Which NAS?

[Jens Martin]

So… looking for some advice on which NAS to buy. I have done plenty of research but by my own admission, I’m not really that tech savvy and I fear that without advice, I may well end up buying something that is very expensive and more powerful than I actually need and potentially too complicated for me to actually use. However, even I can recognize that my current set-up is archaic and needs modernization.

So, what am I hoping to achieve?

Main function will be for the drive to act as the storage of my video and audio file collection. Currently this is about 4TB and covers about every file format you can think of. I want to be able to stream content from the NAS to my two main TV’s in the house (Samsung UE55RU6025 and QE55LS03RAU). I’m thinking that the best way to do this is via Plex although I haven’t used that before but this seems to be the best way to go. In addition, it would also need to be able to stream to a third (rather more ancient) tv via an old fashioned WD TV Live Box. I would also like to be able to stream (again presumably via Plex) to any one or all of 2 iphones, 2 ipads and 2 laptops (one Macbook and one HP) when away from the home.

On top of that I need it to hold regular backups of the 2 laptops as well as acting as a simple external drive for file dumping.

I need it to be at least 2 bay and mirror the content for backup. I’m thinking at least 2 * 6TB, possibly 8TB.

… and that’s pretty much it really. Everything I read leads me to think that Synology is the way to go (but which one?). However, I’m drawn to QNAP as it has an HDMI connection which would mean I could connect it directly to one of the main TV’s, but is that really necessary??

What do you think?

 

[Stardust]

Well I have Synology DS218Play and a Google Chromecast and that works very well for me... You can use 2½" and 3½" disks as you please..

My 5 cents...

 

[dosborne]

Synology, QNAP and a few others are the "big" players in the NAS home user space. I would avoid the clones.

Personally, I have a QNAP 2 bay (2x2TB) and a QNAP 5 bay (5x10TB). They, along with Synology (I believe), can run Plex, but I don't like Plex.

I too have a wdtv live. Although old it still works great IMO (although not 4k). I like the interface compared to Plex and use simple samba shares.

Seriously consider getting as large a capacity as you can afford. You will appreciate the space over the next 5+ years. This is doubly important in a 2 bay unit as when running mirrored the maximum usable storage is slightly less than the capacity of the smallest HDD you install.

To spread the cost out, can you use your existing drives in the NAS? Then upgrade later.

With your wdtv live already, and most tvs are "smart" these days, and dozens of streaming players, personally I would avoid NAS units that have video, but I've never actually tried one. As I've posted all over the place, I prefer dedicating resources to primary functions, so use my NAS for storage, period.

 

[Jens Martin]

What is it you don't like about Plex? I haven't actually used it yet myself but everything I read led me to believe that this was the best way to go. My wdtv live boxes have served me well but I find them often unresponsive and sluggish. Besides, I am seduced by the prospect of being able to stream to all devices via Plex. What's a Samba share?

I agree with you though about having dedicating resources to primary functions. I don't need my NAS to be a media player, have loads of apps and its own remote control. I have smart TV's, phones and tablets to do all of that. This was part of my concern about being tempted into buying a NAS that was expensive and may have all sorts of things I don't actually want or need.

What about the issue of having a wired HDMI connecting between the NAS and the TV? Sounds good but is it really necessary? If not then it would seem that Synology is the way to go as everything I have read about these suggests that they are much simpler to setup and better suited to a tech idiot such as myself.

 

[Marin]

I am currently on the same boat of deciding which NAS brand to go with. I have too many family videos, movies I have purchased over the years and feel that it would be nice to store them in a central location where I can stream them to any device. I get tired of having to dig through DVDs to find the movie I want to watch - simply having on online library to browse different titles would be so great.

Then, if I do get one it makes me wonder what special program do I need to download these movies, how much space they will take and overall amount of time it will take me to upload all of them to it.

Would appreciate any suggestions on what NAS brand, HDD space needed to start with for this purpose, etc.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jens Martin]

So... having thought about it a bit more, I am inclined to go for the Synology DS218+:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B075L82DP1/?tag=smallncom-21

with two Seagate 8 TB IronWolf 3.5 Inch Internal Hard Drives:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D962J5R/?tag=smallncom-21

Does that sound reasonable for my needs?

 

[dosborne]

What is it you don't like about Plex?

My "collection" of videos and music are already organised by folders (show title, with each season in subfolder for instance). I don't need or care for Plex parsing everything, putting in all the metadata, etc. Disabled pretty much all of that.

When I want to watch a show, I like the wdtv simple Microsoft Windows (samba) share folder browsing. I know, old school.

Besides, I am seduced by the prospect of being able to stream to all devices via Plex. What's a Samba share?

If your files are on a NAS, then there is no appreciable limit to the number of clients or client apps that can access them. Samba is just a common "share" method used by windows and many other devices.

My 4 phones, 5 tablets, smart tv, Roku box, Chromecast and 2 wdtv players can all the same or different video/audio files simultaneously.

Not saying Plex isn't good, and not saying it doesn't have some advantages too, but it may not be your only solution.

