then yes. The arc is nice. The sony has slightly better ratings but the sonos is much easier install as it is way lighter. and with the sub it is very similar sound to me.
Electronics Thread (Television and Sound Recommendations)
- Thread starter JayH
- Start date
This might be a longshot...
Can anyone recommend a good service to convert old MiniDV tapes to computer-ready files? There are a ton, with prices ranging from about $12 to $24 per tape. I have 15-20 MiniDV tapes I need transferred. I have a working Canon MiniDV Camcorder with a battery and power cord, but I don't have the IEEE1394 Firewire cable to connect it to a computer, and I don't have a computer with a Firewire port. And I'm not sure if the camera port is standard or proprietary. There is surprisingly little info out there about hardware to DIY, and nobody seems to sell MiniDV tape player/converters at all for any price.
So I'm leaning towards just paying someone. I don't want to overspend, but I also don't know if I can trust the low end price places and will pay what I need to get it done right so recommendations appreciated.
Can anyone recommend a good service to convert old MiniDV tapes to computer-ready files? There are a ton, with prices ranging from about $12 to $24 per tape. I have 15-20 MiniDV tapes I need transferred. I have a working Canon MiniDV Camcorder with a battery and power cord, but I don't have the IEEE1394 Firewire cable to connect it to a computer, and I don't have a computer with a Firewire port. And I'm not sure if the camera port is standard or proprietary. There is surprisingly little info out there about hardware to DIY, and nobody seems to sell MiniDV tape player/converters at all for any price.
So I'm leaning towards just paying someone. I don't want to overspend, but I also don't know if I can trust the low end price places and will pay what I need to get it done right so recommendations appreciated.
M
moogoo and Seth
I ended up going with a Synology. 5 bays. It just arrived. I've been reading instructions and advice for setting it up. Will do some more before turning it on because I want to get it right. Will use either SHRS or SHRS-2, the synology proprietary system analogous to Raid 5 and 6 respectively. I also will give the Synology media center software Video Station a try too. Might even run both for a while. The Synology product has better reviews and features than I expected and it seems like the preference among users is maybe slightly towards Plex, but not by much.
I ended up going with a Synology. 5 bays. It just arrived. I've been reading instructions and advice for setting it up. Will do some more before turning it on because I want to get it right. Will use either SHRS or SHRS-2, the synology proprietary system analogous to Raid 5 and 6 respectively. I also will give the Synology media center software Video Station a try too. Might even run both for a while. The Synology product has better reviews and features than I expected and it seems like the preference among users is maybe slightly towards Plex, but not by much.
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Congrats on your NAS! 5 bays are nice as you can use one as a hot swappable spare and still be able to enjoy the benefits of raid 5/6.
re: converting miniDV tapes
there should be some capture devices that will allow you to send your tapes from camcorder to PC/MAC via RCA -> USB. This would of course be lower quality than a firewire transfer. The firewire cable should be fairly cheap to buy as it's probably standard 400 size (has a notch on one side) or 800 (rectangular). The harder part is getting a computer with a port and then finding software to capture it. A bit of work of course, but buying an expansion card with firewire ports isn't too expensive (cheaper than a service for that many tapes), but not sure what your setup is. They also have firewire to USB adapters for ~$10, but this may not support the full video capture you want.
I couldn't wait and jumped in last night. I made one mistake but caught it early and just wiped and started over. I inadvertently included all 5 drives in the Volume instead of setting one up as the hot swap. It was the only area where Synology's setup process was a bit lacking, I think. I assumed that after I chose SHRS-2 it would prompt me to select 1 or 2 Hot Swappable drives but it didn't, and then when I got to the create volume part of the setup I used all 5 without really realizing it. But then I played around with the control panel and file station, realized my mistake, figured out where I went wrong and fixed it pretty easily. So I'm all configured and have about 10 films and 5 home movies in my library as a start, running both the Plex software and the Synology video station. I even rendered a home movie direct from iMovie on my Mac to the Home Movies folder on the NAS.
And I think I'm going to enjoy figuring out other ways to use the server for other purposes.