Need Input on Multimedia Storage System

QCH

OK...

I'm doing some research on Linux Multimedia PC. I'm a windows guy but I have been assigned to look into several options for Linux systems that can store Music and video. I have started with a list on minimums and required parts (types... CD-Rom, CPU)... now I need to fill in what brands (AMD, ASUS, etc.) and make sure they are supported by Linux OS.

So far this is what I have... I need to add a motherboard, CPU, Fan, Memory, and a TV Capture. I plan on pricing out an Intel and an AMD system. Both Motherboards should have onboard NIC and Sound. CPUs... Intel at least 3 GHz, AMD around 3000+....

So...
1) How does my list look so far? Campatable with linux?
2) Suggestions for Good Intel Motherboards.
3) Suggestions for Good AMD Motherboards.
4) Suggests for TV Capture card.

Straight_Man

Prefer Embedded CMI 6 channel to Sound Blaster ANYTHING for Linux. Creative is non-supportive of Linux, and Linux is not a uPNP O\S, period.

For now, prefer Intel to AMD with Linux. Mandrake 10 Community, SuSE 9.0 possible. Mandrake community works on my IC7-Max3, but for anything of nForce style chipset you will need 64bit version of a distro, Mandrake has a pretty mature one. Last I looked, SuSE either had one in late beta or it was released.

Nvidia cards preferable to Radeons, unless you want a lot of under the hood tweaking and beta driver try-ons. Nvidia has self-installing driver packs for video cards that are nicely 3D aware, expect the chipsets to be a different story without under the hood work-- the nForce chipset drivers for Linux are late beta in terms of reliability. Mandrake has the most mature 64bit subversion right now, SuSE next best. RedHat de-emphasizes media. SuSe is now a division of Novell, might be a bonus if this is a company build thing.

Are you doing full blown motion media or mostly sales\marketing presentations, possibly with sound tracks attached???

John D.

QCH

Actually... I am on a Committee that reviews different acts for our Auditorium. We have well over 600 CD's and VHS tapes that must be cataloged and able to be replayed for our review process. Right now, we loan out the CD's and VHS Tapes and some people "forget" to bring them back in a timely fashion. So, when we need to review them, they're gone. All this media is given to us by the management of the different groups. Since there are over 30 people on the committee, we need a system that can handle streaming clips of songs and movies to everyone on the committee.

So.... The idea is to run a Linux system (not sure the flavor of Linux), copy all the media onto the HD's and then play them back and/or stream them to members.

MediaMan

If I've gotten the gist of what your are trying to accomplish then there are serveral priorities I must regurgitate here to see if I've got it correct.

You are looking for a dependable HDD storage system to deliver MUSIC and/or VIDEO to one or multiple users simultaneously.

The expensive way. This is a SCSI setup of at least 4 x 147 GB drives for near 600 GB of storage space. It would have to be on a four channel 64 bit controller RAID 0. This would give broad bandwidth for quick and smooth delivery of content to multiple users. Huge processor speed isn't the priority but a dual MP or dual opteron would be nice.

This is a server by any definition and pricey.

The less expensive way. I'd reccomend a 4 channel SATA controller...not onboard but PCI based. Highpoint too. It's been my experience that Highpoint is a more dependable controller than PROMISE. ESPECIALLY onboard.

4 x 200 GB SATA drives RAID 0 would be the next best thing. You would not put the program/OS on the RAID...it would be on a separate drive off the mobo header. Do not mix program/os with the storage server.

Remember that the NVIDIA 250 GB is going to offer some interesting RAID configurations when it comes out. The most attractive options would be the hot spare drive (incase one drive crashes).

Now if you are going to run huge drives then DVD backup isn't the way to go. Imagine burning a backup of 400 GB on DVD disks. Tape backup is the way to go for that as you couldn't RAID 0 + 1 with that much storage space. You could, however, go 2 x 200 GB SATA as primary and the other two as the mirror.



Sound: Onboard motherboard sound is getting very good these days. Right now the Revolution 7.1 is a very good sound card for a decent buck. It bests anything on the motherboard and rivals the more expensive Creative sound cards.

