Storing Massive Movie Collection

[jenkins4president]

Hi guys. I'm new to the forum. I had a hard time finding a FAQ or Forum Rules page so I'll be posting this thread in hopes that it doesn't violate anything.

I've been downloading films for a couple of years now. The movies that I download are always High-Res so range between 7-12GB in size. I download about 5-6 films per week so as you can imagine, the GBs add up quickly. I keep all of my downloaded movies because it is very convenient to stick a USB flash drive in the PC and transfer the film to it for viewing on my Smart TV. I will soon max out my internal 3TB HDD and am curious to know what other heavy downloaders on SuprBay (that keep all of their download movies and Tv shows) have as a setup. I have over 900 movies.

I've already been suggested a RAID setup and a NAS. The problem with RAID is that my motherboard can't accommodate anymore SATA drives (maxed out) and the RAID solutions seem to be rather expensive.

So SuprBay, what have you done?

[Wildcard]

I use multiple external hard drives and store my movie collection alphabetically in segments on different drives (a-e on one drive, f-i on another etc.)

Also, you can set up a media library for less than $100 (for free if you have an Xbox 360 or PS3) to stream content from a PC or to read directly from external USB HDs. (so you don't have to wait on copying to a flash drive to watch movies)

[kjf]

NAS is very handy, especially one with a built in media server.

I have had good experiences with the Synology stuff. It has lots of storage room and can serve up movies to any DLNA compatible devices. The higher drive counts also can be configured RAID 6, which adds a bit of a safety net against drive failure.

[jenkins4president]

I use multiple external hard drives and store my movie collection alphabetically in segments on different drives (a-e on one drive, f-i on another etc.)

That's how I started out. I used to have several external HDD's but then I realized that the speed increase I could get from dismounting them and putting them as internal SATA drives in my case would be better (since the external drives were all USB).

That's where I am now. I have a 3TB drive inside my case and that is almost maxed out.

Also, the downside of your method is that if you don't or can't have all the external drives connected at the same time, you can't see your entire movie collection. That is a must for me because when my family wants a movie, they just navigate to H:/Movies (folder) and the entire collection is there. They simple copy the film to the flash drive and watch it on the TV.

Also, you can set up a media library for less than $100 (for free if you have an Xbox 360 or PS3) to stream content from a PC or to read directly from external USB HDs. (so you don't have to wait on copying to a flash drive to watch movies)

I tried this with my Xbox 360 a couple of years ago and it did not work out good for me. Due to the size of my collection, loading took very long when streaming on my Xbox 360 and the quality was degraded. Playback was also choppy. I would also much prefer sticking to USB flash drive transfers to play on my TV because my Smart TV can read literally any file format (.mkv, .mp4, etc.), whereas the Xbox 360 is very picky.

Either way, even if I did this, it would not solve my problem of having all of my movies in a single folder. As the movie collection is getting better, the requirement to have a single folder house all of them is getting increasingly difficult.

I have had good experiences with the Synology stuff.

Interesting. I've never used a NAS before, and therefore no knowledge of Synology. I looked at the products but don't know which would best suit my needs. Please consider my daily download quota (mentioned above) and the fact that I expect this solution to be somewhat future-proof. I italicize future-proof because I know that such a reassurance is impossible with the advent of new technologies.

[kjf]

Which product best suits your needs really comes down to how much money you are willing to invest.

Any NAS or external RAID enclosure will be more expensive than an external HD solution. If it hasn't already, the single HD solution will bite you. Drives die. And when they do, they take their contents with them.

The Synology DS413j is a 4 bay device that can store up to 12TB using 4 x 4TB HD in a RAID 5 configuration. So that's about $1100 for a network solution. At your rate of download, it'll take you 3+ years to fill it up.

You can also get a RAID enclosure that attaches to your computer like any other external drive. They are maybe $100 - $150 less expensive than a NAS enclosure.

Either solution can be run without RAID so you aren't losing any storage space, but then you run the risk of data loss, unless you have other backups.


The Synology (and most other NAS devices out there) are not static. They receive software upgrades that should keep up with demands over the product life.


