unRAID Project Roadmap Announcements

[grumpybutfun]

They are on multiple servers because I have a Windows VM on each (2 are ESXi based use to be 3) where I record using SageTV.  The SageTV VMs have very distinct functions.  #1 records SD channels, #2 records HD channels, #3 records OTA channels, #4 not a VM is a backup for #1 and #2.  Total tuners among all servers is 36 capable of recording at one time.  If OTA and Satellite content providers would start and end a show consistently and when the guide data says it does I could have half that many. The living room SageTV server is also my playback device.  The majority of those 36 tuners are OTA because it is a crapshoot as to which tuner will tune a channel well enough that I can keep the recording.  I record the same OTA shows on multiple SageTV servers which is why I have multiple recordings.  I want the symlinks so that each instance of SageTV thinks it is the one it recorded even if it is a GOOD one on a different server.  The files from SageTV server #4 are on a 4th unRAID server that has an WHS2011 VM on it for backups.  The 5th unRAID server contains all my ripped content from BluRays and CDs because I want it separated out from my other ESXi unRAID server/Windows-SageTV server VMs and so that it is always available.  The 6th server is where all of the important files and backups from True Image reside.  The WHS2011 backups are themselves backed up to this server.  unRAID #6 is backed up to off line drives that I rotate to relatives houses.

 

Okay... This makes A LOT more sense. Your issue isn't storage, it's a hardware / SageTV / Application problem. I haven't used SageTV in I don't know how long. I do understand what your issues are and why you doing what you are doing.

 

You really could solve A LOT of headaches if you would checkout Sickbeard and understand why we all use it. Once you know what it is and know what can do for you, you will not need a bunch of SageTVs aside from one where you can watch / record Live TV (like sports or the news) and share it throughout your house. I didn't take a look at your TV Tuner cards but they have some that have 6 tuners in one that a pretty cheap. Bottom line, Recording TV the way you do has gone the way of the doo doo bird.

 

[quote author=BobPhoenix Are any of your free options Windows based?  Because that is still easier for me.  I stopped looking when I moved to unRAID so I will have to check our your ideas.

 

Once you solve your SageTV / Tuner / Recording problem then it's a matter of what you want to do with all of that storage and whether or not you want to consolidate some of it.

 

If you want a turnkey solution / appliance and do not want to have to learn Linux... I would seriously take a look at Proxmox. You get Virtualization, Ceph (Distributed File System), Fault Tolerance (You can decide how / what you want it to be), a lot more flexibility and control all from one WebGUI that can manage many servers. So Central Management, Robust Back Up / Restore Tools, TONS of ready made VMs, High Availability and Flexible Storage in one.

 

With what you know already in the unRAID world I think you would find Proxmox very easy to understand and learn. You could also do this in phases too with your consolidation. Proxmox has a GREAT community and even can do a subscription for Tech Support (which I have heard is VERY good).

 

My first advice though is stroll over to Sickbeard or wait for someone who also went crazy with TV tuner cards in the past to PM you about it.

[JustinChase]

You really could solve A LOT of headaches if you would checkout Sickbeard and understand why we all use it. Once you know what it is and know what can do for you, you will not need a bunch of SageTVs aside from one where you can watch / record Live TV (like sports or the news) and share it throughout your house.

 

^^^This

[dalben]

You really could solve A LOT of headaches if you would checkout Sickbeard and understand why we all use it. Once you know what it is and know what can do for you, you will not need a bunch of SageTVs aside from one where you can watch / record Live TV (like sports or the news) and share it throughout your house.

 

^^^This

 

Depends how quickly you need the recordings. 

 

Then there is the issue of downloading via sickbeard anytghing that isnt registered in tvdb.  A lot of the shows I download require a torrent/rss feed to find.

[BobPhoenix]

Okay... This makes A LOT more sense. Your issue isn't storage, it's a hardware / SageTV / Application problem. I haven't used SageTV in I don't know how long. I do understand what your issues are and why you doing what you are doing.

 

You really could solve A LOT of headaches if you would checkout Sickbeard and understand why we all use it. Once you know what it is and know what can do for you, you will not need a bunch of SageTVs aside from one where you can watch / record Live TV (like sports or the news) and share it throughout your house. I didn't take a look at your TV Tuner cards but they have some that have 6 tuners in one that a pretty cheap. Bottom line, Recording TV the way you do has gone the way of the doo doo bird.

