DoeBoye

Hi nikbrown, Did you happen to check out the link I posted? You should be able to use the serial->usb cable without having to resort to ordering anything else... Unless I'm missing something....

JoeL solved a similar issue for me just recently. Here's how I got my UnRaid server to work with the SC1000 using the serial -> USB cable: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12183.msg116789#msg116789 HTH

Thanks Rajahal! I wasn't aware we could do our own polls! Here it is! DB

Well folks, Here's that poll I was suggesting. I'm very curious to see the results! And for those of you who aren't running preclear.... What's Wrong With You!! . I voted for 1 cycle with failed drives.

I am one such member. I always do 3 full preclear cycles on my drives. Interesting! Thanks for the feedback! Anyone else see a failure after an initial pass on the first preclear?

For the record, you can get previous generation ion barebones system for $149, 2GB Ram for $30, and a refurb drive for $20 (or $40 for new). So you're looking at $200 for a pretty powerful little unit. Also, you may have an old laptop drive or ram floating around that you could re-purpose to save even more cash. It *is* previous generation, but I am using a 1st gen ION (The revo 3610), and I have yet to find content it can't stream (1920x1080, 35 mb/s without a problem). Granted it is still more $ then a WD Live, but combined with XBMC, it would be many times better. The no internet thing is a bit of a probem, as far as the library, but once you have it loaded up with content, you'd only have to use a hotspot to update the system for any new content you added... Finally, if you haven't used XBMC in awhile, it has gotten remarkably more user friendly. For the absolute easiest install you'll ever experience, you might want to give a look at openELEC. It's practically a one click solution (I exaggerate for effect, but it really is incredibly simple to install)...

defected07 posed an interesting question in the Another DOA WD20EARS re: How many drives fail only after the first preclear. I would love to see a mod set up a poll that asks just that question! Possible wording: 1. I only preclear a drive once before adding it to my array. 2. I preclear a drive for more then one cycle before adding it to my array, but have never seen one fail after passing the first test. 3. I preclear a drive for more then one cycle before adding it to my array, and have seen a drive pass the first cycle, but fail on a subsequent cycle. The results would certainly be interesting! I for one only preclear once, but if the poll showed me that people were actually catching drives failing only after an initial pass, I would be convinced to do multiple runs...

2 of 4 of my EARS drives also failed preclear. I understand the sample is way too small to be considered relevant, and I'm quite sure that one reason we're seeing a fair number of reported fails is because it is one of the most popular 2TB drives being purchased, but the thing that makes me think there may be more to it is that we never saw this with the EARS predecessor: The EADS drive... I'm confident that if one does a search in this forum on # of threads about failed EADS drives vs # of threads about failed EARS drives, the overwhelming majority of failed drive threads would be in reference to the EARS drives.... Who feels like sifting through the forums and provide us a count??? Personally, I am no longer buying any EARS drives. I'm just not comfortable with them. I'll stick with the Hitachi 5K3000 for now...

It's done automatically in that files that are most often used, get kept in the SSD part. Not necessarily just OS stuff, but most commonly used apps etc as well... I believe it learns over time...

V. Excited!!! Are they on track for December 2011? The last thing to irritate me is the whole channel mapping bug with 7.1 LPCM audio. That is supposed to be getting fixed with Audio Engine, after which XBMC will be perfect

I've always hated fractions! Now, back to the drives! From what I understand about those drives, the biggest complaint was the artificial pause being introduced by the firmware because the platter portion of the drives was sleeping much too quickly. The newest firmware has fixed that issue, and now I see nothing but positive remarks about this drive. I definitely see this as the future for laptops. In a desktop, you can easily have a SSD drive for boot/apps and a platter drive for data, while a laptop is usually limited to one drive (I know, I know, you can remove the optical drive and install a hd caddy bought from ebay, but really, how many non-geek folks will be doing that). As far as reliability, I don't get the feeling (again, no personal experience. Purely based on reviews and reading) it's any worse than any other drive (though I haven't see any hard numbers re: failure rate)... If I used my laptop for more then surfing the web/remote access/accessing unRaid, I would buy one asap. As was previously stated, it's an excellent compromise between performance, and usability! my 2¢! [EDIT] Seagate gives them a 5-year warranty and a .5% failure rate... Not too shabby

Hi All, Thought this might be a good place to get suggestions on best way to automagically download movie trailers and have XBMC play them when trailer button is pushed. I'm getting tired of streaming trailers over the net, as they often pause during playback, even though I have a 15mb connection... One add-on I have come across is Cinema Experience. Any opinions? Thanks!

So just an update: I switched to DDS fanart in my regular XBMC install, and I definitely see a performance difference. Again, there was never a problem before, but now fan art is pretty much loading instantly, as soon as I scroll from one movie to the next (as opposed to a brief pause before it showed)! Thanks for the tip, folks!

Too bad . Sounds like you've done everything you can, as far as confirming the issue is with the cables.... As far as another source, I've read good things in these forums about Superbiiz.com... You might want to give them a try...

