Anyone using Time Capsule as a NAS? Thinking of getting one...

[Faire]

Hello guys,

I plan to purchase a 2TB TC because I need a NAS. I have a ATV2 which I will JB and install XBMC, an XBOX, A LG LED LM7600 with Smart TV and networking features, a mac book air and 2 iPhones.

I want to be able to stream HD content (movies, music, pictures, etc) stored on the TC to all those devices. Anyone here is able to do that flawlessly?

My main concerns are:

1) Ive heard the TC turns off the HD spinning to save power consumption. This can cause problems as the clients have to reload or remount the TC drive once it has stopped spinning. Is this actually an issue?

2) The TC is not DLNA certified. I will use the ATV2 to stream most of the content, however the ATV2 does not play 1080 movies, but my LED LM7600 does. How do I stream HD content from the TC directly to my TV?

3) The TC cannot act like an iTunes server. I dont really understand what the itunes server is for. Here I plan to setup my iTunes installations on my different computers to point to the TC. Then each itunes could sync separately against the TC. Is this feasible to do? Where would an iTunes server fit here?

4) I dont want to use the TC to backup my computers. I dont mind about that. But I do would like to to back the content ON my TC (all of my media content) maybe to a USB disc attached to the TC. Is this possible?

Thank you!!
Alvaro

 

[Nemic]

1. - I am not sure about the HD stopping, I guess it may though.

2. - Your MacBook Air should be able to stream 1080p using AirPlay - I think. Hmm scratch that as it's an older ATV probably not, sorry. Not sure if the ethernet on the TimeCapsule would converse with your TV.

3. - Not sure about that as I don't use iTunes that much

4. - I think that this is possible. Time Capsule has a USB 2.0 socket that you can plug a hard drive into. I think that it would simply be a case of dragging and dropping files - using your MacBook.

I am sure that others will be able to give you much more detailed answers.

Good luck

 

[blueroom]

Get a Synology NAS instead, PLEX & DLNA are available as plug ins.

 

[Faire]

Synology seems a bit expensive... plus I have to get a router too... Which Router and NAS would you recommend to stream HD content and that costs equal as the TC?

 

[DoFoT9]

Hello guys,

I plan to purchase a 2TB TC because I need a NAS. I have a ATV2 which I will JB and install XBMC, an XBOX, A LG LED LM7600 with Smart TV and networking features, a mac book air and 2 iPhones.

I want to be able to stream HD content (movies, music, pictures, etc) stored on the TC to all those devices. Anyone here is able to do that flawlessly?

My main concerns are:

1) Ive heard the TC turns off the HD spinning to save power consumption. This can cause problems as the clients have to reload or remount the TC drive once it has stopped spinning. Is this actually an issue?

Partly true, the hard drive will spin down but the device still sends out connection information to keep the network mapping "active", the only 'issue' is when the drive is spun down and you have to wait for it to spin up to load a folder/movie/whatever (about 3-5 seconds).

2) The TC is not DLNA certified. I will use the ATV2 to stream most of the content, however the ATV2 does not play 1080 movies, but my LED LM7600 does. How do I stream HD content from the TC directly to my TV?

Given that the TC is not a streaming media device, you're correct in this. The ATV2 can play 1080p media, but scaled to 720p when via AirPlay (and within the bitrate specifications). I am not certain how it performs under XMBC. In any case, I don't think the TC needs DLNA certification, as it will simply be a storage medium for the movies - the XMBC device (ATV in this case) is the one that must comply to those rules, as it's plugged into the TV.

Honestly though, I much prefer Plex, so I suggest you go that route.

3) The TC cannot act like an iTunes server. I dont really understand what the itunes server is for. Here I plan to setup my iTunes installations on my different computers to point to the TC. Then each itunes could sync separately against the TC. Is this feasible to do? Where would an iTunes server fit here?

