Really Need Help, Streaming Over Wifi From External Source

[rjupiter]

Really Need Help - Laptop Solution

I currently have a desktop that has about 2tb in HD that are used for storing and serving files, which included video, music, photos etc..., to the other computers and xboxes that are in my house. the problem i am facing is that i am getting rid of the desktop to save space and going with a laptop which mean i can't have the HD directly attached to the computer, obviously. I have been trying to figure out what i should get to replace what my desktop does, which holds the HDs. I have been looking at the Synology Disk Station DS210j but don't know if that's what i need or if i can just get away with using an exHD but not sure how an exHD would do with streaming video over wifi. I don't have a ton of money to spend so any help/suggestions would be great.

 

[thiggins]

The weak link in the chain will be the wireless connection. Pretty much any current-generation NAS (or even a USB 2.0 external hard drive) is fast enough to support HD streaming.

 

[rjupiter]

ok, so if i go with a USB 2.0 drive then it should stream the same as it does now? I have no problem with the streaming over wireless, with the setup i have now,i was just worried i think about the reading and then streaming from the external if it would be slower.

 

[thiggins]

Streaming from an external drive will be slower than from an internal drive. But
~20 MB/s that you'll get from a USB external drive is plenty fast for HD streaming.

 

[rjupiter]

ok, thanks so much for the insight.

 

[Jesse B]

Somewhat on-topic question, what would you say would be the bare minimum MB/s to stream HD content? I'm just curious, thanks

 

[HDClown]

It depends on the HD content. But if you look at at BluRay content, which has a maximum total bitrate of 54Mb/s (although audio/video max bitrate is lower), you're talking about 6.75 MB/s equivalent. So that's pretty much your maximum possibility for a single stream. And 6.75 MB/s is really that fast. Like Tim said, an external USB 2.0 drive will handle that.