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Well we are at 1.5TB and growing. Plus we all do a decent amount of actual watching so a single movie could be 3GB up and 3Gb x 5times coming down for 18 GB in bandwidth. We'd be looking at at least 750GB in transfer each month which would be expensive.
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I know you can have a dedicated server for 75$ a month that includes 3000 GB of transfer per month.
but that becomes more expensive than paying for a software.
Hardware: Revo 3610 + SSD - Harmony 700 Remote
Software: XBMCBuntu Gotham -
Sickbeard -
SabNZBd+
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Other cheap solution :
- Everybody install a private ftp server
- An account must be created for each user and on each ftp server.
- You need to install Netdrive -free - (if you're using Windows) for mapping ftp server as network drive
- Configure XBMC to read over this drives.
No synchronisation, just an other streaming solution !
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If the backup server is at my house then won't my upload speed prevent others from being able to stream? It takes more than 2 hours to download a film.
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OR you can find CHEAP hosting with unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth (which is fast) from places like iPage ($3.95 US/month), etc. They have SFTP so you should be able to setup users that way.
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If each home has sufficient broadband access, why not just run a simple VPN?
Another option would be to run a private torrent tracker, and just automate downloading of new files with a script. Only people you invite have access, and if 2 or 3 family members already have the file, you can all split the bandwidth to deliver it to the fourth person. They get it faster, and you can add additional trackers to the torrent file if it exists online. This is what bit Torrent is designed to do, deliver large files to people with minimal upload overhead by partnering you with multiple people in the swarm. And unlike FTP, if the person running the server disconnects, someone else will pick up the slack by serving the file for you. This is the route I would go just for the security and reliability, but the fact that it's free to do doesn't hurt either.
If you want to be able to stream the files, you may have to do a bit of research first. Most broadband connections can receive 1080p video as a stream with no bottlenecks or excessive buffers. Sending those videos upstream is much harder to do. Consider running a video stream server that can down-scale to 480 (SD) on the fly. The real issue there is that you need about a 30 second buffer so lag-spikes don't cripple your video. In addition, the processor overhead is much higher. Not a problem if the files are served from a modern PC, but an old one re-purposed as a server may have issues. And the software, depending on which suite you go with can run from $200-$1400 per license. Still, if you have 1.5TB of video, I assume you have means of coming by such software at no cost, not that I officially endorse that practice. I've also seen issues with on-the-fly re-encoding losing sync between video and audio, but haven't played with it enough to know if that's common or easily fixed, just know it occasionally happens with some people.
I've also heard of people sharing a netflix account for movie streaming. One computer logs in and forwards the video to the others. You all have to watch the same movie at the same time, but since it's forwarded by the end client, it's undetectable by netflix. Not ideal but some people do this.
If you have line-of-sight between your houses (less than 22 miles, no mountains or skyscrapers in between), you can get decent speeds with a wifi adapter in adhoc mode and a decent directional antenna. Positioning the antennas initially is a pain, and they must be secure so wind doesn't move them. It is possible, and the speeds are sufficient without going through your ISP, so bandwidth is a non-issue. The down-fall here is you need a pair of antennas between every two connected houses (though you can daisy-chain to extend range). And regardless of what you see on youtube, a pringles can won't get you more than a quarter mile distance in practice, so you have to buy of build some decent quality antennas. So it costs a bit of money upfront, but you have your own private internet in essence, so the cool-factor's pretty high and there's a million tutorials online. Not a beginner project.
Then there's the low-tech approach. Everyone get a 32GB thumbdrive. Copy your latest additions, and then every Monday, everyone drops their drive in the mail to another person in the group. You send to Bob who sends to Sam who sends to Steve who sends to Molly who sends to you. In a few weeks, your drive ends up back at your house, everyone has what they wanted from it, so format the drive and copy over what you've collected in the mean-time. With several weeks in between cycles, you'll have acquired enough video to fill it again with new stuff, so you end up with a lot, and you're not wasting your bandwidth serving files to someone else 24/7. Everyone who wants in to your group drops $50 on their own drive and covers the cost of a postage stamp every week. Instead of looking at bigger drives, consider getting multiple drives and starting multiple trading rings. One with family, one with co-workers, one for neighbors, classmates... You get the idea. Now you end up with practically everything on the torrent sites without using any of your own bandwidth. When you need to add files to your drive, just add ones procured through another ring, and you'll always have fresh content.
