Nothing scientific but i can stream 4 full high definition streams from my Unraid server to 4 computers in my house over GigE.  Was just trying it tonight, all clients watching same file, all watching different files, different disks, etc, and it was all solid, i was pleasantly surprised.  My server is an Athlon x2 3600 with 1gb of ram and (5) 500gb Seagate SATA 7200 rpm drives running unraid 4.1 server.  After reading some of peoples performance concerns i was very happy that it could stream hd, let alone 4 seperate streams.  It is a little slow to write to the array, but i just do it at night.  The read performance and streaming over my network is what was important to me and it has excelled in that. Can't wait for the next version, maybe with better user shares and security.

 

Craig

If you want to try an experiment, try this...

Shut down your array and "unassign" one of your data drives.  This will simulate its failure.

Start the array back up  with the drive unassigned... the unRaid array will indicate it is missing and will still allow you to get to its contents by reconstructing it from the remaining drives in combination with the parity drive. 

Now... play an HD file that existed  on the now unassigned drive. If no stuttering, try playing two streams from the now missing drive. If that works, try three..., etc...

Once you determine the limits of HD performance when you have a failed drive and every drive is being used to re-create missing contents, stop the array once more and re-assign the drive back to its prior slot in the array.

The unRaid array will detect the re-assigned drive as a replacement drive and commence rebuilding its contents from the remaining drives.  This will take a few hours (basically about the same amount of time it takes as a parity calc) 

 

While it is rebuilding the drive, try playing the HD streams once more... see if it will still handle as many.

 

On my PATA array on the original Intel motherboard I was able to stream 4 ISO images of DVDs while it was rebuilding parity.  (I did not try 5, I only have 4 clients on my LAN)

 

I was impressed with the performance of my PATA based array.  Your SATA based array has to be even faster.

 

Joe L.

Joe,

 

thanks as always for the response.  i will definately try that as it would be good to know the limits of the system.  I couldn't be happier, now let the real test begin 

 

Craig

What kind of HD file were you playing?  Was it a ripped HD-DVD or Blu-Ray disc or was it something else?

different sources.. one was a Blu rip, one was an HD-DVD rip and also some HD trailers, all at 1080.

 

Craig

That's great news as I plan to do this with my server too once there's a decent front end for playing them back.

ya, well i figured i couldn't be the only one that wanted to do this   

What were you using to play them back?  PowerDVD?

I use Theatertek to play back everything to either my plasma or projector.

 

Craig

Maybe I've missed something, but I thought TheaterTek was still unable to playback HD material? Do tell, how are you doing it? I've got the current TheaterTek, but haven't bothered investing in hi-def stuff until it could be played back in TT. I assume AnyDVD-HD is involved?

 

-PGPfan

Hey, i was playing downloaded High Definition .mkv files and .ts files.  Without getting the thread shut down, i downloaded some test material and used Theatertek 2.5 with a custom graph for playing mkv files.  That way, i get High Definition video and DD or DTS 5.1 with my projector and home theater system.

 

Craig

I wasn't implying anything wrong, if that's how it came across - sorry about that. Seriously, I am looking for any info on how to playback HD from TT and you answered my question - custom graph. Thanks! Honestly, I'm not sure I'm comfortable messing with graphedit yet. Will probably wait for native support.

 

-PGPfan

Ok I am confused a bit.

 

If I make a backup of my HD-DVD, and I want to play it over the network, I can TT and then a custom graph?

 

What is a custom graph?

 

PGP,

 

hey, no worries.  Theatertek will play back all sorts of media files, high definition and standard def, regular stuff.  The stuff mostly floating around the net these days are .mkv files in high definition.  Theatertek doesn't natively support that file type but if you have the right decoders, and haali media splitter, you can do a quick graph to make theatertek play mkv files.  You only have to do a graph once for each file type (extension), ie. i make a graph for mkv files, save it and Theatertek will always play mkv files properly without any further user intervention.  That way, i get high definition video, and DD/DTS 5.1, and it looks and sounds great.   Here's a link if interested http://www.theatertek.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=8914 and another http://www.theatertek.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=9813

As for playing a backup of an HD-DVD, i think Theatertek can work but not very well.  I have tried HD-DVD rips that have been re-encoded into a mkv file and they work fine, i just don't think theatertek supports the files structure, and evo files or whatever are from an HD-DVD rip.

 

I've been using Theatertek for years, but just started with the HD stuff, so im just a newbie but it wasn't too hard to get it working..

 

Craig