Video sharing/streaming/?

[Mcgreag]

I have a largish anime collection (about 7TB) currently sitting on a bunch of USB drives. This collection is mainly used at our anime club that up until now hasn't had an internet connection other than a not so stable 3g connection. What I have done so far is download stuff at home, mainly from BakaBT and when my local drive starts to fill up I move all the usb drives home so I can sort, remove duplicates etc and anidb index it before moving them back to the clubhouse. This is not a very efficient process but I haven't had much choice.

But now we are finally getting an wired internet connection at the club so I am looking for a solution to make this easier. My connection at home is a very stable 100/100 fiber connection. At the club we will be getting ADSL either 24/3 or 10/1 (if 10/1 is fast enough we will go with that as it is cheaper and the club doesn't have much of a budget). So I am now looking at a solution that means I won't have to physically move the discs back and forth all the time.

I am basically looking at 3 possible ways to do this.

1. Keep the data at home and share files to the clubhouse using Hamachi or something similar.
I have a working setup with Hamachi but I found it to reduce the transfer speed so much it was mostly unusable. 2 computers on the same local network with gigabit connection got less than 8mbit/s when using Hamachi even when it said they had a direct connection. Testing with the wireless internet at the clubhouse yielded even worse results. But if I can get something like this working with decent speed it would be the optimal solution.

2. Keep the data at home and set up some sort of stream on demand software that can stream the video instead of the video files like option 1 would do.
We prefer to just use MPC-HC with no mediacenter software (we have tested XMBC and MediaPortal but found both to be really bad), not sure how that would work with this solution. There is also the question of varying audio and subtitle tracks etc. Manually preparing all troublesome files is not an option.

3. Keep the data at the clubhouse and ftp in or similar to upload things from home.
Would be much more difficult to keep things organized this way which is the main deterrent from it. There are also the question of transfer limits as there are going to be much more stuff transferred this way (we watch at most 10% everything I collect, but we like to have everything available).

So does anyone have a any tips or suggestions or solutions to our situation? There is also the question of what connection speed to get. In theory 10mbit/s should more than enough for 720p (we have a 720p projector and therefor don't keep anything above that) but what about in practice with all the overhead and other inefficiency (see hamachi comment above for example)?.

[Bob2004]

What operating system do you have on your PC at home? If you're running Linux, or some other Unix variant, then Mediatomb is a great piece of software for streaming video over a network to other PCs. It just streams the whole file, then the client decodes and plays it itself, so it should work fine with whatever format you throw at it. The downside is there's no Windows version, and I can't think of any other equivalent software for Windows. You might be able to get it running in a virtual machine or something though perhaps.

As for the network speed, if it is actually 10Mb/s, then that should be plenty. But since it's ADSL, it might well be significantly less than that, depending on the line, distance from the exchange, etc, in which case it could potentially be problematic. The only way to know for sure is to test it and see.

[ColdFission]

If you are on a Windows platform, maybe you can create your VPN connection and then you can share-out the folders from your home pc to the clubhouse. Would be faster if you were to share-out folders via a Homegroup with the VPN. You now don't have to depend on Hamachi servers to get your VPN. An alternative VPN service I've used successfully for RDPing is TeamViewer.

http://www.windows7hacker.com/index.php/2009/08/how-to-set-up-a-vpn-connection-in-windows-7/
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/4517-virtual-private-network-vpn-enable-incoming-vpn-connections.html

Furthermore, I think you can configure your home PC firewall to accept connections from the Internet (well, your club house) to gain access to your shares. So when you enter your home PC's IP address from your club house, it should prompt you for some user and password if your home PC is password protected (should be anyway). The settings in the firewall at home that should be checked off for Public use would be Homegroup (if you want to use Homegroup sharing) and Network Discovery. You can use VPNing with this as well. I haven't tested this before as I just thought of this while typing this xD. I was successful in RDPing from overseas to my home computer when I just entered my public IP for my cable modem and I was able to get in (with user and password of course), so if it works works with RDPing, it should with file shares.

