NAS with or without transcoding

[erkdahl]

Hi,

I have read a bit about NAS and see that some come with and others without transcoding. Do I really need transcoding for my use?

I have a Samsung Smart TV, and need a NAS where i can dump my video-files and play them on my Smart-TV with subtitles. Subtitles is really important. Normally we download subtitles from subscene.
Do I need transcoding for this?

I also need the NAS to be able to safely store all my files (mainly personal photos and documents) and do safety-backups to Glacier. 8 TB is sufficient.
I'm looking at 2-bay NAS and cost it not really the most important. I like to have the best stuff

I dont really need anything more than the things above, but i do like to experiment with all kinds of apps and possibilities, so a NAS with good preformance and features would be nice.

Do you have any tips on what NAS should I go for?

So far I've been looking at Synology DS 713+ and QNAP TS-251, but i cannot really make up my mind as to what is best.

 

[microchip]

This really depends. If your TV can play many film compression formats (h264/xvid/divx/mpeg/etc) and containers (avi/mp4/mkv/ogm) *and* you are fine with both the quality and the file size, you don't need to transcode.

But if some films are too big of a size or your TV can't display them, you need to transcode. Doing it on a NAS is not recommended as the encoding process is not very tweakable if you want to get out the best possible compression/quality at a given, acceptable file size. Doing the encoding on a PC gives you far more freedom and options by using advanced encoding tools like ffmpeg or GUIs like RipBot264/Hybrid/MeGUI

 

[erkdahl]

I've never had any troubles playing video-files on my smart-TV when I stream them from Serviio server on my laptop. So i guess it can play most formats.

With the QNAP TS-251 (that has transcoding), will the NAS automatically transcode when needed when I try to play a file on my smartTV? And if so will the quality be better than if i play directly from DS 713+ without transcoding?

I guess what i try to figure out is if I will gain anything by choosing a NAS with transcoding? I just want to drop video-files into the mediaserver folder and does not really want to know or be bothered with if the files is transcoded on the fly or not or what actually happens. I want to drop the file and play it on my TV in the same quality the video-file is in. And I need it to support subtitles in a separate file.

 

[microchip]

I've never had any troubles playing video-files on my smart-TV when I stream them from Serviio server on my laptop. So i guess it can play most formats.

With the QNAP TS-251 (that has transcoding), will the NAS automatically transcode when needed when I try to play a file on my smartTV? And if so will the quality be better than if i play directly from DS 713+ without transcoding?

I guess what i try to figure out is if I will gain anything by choosing a NAS with transcoding? I just want to drop video-files into the mediaserver folder and does not really want to know or be bothered with if the files is transcoded on the fly or not or what actually happens. I want to drop the file and play it on my TV in the same quality the video-file is in. And I need it to support subtitles in a separate file.

I'm not familiar much with transcoding NASes, but I suspect quality-wise it won't be as good as using a real PC where you can fine-tune virtually all options. Unless the NAS provides same functionality, no it won't be as good

To be able to transcode on the fly and stream that version, the encoder used will apply weaker compression settings so the encoding FPS can be at or above the FPS of the original

Transcoding an already compressed video *always* loses quality and detail. Doing it only once, unless the encoding options are weak, you won't notice the difference in quality drop, especially the further you go from your TV

Since you say the TV plays everything with no issues you throw at it, I see little reason getting a NAS with encoding capabilities

 

[microchip]

Note that your TV needs a decoder built-in to decode the video files. If it doesn't have one, you'll need to use an external decoder. In my case, my LG non-Smart TV can't decode so the decoding is done on the Blu-ray which gets the streams from my PC using MiniDLNA. If your TV supports DLNA directly, I highly suspect it has a decoder onboard

 

[AdvHomeServer]

Transcoding is said to take a lot of computational power. As others here have stated, NAS boxes may provide transcoding, but that is not their main purpose. I strongly doubt many are stress tested to see how well other process run while the kids are watching transcoded movies on the TV. I use Serviio. While it transcodes by default, I use it to watch video streams from the internet and those aren't transcoded, I believe. My NAS gets little use otherwise as a hybrid computer. It's mostly a shared drive. For music, I use the Twonky program that came with it, but the USB drive attached to my old Asus router did just as well.

NAS boxes are turning into hybrid computers that work as main home servers. None are really powerful enough to work as home mainframes, but maybe in 10 years as processors improve and technology changes.

As an aside, I have considered getting a Mac Mini or a loaded i5 Zotac box or something similar and using it as a media server in some way, but this would be a pricey toy just to play with.

A WD Live box might bring media flexibility and bridge the file server to the media outlet. People say good things about them, although I don't own one right now. It could read from any DLNA file source on the network.

 

[stevech]

Yes, Transcoding should be batched on a hot PC. On a NAS, it's too much. And adds cost for something that will likely not be used.

 

[Tablo]

Yes, Transcoding should be batched on a hot PC. On a NAS, it's too much. And adds cost for something that will likely not be used.

I got the DS414, and four of the Hitachi NAS drives, 4TB each.
Loving it so far, it's wired to my router, which is wired to a desktop there, is there a way to get that desktop to do transcoding on the fly or something? I think for most stuff it would just need to remux mkv to mp4 so my Lumia 920 could play it.