Media Server

Figment

It's about time I got around to converting my music collection to digital format as I've just disposed of the ancient tower system that's lived in the lounge for donkeys years, and would like to put a large CD collection out to grass.

Would like some guidance on the hardware, drive capacity etc. needed to set up a media server. The intention would be for the server to live upstairs (next to the router) with the absolute minimum of kit in the lounge - ideally just speakers and some way of controlling the server? Also how do I go about ripping CDs onto the server so they are stored as albums rather than a myriad of individual tracks?

I also have a small mountain of VHS tapes and DVDs - could these be transferred to the same device?

Thanks in advance.

jayme1

A WD TV Live is the perfect device to have under your TV for playing DVDs and music on your TV (sound system) ect. I have one and it's truly awesome.
For just music then something like the Logitech Squeezebox would be perfect.

How many CDs DVDs do you have? that will give an idea of size.

Also any discs you rip you have to keep, as if you sell/throw them away you are obligated to delete the ripped copies.

Figment

Thanks for replying, I'll have a look at those. Someone else suggested an icybox?

CDs probably 2-300
DVDs a cupboard full! Possibly 100?

Thanks, am aware of the need to keep the original media. Something else to find space for in the loft *gulp*

googler

Figment wrote: »

CDs probably 2-300

Rule of thumb; a standard CD of 80 mins fits on a 700Mb disc. Assuming you want to retain quality, you need to rip CDs in FLAC or WAV format. FLAC will give you smaller file sizes, as it compresses the data without losing quality - I've found that 1 hour of audio can fit into around 350Mb.

So, for 300 CDs, 300*350Mb = 105,000 Mb, or 105Gb if I've got my proportions right - allow room for expansion with future purchases, and you need to allow maybe 250-500Gb for audio. Someone else needs to work out the video. You also need the same amount of disk space for a backup

Use EAC for ripping, unless your media server does that as a built-in function.

Avoriaz

I recently started converting my 2,500+ CDs to a digital format.

I had some advice from Fifer, who will probably be along soon to add his comments.

I bought a Vortexbox and a SqueezeBox.

See http://forums.slimdevices.com/ and http://vortexbox.org/content/ also.

The Vortexbox is basically a small computer specialising in storing and playing back music over a network. It has a DVD ROM drive to rip CDs (and DVDs too) to lossless FLAC and WAV or lossy mp3 etc. These are stored on a hard disk and replayed either via the VB box itself or remote network linked players such as the Squeezebox.

Dinner calls but I will post more details when I have time, if Fifer hasn’t beaten me to it.

johnnyboyrebel

jayme1 wrote: »

Also any discs you rip you have to keep, as if you sell/throw them away you are obligated to delete the ripped copies.

Did you also not record from the radio because it is 'illegal'? Sorry but this comment in 2012 is quite odd to hear.

GunJack

Ripping a DVD film (assuming you don't do all the carpy "extras" takes around 1.5 GB in .avi format, so you gonna need a LOT of storage :eek:

jayme1

johnnyboyrebel wrote: »

Did you also not record from the radio because it is 'illegal'? Sorry but this comment in 2012 is quite odd to hear.

It's not odd at all and has absolutely nothing to do with recording from the radio, when you buy music on CD you buy the right to listen to it on the physical CD, times have now changed and people now require digital music so people often rip their CDs to digital format this is widely regarded as fair use (the law hasn't technically caught up with practice just yet), the reason why you are then allowed to listen and use the digital copies is because you still are the lawful owner of the music on CD, if you were sell the CD you have then sold your right to listen to the music contained on the CD therefore your digital copy you have made then becomes illegal.
The same can reasonably be argued for DVDs.

It's the same reason why you can't, say, buy a car or a watch, sell it but carry on using it, because it simply doesn't belong to you any more.

As I say this has nothing to do with recording a movie or music off the TV or radio because you are allowed to record off the TV for time shift purposes, although I add that I would not record off the radio as it only gives very poor sound quality and people talking over the beginning and the end, lossless CDs, something you actually own, are still the best until we can finally buy proper lossless digital.

googler

johnnyboyrebel wrote: »

Did you also not record from the radio because it is 'illegal'? Sorry but this comment in 2012 is quite odd to hear.

The BBC has stated in the past it has no objection to the public recording its programmes for personal use.

jayme1

GunJack wrote: »

Ripping a DVD film (assuming you don't do all the carpy "extras" takes around 1.5 GB in .avi format, so you gonna need a LOT of storage :eek:

If you rip the DVDs losslessly, expect it to take 7-8GB each DVD, which you may want to if you want the experience (ie on a WD TV Live or VLC on a computer) to be exactly the same as actually using the DVD is, sound quality, different audio streams, extras and all.

It's down to user preference really, if you have a good quality home cinema system and have enough space then it's sort off pointless not to, but if you want say the files in a program like iTunes or other media manager then avi or mp4 is a 'more universal' format.

jayme1

For ripping your CDs I definitely recommend lossless as it keeps the sound quality, something MP3 can't, there are two main formats FLAC and Apple Lossless (ALAC) both produce the same filesize, FLAC is more 'universal' as a lotmore things can play them as opposed to ALAC which can't be played on a WD TV but can be on the likes of a Squeezebox or Sonos, any computer (with VLC) and iPod ect.
Good news is if you rip to one format and decide the other format was a better option then all you need to do is convert not re-rip.
EAC is the best to use to rip to FLAC.

Size wise for an average album in FLAC or ALAC is about 340-350MB meaning 300 CDs would only take about 105GB of space, for about 100 DVDs at 8GB each that's 800GB so you could at a pinch fit them all on a 1TB HDD.
I would therefore suggest getting a 2TB drive, also it's not a bad idea to backup so a 2nd 2TB drive will prevent you having to rip them all again (esp if you take the time to add album art, lyrics, ect.)

Also it's important to have a good folder management system, for music you would have a folder called 'Music' then inside a list of folders for artists and inside them any albums they have done, most (pretty much all) ripping software automatically do this for you.
For videos I have a folder called 'Videos' then 'DVDs' an in there I have folders called the title of the movie and year, and within them I have the VideoTS folder for the movie.

There are a few options to store the media, a NAS drive is the most popular choice, it would work exactly like an external hard drive but on your network, a WD TV, Sonos or Logitech Squeezebox can access the shared folders and can display the media.
The other option is to use a computer/server and this is what I use for my home media, I have HTPC hooked up to a TV running Windows 7 (it's my TV PVR using Media Center), on there is all my media in several shared folders that the network can read, one each for music, videos and pictures, which any device connected to my network can read and play any of the files in those folders, all the files can be played on that TV with Media Center (including the DVD rips) or with VLC.
If I go to another TV with a WD TV and I use the Files option to navigate to navigate the network to the folder I want to play.

I've just read much to my dismay that the Logitech Squeezebox is no more which is a shame as I was just thinking of buying a Squeezebox Radio for portable networked music (on further reading the new UE Smart Radio does the same as the outgoing Squeezebox Radio so still is ok for me), there are other options just for purely streaming music, Sonos is a popular but expensive one, the Apple Airport Express is a cheaper option but has to be used with a computer with iTunes running and can't play FLAC, a more unorthodox option is to use a mobile phone, some of the File manager apps on android and iOS can access shared folders to stream content.

Simple version: put all the content on a NAS or a computer (ie a nettop would do) plugged via Ethernet to the router, share the content with file shares, and anything that can access the file shares can play the content. Streaming music and pictures can be done over wireless but you may find you need a wired connection for demanding video files.

I appreciate this is a big messy chunk of information and I always make it seem harder than it is (it really is easy), but what do you think so far?