Media server vs file serving?

[Gedrod]

Hi all,
I will be moving to a new house soon and have some new gear - more on that later- but I currently have a Beyonwiz DP-P1 (maybe just an australian model) which is a twin HD PVR/streaming media player. I keep my media (divx, MKV, audio, etc) files on my main PC and have some shared directories which the Beyonwiz sees just fine and streams/plays them fine via a 100mb/s wired ethernet setup.

My question is: when I move to then new house I will get my new QNAP 209 out of the box and use it to share the files. The QNAP has a TwonkyVision media server, but why might I use that if I can play shared files over the network?

I listen to a lot of internet radio (Radio Paradise!) and use iTunes so I will also probably buy a couple of SONOS players.
Cheers, Gedrod

 

[thiggins]

If the media player you have can network browse and play files fine from your server then there is no advantage to using a "media server". Media servers are helpful with players that don't have general network browsing capabilities.

 

[Brandon]

I've noticed just looking to a file on a file server, then playing can be a bit choppy depending on your network. If you run into that a simple media server(or app) can make most of that go away.

If you're running on a gigabit network it might not be a problem, but for me, I still used 10/100. I also noticed pausing and skipping caused more issues. I haven't had time to try after my recent upgrade to gigabit.

 

[thiggins]

You're right, Brandon. I had forgotten that I'd looked at the differences in performance a few years ago.
Video Streaming Need To Know: Part 1- Encoding, Bit Rates and Errors
Video Streaming Need To Know: Part 2 - The Real World

So much stuff on the site that even I lose track!

 

[Gedrod]

Thanks for the replies Peeps, thats helpful. I'll have gigabit ethernet in the new house, so I should be able to watch all my files in 1/10th of the time, right? .

 

[crashnburn]

If the media player you have can network browse and play files fine from your server then there is no advantage to using a "media server". Media servers are helpful with players that don't have general network browsing capabilities.

Is that the case?

 

[thiggins]

Is that the case?

Read the articles above and you tell me.