Blu Ray 1:1 streaming (1 Viewer)

[jcroy]

I don't know from beans on this topic. But my guess is that it's going to be moot. By the time 4K is rippable, streaming will be the de facto solution. For me, I've just assumed that my $2500 HD HTPC is a deadend interim solution that will be the blu-ray repository in three years, made obsolete by a $100 4k streaming box.

I think you might be on to something here.


(More generally, from a semi-historical perspective).

Back in the day in the mid-1990s when I first got a computer cdrom drive, I imagined there would be a day where I could rip my entire audio cd collection to my own server. By 2010, this was already viable at a very low cost, where in principle I could just rip my entire audio cd collection to several terabytes sized hard drives (ie. as uncompressed *.wav files).

But this never happened for me. By 2010, I largely didn't care anymore.

For many years, I was already listening to music on youtube. It seemed pointless to rip my entire cd collection to hard drives, when I could just listen to 95%+ of the same stuff on youtube. (ie. I was too lazy to search for my cd copy and putting it into the cd player or computer cd/dvd drive).


Fast forward to the present, I never really got into ripping blurays. Frankly, I don't think I even care anymore.

At one point back in 2013, I thought about ripping my Star Trek TOS blurays and extracting the episodes with the original 60s era special effects. (These original versions exist on the blurays). But in the end, I was too lazy and was satisfied with watching the semi-daily Star Trek reruns on a scifi cable channel.

At the time I also ripped all my Fringe blurays to a hard drive. But in the end, I hardly ever watched them and ended up deleting them all.


Nowadays what I end up doing is ripping episodes from tv show season dvd sets, and playing them in sequence in the background when I'm at home. (ie. Playing the episode *.vob files on VLC on a computer connected to a 65" large screen tv via hdmi). If not tv shows, sometimes I'll play a series of movies in sequence such as Cheech and Chong, or a franchise like Bourne, Die Hard, Rocky, Aliens, Superman, Star Wars, etc ...

I don't pay as close attention to issues like picture + audio quality, when it is stuff being played in the background. So dvd rips are good enough for the most part (mostly from dvd copies from combo packs ).

 

[jcroy]

So most of my HTPC activities (however primitive), involves watching generic tv show episodes (or movie series) played in sequential order in the background when I'm at home. Much easier to do this on the computer, than swapping out 10+ dvd discs.

I mostly do this for episodic stuff, where I don't have to devote my full attention to the plot details on screen. For example, stuff like: cop/forensics shows, nighttime soaps, generic scifi, some sitcoms, etc ... which are not in reruns on regular rotation on any current cable channels I have access to.


On the other hand for tv/cable shows which are highly serialized with tight plotlines which requires one to pay attention closely to details, I usually prefer to watch them on bluray with my full attention. For example, such as many HBO, Showtime, AMC, etc ... type shows. (Occasionally there is network tv or basic cable shows which requires full attention to details, such as: The Following, 12 Monkeys, etc ...). In a weird way, watching these types of highly serialized shows on a standalone bluray player and swapping out the discs, forces me to pay close attention.

 

[jcroy]

(On another huge tangential rant, partly historical).

If I were waste cash on 4Kbluray, I would only really buy 4Kbluray discs of movies (or hypothetical tv shows) that I am willing to devote my full attention to watching. So far of all the stuff released on 4Kbluray, there is nothing yet which I would be willing to devote my full attention to watching.

Current LG and some Pioneer computer bluray drives can read 4Kbluray discs under windows10. If I were to buy one, it would only be used for checking 4Kbluray discs for bad sectors due to manufacturing defects.


Back in the day when I was briefly into laserdiscs, I was only willing to buy stuff that I was willing to devote my full attention to watching from start to finish and all the special features. Since there was no fast easy ways to check laserdiscs on the computer, I had to watch through everything on a laserdisc to check for any manufacturing defects.

More generally, my paranoia of manufacturing defects in pre-recorded media dates back to when I first came across audio cd discs which rotted away. I had a few then-out-of-print titles released on long ago defunct record labels, which were manufactured rather poorly and quite rare.

At around that same time, I also came across a pre-recorded VHS movie which had some huge defects. I purchased a factory sealed Terminator 1 VHS tape where the audio tracks were defective, where they were fluctuating between the stereo and generic mono tracks. Adjusting the tracking manually by hand, could not fix this defect at all.

