shelf and store your original dvd's and blu-rays on it you filthy pirate. :mad:
 
Have you heard about the new pirate movie?
It's rated AARRRRRR!

Why? Because of all the booty!
 
MikyMouse said:
As in a off the shelf portable hard drive?
Click to expand...
Yip.western digital has one, well priced.
Those internal drives that you can enclose to work externally are not very reliable.
Another option is an SSD.Bigass flashdrive.
 
On what chipset do pirates like to build their tablet platforms?
A: AAAAARRRRRRRRM A8

jolly-roger.gif
 
For more space - the best bang for your buck would be a 2TB drive. It will have to be a 3.5" (and as such, externally powered), since I don't think the 2.5" drives come in that capacity as yet. Makro sold them some time ago for R1200. Shop around. Make sure it is formatted in FAT32, since your PS3 does not support NTFS. You could google for that if needed.
 
MikyMouse said:
Could you explain please? I am really clueless when it comes to servers etc. Would this be portable?
Click to expand...

It's called a Microserver for a reason. A teensy little PC that holds 4 SATA hard drives, each one in a plastic tray that you can slide in and out easily, like a drawer. It's easy to just connect those to another PC or get a little USB-to-SATA adapter type thing.

You could also take the whole server if you wanted, it's just a fairly small cube. Then connect that to the network on the other side.

I use one as a media server, it holds all my movies, music, series etc which i play from many different devices in the house, the Blu-ray player, PS3, PC's and phones.
 
Superjakes said:
For more space - the best bang for your buck would be a 2TB drive. It will have to be a 3.5" (and as such, externally powered), since I don't think the 2.5" drives come in that capacity as yet. Makro sold them some time ago for R1200. Shop around. Make sure it is formatted in FAT32, since your PS3 does not support NTFS. You could google for that if needed.
Click to expand...

I was thinking that this might be my best bet. Thanks though. Any brands to look out for in particular?
 
TJ99 said:
MikyMouse said:
Could you explain please? I am really clueless when it comes to servers etc. Would this be portable?
Click to expand...

It's called a Microserver for a reason. A teensy little PC that holds 4 SATA hard drives, each one in a plastic tray that you can slide in and out easily, like a drawer. It's easy to just connect those to another PC or get a little USB-to-SATA adapter type thing.

You could also take the whole server if you wanted, it's just a fairly small cube. Then connect that to the network on the other side.

I use one as a media server, it holds all my movies, music, series etc which i play from many different devices in the house, the Blu-ray player, PS3, PC's and phones.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the explanation! Just a few more questions, how would you connect the micro server to a pc, ps3 etc via USB? FireWire? Or only over a network?? What connections are available at the back of the server. Also is this HP one the best bang for my buck that I can get? Where can I get them and how much are they generally. And finally what SATA drive brand and model should I look out for.

Thanks again for the help
 
MikyMouse said:
I was thinking that this might be my best bet. Thanks though. Any brands to look out for in particular?
Click to expand...

I bought a 2TB Verbatim, which is also USB3 compliant. It was formatted in FAT32 out of the box, so perfect for my needs. So far, it is working perfectly, so I would really recommend it. It is currently selling for R1499, though.
 
Superjakes said:
MikyMouse said:
I was thinking that this might be my best bet. Thanks though. Any brands to look out for in particular?
Click to expand...

I bought a 2TB Verbatim, which is also USB3 compliant. It was formatted in FAT32 out of the box, so perfect for my needs. So far, it is working perfectly, so I would really recommend it. It is currently selling for R1499, though.
Click to expand...

Where did u get it from?
 
MikyMouse said:
Thanks for the explanation! Just a few more questions, how would you connect the micro server to a pc, ps3 etc via USB? FireWire? Or only over a network?? What connections are available at the back of the server. Also is this HP one the best bang for my buck that I can get? Where can I get them and how much are they generally. And finally what SATA drive brand and model should I look out for.

Thanks again for the help
Click to expand...

It depends largely on what you want to do. The best way to connect anything of course is having all devices on a home network. It works just like any PC, you can connect a screen, keyboard, etc, or remote manage it through the network, which is what I do. On the back it has 2 USB 2.0 ports, a Gigabit network port and a VGA port. On the front there's another 4 USB 2.0 ports.

Here's a link http://www.digitalplanet.co.za/p-124781-hp-proliant-n40l-microserver.aspx although it seems very expensive, they should be about R1300 to 1500 normally. I got mine from the HP shop but it's no longer listed there. Some forum members have got them for under a grand though. A few people bought boatloads of the things on special and are selling them. Check out the official thread: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/333460-HP-ProLiant-MicroServer?highlight=Microserver There's usually people discussing where the best places to buy them are, what setups they use, etc.

It's definitely the best bang for buck you can get, it's a full server PC that's really (I mean REALLY) well built, for under R2000. Most 4-bay NAS units cost a lot more than that.

You can also turn it into an HTPC (which is what most people are doing it seems) by adding a cheap graphics card with HDMI out, see the thread above. You can use any standard 3.5 inch SATA drives, same as a desktop PC. It comes with a 250GB drive if I remember correctly. Same with DDR3 RAM. (I think the newer model comes with 2GB). You don't need ECC server RAM and you can even mix ECC and non-ECC RAM. In other words it can work straight out of the box (after installing an OS), and you expand it with standard PC components.

Although if you don't have a network set up and prefer to carry and plug in a portable HD all the time, just get an external enclosure for your existing drive. Less setup but waaaaaay less convenient and more of a daily schlep than a centralised storage solution.
 
I am looking for a storage solution for all my movies and series, I currently use a Verbatim 1TB external HDD which I connect to my TV or PS3. Sometimes however I do need to disconnect it and take it to my girlfriends place and watch on her TV
Click to expand...

Based on your requirements, the stock HP Microserver is not the best option for you. It's basically like carting around a PC when you are looking for a portable USB HDD. Go with the 2TB option as mentioned or even a 2 bay external HDD enclosure. Can use 1HDD in it for now and add another one later.
 
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