I've thought about that but have always worried I would be on less legal ground downloading.  Recording from broadcast signals is safe so far but they don't make it easy sometimes.  And yes I know ripping a bluray/dvd isn't any more legal then downloading content but would be harder for them to catch me.  Yes I know none of that is likely (maybe not even possible?) and why I've been thinking about switching.  The only real worry is that the US will update the laws to make the actual downloading something law enforcement would be able and encouraged to make arrests.  But I'm getting VEEERY tired of the bad recordings I get due to storm warnings and signal washout all the time. Downloading would cure that.  The other reason I would want to keep one SageTV server active (beyond live TV which I don't do anymore and news) is that is how I find content that I want.  But once I switch to downloading content I might just try anything that has an interesting description instead of watching adds for new shows.

 

Are any of your free options Windows based?  Because that is still easier for me.  I stopped looking when I moved to unRAID so I will have to check our your ideas.

Once you solve your SageTV / Tuner / Recording problem then it's a matter of what you want to do with all of that storage and whether or not you want to consolidate some of it.

 

If you want a turnkey solution / appliance and do not want to have to learn Linux... I would seriously take a look at Proxmox. You get Virtualization, Ceph (Distributed File System), Fault Tolerance (You can decide how / what you want it to be), a lot more flexibility and control all from one WebGUI that can manage many servers. So Central Management, Robust Back Up / Restore Tools, TONS of ready made VMs, High Availability and Flexible Storage in one.

 

With what you know already in the unRAID world I think you would find Proxmox very easy to understand and learn. You could also do this in phases too with your consolidation. Proxmox has a GREAT community and even can do a subscription for Tech Support (which I have heard is VERY good).

 

My first advice though is stroll over to Sickbeard or wait for someone who also went crazy with TV tuner cards in the past to PM you about it.

Once I get my file migration from my SageTV servers done I'll have to try Proxmox out.  In the mean time I will start reading up on it and Sickbeard.  The only other problem is that I'm use to SageTV interface and while I could use it to playback downloaded content I think I would want to change playback software too.  So lots of new stuff to get use to.

[BobPhoenix]

You really could solve A LOT of headaches if you would checkout Sickbeard and understand why we all use it. Once you know what it is and know what can do for you, you will not need a bunch of SageTVs aside from one where you can watch / record Live TV (like sports or the news) and share it throughout your house.

 

^^^This

 

Depends how quickly you need the recordings. 

 

Then there is the issue of downloading via sickbeard anytghing that isnt registered in tvdb.  A lot of the shows I download require a torrent/rss feed to find.

That was something I was worried about.  My ISP actively blocks torrents as far as I could tell anyway with my limited attempts so I would have to research proxy's if I find the content I want to only be available that way.  This is also something new to learn about.

[Kryspy]

Jesus......2 words Hulu Plus.

 

Kryspy

[jonp]

Jesus......2 words Hulu Plus.

 

Kryspy

Hahahahahah!!!  Funniest post of the night!  Good one kryspy!  All kidding aside, I know everyone has their preference on how to do things, but sometimes it takes a post with 5 words to make us go, "wait, wtf was I trying to accomplish again??"

[BobPhoenix]

Jesus......2 words Hulu Plus.

 

Kryspy

No posts on this forum that I remember but elsewhere I've heard disparaging words about Hulu Plus not having anything the poster was interested in watching.  They thought Netflix was better.  But that would require multiple devices if I use my SageTV extenders for playback of my recorded content.  If I use a PC I would have to figure out how to use my remotes to control the browser to playback content from Hulu Plus or Netfix if I wanted to keep a single playback device.  I'm assuming other PC playback software could playback Hulu Plus or Netflix directly?

[BRiT]

Hulu Desktop and Netflix integrate fairly well and easily within Media Center and XBMC.

[BobPhoenix]

Hulu Desktop and Netflix integrate fairly well and easily within Media Center and XBMC.

Will probably end up using MediaCenter since I tried it a LOOONG time ago if I go that route.  How about Amazon's offering?  Any integration with those two?  Just happened to think that my Amazon prime might be good for more than I thought if integration is possible.