I am inclined to go for the Synology DS218+:

From what I hear, that is a good choice, although I like the QNAP too. I've had good luck with various sizes of WD red and Seagate ironwolf drives. The 5x10Tb ironwolfs have been chugging along without issue for a couple years (touch wood,)

 

[dosborne]

what special program do I need to download these movies, how much space they will take and overall amount of time it will take me to upload all of them to it.

Depends. If they are home videos, then there is likely no copy protection, so you can often simply copy with windows explorer (or equivalent). Many free utilities to create ISO file images too (same thing really, just creates a single file so easier to manage).

Although perhaps a grey area depending on where you live and the laws there, you may be able to download a digital copy (preferably legitimately) of the movies you already own as ripping protected dvds can be time consuming and perhaps illegal.

The size depends on the quality of the source and what you want to maintain. Plex has some handy options allowing transcoding for various devices (high bitrate and quality for wired clients, compressed lower quality for remote clients, etc).

As a rough guide, a regular tv show is SD, 42 minutes (commercials removed) is roughly 350mb. In 720p, about 3x that. Movies in 720p are generally 1.5gb - 3gb. Of course full blueray can be 30+GB. It all depends on the quality and video compression used (HEVC is less common but but does a better compression).

 

[dosborne]

Does that sound reasonable for my needs?

Sounds like a good starting point. As your needs change, you can always upgrade a bit at a time, but this should last you a few years.

I still have and use 3x DLink dns323 NAS boxes I must have bought 10+ years ago. They only have 2x2tb wd red drives as it think that was their max at the time but still great for backup image storage and an "extra copy" of critical files, firmware downloads, device configuration files, etc. This all gets replicated to my QNAP and cloud storage (where appropriate). My QNAP 231p is basically a test device where I can play around with various apps and the QNAP ts563 is where everything resides either as a primary or synced copy. A QNAP app manages the cloud backup as well.

 

[Jens Martin]

My 4 phones, 5 tablets, smart tv, Roku box, Chromecast and 2 wdtv players can all the same or different video/audio files simultaneously.

OK, am definitely on the same page as you here. I also quite like the simplicity of the WDtv players. My plan to move to Plex was to A) get declutter and get rid of the wdtv box and stream to the Smart tv directly via the Plex app and B) to be able to also stream to other devices via plex.

So, if you aren't using plex, does that mean that you still use your wdtv for your smart tv's then? What about your phones and tablets, how are they accessing the NAS?

 

[degrub]

So... having thought about it a bit more, I am inclined to go for the Synology DS218+:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Synology-DS218-Bay-Desktop-Enclosure/dp/B075L82DP1/ref=sr_1_2?keywords="Synology+DS218+"&qid=1575551182&sr=8-2

with two Seagate 8 TB IronWolf 3.5 Inch Internal Hard Drives:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07D962J5R/?tag=smallncom-21

Does that sound reasonable for my needs?

You may need a more capable cpu if you will be transcoding more than one stream at a time. Look for a similar quad core with hardware transcoding support. If no transcoding, then it will be fine.

Suggest maxing out memory as well if you will have multiple streams and other activities. The 2GB provided is just a bare minimum. 4GB would be my starting point.

Qnap has always focused on hardware capability. Their software is fine. Synology has always focused on their software with good enough hardware.

 

[Mark070]

I have three Synology NAS's over the years, a DS212J, DS412+, and most recentyl a DS1515+.

I, primarily, have only used the NAS's to store files (audio, video, network shares for members in the house). None of these boxes are capable of Transcoding Plex content at a high level (h265 content or multiple streams). They just dont have the specs to do it.

My approach when it comes to plex is the following:

• Currently, I do not stream any content to mobile devices
• I only stream content to my Nvidia Shield, or Roku for my TV's.

Given that, I do have Plex installed on my DS1515+, and it works perfectly, because the client side hardware (Shield, and Roku) have the necessary hardware and specs to take care of playing a video (direct play w/o transcode). Therefore, my NAS, which runs Plex, is just transferring the file to the real decoder.

If I do plan to stream to mobile devices, then obviously, my plans change.

If I wanted to keep Plex on my NAS, I would move to the DS1018+ or DS718+.
Otherwise, I would build a new server for housing Plex and anything else. Leaving my 1515+ in place as a file server.

just my $0.02

EDIT: DS1019+ is a 5 bay server which matches the bays in my DS1515+, minor correction on the NAS to buy for 5 multimedia file server.

 

[dosborne]

So, if you aren't using plex, does that mean that you still use your wdtv for your smart tv's then? What about your phones and tablets, how are they accessing the NAS?

Yes, I still use my wdtv live box. Phones, tablets, laptop, desktop simply browser via explorer, fx or whatever to the video / audio file and whatever player is on the device plays it back.

 

[ddaenen1]

I use a Synology NAS for pictures and any other digital forms/docs with 2 x 4Tb in RAID 1 as speed is not very important and a 2nd hand Supermicro server with a Xeon L3426 and 16Gb ECC RAM connected to a Dell MD1000 15 bay enclosure running FreeNAS for Plex. Works great, encodes all formats and is flexible in terms of future pool expansion.