Computer based dvd changer/burner (1700GB of storage space!)
I figured I'd share about an interesting device I happened upon: Sony's VGP-XL1B2 (there's a few other models too) Although it was originally intended as an addon for a few specific Sony Win2kMCE pcs, it can easily be used with various other computers and os's. With some tweaking and using programs that members of the AVS forums have written you can use it for some exciting data management purposes. For instance: ripping say... 200 DVDs or CDs to your computer... or burning 200 dvd (DL and SL) or cd isos (replication system) - it's also possible to burn different discs or backup different data to different discs but it apparently takes a little work. I currently have... ~40-50 single layer (4.5 GB) dvds with ONLY divx (or similiar) anime series and movies on them... I could cut that number in half if I switched to dual layer (~8.5GB)... but that's still 20 something DVDs! so being able to have quick access would be lovely. So on dvds... that's ~1700 GB of possible space... And you can use it for divx... avis... music whatever. Personally I'd love to be able to rip all my dvds in one fell swoop, convert to divx, then burn to ~25 dvds... or just move the 500GB of divx (anime etc) I have on my HD right now. Unless you have some sort of redundant raid or something to that effect on your current storage... if your hard drive dies you lose everything; this would of course be impossible on dvd/cd storage, so it's a really good alternative for backup and storage means. They can also be daisy-chained... I don't know how many people have gotten together, maybe 6 I think. ::salivates:: 10,000GB of storage... there's a good thread on avs about it: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=692413
I figured I'd share about an interesting device I happened upon: Sony's VGP-XL1B2 (there's a few other models too) Although it was originally intended as an addon for a few specific Sony Win2kMCE pcs, it can easily be used with various other computers and os's. With some tweaking and using programs that members of the AVS forums have written you can use it for some exciting data management purposes. For instance: ripping say... 200 DVDs or CDs to your computer... or burning 200 dvd (DL and SL) or cd isos (replication system) - it's also possible to burn different discs or backup different data to different discs but it apparently takes a little work. I currently have... ~40-50 single layer (4.5 GB) dvds with ONLY divx (or similiar) anime series and movies on them... I could cut that number in half if I switched to dual layer (~8.5GB)... but that's still 20 something DVDs! so being able to have quick access would be lovely. So on dvds... that's ~1700 GB of possible space... And you can use it for divx... avis... music whatever. Personally I'd love to be able to rip all my dvds in one fell swoop, convert to divx, then burn to ~25 dvds... or just move the 500GB of divx (anime etc) I have on my HD right now. Unless you have some sort of redundant raid or something to that effect on your current storage... if your hard drive dies you lose everything; this would of course be impossible on dvd/cd storage, so it's a really good alternative for backup and storage means. They can also be daisy-chained... I don't know how many people have gotten together, maybe 6 I think. ::salivates:: 10,000GB of storage... there's a good thread on avs about it: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=692413