That's the best for live playback of CD content but is overkill for VHS or streaming.



You mentioned that you have to look at encoding VHS tapes. Streaming video has its geeky appeal but it isn't the best delivery mediium. If a VHS is 30 mins to 60 mins in length. It's going to kill your hdd space and bandwidth. NOBODY will be happy.

The person to ask about this would be DEXTER. He is the guy who can set you up with the trickiest system that will definitely deliver. PM him to look at this thread to get a handle on what you want.

Imagine...a remote server you can upload to and change playback order in multiple locations, etc. It's like a video server delivering multiple hardline feeds. Cool stuff.



But as far as being a library of VHS...streaming isn't the way to go. You may want to have a second system with dual processors. It's job is to encode the VHS and burn loaner DVDs from it. Use Matrox's RTX10 to encode and burn the DVDs for anyone's use. You still loan out DVDs but once it's mastered...keep the master and duplicate from it to replace "lost versions".

I could go on...but I should stop here and let you absorb.

primesuspect

Make no mistake about it - you are building a server. It is a heavy duty fileserver.

The focus should be on network bandwidth, and storage speed. I would highly recommend SCSI for this. At the capacities you are going to need, SCSI will be very expensive though. 146gb U160 SCSI drives are going for around $650 right now (each)...

Straight_Man

VERY heavy duty file server. DEFINITELY just a file server. AND, if you are considering a *nix O\S simply for less CPU overhead, avoid new Highpoint as they do not release much in the way of new-BIOS Linux modules (aka drivers). So, folks with latest and near latest Highpoint are scragged in *nix world. SCSI II UW an option, gang??? Drop one gen back in SCSI to keep up-front costs down a tib, upgrade later to SCSI III as large drive prices drop a bit???

BTW, most expensive is Fiber Channel HD array, basically a mid-to-high-end SAN\NAS appliance would also work for this. IF, you keep your dev and recording boxes seperate, server only has to serve files.

I THINK, if it were me, I would do this:

File server, Enterprise Linux+LVM (Or BSD+ BSD's LVM variant) with a baby Cyclades card in it. Reason: ReiserFS 4.0+ can map TERRAS of area in one file tree (about 4-6 depending on average file size). Reason Two, Cyclades cards can be had as Gigabit cards, 8 ports-on-card variety, and Linux can also route flexibly(see if you can get a PCI-X capable Tyan board, for example, for this box). Drop router cost out of picture for now, use file server as router also. This, for lowest O\S and thus base overhead that eats CPU time slices, should be a console install, no GUI. Linux has several mature apps for Tape Backup, I would look at Bru.

Dev box, sata raid for dev stuff only, O\S on ATA\133. Dev box, if triple redundancy needed, backs up to file server also. It inputs to the File server. O\S of choice, very good video and audio as MediaMan said.

Recording box, grabs from server only, no RAID or just RAID 0, SATA drive for O\S and etc. Mostly tuned for burning and network I\O maximization.

A logical V connect, server\router at base of V. You will want a mroe robust setup later, this is an entry setup.

Guess at cost, 8-10 thousand USD for hardware, to start. Nice thing about *nix is it has scalable LVM, and can logically soft RAID Logical Volumes also. ReiserFS was TUNED for large files, explicitly DESIGNED for that. With version 4.0 now available it is remarkably stable. It DOES journal, and now has recovery tools for it available that are decent.

John D.

QCH

Wow guys... great input... I'll run it by our sub committee. I am fairly sure the upper end stuff would be out since we're a non-for-profit department.

I'll geet back to you with what the committee has to say. I'll know tomorrow.

MediaMan

Talk to DEXTER!

Dexter

QCH - as MediaMan said, this falls into my company's area of business. Looking at what you need we may not be able to meet exactly your needs, if you are looking to stream the finished media over the internet for access by your members at gehir various locations. However, I can provide a lot of input on how best to do that sort of thing. Rather than type a LONG post, I am going to PM you with some contact info.

Dexter...