(Newdie) Need help creating a remote access server for Video Editing.

[Ninjanic0]

I'm a video editor that works from home and I work for and with a few clients that deal with filming in heavy raw footage, and a lot of it. As such, I need to drive to them in order to pick up the hard drive and drive back home to off load the footage and edit, which also tends to take up a lot of storage. I know that a server will help with my storage issue, but I am recently coming across another issue that I have to move/travel out of state for a time. I've looked at many videos and the like as to where to start but either there seems to be a step missing or there is something not connecting in my brain for me to understand what to do.

 

This is what I have so far:

• hp pavilion 5000 series model number 500-037c running windows 8 that I hope to make the server from
• stock parts:

  • MS-7778 (JasmineR)

  • AMD A10-5700

  • 12 Gb of DDR3-1600 ram

  • 2 TB 7200 rpm ssd

• 2 Seagate IronWolf Pro 12TB NAS Internal Hard Drive

• and a dream

I would like to try and create a server which I can access while I am on the go so that I don't lose my clients and work. The point/goal of the server is so that I can hopefully have my clients upload the footage they would like me to edit directly to the server; and so I would only need to download the footage I need to edit and store everything else in terms of (old footage and/or projects) on the server, freeing up space on my local computer.

 

What else do I need to do/upgrade in order to get where I want to go?

 

Thank you.

[SquintyG33Rs]

heavy raw footage will be very hard to access over a remote network. the performance on the timeline will be terrible. So you wouldn't be editing/working on the server footage.

I don't think this is really what you expected but it's not clear so i want to make sure to rule that out.

 

for just having a network connected computer and uploading and downloading your work to/from it periodically (at the end of days or something) isn't really complicated from the hardware side. it's much more problematic setting up the software to be available online without seriously compromising your home network security. it's not just a question of "just use freeNAS" it's going to take you a bunch of research to understand what you're doing and changing so that you can actually manage it if something happens.

[Needfuldoer]

If all you need is file storage, you'd be better off with a cloud host like Google Drive. Otherwise, your 'server' is going to be bottlenecked by its WAN connection.

 

Keep it simple.

[Ninjanic0]

On 4/3/2023 at 5:20 PM, SquintyG33Rs said:

for just having a network connected computer and uploading and downloading your work to/from it periodically (at the end of days or something) isn't really complicated from the hardware side. it's much more problematic setting up the software to be available online without seriously compromising your home network security. it's not just a question of "just use freeNAS" it's going to take you a bunch of research to understand what you're doing and changing so that you can actually manage it if something happens.

yeah, I am not going to directly edit off the server but i do need it for file storage and using services like google drive for files like that is either incredibly slow, costs too much for the amount of storage needed, or both.

 

is there some direction to be pointed to make this somewhat achievable? or should i just cut my losses and lose my clients?

 

I'm not sure if this information helps but the server wouldn't be running 24/7. it will only be on when footage needs to be accessed or uploaded.

[Needfuldoer]

Google Drive is "incredibly slow"? How fast is the upload speed on the Internet connection the server's going to live behind?

[Ninjanic0]

1 hour ago, Needfuldoer said:

Google Drive is "incredibly slow"? How fast is the upload speed on the Internet connection the server's going to live behind?

fair but the amount of storage needed is not something that google drive can handle. at least not affordably.

[LIGISTX]

3 hours ago, Ninjanic0 said:

fair but the amount of storage needed is not something that google drive can handle. at least not affordably.

What is your internet upload speed (you would host this from your home internet, correct?)? Depending on that answer, this will either let us go down the path of determining what may be viable and financially possible, or just stop this entire thought process. 

[Ninjanic0]

On 4/5/2023 at 9:23 PM, LIGISTX said:

What is your internet upload speed (you would host this from your home internet, correct?)? Depending on that answer, this will either let us go down the path of determining what may be viable and financially possible, or just stop this entire thought process. 

Sure thing. Here is a screen shot of my internet speeds. I did one today and a bit of an average of my internet speeds.