A while back I had a sea of external drives for music/movies/etc. I'd get them cheap, but fill them up and have to buy another. Then they'd fail (more often the power supply or enclosure itself) and I'd have to buy a new enclosure or HD. In the end, you are going to spend money. Might as well make it something that will be reliable.

[jenkins4president]

Hm,I see your point but I really didn't anticipate spending that much on a storage solution, especially considering these movies are dispensable (I can delete and redownload all of them anytime.. might take forever, but it's possible, unlike in the case of actual documents, photos,etc. ). Thanks for your options.

However,i have decided for the meantime, I will use whatever remaining 300gb i have left free on my 3tb drive (however lomg that takes to fill up) and then I will buy another 3tb drive to take the place of my current software drive. Ill put all the apps on this new drive and then use the remaining room to store new data.

I will do this for 3 reasons:
-with 2x3tb drives, i can start building a raid array if i end up wanting one down the line
-if my downloadjng habbits change throughout the course of filling up that new 3tb, i wont have spent upwards
Of 800$ on a NAS or RAID home serve
-lastly, the prices to build an external housing solution exceed what i was hoping to soend

This way With a single new 3tb drive, it buys me some time and no money is wasted since it can be reused if i end up needing the bigger setup

What do you guys think?

[kjf]

No guarantee that the drives would be compatible with a NAS/RAID enclosure, but there is nothing wrong with your plan either.

[shirepirate]

i store films on external hard drives (not portable, they require a separate power source). a 4TB drive runs about 150 USD with free shipping. 4TB drives are the best economical deal for your dollar as of march, 2014. smaller drives give you less storage space per dollar, larger drives give you less storage space per dollar.

usb hubs are a dime-a-dozen, having them all connected at the same time to a pc is a non-issue. you aren't truly serious about your digital movie collection until you've set-up XBMC or another XBMC-esque media library program. this eliminates the need for navigating to separate drives to find things. you can browse your collection by genre or year or practically any other factor automatically, and all metainfo is downloaded automatically. it doesn't matter if the drives you've purchased are network attached or not, media library software like XBMC can recognize any storage on your home network.

a flash stick connected to your tv is old and time-consuming, transferring a film whenever you wish to view something is a little ridiculous. setup a cheap home theater so you can use XBMC with your tv.

[jenkins4president]

i store films on external hard drives (not portable, they require a separate power source). a 4TB drive runs about 150 USD with free shipping. 4TB drives are the best economical deal for your dollar as of march, 2014. smaller drives give you less storage space per dollar, larger drives give you less storage space per dollar.

usb hubs are a dime-a-dozen, having them all connected at the same time to a pc is a non-issue. you aren't truly serious about your digital movie collection until you've set-up XBMC or another XBMC-esque media library program. this eliminates the need for navigating to separate drives to find things. you can browse your collection by genre or year or practically any other factor automatically, and all metainfo is downloaded automatically. it doesn't matter if the drives you've purchased are network attached or not, media library software like XBMC can recognize any storage on your home network.

a flash stick connected to your tv is old and time-consuming, transferring a film whenever you wish to view something is a little ridiculous. setup a cheap home theater so you can use XBMC with your tv.

Hey shirepirate,

Thanks for the reply.

I have had 2 external HDDs in the past, a 500GB and the 3TB that I dismounted to use internally. I dismounted them both for the same reasons: using a drive through USB doesn't even come close to offering the speeds you can acheive when accessing the files through an internal SATA connection (especially if you're talking about connection all your external HDDs to USB hubs, ouff, that must be slow). Second reason is that the drives would produce so much heat in those enclosures, they'd be reaching temps of 70C which isn't ideal when you want to do everything you can to prolong the life of your hardware (and incidentally whatever is stored on it).

However, I like your idea of XBMC idea but I know absolutely nothing about it.

setup a cheap home theater so you can use XBMC with your tv.

I'm interested in both XBMC and this idea. Would you mind walking me through it? It would be nice to have the films readily available without having to transfer anything...

[RobertX]

So far, I've only ripped library DVDs and not download high-resolution Blu-Ray rips. The video usually comes out as 800MB MKVs. I only download TV Shows, games, and software. Maybe some pictures too, kidding...

Then I would just burn the rips to DVDs for safekeeping or onto my TV DVD player.

Minimalism FTW!