Huuuuge Task Completed!

[ardandy]

Well its only taken me a couple of months but I've finally achieved my goal!

Basically I was sick of getting disk after disk out to watch a film/tv episode as well as them getting scratched etc. I also realised how many films I'd lent out and not got back! (bet you have if you think!)

As I work in IT and have to have all the latest geek it stuff in house I set out to create my own Media Network.

First thing to do was to get a server sorted for storing all the stuff on.
£210 later I bought one of these (with 3 yr warranty) + £90 for a Windows Home Server Licence.

HP ML110 G5 Server

Inside are now 2 x 400GB Hard Drives I already had (mirrored) that has the OS on it and 1 x 500GB and 1 x 1.5TB. (circa £150 for last 2).

Total Storage for files = 2,180-GB

Here's a screen grab of my Windows Home Server console;

Now was the incredibly arduos and boring task of transferring all my Films & TV Eps onto the Server! About 215 DVD's up to now!

Cue several weeks and a proper hammering of my DVD Drive!

I also put all Software, Pictures and Music onto it.

I already had a Media Centre PC downstairs but I moved cabinets and installed the latest build of Windows 7 to use the newer Media Centre software, which is much better then Vista by the way!

This is where I put the MC, I wanted it out of the way and out of sight but also accessible. Not finding any nice MC Case I decided to do this; (circa £350)

These are a few screen grabs of the MC Movie Library & Video Library. It currently has 2 Digital Tuners in it but will be increasing that to 4 so she can record 3 other things whilst we're watching another (unbelievably it does happen!).

As I occasionally play on the odd game as well as going on this forum, I needed a proper PC for our Office. 2 screens just work much better IMO (esp as I use it a lot for work).

All 3 Computers that are attatched to the network (i have a laptop as well) have mapped drives so anything I add to my files etc on my laptop instantly appears on my MC and Office PC.

For those of you that are still awake and paying attention you're probably wondering about backing up all this.

Thankfully I 'inherited' a NAS Box and filled it with 4 Hard Drives that enable full backup off all my data which happens periodically. The Windows Home Server also takes a full backup (inc Operating System) of the MC & Office PC's should they ever fail, meaning easy recovery.

Here it is tucked away with my Cable Modem & Wireless Router. The MC, Office and Server are all connected via Gigabit LAN.

All in all I reckon I've spent about £1100-£1200 on everything, thankfully as I work in IT things are cheaper through work!

All this so I don't have to get off my backside as often!

Media Browser 2.1 - [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3Mh_cgWmwk"]YouTube - Media Browser 2.1[/ame]

Custom Fox Logo Intro - [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uWPvQCeBAQ"]YouTube - Custom Fox Logo Intro[/ame]

 

[sergiogarcia9]

Looks Really good what dvd ripping software did you use?

 

[ardandy]

DVD Shrink.

 

[mikinho]

Nice work! I can't imagine not having a HTPC setup. I did a similar project a couple years ago, now I have about 800 DVDs, 100 Blu-rays and a couple hundred other movies. I'm just about out of space though, ~10TB.

 

[ardandy]

I'm pretty much out now TBH. Need another 1.5TB instead of the 500GB in there now (can only fit 4 in server).

Could you change your avatar, its disturbing and I dont know why!

 

[akramh]

Could you change your avatar, its disturbing and I dont know why!

Same here lol

Oh nice setup! except for the LCD Screen, can't you get a bigger one?

 

[Zidane24]

:roflmao:I love that hiding the motherboard in the cabinet thing...good job on the setup...looks like the work paid off

 

[Gemini Man]

Yeah, mikinho's icon about gives me nightmares...Every time I use Yammm I envision that image and it freaks me out haha.

Edit: Btw, nice setup. Good job, looks like all your hard work paid off ten fold!

Edit 2: Are you leaving them as vob's once you shrink them, or are you converting them to avi's? I personally don't notice a huge difference between the two myself if they're not too drastically reduced in quality on conversion.

 

[mikinho]

Edit 2: Are you leaving them as vob's once you shrink them, or are you converting them to avi's? I personally don't notice a huge difference between the two myself if they're not too drastically reduced in quality on conversion.

Not directed towards me but...

All my initial loads were left as VIDEO_TS format primarily because it was too many steps to embed soft-subtitles and multiple audio tracks when I first built my HTPC. Now I rip to MKV using H.264 since the container supports both.

 

[Zidane24]

Nice work! I can't imagine not having a HTPC setup. I did a similar project a couple years ago, now I have about 800 DVDs, 100 Blu-rays and a couple hundred other movies. I'm just about out of space though, ~10TB.

10 TB huh...I can't even use over 100GB without feeling cluttered...

 

[mikinho]

10 TB huh...I can't even use over 100GB without feeling cluttered...

My HTPC setup: http://www.sevenforums.com/media-center/15930-virtualized-htpc.html#post162487/

 

[matt_0978]

I'm pretty much out now TBH. Need another 1.5TB instead of the 500GB in there now (can only fit 4 in server).

Could you change your avatar, its disturbing and I dont know why!

Same here lol

Oh nice setup! except for the LCD Screen, can't you get a bigger one?

Yeah, mikinho's icon about gives me nightmares...Every time I use Yammm I envision that image and it freaks me out haha.

Edit: Btw, nice setup. Good job, looks like all your hard work paid off ten fold!

Edit 2: Are you leaving them as vob's once you shrink them, or are you converting them to avi's? I personally don't notice a huge difference between the two myself if they're not too drastically reduced in quality on conversion.

+4 it's the boy off Mask (Cher was in it too) that film well freaked me out, your avatar makes me feel sick too ardandy. we would really appreciate it if u would change it PLEASE!!

 

[Zidane24]

My HTPC setup: http://www.sevenforums.com/media-center/15930-virtualized-htpc.html#post162487/

Yeah I remembered reading that a while back and thought it was quite the setup...I still just never use that kind of space

 

[Mark]

+4 it's the boy off Mask (Cher was in it too) that film well freaked me out, your avatar makes me feel sick too ardandy. we would really appreciate it if u would change it PLEASE!!

If he wants to use it then let him I say, if you really don't like it then you can always Adblock the image (like I did with Ikilledkenny's).

 

[Fisherking]

Each to their own.

What a brilliant idea and great job.