As for streaming, I can't think of any media server tech that would properly carry subtitles properly and that was one big stumbling block when I want to watch anime on the HDTV. The solution I came to was to simply connect my laptop via HDMI to the TV and access the content via shared folder within my Homegroup (using the "Network" section in explorer is a little slower for browsing but playback performance was the same).

Anyone can correct me if I am wrong with anything and I hope the post was a little helpful at least.

[halfelite]

If you store them at your house and want to stream them to the club use something like llink or swisscenter they are both http streamers that send the video feed out over http you just connect to it with vlc or something. And connection speed shouldnt matter just tell vlc to buffer enough of the video so that if your connection drops a little it wont skip the video

[kitamesume]

1) if you're rich, buy MOAR HDDs! and make a mirror copy, leave the copy on the club and the original on you house.

2) if you're not so rich, get a good enough connection and stream through it, hopefully it doesn't stutter like hell.

3) if you cant afford most of the above, then buy a carrier bag and drag the HDDs! lol...

edit: yea the 10/1 should be enough for 720p so long as you dont go play 720p with nasty bitrates... i think it wouldn't be enough for 1080p with nasty bitrate and file size though, i mean 10GBs per 1hr 1080p.

[Mcgreag]

(click to show/hide)

What operating system do you have on your PC at home? If you're running Linux, or some other Unix variant, then Mediatomb is a great piece of software for streaming video over a network to other PCs. It just streams the whole file, then the client decodes and plays it itself, so it should work fine with whatever format you throw at it. The downside is there's no Windows version, and I can't think of any other equivalent software for Windows. You might be able to get it running in a virtual machine or something though perhaps.

As for the network speed, if it is actually 10Mb/s, then that should be plenty. But since it's ADSL, it might well be significantly less than that, depending on the line, distance from the exchange, etc, in which case it could potentially be problematic. The only way to know for sure is to test it and see.

Windows 7 but I can setup a nix server if that turns out to be the best solution.
Doing a few local tests it seems 10mbit/s is not as plenty as it might seem. Even in shows with an avg bitrate of just 3-4 mbit/s there are peaks in high action scenes above 10mbit/s. Even on a perfect 10mbit/s connection there would be shuttering unless there are some caching involved (which it might be with video streaming but not with file streaming).

(click to show/hide)

If you are on a Windows platform, maybe you can create your VPN connection and then you can share-out the folders from your home pc to the clubhouse. Would be faster if you were to share-out folders via a Homegroup with the VPN. You now don't have to depend on Hamachi servers to get your VPN. An alternative VPN service I've used successfully for RDPing is TeamViewer.

http://www.windows7hacker.com/index.php/2009/08/how-to-set-up-a-vpn-connection-in-windows-7/
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/4517-virtual-private-network-vpn-enable-incoming-vpn-connections.html

Furthermore, I think you can configure your home PC firewall to accept connections from the Internet (well, your club house) to gain access to your shares. So when you enter your home PC's IP address from your club house, it should prompt you for some user and password if your home PC is password protected (should be anyway). The settings in the firewall at home that should be checked off for Public use would be Homegroup (if you want to use Homegroup sharing) and Network Discovery. You can use VPNing with this as well. I haven't tested this before as I just thought of this while typing this xD. I was successful in RDPing from overseas to my home computer when I just entered my public IP for my cable modem and I was able to get in (with user and password of course), so if it works works with RDPing, it should with file shares.

Sharing without doing anything extra except opening firewall is not possible as most all IPS including mine will block windows shares to the general internet as a security thing. I read that there are some built in way in windows to do it with the use of windows live ids but I haven't checked that yet.
Some other VPN solution than hamachi is what I am hoping will work. I'll take a look at TeamViewer.

(click to show/hide)

1) if you're rich, buy MOAR HDDs! and make a mirror copy, leave the copy on the club and the original on you house.

2) if you're not so rich, get a good enough connection and stream through it, hopefully it doesn't stutter like hell.

