Messages

76

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« on: September 01, 2011, 07:28 AM »

HAHAHA. Indeed. But there is no commercial grade NAS, only SAN.   Using NAS for a serious business is like asking for trouble.

77

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« on: August 31, 2011, 09:57 PM »

The NAS above is still a bit of an overkill in many ways lol. One or more $300 4-bay NAS (no frills but with gigabit NIC and raid controller) will do. Plenty of these on eBay up for grabs.

Storage/Network/Server is really at the bottom of any quality home theater architecture... important infrastructure but do not affect audio/visual experience. Money is better saved from these areas and later spent on things that do directly affect your eyes and ears, such as a good HDTV and HTS. You'd be surprised to find out what $5,000 can buy you in an immersive, 100% digital HD HT setup, really not that much, maybe just a TV if you get a bargain.

Just a thought.

78

Living Room / Re: I found a home theater configuration expert!

« on: August 31, 2011, 08:11 PM »

Hmm, I agree with a lot of what he did in networking and storage areas, nevertheless the post is about content ripping/organization and not home theater entertainment.

all my ripped media in uncompressed format, I really need that much storage

This is highly unlikely. Pretty much nothing you get commercially available comes as "uncompressed". Even the BD 1080p m2ts file-based containers are quite lossy to be fair. The quality of the source is all the matters, converting a lossy format to lossless doesn't add any benefit. RAW format doesn't give you any plus unless the source format was RAW already.

I use MakeMKV for ripping DVD’s and BD’s... Below are screenshots of MakeMKV with the stream selection screen for a DVD and a BD:...

What he did not tell you is that authentic BD discs are encrypted using AACS, in order to rip them you need a decrypter such as Slysoft's AnyDVD or at minimum a bunch of BD+ decryption keys. You cannot expect it to just rip BD by clicking "Start"... there's a reason why film industry is packed of millionaires.

I am currently using Boxee Boxes for media playback.

I failed to understand the whole point of getting all the "RAW" stuff ripped just to be played on a basic device like Boxee. There's no HDMI 1.4, poor DTS support, only plays 1080p video at 30fps maximum, 100Mbps ethernet...

Also there's no mention of any proper home theater component (no Boxee Box is just a networked player, not an entertainment-grade home theater device).


I think this is another example of getting 10% return on a 200% over-investment. 

79

Post New Requests Here / Re: Idea: Limit Internet Bandwidth

« on: August 31, 2011, 02:00 AM »

Search for "tomato router" on ebay...

80

Post New Requests Here / Re: Idea: Limit Internet Bandwidth

« on: August 31, 2011, 01:50 AM »

Possible. But it'd be too easy to bypass, and too complicated to enforce/monitor. A simple system restore point might defeat all your efforts in minutes, and that probably does not even take him to ask around.

No point even try it that's what I'm saying.

81

Post New Requests Here / Re: Idea: Limit Internet Bandwidth

« on: August 31, 2011, 01:00 AM »

QOS or Static IP will not fix, or even alleviate your problems... they are irrelevant in this scenario. Things like BitTorrent, eMule, or even multi-threaded http downloads do not give a shit whether you have QOS or not.

"Per user/ip/mac bandwidth limit" function is what you need but it is rarely implemented on stock firmware for consumer-grade routers/gateways.

I suggest that you get a DD-WRT/Tomato compatible router from somewhere like eBay and flash the stock firmware with the "Third-Party" firmware.

No offence but be warned you'll need to a little bit geeky to do the above, forget it if your son knows more about wireless routers than you do.

82

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« on: August 30, 2011, 09:29 PM »

That's a holy-shit grade server for home usage... Performance-wise, not storage-wise. IMHO it's been over-engineered in the wrong way.

I basically want a really big external hard drive. In this case, the really big external drive is the server, and the bigness comes from having several hard drives in the rack somewhere.  That's the clearest way to describe what I want.

-superboyac (August 30, 2011, 03:26 PM)

6 bays with 2TB each (to many 1TB drive is a semi waste of slot space these days) would in theory get you 12GB of storage, however since we scared of losing all the eggs in one basket in one go you'll probably have to consider RAID 10 (or at minimum RAID 5 if you use all enterprise-grade drives), that'd leave you a usable capacity of 5.XTB-9.XTB.

You end up with slightly more than 9TB of practically non-expansible storage at best.

A plain but reliable home server coupled with one or more raid-enabled NAS boxes/appliances is probably a more cost-effective solution in this case. Much more flexible, expansible, less noisy, lower maintenance and cheaper!