[sane]

The email feature is worthless to me.  I've gone months between checking for new emails before and I don't own a cell phone at all.  But I can see it would be very very valuable feature for some to have.

Can I suggest that there 'slow to adopt' and there is 'hair shirt'. Like it or not, a smartphone or tablet is extremely useful today - and extremely cheap. It's reasonable to expect anyone with a NAS to have one or the other (or both).

 

On a related note, it's why earlier on in this thread I suggested that Tom etc. looked at the webgui with an eye to converting at least some of it, via cordova, into a smartphone/tablet app. An obvious tweak would be to incorporate push notification into such an app - allowing the server to alert the user the moment something went wrong - even if they were ignoring emails.

[BobPhoenix]

The email feature is worthless to me.  I've gone months between checking for new emails before and I don't own a cell phone at all.  But I can see it would be very very valuable feature for some to have.

Can I suggest that there 'slow to adopt' and there is 'hair shirt'. Like it or not, a smartphone or tablet is extremely useful today - and extremely cheap. It's reasonable to expect anyone with a NAS to have one or the other (or both).

 

On a related note, it's why earlier on in this thread I suggested that Tom etc. looked at the webgui with an eye to converting at least some of it, via cordova, into a smartphone/tablet app. An obvious tweak would be to incorporate push notification into such an app - allowing the server to alert the user the moment something went wrong - even if they were ignoring emails.

I understand but for me at least I have other motivations not to get one.  If I do get one I will be required to provide the number for when I'm on-call at work since they no longer provide them like they use to.  I would love to find another job but at 50+ they are not so easy to come by.  So as long as I don't have one they won't be unrightfully using my money while I'm on call - an anti perk of the job apparently.  Had more to say but like social media I need to be careful of negative feed back on my employer.

[Owel]

I think we went too far.

 

back to topic pls!

[jonp]

I think we went too far.

 

back to topic pls!

Agreed.  Let's move off topic discussions to their appropriate places folks. 

[ironicbadger]

Hulu Desktop and Netflix integrate fairly well and easily within Media Center and XBMC.

 

Chromecast.

 

Oh that might not work too well if you don't have a tablet or smartphone though.

[Kryspy]

Mediacenter is dead !!!

[StevenD]

Mediacenter is dead !!!

 

It may be, but they will have to pry it from my cold dead hands.

[PeterB]

My ISP actively blocks torrents as far as I could tell anyway with my limited attempts so I would have to research proxy's if I find the content I want to only be available that way.  This is also something new to learn about.

 

I wish you luck!  Last weekend I was happily downloading torrents at 30+MB/s, through an https 'high anonymity' proxy.  By Monday morning it had all come to a crawl at 5kB/s.  I've tried other proxies, but with no better results.  The ISP appears to have a way of blocking torrents, whether direct, or through proxies.  Other traffic is still good at up to 40MB/s.

[archedraft]

You should route all your traffic through a VPN. Nothing your ISP can do then.

[JustinChase]

You should route all your traffic through a VPN. Nothing your ISP can do then.

 

Any suggestions on a good one?

[BobPhoenix]

You should route all your traffic through a VPN. Nothing your ISP can do then.

You sure they couldn't limit you to using VPN only on a business account by blocking the right ports if nothing else?

[archedraft]

I would recommend "Private Internet Access". They are all about your privacy.

[archedraft]

 

You should route all your traffic through a VPN. Nothing your ISP can do then.

You sure they couldn't limit you to using VPN only on a business account by blocking the right ports if nothing else?

 

I direct all my traffic through a VPN with a personally ISP. With PIA (private internet access) they have multiple ports you can connect through. I have never had a problem but you could buy a month long period and find out if you'll have any issues...

[johnny121b]

Just an FYI to those that asked/brought this up...  I will be addressing v5 this week as well.  Tom and I felt it would be best to get these announcements out there first, then a Q&A to address all the logical questions that we knew would come up.

?

[PeterB]

You should route all your traffic through a VPN. Nothing your ISP can do then.

 

I suspect that I would have all my traffic throttled in that case.

 

I strongly believe that the restriction on my connection is nothing to do with copyright issues - after all, 'illegal' DVDs are openly sold on every street here in Philippines (cpmplete with a 'Blu-ray' logo!), but everything to do with the bandwidth I was using.  After all, my torrent traffic isn't blocked, merely heavily throttled.