 

[DaveF]

This discussion is better fitted for the media forum, such as this thread.
https://www.hometheaterforum.com/co...ockey-stick-moment-for-4k-disk-prices.353034/

The OP came for advice on how to setup an HTPC, not on whether or not to even buy and watch such media. I don't want to scare him off.

 

[dorito777]

Ok let me post an update and some questions on my configuration. Here is the parts list I ended up going with:

• Chassis - Supermicro 846BE16-R1K28B
• Motherboard - Supermicro MBD-X10SRH-CLN4F-O
• Memory - Crucial 16GB ECC RDIMM DDR4-2400 x2 (32GB)
• CPU - Intel Xeon E5-1640 v4
• CPU Cooler - Noctua NH-U9DXi4
• Boot Drive - Samsung 850 Evo 120GB
• HDD - 8x WD Red 4TB's

I have everything in person and have begun hooking everything up. I am a little confused on how the SAS configuration works. On the backplane of the chassis, I see 6 ports for SAS connectors (8087 I think?). I am assuming that each one is tied to 4 HDD's. I am not sure how to determine which port connects to which HDD slot. Should I be spacing them out to be read faster across more bandwidth or just lumping them together? Eventually I will have all 24 bays in use, but I am planning to do a FreeNAS ZFS configuration with 8 drive vdevs and expand by adding 2 more vdevs to the vpool as space is needed.

On the motherboard I see these 2 black square ports for SAS Port 0-7. I was under the impression that with this motherboard in particular, it has built in LSI, so an HBA would not be necessary. So how do I connect the HDDs to the motherboard? What cables do I need? This is all new territory to me and I have been researching a lot. I just want to make sure I am getting the right parts for the components I have. It is hard to find someone doing what I am doing in this configuration. Hopefully that makes sense.

 

[DaveF]

Very nice. That's a massively robust solution

You've got 32TB of pre-formatting storage. What will your storage and redundancy be after configuration?

Are you using this solely for media or is becoming an all-purpose home NAS?

 

[dorito777]

Thanks! I am really excited about it. I can't wait to get it up and running. I was planning to have a single pool for everything with ZFS and FreeNAS. It will be primarily media, but I will use it for all purpose NAS as well. I plan to store pictures and documents and stuff like that on it as well, but the primary usage will be for media for a Plex Media Server.

I am just trying to figure out how to hook in the HDDs to the motherboard. The SAS thing is confusing and this motherboard was supposed to allow me to avoid having to buy an HBA card. Potentially. I also need to figure out how to get FreeNAS on the Samsung SSD as well...since I have always used installation discs. I was planning to use IPMI as much as possible, but I am not sure how to load FreeNAS on the boot drive with that method, or if the installation needs to take place prior to that.

 

[dorito777]

I did some research and I THINK my backplane is the SAS2-846EL, as described by https://www.supermicro.com/manuals/chassis/tower/SC846.pdf

There is a lot of new terminology to me on here. There are 6 8087 ports available (Primary J0-J2 and Secondary J0-J2). You can use them for failover or other configurations. It is not clear to me how to hook these things into the motherboard. The motherboard has 2 SAS3 ports (SFF-8643). I want all 24 bays to be accessible (even though only 8 have drives in them for now). I would like it all set up so I can just pop in 8 more drives and add a new vdev once I need more space. Is there somewhere I can read or a video or something I can watch to explain how this all works together? I want to make sure I grab the correct cables.

 

[Dave Upton]

SAS cables go from the J0 ports on your backplane to your motherboard - that's it.

 

[DaveF]

I also need to figure out how to get FreeNAS on the Samsung SSD as well...since I have always used installation discs. I was planning to use IPMI as much as possible, but I am not sure how to load FreeNAS on the boot drive with that method, or if the installation needs to take place prior to that.

I don't know anything about headless, enterprise servers, but...I'd think you'd download Freenas to a USB drive, boot the computer off the USB drive, and format the SSD drive and install freenas to it. I also assume you've got a monitor connected directly to get started. After that, continue with whatever next-level server/network management tools you've got in mind.

 

[Dave Upton]

I don't know anything about headless, enterprise servers, but...I'd think you'd download Freenas to a USB drive, boot the computer off the USB drive, and format the SSD drive and install freenas to it. I also assume you've got a monitor connected directly to get started. After that, continue with whatever next-level server/network management tools you've got in mind.

The IPMI management app usually lets you mount an ISO over the network. Just download the ISO for FreeNAS, mount it using the IPMI software and then boot to that.