I disagree with all of you.  Have you head of Axonix?  Check them out.  They have servers to 13TB’s.  Stack a few of these together and you have your answer.  Request is nice but it is not even shipping yet.  The Crestron is not a solution either

Thank you, everyone, for your very helpful advice.

I have been collecting movies I like since ‘92 when i bought my first LD player ( I owned many VHS before that, but tossed out the player in 97 with DVD when I purchased a Pioneer DV-414. ( It finally broke down about 1 month ago...sad event).

I also own many non-region 1 movies, and have a couple region free players.  This complicates the mess.

I replaced all the DVD covers with 5mm slim cases, and now maxing out storage for newer titles.  I’ve built a MS Access DB to search the tiles (and loan to friends...).

So, all of that to say, Cinema is my favorite pasttime, and I’ve developed a love for quality equipment for playback and display as well - hence, when I heard of Kaleidescapes’s product, I wanted it...until I saw the price.

I thought of the media server PC solution, but thought it would cost more than my whole collection… and my experience with Crashing PCs left me a bit weary of that option.

I’d promise to tell you what solution i came up with, but it will be long gone from anyone’s memory by then :).

I appreciate your direction and will literally be looking into each promising option here.

best wishes,
mike from NYC

I’m looking at doing something similar to this on a smaller scale, but it should be do-able.  Do you, by any chance, already have Tivo HD/S3 systems running in your home?  If so, you can use it as the front-end and a server running TivoStream as the storage solution.  This solution is somewhat specific in the file-formats it will accept… DVDs and HD sources should be ripped to or converted to h.264 video and AC3 audio in a .mp4 container. 

To accomodate 6000 DVDs in this format (around 1.5gb each) you’ll need around 10tb of storage.  To leave room for expansion you’ll probably want more like 15tb.  With a library of this size you’ll want some sort of RAID, so now we’re talking 30tb.  The hardware could be put together for around $5k, but you’re going to have a rack full of server cases with 7-10 drives each. 

That’s not even the hard part.  It’s going to take forever to rip 6000 discs.  This is the part I’d farm out to someone else… if you can get someone to provide a pay service that flirts with the lines (and technically crosses) of what is/isn’t fair use..

Ok, this is inexpensive and works. Quality is great also. Build your own server 2-4 terrabyte can be pc or mac can be manual back up or raid and will run itunes software.
use the apple tv (least expensive one) streams from server you need one per tv side (you can serve 5 tv’s @ 1080i)
use sylsoft.com to build your own library on your server from the dvd’s or Blueray DVD you own. only limited by space of hard disks. can also purchase movies or rentals on fly if you get a wild hair (from itunes)

There is not manufactured solution that could really meed the need for storage of 6000 DVDs. The Kaleidescape 3U server can only store 1800 DVDs, so this person would need 4 of the servers to hold his whole collection. That quadruples what he already thinks is too much. from what i’ve seen there is NO manufactured solution for this question. Assuming the dvds are stored how all dvd server manufacturers do it (uncompressed) it will require at least 24TB of storage. This would require buying/making the server and providing a front end that will work with the server. This situation would best be done with a custom install done through “renting a nerd”