thanks bob. thought it too good to be true.

any suggest for a cheap! nas?

and do you reckon i could capture to one over lan 10/100?

leslie

"and do you reckon i could capture to one over lan 10/100?"

In theory yes however I think it depends on how much other traffic you have on the LAN. Switched Gbit sounds like it'd be much safer, nor is it expensive. We're using the HP switches which were only around $150 and haven't looked back network performance wise.

Is there any reason you need to capture over a LAN though. Seems to me that capturing to a local drive and then copying the file over the LAN would be much safer. Just keep in mind that at 100Mb/sec it's a best only4x real time.

Bob.

no real reason, just curious (i know, it killed the cat).

how about this and a 500gb drive?

http://www.techbuy.com.au/p/79370/HARD_DRIVE_-_EXTERNAL_NAS_DEVICES/D-Link/DNS-313.asp

as ever, thanks,

leslie

Hm,
can't find it on the DLink site. It must be new old stock.
Could be a bargain but hunt around for reviews.

If you've got an old PC you could turn that into a NAS for nix.

Bob.

> If you've got an old PC you could turn that into a NAS for nix

... and go one step further and install Windows Home Server (the hardware requirements are modest) and you've got much more than an NAS.

thanks bob / bc,

i've got old pc's coming out of my ears, but i really wanted to avoid another beige box taking up space, along with it's kb and screen (yes, i know i could install a switch). the other factor is power consumption, that's why i liked the idea of a nas box....

i think i'll look into the d-link with a 500gb drive. it's basically for pics rather than video (my video's are backed up on ex hd's anyway).

thanks

leslie

How about Windows Home Server on an old PC that has "wake on lan" enabled? Then it would only power up when you need it.

Jerry

> i really wanted to avoid another beige box taking up space, along with it's kb and screen

Just for your information, a Windows Home Server doesn't usually (and, in the case of off-the-shelf models, can't) have a keyboard or monitor attached. All the administration (there's not really much one can do) is done remotely (from a PC on the network or via the Internet).

See for example the HP MediaSmart Server:

http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/mediasmart-server/hp_mediasmartserver_brochure.pdf
[link=http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/mediasmart-server/hp_mediasmartserver_ex47x_datasheet.pdf[/link
 

just an update.

bought d-link 313 + 750gb seagate. connected to d-link modem/router and am now happily seeing it on all pc's (easy setup indeed!). am using it mainly for storage, but it plays m2t files with no problem across the lan, and though i don't intend using it for capture, i'm going to give it a test out of curiosity (ah bob, i can see you rolling your eyes....).

will also act as ftp, itunes server and a host of other web related services.

do these things ever need defrag? and what file system do they use?

have a great, somewhat belated, thanksgiving,

leslie

Capturing video in either native DV or HDV only requires a sustained transfer rate of less the 4 megabytes per second, certainly your new NAS should be able to handle this without breaking a sweat.

thanks jc,

that's what i thought - but what i was going to test was capturing and accessing the same drive from the other computers at the same time.

you know what it's like... i won't beleive in technicolour till i see it in b&w (ta mr goldwyn)

any idea what file system it uses?

leslie

btw. http://www.dlink.com.au/Products.aspx?Sec=1&Sub1=29&Sub2=90&PID=342

"any idea what file system it uses?"

Not a clue, I doubt it matters as your PCs don't see the file system as such, I think.

I have seen a pretty basic NAS box playing out 4 streams of DV to 4 different systems no sweat. No reason why you shouldn't be able to capture to them either. I have noticed however that Vidcap doesn't seem to do much buffering. So if the NAS / network cannot keep up for a second, frames might get dropped even though the sustained data rate is way, way more than you need. Capturing video would probably be the most extreme test of such systems, the data must be written to the disk or it's lost.

Bob.

[edit] More info just trickled into the old grey cells.
The type of network card can make a BIG difference. The genuine Intels cards are the best. Next best are the ones using the Marvell Yukon chips. Enable Jumbo Frames if your NAS and anything else in between supports them.