Personal Cloud Storage

[Gabriel1]

For those who may be interested I have just set up my own 1TB personal cloud storage. How easy was it, almost to easy!

So I purchased a Western Digital 1TB My Book Live yesterday on Amazon for £99.99 which was delivered an hour ago. I plugged this into by BT HomeHub router with the supplied patch cable. I then loaded the supplied WD software on my MacBook Air and as soon as it was loaded it asked for a few details and found my new drive immediately.

I then spent about 15mins setting it up how I wanted it and upgrading it to the latest firmware. It then rebooted.

I then generated an access code for my iPad which was entered into the WD 2go Pro App (£1.99 from the App Store although there is a free version).

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

I'll now play around with it for a while but so far, really pleased with this and all for just a little over £100.

The Archangel

 

[skimonkey]

That's a great, post gabriel1! Keep us informed how it works for you!

 

[Gabriel1]

Well in the time it took me to write that post I converted a DVD using Handbrake, uploaded it to the My Book Live and started streaming to my iPad.......



How easy was that!

The Archangel

 

[Hayles66]

I don't recognise movie though. I'd do this too if I had the money but new iPad makes up for it. I will definitely keep this thread in mind though

Sent from my new iPad using iPF

 

[Gabriel1]

I don't recognise movie though. I'd do this too if I had the money but new iPad makes up for it. I will definitely keep this thread in mind though

Sent from my new iPad using iPF

Hellboy 2 is the movie.

It's a cheap option longterm given most free cloud storage caps out at around 5GB. I have another reason for doing this as well though, I intend converting all my DVD's, buying a WD TV Live box so that I can empty one of my bookcases of DVD's and return it to books and stream all my films instead of having to boot up the player, find the DVD, etc, it'll just all be ready to go

The Archangel

 

[skimonkey]

Gabe-does it slow down your Mac or iPad any when streaming?

 

[Gabriel1]

It isn't streaming via my Mac, the My Book Live is connected direct to my router so my MBA can be switched off and I can still access the drive from my iPad.

The Archangel

 

[skimonkey]

That is way too cool, Gabe. I had to remove my external HD software off my laptop as it slowed it down tremendously during boot up. Are you going to get the 2nd ATV with this task of yours?

 

[Gabriel1]

Yep, the new Apple TV alongside my current one and the WD TV Live.

The Archangel

 

[Gabriel1]

FWIW it's taking about 30mins maximum to convert a DVD using HandBrake which I'm quite happy with.

The Archangel

 

[skimonkey]

Wow-that's quick. The last time I did a conversion with handbrake it took over 2 hours, but that was with a droid tab.

 

[Ian W]

That's fantastic! Will certainly be doing this myself in future I think.

 

[Gabriel1]

After playing around with the settings for HandBrake I have now upped all the settings to maximum. This is running at around 90mins for a 2hour+ movie.

Once I've uploaded it to my cloud I'll see what happens to the streaming.

The Archangel

 

[Gabriel1]

As yet another update, I have upped the resolution and streaming is still fine, it takes around 3 to 5 seconds longer for the movie to start playing which is fine.

The Archangel

 

[skimonkey]

I had wondered if your initial settings were toned down to get the 30 minute conversion. Was it bearable at that initial setting out of curiosity?