NAS for media streaming and backup

[NoBioN]

Hey everybody

I have been looking at NAS'es.

My situation:

I got 2 HTPC's both with only a 120 gb SSD. Reason for that is i mainly is streaming from netflix or other similiar services. But sometimes i store media (up to blu ray quality) or install programs. and the HDD gets full quick. Also sometimes i want to see a movie from the HDD in a different room, and have to either transfer it through the network into that other also small SSD disk.

Therefore instead of would having to buy HDD's to put in 2 pc's i been thinking about the solution of a NAS instead.

I am concerned about the ability to stream blu ray movies.

Currently all devices that would stream as high as to Blu ray movies is connected by wires through a WD livewire powerline kit. Which is rated to 200 megabit / sec.

I have a TPlink router which is not gigabit. I thought about it would be possible with a gigabit router, but i think the Powerline kit will bottleneck the transfer.

I think its not possibe without direct ethernet connection, which is not possible.

Still i might get a NAS for DVD quality streaming and backup...

I need one which is easy to install, can be accesed remotely, stream directly, Be accesed by my mobilephone. and as cheap as possible, i'd love a 2 bay. but can live with 1 bay.

Any suggestions are welcome!.

 

[su root]

Bluray disks themselves read at about 4.5Megabytes/sec. Assuming the worst, and your biggest videos read at 10Megabytes/second, both normal 100 Megabit Ethernet should work fine, and normal hard disks (even 5400rpm disks) will easily be able to maintain 10MB/s. Your powerline kit should work, though you'll need to test the actual throughput of them, as there may be interference.

Most NAS solutions will work. Make sure to check benchmarks to see how fast they really perform, and pay attention to the disks that they use in the benchmarks.

The relevant numbers here are:
1x BluRay read speed = 4.5Megabytes/second
100Mbit ethernet = 12.5 Megabytes/second
200Mbit powerline = ??? - Most are half duplex, and susceptible to interference
Normal 5200rpm hard disk = typically around 70Megabytes/sec
Normal 7200rpm hard disk = typically around 90Megabytes/sec
SSD = per label.

 

[ssjwizard]

If the only devices that need access to the data are X86 based PC systems running Win/OS X/Linux then you will have no need to transcode the media so network demands are significantly lowered. In that case I would recommend a "Diskless System" or prebuilt NAS. I make that recommendation because for the average user they are far far easier to setup and maintain than building a proper server yourself. They also generally have hot swap drive bays, and are very compact.

I prefer the diskless build because it gives you the flexibility to choose your own HDDs, and most prebuilt use standard consumer drives. I recently built a NAS that I store all of my media collection on using the QNAP TS-412 diskless system with 4X 3Tb WD Reds. That might be above what you are shooting for but Id probably recommend a 4 bay enclosure even if you only plan on installing 2 drives right now.