Streaming Media Over Home Network - Suggestions Plz

I'm looking to do the following and wondered if anyone could confirm if it will work fine or if i could do anything better.

I want to by a Rasperry Pi, install XBMC onto it and plug it in by my TV in my front room. I then want to have media stored on an external device that i can access from the Pi as well as my desktop in my room and my laptop, so i'm thinking a NAS, specifically Seagate Central. I would however want to limit or put a password on accessing the NAS' media, so for example if i dont want to grant access to all of my housemates to access it - i assume this can be done?

The tricky part is, the new apartment i'll be moving into, the wireless router is on the floor above where the landlord lives as he just sets up a seperate ssid for the suite he rents out below. So i'd have to do all the above wirelessly.

So firstly, will i be able to set all this up without being able to plug into the router at any point? and secondly i want to stream 720/1080p video from the NAS. Should that work over an N network with your bog standard ISP provided router or will i encounter problems there too?

Any help and suggestions would be appreciated, thanks!

Farquea said:

I'm looking to do the following and wondered if anyone could confirm if it will work fine or if i could do anything better.

I want to by a Rasperry Pi, install XBMC onto it and plug it in by my TV in my front room. I then want to have media stored on an external device that i can access from the Pi as well as my desktop in my room and my laptop, so i'm thinking a NAS, specifically Seagate Central. I would however want to limit or put a password on accessing the NAS' media, so for example if i dont want to grant access to all of my housemates to access it - i assume this can be done?

Click to expand...

Yes. One method is making it an SMB share and authenticate using a username/password.

The tricky part is, the new apartment i'll be moving into, the wireless router is on the floor above where the landlord lives as he just sets up a seperate ssid for the suite he rents out below. So i'd have to do all the above wirelessly.

So firstly, will i be able to set all this up without being able to plug into the router at any point? and secondly i want to stream 720/1080p video from the NAS. Should that work over an N network with your bog standard ISP provided router or will i encounter problems there too?

Any help and suggestions would be appreciated, thanks!

Click to expand...

Once you set up your wireless connection, you shouldn't need to be wired to the router anymore to configure it. Also streaming 1080p will be fine over an N network if you have a decent signal. I can stream uncompressed blue-ray rips over 100mbps connection just fine, so you will be fine streaming compressed 720/1080.

Congrats on selecting a NAS; once you start, you don't stop.

+1 to everything cullam3n wrote but I'd think about putting together a cheap server instead of buying a nas. Once your collection starts growing, the nas becomes a pita. Also...with a server you gain a boatload of additional capabilities (automated backups, remote access, excellent access controls and more).

Doesn't take much for a server....any old dual-core (core2duo's are more than sufficient) is fine so re-purpose some existing hardware or pick up a cheap, older setup in the forums.

Thanks for the replies, i've actually changed my mind and decided to plump for a 2 drive NAS just incase i build up my media library and the disk goes pop! I figured a 3TB RAID 1 setup was a good starting point and wondered if you would have any recommendations for NAS's as i see a lot come with lots of services and add ons etc etc when all i really need is raw space as i'll probably create 4 folders to divide my media then hook it up to my XBMC media PC and let that do its thing.

I'm not current on NAS solutions but I would tell you to spring for a 4 drive version instead. You'll fill up a 2 drive one quicker than you think. I filled up a 4x1TB RAID 5 (3TB usable) in about a year.

I don't work with the small units, but I've heard good things about the HP Microservers. I believe they are a bit more expensive than your cheap NAS, but you can install whatever operating system you want, which gives a lot more freedom on what you can do. A popular one that people run on it is FreeNAS (and derivatives).

Look at Plex with a Roku

Works amazing