Disk Full...

[Steve Maskery]

I'm having storage woes again.
I only did Workshop Essentials 1 and 2 as PAL, but I regularly get asked for them in NTSC, so, with a bit of time on my hands, I've decided to get my early dvds into NTSC format for the American market.
The problem is that it means regenerating all the edited footage as NTSC AVI files as well as the original PAL ones, and that's before I've built the DVD itself. The project has reached 280G and counting and my disk is full.

I have a motley collection of external hard drives, all 1 or 2 TB and only one of them has any sensible spare space on it. Making backups is an exercise in juggling.

Does anyone have a good strategy for keeping track of what files are stored where, and having enough storage without having a cat's cradle of wires, mains adaptors and cables?

All advice gratefully received.

Thanks
Steve

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

What you need is a nas server.
http://www.qnap.com/images/products/com ... ayNAS.html

Plus 4 1 or 2 tb hard drives in RAID 5

Personally I would go 3hdd in RAID 5 + 1 Hot spare if nas device supports it. 4x 2TB drives here would give 4TB of space but if one disk dies the spare would spin up and you wouldnt lose anything.

I also would only bother backing up the RAW video from your camera. The rest of the data can be recreated from that yes it takes time and effort but reduces the amount of space needed to backup. The devices I linked have a USB port so you can attach an external drives to do your backups to and then remove it and store it elsewhere after the backup is done.

Also you should consider instead of doing just DVDs also offer your videos as avi/mkv files for download. The 1st thing I did when I got the DVDs from you was convert them so I didn't need the DVD, this would also allow you to save on p&p and get your customers their videos quicker.

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

Oh and while I think about it, I have 2 HP prolient servers (rack mountable) with 2 or 4gb of ram and 140GB of disk space on them I am looking rid of. Might be useful for you for video editing. PM me if you are interested.

 

[Chems]

Do you have them in like an .avi format or something post editing but not yet formatted to DVD?

Rather than mess around with DVD's (seriously were in the 21st century!) set it up so users can download your videos as a digital delivery. Its no more at risk from people sharing it with friends as anyone with a DVD can rip it and share it easy enough. You'd save money on postage and open your business up to the entire world instantly.

The digital market, like amazon kindle and the mp3 service is such a HUGE profit maker because you selling a file that costs you 0 to copy and only a little bit of cash on a server to host it. Which you already have.


Edit, I didn't read all the way down Ryans post, he's already said this. But we're both saying the same thing and as big nerds we both can't be wrong!

 

[Steve Maskery]

Yes, thank you both very much. I've had this advice elsewhere, too. I've no doubt you are right, I only wish funds ran to such a solution!
As regards digital downloads - Yes, I know that DVDs are yesterday's technology, and they are not secure, but I do think that any download file would be pirated virtually instantly and it would be the end of my modest business. IIUIC bands, who are the biggest victims of piracy, make their money now from live tours.
If there are a billion downloads a year and 90% are pirated, then you are still selling 10m a year, but if you are selling just a few hundred a year and 90% of them are pirated, well, it's a different game, isn't it? I have no doubt that that would happen. Jeremy Broun was saying in a recent BW of how his DVD have been pirated. This hurts real people, people who do not make high-roller livings. I just think I have more control this way.
FWIW, I do think that one day I shall have no choice, though.
Thanks very much for your ideas, I need to do some budgeting.
Steve

 

[Lons]

I don't blame you Steve. There are hundreds of woodworking related books and magazines available as downloadable torrents for anyone who has the knowledge to do so.

You need to protect your considerable investment in time and knowledge as long as possible

 

[Chems]

I don't think you need to worry about it been pirated, I just can't see people who are buying woodworking videos as been people who are going to upload it. I just did a quick search on a few sites for Wood Whisperer guild videos to see if any of them were available, but couldn't find any. If his stuff isn't been pirated its probably likely yours will be ok also. You'd need to weigh up the increased sales against lost sales from potential pirated videos.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Well yes, you are right, it's a pros and cons situation. But it takes only one and I've had one woodworker tell me to my face that all his woodworking DVDs are pirated. ANd one person on this very forum bragged about how many pirated items he had.
Furthermore, I have to confess that I am not holier than thou, myself. Which of us has never copied a cassette tape or ripped a CD? The CDs in my car are copies of ones I've bought, so that if (when) they get damaged, my originals are still OK. That is technically illegal, I believe.

When you become a creator of intellectual property it rather concentrates one's thinking.
Personally, I think if someone is prepared to buy a download, they will be prepared to buy the DVD. They may be prepared to pirate the DVD, but it does require more effort to do so and so I make the judgement that the death of Workshop Essentials is delayed by keeping it on physical media for the time being.

If someone wants to destroy me, I can't realistically stop them, but my experience is that most woodworkers are just like most other people, perfectly decent and fair. But not immune from temptation if it is placed in their path.
S

 

[sometimewoodworker]

Does anyone have a good strategy for keeping track of what files are stored where, and having enough storage without having a cat's cradle of wires, mains adaptors and cables?

All advice gratefully received.

Thanks
Steve

you have 2 different questions there for the first, which nobody has answered yet, I do have a system that works very well. As background I have been archiving my data for years now and have more than 500 data DVDs and 20 or so HDs with data files on, my strategy is to prefix the DVD and HD name with a number and catagogue them, so when I search my catalogue file I can go to that disk number or HD number.

For the second a NAS as has been suggested will be the way to go.

