Setting up a HTPC question.

[ZMan2k2]

So I've been considering setting up an HTPC so as to put my blu-rays in storage, and free up some space, not to mention the convienience of an HTPC. I was directed to this thread,
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1302559
which looks like a fantastic guide to setting up a nice HTPC. I have one question though.
In my situation, I have around 200 blu's, I would need around 6-8 TB of HDD space. How would I set this up in an HTPC? Would I need to go RAID, or can a MOBO like the Asus P8H67 M-Evo be able to handle say 3- 3TB drives?

[WhippWhapp]

Nas, whs, etc.

[Mibz]

Is HTPC in a quiet but ventilated area, or somewhere other than the viewing space? If not, I'd build a separate storage server or buy a NAS/SAN.

You could definitely throw 3 drives in there with software RAID and sit at 6TB with parity (with that much stuff I'd lose sleep without some redundancy) but that means a big case to start. From there you're only going to use more space in the future, which means more drives, possibly bigger PSU, which means more heat and more noise, neither of which are good in an HTPC.

If you can afford 200 BRs then I assume you can afford the extra couple hundred (brand new) for a separate storage enclosure, PSU, etc and to do it right the first time.

Just my opinion though.

[ZMan2k2]

Thanks, I'm just starting to look into it now. I know it's not necessary, and I may just scrap the idea.

One thing I would do is use the AppleTV2 as a control device, and have the HTPC in the office at the other end of the house. But I may look into server applications more than simple HTPC's at this point. You're right Mibz, redundancy may well be necessary with this much data. Not sure which way to go.

[WhippWhapp]

Boxee Box + simple nas.

[mushi_mushi]

Handling 8-10TB isnt really an issue in my opinion. There are a lot of htpc cases which will hold 4 drives, so you can easily have that much storage in a htpc. I think the three big issues that you havnt addressed are money, time and redundancy.

You can build a bare bones htpc for ~300, this alone isnt that expensive, but if you factor in the price of hard drives the cost quickly grows. At ~150 a drive, your looking at $600 for 8TB of storage (but you dont have to buy it all at once)

Ripping 200 blu-rays takes a lot of time. You dont actually need a rip of the whole disc, nor do you need a full 1:1 rip to get the benefit of high definition. You could re-encode the blu-ray and store it in a mkv, but you need a powerful machine, and a lot more time, in comparison to a straight up rip.

Would you mind losing data if a disk failed. If so you need redundancy/backup. This mean you need more storage and likely a separate server, this raises the total cost, as you basically need a second computer.

If you want recommendations as to which redundancy/backup solution to look at, look at unraid. Its easily scalable and great for media. There is lots of information about this product or avsforums, xbmc forums, redflagdeals etc. (other choices include windows home server, freenas, flexraid)

choices as far as ripping:

1:1 copy of bluray to mkv:
+ Relativly fast to rip,
+ full HD video/audio at high bitrates
- Eats lots of space for marginal increase in quality over re-encoded rip

Re-encode
+ almost indistinguishable from original bluray (depends on screen size/seating distance) at a much smaller size
- need powerful computer and lots of time to re-encode video
- Higher learning curve, need to have some understanding of setting to obtain best results

The other choice is to download 1080p mkv rips for the content you already own. This might be faster then doing the re-encoding yourself.

As for the htpc front end, if you need pvr functionality use windows 7 with media browser, if not use xbmc. Personally im a huge advocate for xbmc.

[ZMan2k2]

Great info, thanks mushi_mushi.

That's the big thing I'm seeing right now too, the total cost. I like the appeal of an HTPC, the cool factor and such, but the cost of setting something like that up is really crazy right now. I used that guide that I linked in the first post, and went to memoryexpress.com. It would cost me over a grand right now, to set up something that I could use. Mind you, I'm not using the bargain basement parts, but that's more than I'd like to spend right now. Not to mention, getting the idea past the boss . Then of course, thinking of servers, and getting some redundancy, for backup of data.

It all seems more complicated than I initially thought, and I'm starting to wonder if it's worth it. I will take your advice into consideration, and factor in that to the cost as well, and see if this is really something I want to do.

[mushi_mushi]

It doesnt have to be super expensive but it will cost you. If you want to get something cheap and useable right now, build a htpc for ~300.

Check out this thread for various htpc builds: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=94199

You can also get 2tb drives for ~150. Just to get started you are looking at ~600 assuming you have no spare parts to use for the build. You can put the hard drives in the htpc or in your desktop and share content over the network. Right now I have >10TB of content, and I dont have a server with redundancy.

A complete setup will look something like this:

HTPC ~300-400
Unraid server parts: ~250 (not necessary right away)
Unraid OS License: 0-100 (not necessary right away)
Storage: ~150/2tb

For redundancy you can also run flex raid which is free and runs on top of the operating system. So you can install windows 7 on a desktop or your htpc and install flexraid, it will run in the background and provide redundancy in case of failure.

If you want a demo of a htpc/xbmc setup, your welcome to contact me for a showing. Its pretty sick once its setup, but it does cost money and time.

[Stine]

why pay for a OS server when there are a ton of Linux distros out there that will stream your content just as fast if not better then any windows box.

Same goes for the HTPC, XBMC runs fine on linux, what software are you looking to use as the HTPC?

for a "all in one" set up you can also look into Linux Meida Center, its not as flashy as XBMC or WMC but has a ton of plugins for home automation and lots of other goodies. just takes a bit of research to set up and run.

Linux Media Center: http://linuxmce.com/
includes Server and player software

XBMC http://xbmc.org
HTPC front end that runs on Linux Mac and Windows

FreeNAS http://www.freenas.org/
Nas OS so you can have all the space you need for the server.

[WhippWhapp]

Mushi has made good points regarding the encoding of your library. If you don't have a beefy workstation, it is probably best for you to torrent and usenet the readily available titles of your collection.

I'll reiterate that a Boxee Box is the best consumption device that I have seen when you consider the ease of use, noise(lack of), eye candy(title covers, etc), and wife appeal- it doesn't even need to be visible due to the RF remote.

[GoChris]

+1 for Unraid for storage. Very easy to expand the storage once it's setup and you can always buy the biggest drive for sale without having to match old drives already in the "raid".