Terra Prime Movie Servers - Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between the Terra movie server and the Terra Prime movie server?

The following table summarizes the key differences between the original Terra movie server models and the new Terra Prime movie server models.

What are the key differences between a Terra Prime (HDD) and Terra Prime (SSD) movie server?

Both movie servers are based on the same hardware platform and have identical CPU and RAM configurations. The HDD models use enterprise grade, spinning disk, magnetic storage. The SSD models use data center grade, modern, fast and silent solid-state storage.
The tables below compare the key differences between a Terra Prime (HDD) movie server versus Terra Prime (SSD) movie server, followed by the Compact Terra Prime (HDD) movie server versus the Compact Terra Prime (SSD) movie server.

What are the advantages of choosing a Terra Prime (SSD) movie server?

Terra Prime (SSD) movie servers provide many experience and performance improvements compared to the HDD servers.

Download Performance

Terra Prime (SSD) movie servers achieve faster, and more consistent, maximum download speeds than a Terra Prime (HDD) movie server. A Terra Prime (HDD) movie server can see download speeds fluctuate by as much as 50% because of how conventional spinning hard disks write data.
Terra Prime (SSD) movie servers experience much less download throttling. Download speeds are throttled during playback activity to ensure pristine playback experiences. Download throttling will occur to a much higher degree on a Terra Prime (HDD) movie server compared to a Terra Prime (SSD) movie server.
On a Terra Prime (HDD) movie server, downloads are throttled when a single playback is active and can be limited to as low as 350 Mbps. Each subsequent playback session will further limit the maximum download speed.
On a Terra Prime (SSD) movie server, downloads are only meaningfully throttled when 10 or more concurrent playbacks are active. Download speed is capped at 2000 Mbps (with 10 playbacks) and that cap will decrease with additional concurrent playbacks.

Concurrent Playback Performance

Terra Prime (SSD) servers can serve more concurrent playback zones – up to 25 – whereas a Terra Prime (HDD) movie server is only rated for 10 concurrent playback sessions. This is because of the faster solid-state drive performance. Under ideal circumstances where all playbacks are equally distributed across all HDDs and the Terra Prime (HDD) movie server is connected to a 2.5 Gbps network, up to 20 concurrent playbacks would be allowed.

Power Consumption

Terra Prime (SSD) movie servers consume less power. Solid-state drives have no moving parts, thus they require less power to operate. This results in Terra Prime (SSD) movie servers drawing less power than their HDD counterparts. A full-sized Terra Prime (SSD) movie server realizes a 21W power saving with a typical power consumption of 22W, compared to the Terra Prime (HDD) movie server’s 43W of typical power consumption.
For a Compact Terra Prime (SSD) movie server, the typical power consumption is 16W. This represents a power savings of 8W versus the Compact Terra Prime (HDD) movie server with typical consumption of 24W.

Acoustics

Terra Prime (SSD) movie servers are quieter. SSDs are silent, unlike HDDs. Terra Prime (SSD) movie servers only emit audible noise from internal, temperature controlled, fans. Both the full-sized and compact Terra Prime (SSD) movie servers operate 8 dB(A) quieter than the equivalent HDD model. The typical fan and drive noise for a full-sized Terra Prime (SSD) movie server is 21 dB(A) compared to the Terra Prime (HDD) movie server at 29 dB(A).
For a Compact Terra Prime (SSD) movie server, the typical emitted noise is 17 dB(A) while the Compact Terra Prime (HDD) movie server emits 25 dB(A).

What are the advantages of choosing a Terra Prime (HDD) movie server?

Terra Prime (HDD) movie servers provide higher capacity per chassis and longer cold storage data retention.

Amount of Storage

Terra Prime HDD movie servers can fit more storage capacity into a single chassis. Hard disk-based storage currently (2023) offers more capacity per drive, and at a lower price per bit, than that offered by data center grade solid-state storage. At their highest available capacity, the full-sized Terra Prime (HDD) movie server can store ~1450 Kaleidescape high-bitrate 4K movies whereas the full-sized Terra Prime (SSD) movie server has room for ~500 Kaleidescape high-bitrate 4K movies.
The highest capacity Compact Terra Prime (HDD) movie server with its 22 TB hard disk drive can store ~350 Kaleidescape high bitrate 4K movies. The Compact Terra Prime (SSD) movie server is only available with a 7.68 TB solid-state drive which provides space for ~125 Kaleidescape high bitrate 4K movies.

Data integrity and longevity

Data stored on a hard disk drive or a solid-state drive will degrade over time when not powered. Surprisingly, the data on a solid-state drive will degrade faster. Solid-state drives store data as electrical charges in NAND flash. These electrical charges can leak away more quickly in comparison with changes to magnetic domain polarity used in hard disk drives. For this reason, it is important to prevent SSD servers from being unpowered for extended periods of time (i.e., more than 3 years).