IMS1000 and unsupported drives and Supply Chain developments for EOL cinema kit.

[Elia Orselli]

Many times even 2TB is enought, especially when content comes via internet delivery.
However, at least here, for IMS3000, pricing for approved 2TB SSDs (even when purchased from general sellers) is higher than providing a Qnap NAS (approved model) with 4x 4TB HDDs.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

No doubt QNAP gets one heck of a discount from their drive vendors...

[Leo Enticknap]

My guess is that QNAP themselves supply their NAS units to Dolby without drives in them. That is how they come if you buy them independently from Dolby. Dolby then adds their custom firmware, plus the drives, which they likely bought direct from the drive manufacturer. Given the quantity in which Dolby buys the drives to put in their products prior to shipping, they likely do get a very good price per unit, but I don't see anything sinister in that: if I wished to place an order for, say, 20,000 drives, I would expect a much better price than the retail, individual unit cost, too.

If a drive fails while the unit is in warranty, Dolby will replace it at no charge. If it's out of warranty, they don't play any firmware silly games to stop you from using one you've sourced elsewhere: they simply state that if it's not on their approved list, you assume the risk if it doesn't play nicely with the NAS or IMS involved.