News :: 15MR: StarPort - Quick Review
Hello all and welcome to another episode of 15-Minute Review. Today’s application is StarPort Professional by Rocket Division Software—This application has a large assortment of features aimed towards network DVD backup and viewing.
I am reviewing this application as an quick review because to set this application up properly and test it, beyond the 15 minutes I would do it. I will be fully reviewing the RAM disk and the virtual DVD setups.
As Giveaway of the Day states:
“StarPort creates a virtual DVD-ROM drive locally to watch movies in a home theatre and fully implements iSCSI and ATA-over-Ethernet client side protocols enabling you to connect to remote storage appliances such as disk arrays, tape drives, DVD-ROM image libraries and so on.”
Quick Pros
- RAM disk functionality easy to set up
- Virtual DVD usage easy and nice
Quick Cons
- RAM disk has no auto-load or auto-dump features
- Can’t resize RAM disk once made
- No shell functionality for RAM disk or DVD mounting
Expansion
Going to be fairly short here. While its a nice interface for working with, it doesn’t inherit speed from the nature of this application for setup. Having to go to the tray icon or loading the whole application each time you want to change your RAM drives or mount a new DVD is slow at best. With no shell functionality to be able to mount DVDs, it amplifies the issues with the virtual DVD. As for the RAM disk, it has no auto-loading or auto-dump features so that you can have it as a fast working space for an application without having to write a separate script to do it for you.
Both aspects are lacking detail of their features. While easy to use once you’re in the application, the ease of use comes from the lack of features and options linked to the Virtual DVD interface and the RAM disk interface.
Quick Verdict
If you are downloading this application because you need a Virtual DVD interface or RAM disk, look elsewhere (See below)—You will be disappointed with this aspect. Even if you were to get StarPort Personal for free which contains these two features free, I would still steer you towards freeware alternatives such as Daemon and a freeware/payware alternative RAMDisk (Discontinuing the freeware one, but the payware one is much better and is only $10.)
Now, I’m not leaving my verdict here. Obviously, after visiting here: StarPort Download you realize that the quoted price of StarPort is for the iSCSI clients and AoE clients. While I do not have the means to test this side of it; simply going through the setup steps of it appears to be very easy to set up and looks like it might be a great set of applications if this is what you need. While I do not have currently, I have used previously with a client iSCSI and the speed seen is quite a bit improved for intensive usage over a Windows Server SAMBA setup on the same rig setup. This would be great for people wanting to setup an efficient media center rig running files from a system other than itself. While I can not vouch for the speed here, I do know that iSCSI is a good alternative. I would recommend downloading this application today and seeing which one you would rather use, iSCSI or AoE and when you do go to licence, licence one. It saves you money. Seeing the price difference, I would probably recommend iSCSI but this is a matter of choice and ease for setting up the server side of it for you. It would have been great if this possessed the server-side aspect of it. For $125 per client, I’m not sure if this would be a value or not.
So, in summary, if you need just RAM disk/Virtual DVD, go elsewhere. If iSCSI or AoE is your thing, try it out. Looks like you may like it. You’ll be in for setting up the server-side still, but if you are up to it, this will make your client-side much better.
Posted by BladedThoth on Monday, February 19, 2007
