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[pjdevries]

Hi,

I am using MC for as long as I can remember and before it was even called MC (can't remember what it used to be . Streaming from my NAS is not an ideal situation for various reasons though. So I consider purchasing Id. Preferably an Id 300, but I face a few issues:

• My music collection does not fit on a 120GB SSD and I don't want a spinning drive.
• I am in Europe which makes shipping rather costly and I'm quite sure I will also have to pay import duties.
• Warranty could be a hassle should anything fail within the allotted warranty period.

So I was wondering if it's possible to purchase just the sofware and obtain the exact hardware specs, so I can build my own with locally purchased components. Is there something like IdNUC, the equivalent of IdPi for NUC's?

Regards,
Pieter-jan de Vries

[JimH]

Thanks for asking. 

How many files?  There's a table here:
https://jriver.com/Id/

You can use an external USB drive.

I can't tell you what will happen in customs.  We haven't heard of many problems.  Same with warranty.  The devices have had very few problems.

We don't sell the software separately.

[pjdevries]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the swift reply.

How many files?

Unfortunately that does not really matter since I can not purchase the software, but they currently take up almost 300GB.

I can't tell you what will happen in customs.  We haven't heard of many problems.

Depends what you consider problems. With a limited budget, the combination of the costly shipping and additional import duties, definitly is a bit of a problem for me 

Same with warranty.  The devices have had very few problems.

I believe you. But few means they do occur and one of my better acquaintances is Murphy. An unwelcome but regularly visiting guest.

So I'll pass on the Id then and start looking for alternatives. A real shame because I definitely consider MC (one of) the best media players out there.

Regards,

Pieter-Jan de Vries

P.S. Just out of curiosity: what happens when someone's disk crashes? How do they get back up and running again?

[JimH]

If a disk crashed, you would need to reload from your backups.  We don't do backups of the Id.

If you're concerned about cost, take a look at the IdPi.  Unless you're playing High Res files, it would be fine.  You'd need to use an external USB drive and it would need separate power.

[pjdevries]

Thanx for the suggestion. Not exactly what I am looking for though. The attractiveness of the Id 300 is the all in one solution, without the hassle of multiple boxes with separate power. And yes, I am playing High Res files as well 

And then there is the lack of a recovery medium (CD, USB). For me another serious drawback. I still haven't found decent, affordable and easy to use imaging software for Linux yet. I am not a talented Linux system administrator (understatement), so trying to get a crashed Id up and running again, is not something I am looking forward to. Getting the media collection back from a backup, is not that difficult. But restoring the base OS with MC is another story. That would be a whole lot easier with a proper recovery medium and not something I want to try without.

Regards,

Pieter-Jan de Vries

[JimH]

We might offer a 1TB SSD Id.  Prices have come down.

[pjdevries]

Thanks for that offer. It solves one of my issues.

Concerning the recovery medium, I guess I could create a dd copy before first use. In case of a crash, I can dd that copy back to the new drive to get me up and running quickly again.

So that leaves the costly shipping ($55) and possibly unreasonably high import duties. I'll try to find out how much those will set me back and then get back to you.

Regards,

Pieter-Jan de Vries

[JimH]

You can't legally copy the drive.  If something were to fail, we would need to exchange the drive.  Warranty is one year.

[BradATIMA]

There is a repair image for the IdNUC that can be downloaded and put on a usb stick that can fix some disk issues. However, it cannot install the Id firmware from scratch.

[pjdevries]

@JimH  I'm prettig sure I'm allowed to make a copy for backup and recovery purposes. As a side note: I am a software developer myself and would never be involved in illegal software copying and/or distribution activities.

@BradATIMA Thanx. That's useful.

Regards,

Pieter-Jan de Vries

[JimH]

Pieter-Jan,
I sent you an email.  I suggest you just use our standard Linux version of MC.  The board is here:

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/board,62.0.html