P.S. If by any remote chance your projected storage growth increments by a few TB month over month, you might want look into periodically rotating out your data onto spindles of Blu-ray dual layer discs, and optionally getting a software/hardware disc cataloger. That's my current workaround anyway as I tried and was utterly unsuccessful in finding any affordable permanent solution going forward.

83

Living Room / Re: Ultimate touchscreen control via iPad remote software - I'm excited

« on: August 26, 2011, 02:56 AM »

This kinda came at the perfect time as I have been seriously looking at getting an iPad 2 (found one for £15/Month).

Would be cool as hell if I could also control the TV with it at some point

-Stephen66515 (August 25, 2011, 09:10 PM)

Hmm... really? Most of my TVs and Blu-rays are configured to be controlled by iPads and Android devices over WiFi through an app from the manufaturer. I cannot see much real benefit from this setup other than being able to say "I can".

The problems with RedEye Mini are obvious to me:
1. Holding a huge remote like iPad is silly
2. The fact that app-based remote requiring you to switch pages (mostly by hitting PgUp/PgDown one or more times) in order to get access to other addition buttons is a productivity killer.
3. When the iPad falls from a height the thing could easily snap
4. Device support list is very unlikely to be as comprehensive as Logitech Harmony

 

84

General Software Discussion / Re: Cnet's Download.com and the installer scam

« on: August 24, 2011, 06:42 AM »

You are #1 for "screenshot captor" and download.com is holding #2 with the stars. My bet is, with that entry gone, more people would click directly on your link and get much better experience. Download.com was effectively stealing traffic and redirected people elsewhere.

-vlastimil (August 24, 2011, 04:58 AM)

Yeah.. you'd think that people who came up with the search query in the first place would actually prefer download.com for the download. The real thing is when people google more generic queries such as "screenshot tool" or "screen dump software".

I suggest showing a message during installation or startup saying that the app can be directly downloaded from the site and that any third-party crapware push is opposed by this site, rather than removing all the apps directly from Download.com.


P.S. I wonder what happens to the apps that already bundles crapware toolbars within the installers, will the end-users end up with two toolbars trying to kill each other in the same browser? LOL.

85

Living Room / Re: when is a cable not a cable - when it's a DVI-D

« on: August 19, 2011, 04:32 AM »

How about getting an HDMI 1.4 cable with DVI adapter? Wouldn't it be a more future-proof investment than getting a "monolithic" DVI cable? just a thought.

I have a feeling that we won't be seeing a high-end gfx card with onboard DVI in a few years.

86

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Mezzmo - Deal at Bits du Jour

« on: August 19, 2011, 03:31 AM »

I have tested/used pretty much all the DLNA servers on the market, and by comparison Mezzmo stands out as the most easy-to-configure and broadly compatible DLNA streaming server. The support has been very responsive and updates are released regularly.

It's quite capable at on-the-fly multi-threaded transcoding for those who distribute media simultaneously throughout the residence. Once it handled 4 concurrent transcoding of 3D HD 1080p (30-50GB per video file) over the network without any stutter.

For people with many HD media devices (TVs, gaming consoles, Blu-rays, Ipads) located everywhere, having a centralized DLNA server/transcoder on a fast network backbone (e.g. Wifi-N, Gigabit Ethernet-Over-Power) is hugely important, means massive savings and peace of mind for you, or else you'll have to buy and maintain devices in each room for each TV/Monitor, and have media files scattered in places that you can't remember.

Are we able to get a 50% deal on this gem? I'm happy to write a review on this for those who are not familiar with this software or the DLNA streaming concept in general.

87

DonationCoder.com Newsletters / Re: Newsletter for March 29th, 2011 - "6th ANNIVERSARY FUNDRAISER - FINAL DAYS"

« on: March 29, 2011, 09:15 AM »

Easy.. go grab a beer

88

Living Room / Re: Starcraft II: the couch-potato experience!

« on: March 28, 2011, 11:31 PM »

Thanks for the collection. Watching these SC2 game vids on full 1080p is certainly a joy in life!!

I recently downloaded the big GSL collection (4 seaons) on demonoid.me, but I reckon I probably should finish watching the vids on your list first. 

89

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« on: March 08, 2011, 04:20 PM »

Okay what happened to 'babe of the day' forum mod's request ? Don't tell me that mod is not made yet for SMF 

-mahesh2k (March 08, 2011, 01:04 AM)

lol

90

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« on: March 07, 2011, 09:51 PM »

Yes app you have some points there however I'm afraid this momentum is built on an bubble-style expectation/illusion that won't last much longer.

91

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« on: March 07, 2011, 09:22 PM »

But, let's let that slide.  As mouser said, this has degenerated to the point that there's no productivity or value from the conversation (or lack thereof).

