Do you store your TV Series?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Do you store your TV Series?

ashnizzle

196 posts

Master Geek

#139054 26-Jan-2014 09:59

Wanting to know everyones opinion.

Who here stores their TV series in external HDD or just streams them online (netflix can be included). Just realized that i have several external HDD's which has TV series and im thinking if i should keep them or free up a lot of space?

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332 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#974491 26-Jan-2014 10:07

VHSes and DVDs, stored in boxes in the cupboard. :-)

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#974504 26-Jan-2014 10:21

Mostly use Netflix, but for stuff that isn't on netflix (new stuff, anything HBO etc). Then I have a NAS.

But I only download stuff I intent to watch.
Despite having unlimited data doesn't seem much point spending on Hard drives just to keep stuff I might never watch when I can download anything at any time anyway.

I just don't understand people who torrent everything they possibly can - they must spend a fortune on hard drives, power etc which kinda defeats the point of torrenting in the first place.

sir1963

3264 posts

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#974506 26-Jan-2014 10:25

I have mine on a media server that streams to my TVs.

HOWEVER: Legally if you sell the originals DVDs you MUST delete all copies, so ours are neatly stored in boxes in the shed.

I get quite a few older DVDs movies/series from cash converters now, at $3 , why not.

Coil

6614 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#974511 26-Jan-2014 10:31

I would have a NAS but been too poor this month haha, Too much car stuff. Its just Netflix right now on my PC and laptop and Roku 3 when it decides its a good time to work.

sidefx

3712 posts

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#974536 26-Jan-2014 10:51

sir1963:
HOWEVER: Legally if you sell the originals DVDs you MUST delete all copies, so ours are neatly stored in boxes in the shed.

Well, technically I think ripping DVDs is illegal in NZ... even if you have and keep the originals. (There are exceptions for music but that's all - and there are restrictions on that too...)

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Cbfd

307 posts

Ultimate Geek

#974539 26-Jan-2014 10:57

Im a big fan of tv shows and have 20+ tb of them over many formats - dvds/blurays and media server but i store them all and collect them all as i go back and watch them

NonprayingMantis

6434 posts

Uber Geek

#974540 26-Jan-2014 11:02

Cbfd: Im a big fan of tv shows and have 20+ tb of them over many formats - dvds/blurays and media server but i store them all and collect them all as i go back and watch them

That, to me, just seems crazy. The storage costs for that sort of thing are pretty high, and 20TB is so much content you will probably never watch half of it. Why waste your money on storage (not to mention the hassle of filing it, so you came easily access) when you can download or stream anything you want at any time anyway?
Netflix has so much awesome content, beautifully curated, that downloading it is more of a paint than simply streaming it when you want to watch

Just because you have no data cap, doesn't mean you have to be maxing your line 24/7

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sir1963

3264 posts

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#974615 26-Jan-2014 13:43

NonprayingMantis:
Cbfd: Im a big fan of tv shows and have 20+ tb of them over many formats - dvds/blurays and media server but i store them all and collect them all as i go back and watch them

That, to me, just seems crazy. The storage costs for that sort of thing are pretty high, and 20TB is so much content you will probably never watch half of it. Why waste your money on storage (not to mention the hassle of filing it, so you came easily access) when you can download or stream anything you want at any time anyway?
Netflix has so much awesome content, beautifully curated, that downloading it is more of a paint than simply streaming it when you want to watch

Just because you have no data cap, doesn't mean you have to be maxing your line 24/7

Easy.. because I OWN the DVDs/CDs/ etc, so if any particular store goes broke, looses the rights, etc I STILL have a copy I can watch as many times as I like.

JimmyH

2886 posts

Uber Geek

#974658 26-Jan-2014 16:03

NonprayingMantis:
Cbfd: Im a big fan of tv shows and have 20+ tb of them over many formats - dvds/blurays and media server but i store them all and collect them all as i go back and watch them

That, to me, just seems crazy. The storage costs for that sort of thing are pretty high, and 20TB is so much content you will probably never watch half of it. Why waste your money on storage (not to mention the hassle of filing it, so you came easily access) when you can download or stream anything you want at any time anyway?
Netflix has so much awesome content, beautifully curated, that downloading it is more of a paint than simply streaming it when you want to watch

Not necessarily, it depends on the format.

