NAS recommendation (for streaming video and music)

Tusky

I'm looking for a NAS to stream video (including HD) to a Western Digital HD Live media player and music to a Sonos system. I'd like enough storage to store my video and music collections, so 3TB would be great. I'm using Windows seven but flatmate is a mac user, not sure if that matters.

Was looking at this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004DTXFDS/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&psc=1&s=computers

Recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

P.S Can you generally attach more than one hard-drive to a NAS?

ED E

Above one is grand. Would do what you want. Supports DLNA which is what you want.

Most nowadays support daisy chaining one other drive, which is what this will do.


Just FYI, if using NTFS(which you will be if any single file is over 4GB) this will write at ~3.5MBps, which is quite slow for copying HD video.

Tusky

Can you recommend an alternative in that case?

Will the write speed only effect transfering files to the drive, or will it also effect the streaming of videos to the media player?

ED E

Just write. And they all do it AFAIK unless you go up to a proper multibay NAS, which would be several times the price.

PogMoThoin

Would you not consider a 2 bay so you can add a second drive in future
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/12825358/bundle/d-link/sharecenter-pulse-dns-320.html

You can buy the NAS seperate and just add a HD if 2TB isn't enough
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/7811188/art/d-link/sharecenter-pulse-dns-320.html

Tusky

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Would you not consider a 2 bay so you can add a second drive in future
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/12825358/bundle/d-link/sharecenter-pulse-dns-320.html

You can buy the NAS seperate and just add a HD if 2TB isn't enough
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/7811188/art/d-link/sharecenter-pulse-dns-320.html

This is another option alright as I like the idea of being able to add another harddrive in future. That NAS has a fair few lukewarm reviews on Amazon though.

Lovely Bloke

I have a WDTV Live, and I just use that to stream to all the devices in my house.

I have 2.5TB attached to it (1 x 1TB, 1 x 1.5TB), and I can see these on three different computers - using 3 different OS.

ED E

For streaming you wont ever have compatibility problems as pretty much every OS supports DNLA. And NTFS isnt obscure anyways.

PogMoThoin

Tusky wrote: »

This is another option alright as I like the idea of being able to add another harddrive in future. That NAS has a fair few lukewarm reviews on Amazon though.

It was just an example, there are many brands. I have had good experiences with this Buffalo in an office I look after:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-Linkstation-Performance-Multimedia-Network/dp/B00308CBSS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360583054&sr=8-1

These are supposed to be good also but work out a little more expensive as you need to add a drive:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Synology-DS212J-Bay-NAS-Enclosure/dp/B005TOXMAW/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1360583152&sr=1-3
http://www.amazon.co.uk/QNAP-TS-212-Enclosure-Marvell-1-2GHz/dp/B004LOANJ4/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1360583152&sr=1-1

A decent NAS should also run software (uTorrent, Sabnzbd, Sickbeard, Couchpotato) so you're not leaving a PC on to download your media direct to your NAS

ED E

ED E wrote: »

Just FYI, if using NTFS(which you will be if any single file is over 4GB) this will write at ~3.5MBps, which is quite slow for copying HD video.

Where are you getting that from?

The Mybook Live writes at 30-40MB/s and read at 60-70MB/s. Obviously you need a gigabit network to achieve those speeds.

Maybe you are thinking of using it over wifi. You definitely don't want to be writing large files to any NAS over wifi unless you have a seriously slick wifi setup. Which is why a NAS unit that can run downloaders as mentioned above is very desireable in that scenario.

ED E

Deleted User wrote: »

Where are you getting that from?

The Mybook Live writes at 30-40MB/s and read at 60-70MB/s. Obviously you need a gigabit network to achieve those speeds.

Maybe you are thinking of using it over wifi. You definitely don't want to be writing large files to any NAS over wifi unless you have a seriously slick wifi setup. Which is why a NAS unit that can run downloaders as mentioned above is very desireable in that scenario.

We have the previous gen MyWorldBook :rolleyes: I've no doubt the drive itself can do at least 30MBps write, but the controller cant. Same thing happens with our router hosted drive(almost identical speeds). AFAIK its due to NTFS overhead. This gen may have a stronger chip though.


Just did a test there, 900MB file, averaging about 4.2MBps.

I don't know what gen you're rolling your eyes about but the Mybook World controller has been capable of 40MB/s writes and 70+MB/s reads for many years:

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-reviews/31314-wd-my-book-live-reviewed?start=2

ED E

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=106&lang=en

More legacy than I remembered. OP ignore my comments.