-wraith808 (March 07, 2011, 09:16 PM)

There had not been much productivity at all for years anyways, what makes you think we are doing anything different?

Next fundraiser in 2 years we'll probably have the same arguments, in that case we just copy/paste from comments on this thread.

92

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« on: March 07, 2011, 09:18 PM »

That's ok mouser I think my role now is just to give donors a big picture, not really to join these kind of petty arguments.

93

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« on: March 07, 2011, 09:03 PM »

because I am concerned about the site.

I don't want to see this site brought down as so many have been by sock puppets who are unwilling to have reasoned, rational, respectful conversations and be held accountable for their words and actions

-wraith808 (March 07, 2011, 08:46 PM)

Good thing that you brought all these words to my screen, I'm also concerned about the site same as you do, however I interpret these words in a different context:

There was barely any reasoned approach to hosting this fundraiser. Look how hastily everything (if any) was scrambled before March - there was no highlight, there was no pledge (till half a day before March 1), there wasn't even a polished fundraiser page till last minute. Even now I can see that the majority of the pledge slots have not yet been filled.

If there's anything rational about this "announce it first, do it later one way or another" event, I just can't see it. "Makeshift" is the word I'll use to describe it, rather than "economical".

Tell me how uploading an maintenance release of an app that has been here since 2005 as "major new release" show we are being any respectful to our donors? Are we not now already taking the donations for granted?

94

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« on: March 07, 2011, 08:18 PM »

wraith808:

If you honestly feel right about the lack of progress over 6 years, posting maintenance as something new (new as in refreshingly or innovatively new, as defined by most normal people) during a publicly advertised fundraiser event such as this, then as I said I have no issues with you and am not bound to answer any of your questions -- we live in the different worlds and there should not have been such exchanges.

95

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« on: March 07, 2011, 07:46 PM »

wraith808: move on.

I know some members here are saying "why should we change for the sake of change?", now I say if we are to host an event only to strain our resources/enthusiasm to the point that we need to post this as something new -- why did we do such an event in the first place, just for the sake of hosting an event?

96

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« on: March 07, 2011, 06:59 PM »

I think the concept of releasing something new is somehow being messed up a bit too much here it borders on false advertisement to donors who might seriously expect "something new".

Take today's fundraiser release for example:
Fundraiser Day 7 - Major Software Update - CHS

While I appreciate the efforts to update the app, I'm struggling to understand (esp. after failing to find a changelog) why upgrading an app that has been here since 2005 from v1.44.01 (Dec 02, 2010) to v1.45.02 (Mar 07, 2011) with pretty much the same look and feel qualifies as a "major new version"

I thought as a part of the fundraiser we would strive to present a new refreshing image to new visitors and do away with maintenance releases during the 31-day marathon... not really?

Just my 2 cents.

97

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« on: March 06, 2011, 11:31 PM »

LOL

I see we are building an Internet archive here (who needs www.archive.org anyway if you have something that stays the same!?) - everyday is a day back in time!

Who needs to revamp the apps if C++ are here to stay for the next 20 years at least, the code still compiles. Forum software? screw it, php4 might hopefully maintain itself for a long time to come. And no need to worry about the new techs on the interwebs because web is meant for porn not the rest.

Who needs to attract new members to join the forum, huh? We've got 300 active members and 235,001 inactive members and growing, that's GREAT stats! No need to worry until the old members retire.

Anyone?

98

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: Using Skype to Monitor Remote Systems

« on: March 06, 2011, 10:45 PM »

Great tutorial. It's indeed a genius poor-man solution. 

99

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« on: March 06, 2011, 10:08 PM »

Well since you choose to respect people who take covert actions than someone like me who speaks out,

-lotusrootstarch (March 06, 2011, 09:39 PM)

I'd've thought a hidden identity was covert

-Dormouse (March 06, 2011, 10:05 PM)

Or maybe my previous identity could have been banned in "error"? Haven't checked in a while, cant say for sure. Ah anyways cant be bothered to check right now. Love this username gonna stick to it.

Now if you think about it:
If there's a global moderator (among the only few here) who's so eager to shield this site from any negative impression during the fundraiser as to ban me and to stifle unwelcome comments, what makes you surprised that my views have faced so much opposition in this thread from senior members, and that I made a great decision to post under a pseudonym?

100

Site/Forum Features / Re: Shortcomings of DC and How to Improve

« on: March 06, 2011, 10:04 PM »

Yeah, that's the spirit Chris!

I didn't even post again in the last few days because the feedback from other members during the time was pretty sufficient and there wasn't much for me to add... until this ban.

It's time for calmness and constructive comments to return to this thread.