Shipped a defective drive to WD on April 15th. Just checked the status, and a replacement drive is en-route as of today (3 business days)! Nicely done WD! Currently not the biggest fan of your drives (Used to love them, but had a few bad EARS drives lately), but your customer service is top notch!

Have you tried switching the cables without a reboot in-between? Is it possible that a process/script is running at boot that is consuming network bandwidth/resources while you're testing? Just a shot in the dark, but have you tried to transfer a file with the 50MB/s cable, swap for another cable, and transfer a different file from the same folder to the same remote folder and see the difference? Seeing as I'm from the measure twice, cut once camp, I would also switch back to the 50MB/s cable and try a third file, just to confirm that the only variable changing is the cable itself... (Also, make sure the files are suitably large, and similar - say 3 copies of the same iso file (with different names), for example). I've never had a bad cable from monoprice, and I've bought significantly more then I'll ever need . It would be a real shame if this is a sign that their quality has dropped...

Join Us! You'll never look back . Fantastic support here. You won't find a more knowledgeable, helpful, mature bunch of folks!

It can make a big difference in the speed of loading fanart, so when flipping through a movie library, it can be the difference of a half second to a second for the fanart to load for each movie to it becoming pretty much instantaneous. Might not sound like a huge deal but can be a night and day difference with responsiveness when navigating. I can see the value of that. Though I've never noticed any particular issue with responsiveness.... I'm using an ssd drive and it's pretty quick... Though now I'm curious to see the difference!

Perfect answer! Thanks kizer!

Sorry to go a bit off track, folks, but what's the big deal with DDS fanart? I tried researching it, but it seems like it's just a different extension type for covers and stuff? I must be missing something... Anyone care to elaborate for me as to why it's super awesome?

Not entirely to do with your topic, but all I can say is: BRILLIANT!! Is this standard procedure that everybody follows when swapping out the fanwall? Am I just a drone, toeing The Great Norco Line ? When I put my 120mm fanwall in, I installed the 120mm fans the same way the 80mm fans were installed: On the side with the backplanes.... The end result of course is virtually no space to get your hands in to work, and almost no clearance between the SAS cables and the fan blades... Why I never considered putting them on the other side is beyond me... Stuck too much 'in the box' I guess . In my humble defense, I have no actual issues with the way it is, just inconveniences. Looks like I have some rearranging to do tonight . Oh, and to be on topic: My fans are sucking air over the drives, same way it came. Logically I believe pulling cooler outside air over the drives will end up providing better cooling then blowing warmed air (from cpu etc), past the backplanes, and out the front. I wouldn't be surprised if the temps do actually rise, once you get enough drives in the bays...

+1. AND, they have the best price matching system I've seen. You see a better price somewhere else? Click the price match button when it's in your NCIX cart. Provide price and url, they update the price they charge you immediately in your cart. Done. I've never been refused a pricematch, but I assume if they do, they let you know before they charge your card.... They probably hate nickel and dimers, but whenever I buy parts, I scour the web for the best deals, then buy everything from NCIX. Even if it's just a couple of bucks per part, it ends up paying at the very least for shipping, and sometimes the savings are significant... [EDIT] For Clarity

I don't believe there is an issue with the 120mm fanwall. You should be fine . I believe it's just the back fans that are a little tight... In fact, seeing as Josh in a couple of posts earlier mentioned he had no problem fitting the same 2 fans without a mod, it looks like this is a bit of a YMMV. I guess the good news is if Josh is using them without a mod, and I am using them with only having to snip one of the fans' housings, they should work for just about everybody (Seeing as the second fan can still be snipped to recover another mm or two...)

My array is almost all green drives, and streams 1080p uncompressed blu-ray content (20 mbps+) without a hitch over gigabit ethernet. The network connection will be the limiting factor in your array, not the rotational speed of your drives. I would stick with the Green drives for better price, lower heat output, and lower power consumption...

I installed openELEC on my Revo over the weekend, and unfortunately, though the install process was unbelievably easy, it has serious issues with 7.1 channels for audio via LPCM. Channels get randomly mapped incorrectly and, for example, center channel ends up coming from Right Rear... This happens with both full 7.1 audio, as well as 5.1 audio that is being sent to a 7.1 receiver. NOTE: The ION platform (which I am using) does not support bitstreaming DTS-MA and TrueHD, so this is being done via LPCM. Regular bitstreaming of 5.1 audio works flawlessly in both installations. This is an issue in the standard XBMC release as well, though for whatever reason (read: tried every work-around found in the forums), I managed to get it to correct itself by toggling the "convert to 2 channel audio" in the Media menu while the movie is playing. This work-around doesn't seem to work for the openELEC version... To reiterate: This is not a shortcoming of openELEC. This is a basic flaw in XBMC that has yet to be addressed. I believe the upcoming Audio Engine work will, among other things, correct this issue...