If he's storing (say) uncompressed blu ray rips then these can run to up to 50GB each. In which case 20TB is only 1,000-1,500 films. That's quite a lot, but not outrageous. I know collectors (myself included) with libraries bigger than that.

As for storing/searching 20TB of files, an 8-bay NAS would store the lot - with room to spare and redundancy for a failed drive. Excluding drives, decent ones start at about $1,200 - which again isn't outrageous for a hobby if movies and TV series are your "thing". Cheap networked media players, such as the WD Live, will easily and quickly search for a title on such a NAS.

afe66

3181 posts

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#974663 26-Jan-2014 16:21

DVD's ripped with Handbrake to mp4, CD ripped to FLAC.
Blu Rays still in old fashioned disc form sitting under the tv..

All files sitting on Synology NAS and video accessed with Plex on Raspberry pi, HTC One, Ipad.
Audio accessed via Sonos and Denon home AMP.

Originals all sitting in the Garage and backup hard drive sits in locker at work.

A.

hio77

12999 posts

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Lizard Networks

#974667 26-Jan-2014 16:32

i store all mine on a media server.

originally started from living at home, and having a 2mbit connection.. downloading a few shows over night, then storing it to watch on a rainy day was really the only option, aside from planning i want to watch X in an hours time..

streaming content was killer on that line, and being a gamer, by nature im very sensitive to jitter and latency.

now its habit, and has been rather useful in terms of when the internets out.

as for power costs, media server goes to sleep, gf has a shortcut on the desktop that says "wake up media server" so it passes the ease of use stage. and i use a hybrid raid solution, so that 99% of the time, only the disk that contains the actual file is powered on.

disk costs are rather moot.. all depends on how you choose to "archive" if your gonna store raw blueray rips, a 2TB disk isnt gonna last too long, but encoding down is a pretty good compromise for me.

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Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
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Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#974670 26-Jan-2014 16:38

Almost everything now is coming down on Netflix or Hulu here at home. The need for storage is very low compared to a couple of years ago.

sir1963:

HOWEVER: Legally if you sell the originals DVDs you MUST delete all copies, so ours are neatly stored in boxes in the shed.

Legally YOU CAN'T RIP DVDs in New Zealand, only CDs.

EDIT: MED FAQ about audio format ony.

Dingbatt

6756 posts

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#974711 26-Jan-2014 17:27

Just spent 2 weeks at the beach with only 3g Internet. My store of TV series from my HTPC that have been converted to MP4 and brought along on a hdd have been great on the wet days.
Also handy on my tablet when flying or at a hotel with nothing to watch on tellie.

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PoHq

466 posts

Ultimate Geek

#974731 26-Jan-2014 18:27

My viewing / storage habits have changed. I used to store everything on a hard drive. Fill it then get another and so on. Nowadays I store next to nothing, it's pointless IMO. I always used to keep stuff and think I'll watch them again someday but I just don't have the time. There is so many TV shows these days that are of such a high standard that I can hardly keep up with them alone so there is no way I'd be going back through an old hard drive to re watch the wire :-)
NZ Data caps have also come a long way so if I did decide I wanted to re watch something I'd just re download it. There was a time when you felt like you HAD to keep anything you downloaded as you damn well used half your monthly data allowance to get it!

80% of what i watch is streamed on Netflix and HULU. Anything else is downloaded to the NAS watched then deleted. Part of the appeal of streaming services for me is not have gigabytes of media to manage.

driller2000

935 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#974777 26-Jan-2014 19:36

i currently store all of my content ie. movies / tv / music (=20TB so far) on an unraid server - accessed via several xmbc clients across the house

that said i could see this behaviour change over time ie.

music - i have moved to online delivery via spotify (+existing locally stored content)

tv - once i get a decent connection i will likely move to hulu /netflix (+existing locally stored content)

movies - have trialed netflix and hulu - but for me, not being able to get full hd high bit rate video + hd sound over my adsl2 line means that for movies in particular i will likely keep storing it for the time being ie. until i can get a line that will deliver the above

q: is vdsl or fibre delivering the above ie. full hd high bit rate video + hd sound for anyone?

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