Looking for advice on NAS for media streaming

daearegwr

Looking to set up NAS but bewildered on where to start.  Looking to store music which I can access with my new sonos speakers and films/tv which I can then access from the tv in the same room as the storage, and another tv I plan to install in a garage conversion.

At the moment I download tv shows (h.264 mainly and some mkv files) onto a laptop which I then plug in via HMDI to the TV.  Problem with this is means having the laptop on with the fan whirring away and also it only outputs in stereo sound.  I only download around 30-40gb a week and tend to delete the files after watching.

What I want to do:

-Be able to download the files directly onto the storage device (from my laptop) and then when I turn on the tv easily choose what to watch from the storage device.

-Be able to play 4k files.

-Output sound to my Onkyo HT-R548 av receiver (but the ARC connection on the tv would probably cover that?)

-Be fairly quiet and low running costs if it’s on 24/7 and in the same room as the tv

I’m planning to get a new 4k tv (probably the Sony XE9005) so do I get a NAS device that plugs straight into the HDMI slot of the TV? Or do I use the plex app on the tv which would transcode the content?

Or do I use a stand alone media device (like an Amazon 4k fire stick?) plugged into the tv which streams the content from the NAS?

Both cases would mean using the HDMI arc to pass the sound to the av receiver (I think this places a limit on the sound outputs as I don't think the Sony can’t output things like DTS-HD MA which my av receiver does support).  I think the age of the AV receiver means I can't put a 4k stick into it as it doesn't support HDMI 2.0.

Looking to keep it as cheap as possible!

limegreenzx

You have 2 options.
1. Cheap NAS with clients that do not require anything transcoding.
2. Expensive NAS that has the power to transcode. It's the Plex server PMS on the NAS that does the transcoding. Not the client app on the TV.
These days TVs usually have media players built in that can play most material formats.
IMO unless you want to play media away from home I would go with option 1.

daearegwr

Thanks for the advice.  Agree that option 1 looks better assuming the tv I choose has a media player that plays h.264, which by the sound of it most do.

Do you have any particular recommendation for a cheap NAS.  I can see a few mentions on the forum for synology.  Something like this? Synology DS215J NAS Personal Cloud Storage Enclosure | maplin

limegreenzx

Synology ds215j  looks a good price, but it is an old model. It has been replaced by the ds216j and now the ds218j. Each version has slightly higher clock speed than it's precessor and is slightly more expensive.
Any 2 bay Synology NAS will be a good choice.
But £130 for the ds215j does seem a very good price if you can find one locally.

daearegwr

Great stuff. Will keep my eye out for the best price.

Looking online Western Digital Red seem to the the hard drive of choice for this set up?

Just need to work out the best location for the NAS.  Would it need to plug directly into my router, or can it go into the LAN socket of a google whole home wifi / bt home wifi? (considering getting a wi-fi mesh set up to cover the house and garage conversion)

BrightCandle

Really depends how much you care about the peak performance and reliability of the byte delivery. Wifi that is working well can usually deal with streaming a movie well but it isn't going to be getting a solid 120MB/s all the time from that 1gbit/s link for uploading them to the device. Will it work? Should do unless there is a problem with the wifi speeds or its an old network. Is it optimal? Nope.

limegreenzx

WD Red have a good reputation, I've spent my own money on them, and most importantly they are on Synology's compatibility list.
Ideally you should connect the NAS directly to the router.

scarty16

NVIDIA SHIELD TV as the client to play back the files onto your TV.

This will allow you to use the NAS drive, PLex, Kodi, Netflix, Amazon Prime, VLC etc

The NAS drive can then be much less powerful and cost will go down significantly, as the NVIDIA does the processing/transcoding for you if required.