Which Drive to stream videos from?

[GeneJockey]

Not sure if this is being posted in the right spot but I have a streaming/hardware question.

I have just purchased and set up an RT-AC68U router. For multimedia (mostly video) streaming from my Windows PC to my Roku-enabled TV and/or to another Smart TV in the house, what is the best place to originate streaming from: an internal drive on my PC, or a USB drive mounted directly to the router?

In the past all my streaming came from internal drives since I never had the luxury on my previous setup to attach a network drive to my router. Now that I do have that option, is there value in using that location as my primary streaming location or am I better to stick to a SATA drive inside the PC

Thanks.

 

[L&LD]

If the connection to the router will be USB, 2 or 3, I say don't do it.

Buy a NAS with a LAN connection instead. Much less power used than PC, probably 3 or 4 times the real world performance of a USB connected device and it will offer other extras as well for you.

 

[AdvHomeServer]

Not sure if this is being posted in the right spot but I have a streaming/hardware question.

I have just purchased and set up an RT-AC68U router. For multimedia (mostly video) streaming from my Windows PC to my Roku-enabled TV and/or to another Smart TV in the house, what is the best place to originate streaming from: an internal drive on my PC, or a USB drive mounted directly to the router?

In the past all my streaming came from internal drives since I never had the luxury on my previous setup to attach a network drive to my router. Now that I do have that option, is there value in using that location as my primary streaming location or am I better to stick to a SATA drive inside the PC

Thanks.

I had a RT-N56U as a main router for a couple of years and streamed music from it via USB and I was happy with it. Videos were hit or miss only because of the format; ASUS doesn't support all formats. Today I'm using Twonky on my QNAP NAS drive. I went in that direction because it seemed more secure for non media files than having a shared USB drive hanging off my router. I don't know if that's the case, it just seemed that way.

If you have a spare USB drive around, try it out. You can always spend money later if you later find it's not suitable.

 

[pkbristol]

I stream from my PC to all my tv's.
On my pc i use a server program called serviio, reason being, serviio transcodes movies into a format playable by my tv's, as you probably know tv's won't play all formats.
Once serviio is installed on the pc go to source on your tv (if it's a samsung ), (home>media player if it's a sony) and it see's serviio, then just navigate through the folders etc.

Paul.

 

[Samir]

A windows share is almost always faster than a usb attached to a NAS/router. You could try it and do some tests as the usb speeds may be fast enough.

 

[System Error Message]

Routers are slower as streamers or file servers but aside if speed isnt important than using the router is a good idea. Otherwise you should stream from a NAS or PC or even your ps3.