[linux-dvb] Why compress a VDR movie again ?

[Jörg-Oliver Todamm <jtodamm@itc-consult.de>]

Hi,

we can summarize our little thread, that several solutions are
available. Right now, disc drives are the cheapest and fastest solution.
Everythin else can be used, if it is allready there. Like I will use my
bunch of tape drives, CD-changer and DVD-RAM. But the noise of the
drives will make my wife crasy (you all know how nasty wifes can be :) I
have to move this components to my PC room.

For me there are some points that I want to cover:
- instant access to my video library, just as I have now to my music. I
don't bother to wait some time until a MPEG4 is recompressed for
viewing.
- I don't want to lose parts of this library due to a harddrive crash
(Raid 5 is not an option due to the next reason)
- a small and quiet box placed in my living room next to my TV and the
HIFI components (harddiscs need some cooling and are loud)
- connectivity has to be wireless (I use 11 Mbps WLAN, no wire could be
placed in this room)

So for me the future looks like that:
- VDR as a front-end solution. It will record and playback the streams.
Here I will use the largest discdrives if affordable (80GB is great, but
my Samsung Spinpoint is cheap and quiet) 
- A Server as back-end. Here I will store the majority of my movies and
store them on tape, CD and so on. Here is also the chance to delete all
the annoying commercials.

So there are many parts to work on. Right now I've got my audio-stuff
running like this, fileserver in the back and my box in the living room
playing the files, but this is pretty easy with the "low" amount of data
compared to video. 

I still feel very uncomfortable with the TDK-Drive, as it will only be a
solution for some time. The prices for DVD-Media and drives will fall
dramatically, it can not be compared to way the CD-R(W) came down in
price. Now there is a market with users willing to spend the money. The
people love to take videos and they love to edit it. And they don't want
to store the marriage of the son or the birth of the first child on
VHS-Tapes. They all use digital camcorders and they want to store it
digital, therefore they want to use DVD-R(W). My bet is, that in 30
month a DVD-RW drive is about $400 and the discs will cost about $5
each. To me, this sounds fair.

Axel, if you are willing to spend $300 for a drive that can only be used
at you home, that's ok. But please tell me, how are you going to play
your discs? You will need a new CD-changer for sure. BTW, does anyone
knows an affordable DVD-changer???

There is no perfect solution right now, but the target is in sight. Best
would be to stay for some time with the things available and get the
best out of it. I remember, that I had many problems several years ago,
to store a complete audio CD on my hdd. CD-Recording was unacceptable
expensive (I payed $50 rent for a recorder that I used 3 days and $10
per disc!) 

Best thing would be work out something that can enhance the use of VDR
for all that have small discdrives or store a large amount of videos.
Regardless of the final storage medium. And if everything works well,
maybe I will kick my DVD stand-alone and use only my video box.

There is still more than a month to my holidays, but I want to start to
make my private home cinema as attractive and easy to use as possible.
Fist step will be some script driven transcoder that can later be
integrated in VDR as some kind of "Archive" option.

So long,

Joerg-Oliver Todamm


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