Need recommendation for home media NAS

[alexTheBuilder]

Hi,

I'd like to buy a NAS for my home to be a central hub for media (music, photos, videos) as well as other shared files for a number of computers. For media I'd like to buy a Bluray player that supports DLNA to stream to my home theater. Suggestions are welcome here, too.

Things that are important to me:

- Needs to support MP3 music streaming to various devices (bluray player, iphones, etc.)
- I'd like to host my growing collection of AVCHD home movies on the box and stream it to the bluray player and others for viewing. I don't want to convert, rather copy from camcorder to NAS and leave it there. I haven't seen much info on that one.
- Streaming of photos, other movie formats
- Tivo HMO nice to have, but not a must.
- File sharing for a number of computers in the house, gigabit ethernet.
- Power consumption of the box should be low, I'm already paying through the nose to PG&E ($0.30+ per KWh).
- Easy&stable: Even though I have a history as a computer nerd, I enjoy things working out of the box. No recompiling of Linux kernels, please...
- Budget: Price of the NAS should not exceed $400-500, the Bluray player should be $200 or less

I looked at various reviews of consumer-level NAS devices from IOMega, LG, D-Link, Netgear, Seagate, etc. There was no one standing out, each one got its share of scathing reviews. The Netgear NAS seemed the best of the bunch, but got a lot of complaints as well.

I'd be grateful for any tips!

Alex

 

[thiggins]

You will see bad reviews for any product... basic human nature at work.

How much storage are you looking for? Do you prefer diskless or diskful products?

I'm assuming you will be accessing the NAS via Ethernet, not wireless, at least for video streaming.

Your needs can be met by most current NASes. You mainly need to decide on the performance level you want, then vendor preference.

You also need to consider backup if the NAS is going to be the primary file store. Don't count on RAID as your backup. (Smart SOHOs Don't Do RAID)

 

[alexTheBuilder]

Thanks for your response!

In terms of diskless/diskful, I don't mind buying & installing the disks separately. I actually prefer it.

I'm planning to connect the NAS through wired gigabit ethernet to the home network; some consumers might connect wireless via access point. NAS doesn't need to do wireless.

In terms of size, I'll start with around 2TB, a later upgrade path would be nice.

A clever backup solution would be nice, such as nightly to an external disk. I don't care much about RAID, I need backup anyway.

My biggest concern with the NAS is that the whole DLNA/streaming works flawless. I saw the bulk of review complaints in this area, and happy reviews typically didn't mention any complex streaming. I haven't seen a success story about streaming AVCHD from NAS yet.

Thanks,
Alex

 

[thiggins]

You might look at the Synology DS210j or QNAP TS-210. Although they are entry level, they have decent performance, many features and will allow you to expand with a second drive and back up to attached USB.

DLNA / UPnP AV compatibility is still a crapshoot, basically. You won't know whether something works until you try it or find someone who has.

My best advice to you is to get a media player that doesn't depend on either and can browse network shares to play content. I haven't used any Blu-ray players, so can't advise you about those. For the dedicated media players I've been using, I always keep going back to using network browsing vs. trying to access via UPnP / DLNA.

 

[Tarrant1701]

I have a setup like this:

1. QNAP TS-509 Pro as file server

2. Use my desktop PC to copy my photos and rip my music, DVD and Blu-Ray collection to the NAS

3. Use my home theater PC connected to my HDTV to access content via Windows Media Center and various 3rd party solutions:

a. Total media theater
b. MyMovies

I configured WMC to look for media files on the NAS, as well as set up MyMovies to look for media there as well. Works like a charm across my (slightly) complex network:


In my study: NAS, desktop PC connected to Gigabit switch. Switch connected to a MoCA adapter.
In my living room: MoCA router connected to WAN via coax (FiOS service), and also connected to my HTPC via 100 Mbit/sec ethernet connection.

My throughput from the NAS to my HTPC is therefore limited by the 100 Mb/sec ethernet connection, but all video plays without any stutter or problems. The maximum bitrate for BD-video is 54 Mb/sec so I think my network bandwidth is adequate unless there is network congestion, which does not typically happen in my local home environment.

The other thing to remember is that AVCHD is a compressed format and it will take a lot of computing power to decode it. Either a higher-end CPU or a recent model GPU with hardware acceleration (on the receiving end) will be necessary if you are streaming it directly and not transcoding on the fly (on the sender's end). For this reason, if you are really intent on streaming AVCHD, I would avoid NASes that are powered by Atom processors or similar grade CPUs. I would probably stick with an Intel Celeron-level CPU.