Re: [WinMac] DVD/CD servers

Subject: Re: [WinMac] DVD/CD servers
From: Darryl Lee (lee[at]darryl.com)
Date: Wed Oct 24 2001 - 16:18:06 EDT

kramizeh@pilot.msu.edu wrote:
>
> Hello,
> I seem to remember a discussion a while ago regarding CD/DVD
> servers or juke boxes but could find nothing in the winmac archives.
> What we're looking for is a way for multiple students to acess a
> collection of CDs or DVDs in our lab. I would appreciate any ideas or
> experiences that anyone has regarding this kind of setup. Thanks. MVK

Here's what our guy who was researching this found. Apparently getting the
hybrid CDs to work was the big problem.

--Darryl

DVD/CD Jukeboxes:
Pioneer DRM 7000, Powerfile C200

Software:
SmartStorage Archive, MacJuke, Cumulus

Powerfile problems:
The problem I ran into with the Powerfile is efficiency. Each disc had to
be loaded one-at-a-time instead of all at once in a magazine. It lacked the
expansion capabilites for several drives or larger disc capacity. The
software was very primitive. You had to manually catalog every disc which
was not only tedious, but very time consuming. Accessing each disc was
slow, and it lacked cross-platform capabilites because AppleShare IP caused
several conflicts on the server and was not reccommended to be used.

SmartStorage Archive problems:
This was the ideal solution. Hardware kicked ass; no problems...enough
said. At the time, the software lacked the ability to handle hybrid CDs as
well as Apple DVDs. Currently, I believe it does support Apple DVDs. The
only remaining issue is when attemping to load hybrid CDs. If server was
Windows, it only saw the Windows side; and vice-versa for Macs.

Conclusion:
I would highly reccommend using SmartStorage Archive software with *any*
jukebox. The only problem is that it's a fairly costly solution. The
Pioneer jukebox was fast, efficient, flexible, and expandable...but very
expensive also. I'd reccommend a smaller jukebox with possible side-by-side
solutions for hybrid CDs.

 - Nash

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