DTS-6D modifications for SD card playback

[Tomek Lecocq]

Generally, flash memory is bad for long term storage, much worse than mechanical HDDs (or even magnetic tape).

[Marco Giustini]

oh, the BlueSCSI works with the DTS? I have one! Thanks.

Re. storage, I'd imagine one could keep a backup of all the movies somewhere else. I wouldn't rely on a single SD card - or on a CD, or on a single HDD for what matters! - for long term storage!

[Josh Jones]

Perhaps I’m old fashioned, but I don’t think an SD card is appropriate for volume long term storage. Same is true for the single drives in the XD10 though.

But maybe for convenience a way to easily toggle which files it is looking at for the emulation targets. Which effectively could be the same result if you elect not to store them elsewhere.

I would recommend either archival grade optical media (BDXL) for backing up data in multiple places, or mechanical drives. The retention of an SD card is approximately 10 years unpowered.

Josh

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Yeah for anything that you REALLY want to keep "forever" multiple backups in different formats are always a wise choice...especially since storage media hardware and software tends to go obsolete.... (Iomega Zip drives, anyone? I have some backups that I never bothered to migrate off of that now dead format that I consider to be lost forever.)

[Michael Zarits]

I store all discs on my cloud server that is synced to at least 3 different geographical locations along with a daily incremental backup to HDD and a separate to LTO. On a major update of new discs I do a manual extra backup on BD/XL. All discs I have a print for are also present as regular physical DTS discs as I still prefer to use my 6D. During projection I also run a XD10 in parallel as a backup but never ever had to switch due to a 6D malfunction. A well maintained 6D combined with super slow burned good quality CD-Rs is reliable as hell. On the other hand a XD10 can be a bit tricky e.g. if you turn it off just in the moment it writes onto the HDD, there is a chance it corrupts the filesystem. In this case the XD has all the install files on a separate partition and re-installs itself, but all ingested soundtracks are gone. So with both units the media that is used to playback soundtracks from should never be the main long term storage as CDs (and SDs) can easily become unreadable and the XD HDD is just not reliable.

What's interesting about the SD modification is that sooner or later we will run out of working SCSI CD drives so it's good to know there is a way keep the 6Ds running.

Btw. to prevent corruptions on XD10s I suggest to replace the main switch to a momentary switch and plug it to the standard power pins on the mainboard. This shuts down the unit properly like a regular PC instead of killing it by cutting the power. You can also modify the actual switch to a momentary switch by inserting a spring.

Further I have written a tool to ingest DTS discs via PC as it's a pain in the ass to ingest everything via CD, so I use a hot swap on my XD10 to easily access the XD drive:

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[Josh Jones]

All my DTS discs exist as ISO's on my nass, which is periodically imaged to offsite backup discs that are rotated. Eventually I'll also do LTO offsite, but have mechanical drives in pelican cases for now.

Josh

[Ryan Gallagher]

I like the clean shutdown and drive caddy mod. I found that ingesting is much easier although the read speeds are still slow after I did the update to enable ingest from usb (1.0 speed?). While we do have enough storage now after a drive upgrade to just keep everything on the XD10, no NAS here so I just keep our DTS repository and processor backups on two separate laptops.

iteresting that you prefer to run with the 6D when you have a XD10.

Personally, back when I used to have a home lab, I was better about backups, I should improve my current situation, but at least my most important data is on a cold drive in a dock I can just pull and walk out with,

[Ryan Gallagher]

Though with the XD10 latest software, or the 6D Zulu/Blue mod, the scsi cdroms are no longer the weak link, but the face panel usb port might become so. Your sled mod is a good way around both for the XD10, if there is no 6D handy to mod and put into service.

Aside, you have a 10TB disc for the XD10? I thought there was an OS limitation to 2TB? Oh wait, your system drive is below that... the 10TB is just in the removable bay. Does it recognize the whole 10TB when mounted? Did you need your script to mount it, or does it just mount it on boot?

[Michael Zarits]

I just inserted this 10TB HDD for the purpose if the picture. I currently have a 1TB SSD (with a 3.5 adapter) installed. Ext3 partition size limit is 32TB with a 2TB limit per file, so technically it should be possible to use the full 10TB here. But with 1TB you already can store a massive amount of soundtracks on your XD. The OS is also on that one drive, you can't run 2 HDDs in one XD as the installer looks only for the first HDD in the IDE chain.

Currently my tool to ingest via PC requires to mount 2 partitions, I use Paragon's Linux filesystem for Windows but I will look for a solution that does not require to mount partitions manually. When I'm done with a final version I will post it here or send it to Brad if he likes to make it available in the warehouse.

[Ryan Gallagher]

I just inserted this 10TB HDD for the purpose if the picture. I currently have a 1TB SSD (with a 3.5 adapter) installed. Ext3 partition size limit is 32TB with a 2TB limit per file, so technically it should be possible to use the full 10TB here. But with 1TB you already can store a massive amount of soundtracks on your XD. The OS is also on that one drive, you can't run 2 HDDs in one XD as the installer looks only for the first HDD in the IDE chain.

Currently my tool to ingest via PC requires to mount 2 partitions, I use Paragon's Linux filesystem for Windows but I will look for a solution that does not require to mount partitions manually. When I'm done with a final version I will post it here or send it to Brad if he likes to make it available in the warehouse.

Ahh that makes sense. Photo op drive. My memory of doing my reading prior to the upgrade had the drive size (or partition) limit determined by the bios, not so much the file system type. We bought a 1TB SSD for our replacement XD10 drive and it does see all of it, but I don't have it in a convenient sled! De-racking that unit was a royal pain because that older in wall rack is partially blocked by the DCI rack bolted to the floor. A drive sled would be a welcome upgrade if for no other reason than that.

[Michael Zarits]

... limit determined by the bios, not so much the file system type

I just had a 4TB HDD laying around and tried to install it into the XD10. You are right! It did not recognize the HDD, so it seems 2TB is the limit.