 

[RogerP]

Steve, there are many ways to copy protect CDs/DVDs. Have a look here. You've probably already thought of this but if not possibly worth investigating?

 

[RogerS]

....
Thanks very much for your ideas, I need to do some budgeting.
Steve

How much do you think NAS servers are, Steve? They now cost in the very low hundred's.

 

[OLD]

This may help with your budget calcs.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?groupid=46&catid=2125

 

[RogerS]

Out of curiosity, do these NAS servers (which presumably are MS oriented??) still have the maximum length filename problem like an old LaCie I used to have ? Although i could use it to store files from the Mac, many filenames got truncated.

 

[Dibs-h]

Out of curiosity, do these NAS servers (which presumably are MS oriented??) still have the maximum length filename problem like an old LaCie I used to have ? Although i could use it to store files from the Mac, many filenames got truncated.

I don't think they are MS orientated. A lot of them know have their own hardware and use Atom CPU's, probably running a stripped down version of a Linux variant. It'll be that o\s, that will dictate filename lengths, etc.

Dibs

 

[Steve Maskery]

This is all helpful stuff, chaps, thanks.
Am I right in thinking that the NAS servers require me to add my hard drives myself?
S

 

[Dibs-h]

This is all helpful stuff, chaps, thanks.
Am I right in thinking that the NAS servers require me to add my hard drives myself?
S

Steve

Most are available as either fully populated and other just the bare NAS. Me - I'd go with a bare NAS and then buy the "better" spec drives.

HIH

Dibs

p.s. The following might be useful,

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-reviews
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/test-centre/ ... as-device/
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/storage-appliances

 

[Steel City Man]

I run a digital publishing company and the best move we ever made was going from CDROM and DVD over to digital download. There are many realities you need to be aware of

1) Most file sharing is done by people who would NEVER buy your product, even if it cost 1p. These guys just love downloading and sharing stuff, most of it never even gets read or viewed. These are NOT lost sales - don't believe the ridiculous stats bandied about by the entertainment industry.
2) Only a very small proportion of pirated downloads will be from people who 'may' have bought your product had there not been the pirated version.The majority of your customers are good genuine people, never forget that - they appreciate the value of your work and are happy to pay, especially as they know it will hopefully lead to you producing more great products
3) A lot of people download pirated copies simply because it's more convenient and instant than dealing with shipped DVDs, region coding, DRM, incompatibilities, scratched discs etc.
4) There is nothing you can do to stop your products being pirated. It takes a few seconds to set up a rip of a DVD, and then the rip carries on in the background, no effort at all and uploaded within minutes. If you think sticking with DVD somehow is saving you from piracy, you really are kidding yourself! The fact that your stuff isn't out there already is simply because you have customers who are not interested in pirating it.

The solution is, learn from the pirates. Make it more convenient to buy your products - that means instant digital delivery, in a nice open video format that your customer can open in any device, be it computer, phone, iPad, dvd player etc. Forget about DRM and other 'locking' services, that just makes it a nightmare for your genuine customers, and does nothing to stop piracy (DRM is easily cracked). And as digital delivery has no material or shipping costs, you can make your videos cheaper for all your customers. Plus there's no VAT on digital delivery to customers outside the EU.

Remember, the large majority of file sharing downloads are not lost sales. These people would NEVER buy your products so it's pointless worrying about them. Sure it galls to know people are downloading your hard work for free, but I found it's best to get over that, there's nothing you can do about it, so just concentrate on making great products for your customers that they can easily and quickly buy. Then watch the money roll in

Seriously, going completely digital was a great move for us - we've made (and continue to make) much more money than we ever did with DVD and other physical formats, and have a lot less shipping issues (most of our customers are in the US, so it was a complete nightmare with lots of stuff going missing). Customers love the instant access and they can come back and re-download whenever they feel like. And if we ever need to update a product, then we simply update the master file on our site and send a quick email to our customers letting know they can download the latest copy from our site.

I'd also point out that all 250+ of our products are all available to download on thousands of forums, file sharing sites, torrents, cyberlockers etc and have been for several years. Yes, we must have lost out on some sales, but the fact that our business continues to grow with increasing profits each year tells us we have nothing to fear from file sharing.

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

You have a PM.

+1 Steel City Man he is 100% spot on.

This is all helpful stuff, chaps, thanks.
Am I right in thinking that the NAS servers require me to add my hard drives myself?
S

Depends where you buy from some will come prefilled.

NAS server ~£300-400
4X 1TB Disks ~£200 (might be dearer dues to the floods in Thailand causing a shortage of HDDs)
4X 2TB Disks ~£400 (might be dearer dues to the floods in Thailand causing a shortage of HDDs)

Those prices are only a rough guide of what to expect.

Option 2:
Buy a cheap second hand PC from EBAY with lots of PCI slots
buy a full tower case.
Move old pc to new case
buy a couple of raid cards
buy the HDDs
Install http://www.freenas.org/

This would potentially be more scalable and possibly cheaper initially but would be harder on the electricity

Option 3:
As above except instead of buying the old PC, but an Atom motherboard and other components as needed, probably similar price to the NAS server but potentially more scalable.
Again probably not as efficient on electricity as the NAS Server but would still be classed as low powered.

 

[Steve Maskery]

I have to admit that that does all make quite a lot of sense. Thank you all.
S

 

[monkeybiter]

Backing up to DVDs has been suggested, but writeable discs can start to degrade after three or four years and you may lose your data.