3) if you cant afford most of the above, then buy a carrier bag and drag the HDDs! lol...

edit: yea the 10/1 should be enough for 720p so long as you dont go play 720p with nasty bitrates... i think it wouldn't be enough for 1080p with nasty bitrate and file size though, i mean 10GBs per 1hr 1080p.

1. Will not solve my problem. I will need to carry the drives back and forth.
2. Not so easy as it might sound with multiple audio streams and softsubs etc. Converting the files in advance to a streamable format is not an option.
3. Is what I am doing now. I am trying to find some way to avoid it remember?

[kitamesume]

what i meant:
1) duplicate the drives and leave a copy on the club and your house so that you wouldn't need to move any HDDs at all.

2) yea i'd agree streaming isn't easy as it looks like but thats the most possible option you have.

3) i left a "lol..." on the last line =P

edit, adding an option:
1) move your club into your house or vice versa.

2) get an online storage or something?

3) http://www.labnol.org/internet/access-computer-files-over-internet/13816/

4) (warning, most expensive) have a lan cable run from your house to your club and access it like a NAS.

5) screw the club.

[vuzedome]

Get another drive for the club, everybody pitch in some $$ and get a nice 2TB external.

[Bob2004]

Mediatomb is still the best option imo, if you're willing to mess around with Linux. But since you have Windows 7, you could also just use the built in VPN server to access shared folders remotely from the clubhouse, and download or stream your videos from there. Effective, and probably the simplest and cheapest option.

If you have a dynamic IP address at home, which you may well do, then it might get a little bit more complicated, but you can use something like dyndns to get round that without too much difficulty.

[ColdFission]

I also want to add that if you do go all Internet access for your anime from you club house, I highly recommend you bring backups anyway because you never know when your Internet cuts out (I had mine cut out a few weeks ago due to copper vandals and was out for more than 24 hours), a computer malfunction, someone accidentally unplugging your machine/modem, etc.

[Mcgreag]

what i meant:
1) duplicate the drives and leave a copy on the club and your house so that you wouldn't need to move any HDDs at all.

Get another drive for the club, everybody pitch in some $$ and get a nice 2TB external.

Think you both have missunderstood my problem. I don't need to have full access to all of it both at home and at the club. I need away to get everything new I download at hoome to the collection at the club, sorted, indexed and ready without having to carry drives back and forth. Also what good is a if a 2tb drive going to do for me when the collection is closing in on 8tb.
I guess a possible option would be to have the same set of drives at both places and setup some sort of automated backup service between them.

edit, adding an option:
1) move your club into your house or vice versa.
2) get an online storage or something?
3) http://www.labnol.org/internet/access-computer-files-over-internet/13816/
4) (warning, most expensive) have a lan cable run from your house to your club and access it like a NAS.
5) screw the club.

1) Have crossed my mind but no. Would won't to waste the nice cinema we have built
2) For 6-7tb data and increasing? Think option 4 might actually be cheaper.
3) Things like that I am looking at yes.
4) About 3km bird path straight through the city center Maybe some sort of radio link would be possible, I am living on the 3rd floor on a hill and can almost see the club house from my balcony :-)
5) The club is my baby that I have nurtured for the last 8 years so no. 

I also want to add that if you do go all Internet access for your anime from you club house, I highly recommend you bring backups anyway because you never know when your Internet cuts out (I had mine cut out a few weeks ago due to copper vandals and was out for more than 24 hours), a computer malfunction, someone accidentally unplugging your machine/modem, etc.

My current computer and internet connection is very stable but even if it is down once in a blue moon it's not a big issue. We will just spend the evening playing BlazBlue: CS2 or similar instead.
Heck atm every time I take the drives home to fill up we don't have access for 1-2 weeks it takes to much time to get the 1-2tb of new stuff sorted into the collection.

