Personal Cloud Storage

[Gabriel1]

On my iPad it was fine but you could tell it wouldn't transfer to my HD TV as well which is what I want it for mainly.

The Archangel

 

[skimonkey]

Oh, than that would be good for me to use on my iPad! Good to know-going to look at a few movies I want to convert for a trip coming up!

 

[Gabriel1]

If it is just for the iPad then the default setting should be fine for you.

The Archangel

 

[leelai]

Gab this sounds awesome, I've been wondering what to do regarding storage of some type and this sounds perfect. I'm looking into this, you make it sound so simple.

 

[Gabriel1]

It really is simple. When I was considering this I thought that it may be way to complex but almost everything nowadays is plug and play so just connect the leads and you are ready to go. I should have done this ages ago.

I've just got a few more things to do......

1) Set up a network switch (about £20-£30) to link everything to my router that isn't wireless.
2) Re-setup my Time Capsule to backup everything on my network.
3) Install a WD TV Live unit (£70-£80) to play all my ripped movies to my HD TV.
4) Install the apps needed to allow my iPad to write to my personal cloud (WD 2go Pro is a read only app). There is a WD photo app which enables copying of all photos to my cloud but I also discovered that there is a combination of two other apps which allows writing of other file types to my cloud.
5) Get a second Apple TV (£99) so that I can have one upstairs in the bedroom and a ATV 3 hooked up downstairs to my HD TV then I'll need to point iTunes to my ripped DVD's (which I am converting in the correct format) so they are available on my bedroom TV.

The most time consuming part is ripping my hundreds of DVD's but once done I can store the hard copies in my attic room and free up lots of space.

For those interested, rather than buying the Apple Superdive I purchased an AmazonBasics DVD rewriter for £28 to enable me to rip everything.

With the 5GB iCloud for Apps and other stuff which can't be stored on my personal cloud then I now have more than enough space for everything I need and it is always expandable.

I would always advise that a backup of everything should always be kept, in my case I got a refurb 2TB Time Capsule but and good sized external HD can be used.

The Archangel

 

[Gabriel1]

So I just installed the WD Photos App and within around 15mins I had uploaded all 532 photos to my cloud.

I can see this being of great use to photographers who can find some kind of access.

Of course all my skitches are now floating around in my cloud!

The Archangel

 

[AQ_OC]

I now have complete access from both my iPad and my MacBook Air.

Do you mean inside your home or over the internet (or both)?

If over the Internet, how fast is at from another location like at work?

 

[Gabriel1]

From anywhere that I can get a connection. I'll test speeds tomorrow.

The Archangel

 

[skimonkey]

So I just installed the WD Photos App and within around 15mins I had uploaded all 532 photos to my cloud.

I can see this being of great use to photographers who can find some kind of access.

Of course all my skitches are now floating around in my cloud!

The Archangel

That's fantastic and good to hear that you have those valuable skitches backed up in your cloud as well! Awesome fast upload!

 

[Good karma]

This is such a good alternative to iCloud Gab, and 1TB for £100 is absolute bargain. And given the Western Digital storage is hooked up to the router, this means you can have access to your movies when you are outside through wifi or 3g

 

[Gabriel1]

That's fantastic and good to hear that you have those valuable skitches backed up in your cloud as well! Awesome fast upload!

Yes, I was really pleased at the speed.

This is such a good alternative to iCloud Gab, and 1TB for £100 is absolute bargain. And given the Western Digital storage is hooked up to the router, this means you can have access to your movies when you are outside through wifi or 3g

Yes, everything is available everywhere as long as I have a connection. If I know that I won't have a connection I can download in advance but I can't remember the last time that I didn't have a connection.

The Archangel

 

[Gabriel1]

Do you mean inside your home or over the internet (or both)?

If over the Internet, how fast is at from another location like at work?

I have just accessed the drive remotely from work, I'm on a 3G connection, everything connected really fast without any issues. Photos and documents were really quick to load. I tried the ripped DVD's but some buffering was encountered, this was to be expected as they are ripped at high quality for viewing on my HD TV, I may load some DVD rips at iPad quality and would expect these to stream perfectly given the results so far.

To say that I am pleased with the results is an understatement.

The Archangel

 

[leelai]

Gab...you've ripped all your movies to the 1 format and they are for TV viewing? What format is it? So these can't be played on the iPad then?
Still trying to get my head around all this. But gees to be able to do this from outside is amazing to me. I want it!!

 

[Gabriel1]

Gab...you've ripped all your movies to the 1 format and they are for TV viewing? What format is it? So these can't be played on the iPad then?
Still trying to get my head around all this. But gees to be able to do this from outside is amazing to me. I want it!!

The movies I have ripped so far are at the highest quality as my main intention is to watch them on my TV and I want them to look good. The format is M4V and yes, they can be played on my iPad, over wifi they stream flawlessly but obviously due to the file size it's a bit to much for 3G so I would need to reduce the quality for 3G streaming. I do the conversions in HandBrake (it's free and super easy) which has presets for iPad, Apple TV, etc.

If I do a second conversion in iPad quality they will still look excellent (I did try this at home yesterday) but obviously they then wouldn't look as good on my TV because of the screen size. So any that I want to watch on my iPad I'll do a second copy of on my cloud store which can then be streamed to my iPad whenever and wherever I am. I don't watch many films on my iPad so I only need to do a few for odd occasions when I'm not at home.

This is all a secondary benefit as the main purpose of this is to get everything on board for my home viewing.

Everything else is just running perfectly!

The Archangel

 

[Gabriel1]

I could easily give you an access code and you could access my personal cloud in Australia, that's the point, for your family you don't need one each (although you could set up areas for each family member which only they can access) as it works like any other cloud.......except in this case it's your cloud to do what you want with, one payment only to by the live box.

The Archangel