'home media centre'

[eFestivals]

Yep, horses for courses.

There's good reasons to get the better disks if you have those reasons, but many people don't - and for those people they'd be overkill. I've got greens on my DS212j, and they're more than adequate for what it's used for (media server & backups).

The only disk annoyance I have with them is the time they take to wake up when they're hibernating, which can be longer than the time-out on my stereo when it's requesting the first mp3 from a playlist. That's no biggie tho, I just press play for a second time.

----

The price of disks today tickles me. Less than 20 years ago I spent £100k on 500Gb of disk (tho they were disks for a mini-system; PC disks of the same capacity would have cost around £50k at that time).

[5co77ie]

I think quietness wins in this regard and it's mainly as occasional back up for 3 pcs (all over 6 years old) and a mac (only a year old) - and as a mainly music media server.

[eFestivals]

I used sopcast on my tablet last night for footie, and it worked great.

But I'd like to send the stream to my chromecast. Does anyone know if it's possible?

[eFestivals]

I've just ordered myself a new NAS, the Synology DS214play.

I ordered one of these without disks installed (I ordered some disks separately, they were delivered yesterday).

It's just been delivered, with 2x 4TB disks installed, that's worth over £200 extra.

PMSL.

Edited November 20, 2014 by eFestivals

[eFestivals]

WOW!! Awesome

it's a pretty good result, i'd say.

Any ideas what the 'copy button' on the front does?

[eFestivals]

hmmm, maybe I cheered too soon, it's looking like the unit might be buggered.

[eFestivals]

Why did you get the play over the other models ?

I used the device selector on the synology website, and it suggested the 214+ or 214play for what I'd use it for.

After much dithering I decided to go for the play, because of the better chip.

[eFestivals]

Whars wrong with it

it was saying "configuration lost" after I'd done the DSM install, and googling suggested it might be a fault with the unit.

However, i'm pleased to say that I did a system reset (poking the reset button at the back, twice as instructed) and it's now working OK.

[eFestivals]

.... except one of those lovely free disks seems to be buggered, it's just failed to create the volume.

[windy_miller]

.... except one of those lovely free disks seems to be buggered, it's just failed to create the volume.

Sounds like this was a returned model and someone forgot to take the disks out before they returned it!

[eFestivals]

Sounds like this was a returned model and someone forgot to take the disks out before they returned it!

nah, I don't think so. You can buy them with disks pre-installed, so i reckon I got sent one of those rather than a disk-empty one.

It might well be me that buggered the disk. I pulled the caddy out not expecting it to have a disk in it, and then the weight of the disk had the caddy (and disk) slip from my fingers and bounce on the floor.

Ahh well, it's no biggie. I'll just use one of the 2TB disked I'd bought into it, and then replace it with a 4TB in the future. It means only 2TB of usable disk for now but that's ample for my immediate needs, and up-sizing later is a breeze.

Edited November 20, 2014 by eFestivals

[eFestivals]

2TB disk in, all working fine.

I wish I hadn't dropped that disk, but never mind. It was free.

[eFestivals]

have just set-up the efestivals development website on the new NAS.

I was worried that it might run a bit sluggish on what is a pretty low-powered chip (Intel Atom - normally used in mobile phones, netbooks, etc), but i'm pleased to see that it runs very well.

What i can't get working tho on the webserver is perl, which is used by AwStats. I've got the actual commandline process of the stats working (which also uses perl), but for some reason I just can't get perl working on the webserver.

Do you have any ideas, Barry (as you've got the same NAS)? Can you get a simple 'hello world' perl script working in the webspace?

[windy_miller]

I imagine it is something to do with the PATH environment variable. When you log in to the shell, the PATH is probably being updated to include the path to the perl executable. What does the output of these commands show...

echo $PATH

which perl

[eFestivals]

Thanks - tho it's not the path. At least, that's not the problem right now, anyway (tho I have added the path to $PATH, just to be sure).

According to the server error logs, the error is:-

(13)Permission denied: exec of '/var/services/web/junk.pl' failed

I've googled endlessly on that, and the various suggestions are things i've already done. These are within my httpd.conf

<Directory "/var/services/web">
    Options MultiViews FollowSymLinks ExecCGI
    AllowOverride None
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>

AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl

... and the perl file has the necessary owner/usage rights.

I'm completely stumped.

Any further ideas you have, i'm all ears.

[windy_miller]

try "chmod a+x /var/services/web/junk.pl"

[eFestivals]

try "chmod a+x /var/services/web/junk.pl"

trying to set file permissions to what they already are isn't going to do any good.

I'm a unix numptie, and I'm sure this is down to a numptism, but it's not that one.

[viberunner]

I've given up on my Xbox 360 being a dedicated media player. The fan is too noisy and there are a lot of movie files it fails on, especially-but-not-limited-to MKV.

I was looking at this, under £30 and will connect to VGA (I only have a monitor) and an amp and will take both small USB sticks and a larger external HDD.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Portable-outputs-Auto-play-Loop-Play-Digi-fun%C2%AE/dp/B004TD4O1A/

Anyone have any experience of similar systems?

[windy_miller]

I've given up on my Xbox 360 being a dedicated media player. The fan is too noisy and there are a lot of movie files it fails on, especially-but-not-limited-to MKV.

I was looking at this, under £30 and will connect to VGA (I only have a monitor) and an amp and will take both small USB sticks and a larger external HDD.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Portable-outputs-Auto-play-Loop-Play-Digi-fun%C2%AE/dp/B004TD4O1A/

Anyone have any experience of similar systems?

I've got one of these and its really good

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sumvision-Cyclone-Micro-Player-Adaptor-black/dp/B0052X04MO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1417092322&sr=8-2&keywords=sumvision

Only has HDMI output though

[eFestivals]

What i can't get working tho on the webserver is perl

there's a new release of the 'DSM' software that controls the Synology NAS, which says that it fixes a problem with cgi scripts on the webserver - so hopefully that's going to sort out the problem I have getting perl to run. Fingers crossed.

[eFestivals]

yep, sorted.

[windy_miller]

I know audiophiles are a gullible lot, but this is just ridiculous...

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/hificritic/vol5_no3/listening_to_storage.htm

[5co77ie]

got a Synology DS215j for Christmas and a couple of Red Drives - fitted it all together in seconds, turned it on and have been very happy with it ever since.

Looking for a cheaper sound solution than Sonos to have it play throughout the house/garden next.

and a projector to attach to it to play video out in the garden too

Edited January 8, 2015 by 5co77ie

[eFestivals]

and a projector to attach to it to play video out in the garden too

you'll need more than just a projector - it will need to be a 'smart' projector (eg: a computer), that's capable of turning a digital file into vision that is projectable.

Mind you, i'm not sure how well it would work outside. Every attempt i've ever made at watching moving picture in the outdoors has been a waste of time, because there's too much ambient light for the light in the picture to get above.

[eFestivals]

Looking for a cheaper sound solution than Sonos to have it play throughout the house/garden next.

I'd guess that a bunch of bluetooth speakers would be the best way to go for all speakers to be in-sync - unless you go the Airplay route, as that's designed for simultaneous playing (while DNLA isn't as far as i know, tho it can be made to work I think).