A good idea, but the wrong implementation I think.. You should:
- Store the "iTunes" library folder on the TC itself.
- On a computer that is always turned on, or you have no issues turning it on, open the library from the TC by holding ption: when you open iTunes. It will ask you where the library is stored
- Through iTunes, share the library to other iTunes machines, or through Home Sharing to the ATV/iOS devices.

N.B. You cannot open the same iTunes library at the same time on multiple machines, otherwise you will corrupt your library file.

4) I dont want to use the TC to backup my computers. I dont mind about that. But I do would like to to back the content ON my TC (all of my media content) maybe to a USB disc attached to the TC. Is this possible?

Most certainly possible (USB HDD plugged into the TC directly), however you will need some backup software. You could use Time Machine, or any other 3rd party software of your choosing.

Synology seems a bit expensive... plus I have to get a router too... Which Router and NAS would you recommend to stream HD content and that costs equal as the TC?

Synology is actually very very good, I would recommend them basically due to their plugin/extensions (of which there are many), but the TC is also a good device, just limited in a few regards. I would recommend any Cisco/Linksys based routers, I would unrecommend D-link or TP-Link.

 

[WhatAmI]

Don't go down this route. Trust me, the 1st bullet is enough to make the TC unusable as a NAS paired with an ATV but as mentioned above it's not 3-5 secs the ATV often looses connection completely. The HD spin down almost kills me and after 6 month of agony I can't wait to get my Synology delivered

 

[KhonNan]

As mentioned by others. TC is not made for this. I tried it, and the movies lagged too much. 2 days after i went out and bought a Synology NAS, and I'm now using the TC for Time Machine only, like Apple intended.

 

[el-John-o]

Anything over Wi-Fi will be slow, but the Time Capsule is pretty slow. Over ethernet, I can get to my Time Capsule at about 60MB/s, versus 110MB/s to my NAS... Makes a difference when streaming video, especially uncompressed!

Anything you do though, if at all possible, go wired. Forget the 'theoretical speeds', it's all crap. I can 'theoretically' go several days without food but I'm still gonna eat three times a day! Your Wireless speeds will be nowhere near the 'theoretical' speeds, partly because of packet loss, and partly because it's all marketing and somewhere someone is snickering saying "450mbps, and they believed it! ha!" However, gigabit ethernet IS capable of actually hitting 1000mbps consistently.

FWIW, I use the Time Capsule as my router, another marketing guffaw is 'gigabit capable' routers that actually can't hit that speed, they are just 'compatible' with GbE equipment. However, I can vouch that the time capsule can handle a saturated gigabit link over ethernet.

 

[DoFoT9]

Anything over Wi-Fi will be slow, but the Time Capsule is pretty slow. Over ethernet, I can get to my Time Capsule at about 60MB/s, versus 110MB/s to my NAS... Makes a difference when streaming video, especially uncompressed!

Anything you do though, if at all possible, go wired. Forget the 'theoretical speeds', it's all crap. I can 'theoretically' go several days without food but I'm still gonna eat three times a day! Your Wireless speeds will be nowhere near the 'theoretical' speeds, partly because of packet loss, and partly because it's all marketing and somewhere someone is snickering saying "450mbps, and they believed it! ha!" However, gigabit ethernet IS capable of actually hitting 1000mbps consistently.

FWIW, I use the Time Capsule as my router, another marketing guffaw is 'gigabit capable' routers that actually can't hit that speed, they are just 'compatible' with GbE equipment. However, I can vouch that the time capsule can handle a saturated gigabit link over ethernet.

Sorry, but your post is full of information that simply isn't true. For example, there is no discernable difference when playing back a movie (even a fully muxed 1080p BluRay disc) simply due to the fact that one device is 60MBs and the other is 110MBs, this is because a movie of this type will basically never get over 5-10MBs. I think what you really mean to say, is that there are other differences in the devices that are causing the bad experience, which may be due to any number of things such as the network stack, differences in hard drive control (spin rates, energy saver, queue depth, etc) and other things like that.

The TC gets close to full gigabit, on the internal interfaces anyway (WAN is only about 550-600mb/s) - it's a solid device, that's for sure.