[kitamesume]

^
4) your reply gave me an idea, try lan wifi though instead of a regular antenna use a satellite dish directly facing the club.
How-To: Build a WiFi biquad dish antenna - http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/15/how-to-build-a-wifi-biquad-dish-antenna/

Why? With just a handful of cheap parts, a salvaged DirecTV dish and a little soldering, we were able to detect access points from over 8 miles away. Using consumer WiFi gear we picked up over 18 APs in an area with only 1 house per square mile.

other links:
http://www.ab9il.net/wlan-projects/wifi3.html
http://www.skifactz.com/wifi/wifi_dish.htm
http://martybugs.net/wireless/biquad/

edit:
ah and you wouldn't need to get that other 10/1 line anymore, just fetch some internet through the wifi.

[Bob2004]

^
4) your reply gave me an idea, try lan wifi though instead of a regular antenna use a satellite dish directly facing the club.
How-To: Build a WiFi biquad dish antenna - http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/15/how-to-build-a-wifi-biquad-dish-antenna/

Why? With just a handful of cheap parts, a salvaged DirecTV dish and a little soldering, we were able to detect access points from over 8 miles away. Using consumer WiFi gear we picked up over 18 APs in an area with only 1 house per square mile.

other links:
http://www.ab9il.net/wlan-projects/wifi3.html
http://www.skifactz.com/wifi/wifi_dish.htm
http://martybugs.net/wireless/biquad/

That might actually be better than using your home internet to stream data, since I'm guessing your upload speed is fairly limited. It'll be a lot more fun too, though not as cheap.

If you have the money, just buying two antennae would be possible too. You could probably get a couple of dishes for within $100, though whether they'll be powerful enough or not, I can't say. Most places you could buy them from should let you return them if they aren't powerful enough, though.

[halfelite]

Your best solution is go with an http stream on windows you can run both llink or swisscenter, and there are a few others, then use vlc as the player set the buffer to something like 10-15 megs sure your video wont start right away but that should be enough to account for any speed drops in your isp speed.

[kitamesume]

^
4) your reply gave me an idea, try lan wifi though instead of a regular antenna use a satellite dish directly facing the club.
How-To: Build a WiFi biquad dish antenna - http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/15/how-to-build-a-wifi-biquad-dish-antenna/

Why? With just a handful of cheap parts, a salvaged DirecTV dish and a little soldering, we were able to detect access points from over 8 miles away. Using consumer WiFi gear we picked up over 18 APs in an area with only 1 house per square mile.

other links:
http://www.ab9il.net/wlan-projects/wifi3.html
http://www.skifactz.com/wifi/wifi_dish.htm
http://martybugs.net/wireless/biquad/

That might actually be better than using your home internet to stream data, since I'm guessing your upload speed is fairly limited. It'll be a lot more fun too, though not as cheap.

If you have the money, just buying two antennae would be possible too. You could probably get a couple of dishes for within $100, though whether they'll be powerful enough or not, I can't say. Most places you could buy them from should let you return them if they aren't powerful enough, though.

the "powerfulness" depends mostly on the signal output of the transmitter, according to these sites the regular wifi routers should have enough juice to reach a 4mile target without much losses, 8miles with some losses. if the signal strength seems to be not reaching for some odd reason, you could buy a wifi signal booster.

edit:
http://pasadena.net/shootout05/

Congratulations to Team iFiber Redwire for their 125 mile unamplified 802.11b link!

This was accomplished with a 12 foot dish on a mountain on the outside of Las Vegas and their remote station with a 10 foot dish on a mountain to the west of St. George Utah.

edit2:
http://www.amazon.com/DIRECTV-060209-Dish-for-DirecTv/dp/B000HRQXQQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317518919&sr=8-1
18" Dish for DirecTv
List Price:    $189.99
Price:    $27.98
You Save:    $162.01 (85%)

i loled... well with 1 1/2 foot dish you should be able to get 5miles off the bat.

[Freedom Kira]

I'm not so sure about the radio link. Might get picked up by cops. Not sure how your country treats piracy, but if your home connection is so good, I get the feeling it'd be one of those that arrests for it. Not only that, but that would be a shaky connection. You'd get a ton of interference with a fair amount of wind outside.

Have you looked at basic SFTP? You won't be able to stream, but you could download one episode while watching another, and if your line is fast enough and the file is small enough, it'd finish by the time you finish the first.