[Electronics Wizardy]

2 hours ago, Ninjanic0 said:

Sure thing. Here is a screen shot of my internet speeds. I did one today and a bit of an average of my internet speeds.

Those upload speeds are pretty slow. Your not gonna want to be downloading files when your offsite.

 

You can try using something like nextcloud. It works kinda like google drive, has a sync app you can run and a web interface. 

 

Also make sure you have a backup as one issue can take down the whole server where google drive has a lot of redundancy

[Bdavis]

In this situation I would use some sort of remote desktop application. I know Linus did a video about one they used for remote video editing during COVID. You would need someone to upload the footage to a computer near your clients then you remote in a for the editing on that machine so you're not dealing with the bottlenecks of the internet connections on either end.

[LIGISTX]

3 hours ago, Ninjanic0 said:

Sure thing. Here is a screen shot of my internet speeds. I did one today and a bit of an average of my internet speeds.

So, 25mbps is about 3 Mbps. So you need to figure out how big your files are and how long it would feasibly be possible for you to wait for them to get to you. If you had to download a 500 GB project at 3MBps, it would take almost 2 days to download to your remote workstation…

[10leej]

Terramaster makes some solid ones for a decent price.

On 4/3/2023 at 7:00 PM, Ninjanic0 said:

I'm a video editor that works from home and I work for and with a few clients that deal with filming in heavy raw footage, and a lot of it. As such, I need to drive to them in order to pick up the hard drive and drive back home to off load the footage and edit, which also tends to take up a lot of storage. I know that a server will help with my storage issue, but I am recently coming across another issue that I have to move/travel out of state for a time. I've looked at many videos and the like as to where to start but either there seems to be a step missing or there is something not connecting in my brain for me to understand what to do.

 

This is what I have so far:

• hp pavilion 5000 series model number 500-037c running windows 8 that I hope to make the server from
• stock parts:

  • MS-7778 (JasmineR)

  • AMD A10-5700

  • 12 Gb of DDR3-1600 ram

  • 2 TB 7200 rpm ssd

• 2 Seagate IronWolf Pro 12TB NAS Internal Hard Drive

• and a dream

I would like to try and create a server which I can access while I am on the go so that I don't lose my clients and work. The point/goal of the server is so that I can hopefully have my clients upload the footage they would like me to edit directly to the server; and so I would only need to download the footage I need to edit and store everything else in terms of (old footage and/or projects) on the server, freeing up space on my local computer.

 

What else do I need to do/upgrade in order to get where I want to go?

 

Thank you.

So what you need is a VPN connection which allows you to pass through network file shares via NFS, SFTP, or SMB. The easiest solution is Tailscale, but you can DIY it too.

 

With your system's specs you should be fine hardware wise, the only issue is the internet connection. Honestly though, I'd go as local as possible. So I'd invext in something like a DAS (Disrect Attached Storage) aka a REALLY big external hard drive. Terramaster makes some solid ones for a decent price, just remember this is not a NAS and it only supports software raid, each disk installed will identify seperately.

[Enigma147]

On 4/4/2023 at 1:00 AM, Ninjanic0 said:

that I have to move/travel out of state for a time.

On 4/4/2023 at 1:00 AM, Ninjanic0 said:

so that I don't lose my clients and work

A lot of alert bells are going off in my head.  Nice idea, but no, not really feasible.   First problem, theres no backup of any kind. What if the server goes ofline for any kind of reason, you wont be able to store or access your data. Can your business handle downtime like that? Can you afford loosing work if the SSD crashes? What if a capacitor blows on your mainboard?  Is there anybody who can simply reboot your "server" or do some simple diagnostics if its not online and you're not there? 

 

Next there's the issue of the low uplink speed. Its simply too slow for any video traffic on a regular basis.  

 

Most of the hardware is too old, and not longer reliable. 

 

Cloud storage would be my advice for clients uploading data and temporary storage.