If the problem is the weight of the drives that you're carrying back and forth, try getting a USB flash drive with massive capacity. I have one that looks like this but with 64GB.

[Sosseres]

The simplest solution ought to be an FTP where you just download stuff prior to watching. If you decide a couple of hours earlier or even days prior this solution works and also leaves the backup plan of just going to physically get it if the net is down. You keep everything organised at home, then you just dump over whatever is planned in the viewing order. Most times you only need like 20 mins warning to watch an entire series since it is as fast as streaming (assuming you stream at full quality).

As others have mentioned, streaming with a large buffer should work, not with a small one. I am doubtful about the speed being up to high bitrate 1080p content though. Even if you only want to watch 720p, sometimes I assume you will get stuck with 1080p as the only alternative to 480p (not that common though).

[kitamesume]

@freedom kira
it is possible imo and she mentioned these.

4) About 3km bird path straight through the city center Maybe some sort of radio link would be possible, I am living on the 3rd floor on a hill and can almost see the club house from my balcony :-)

3km straight distance, and he could see the club house from her balcony, meaning nothing in between.

if you check this http://pasadena.net/shootout05/ you'll see that they did it on a mountain range, meaning tons of winds, i dont think winds does affect your signal though, i thought it was the thunders/lightnings or something similar.

Congratulations to Team iFiber Redwire for their 125 mile unamplified 802.11b link!

This was accomplished with a 12 foot dish on a mountain on the outside of Las Vegas and their remote station with a 10 foot dish on a mountain to the west of St. George Utah.

edit: lets say she misjudged the distance and it was 4km or 2.5miles in actual, that distance is very achievable even with a 12inches sat dish =P
some people say a 3feet(36inches) sat dish could reach 8miles or 12.9km.

@OP, i'd like to request a pic from your balcony =P

[Freedom Kira]

A mountain range does not mean tons of winds. It means a mountain range. Being on a mountain, the team was able to work with less outside interference, because the stuff the wind can kick up does not contribute as much to interference as stuff on the ground might. There's also less stuff around, in general, that would screw around with the signal.

Winds offer more or less interference depending on the amount and type of debris kicked up by the wind. The wind itself is not the problem.

P.S. Way to turn our OP into a female. I would be more careful with the pronoun "she."

Edit: In any case, suggesting that the OP build a satellite dish communication system that extravagant for the simple purpose of streaming videos is unrealistic. Think about all the problems that simply having one would entail. Aside from the amount of electricity and the cost of materials you'd need to cover, you're streaming pirated content over the air through a conspicuous medium. There are probably also legal issues you'd have to look into, just for having the dish itself, but don't quote me on that one.

[kitamesume]

lol gender... well you just missed my quote? its just a super sized antenna, so the electricity should be the same. having dishes should be legal but using them is what i'm not sure about, well because you aint using it for getting TV signals i think it shouldnt be illegal.

well they did use a card that outputs 300mw

One of the FAQ's asks if this is too much power. As it is stated (300mw = 300 milliwatts) no this is not too much power as this is actually a very small amount. Most handheld personal two-way radios can be operated without an FCC license using the FRS, Family Radio Service. The FRS requires that the radio broadcast at less than or equal to .5 watts or 500 mW. Now if someone mistyped and meant to put 300MW = 300 megawatts then yes this would be a large amount of power for someone with little training and no FCC authorization. I don't intend to suggest that the record holders have little training, just that if anyone else wanted to try this they should educate themselves first.

edit:
cost of building one:
http://www.amazon.com/DIRECTV-060209-Dish-for-DirecTv/dp/B000HRQXQQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317518919&sr=8-1
18" Dish for DirecTv
List Price:    $189.99
Price:    $27.98
You Save:    $162.01 (85%)
+ some mods  for the dish $50~ ish
+ WLAN card $60~ ish http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833281002
= $138 x 2 (total: $276)
note: obviously if you already have a WLan router/card then you can skip the option of buying one.

considering you could also hit the internet through this setup you'd be saving a couple of bucks from getting another line.