Looking at NAS

[ggoerl]

Was recently looking at a NAS system, I've been wanting external storage for quite a while now. Ruled Drobo out. Basically looking to get a Synology. Probably the DS411J . Which in time will give me room to grow and later upgrade the drives too.

I mainly wanted something to expand my hdd space as I currently have all 4 bays in my macpro full. I have backblaze in case of emergencies but found out backblaze doesn't backup NAS. I wanted to also use it as a media server to store and access all of my movies and shows from. I was looking to get an apple tv and have one in each room with a tv that could access it. The downside I just found out is that it can't do it without streaming through itunes? Unless you have a jailbroken atv and run plex? Can anyone confirm any of this or have any ideas or suggestions?

 

[Ifti]

Check my YouTube videos, you can use an Apple TV to stream movies straight from your NAS via an iPhone or iPad rather then having a computer and an instance of iTunes running.
I have all my movies on my NAS (Synology, DLNA enabled) and I would use my iPhone or iPad to stream a movie for the kids straight through the AppleTV using AirPlay. You can then do anything else, like browse the net, or use you iPad or iPhone as normal since the movie will continue to stream in the background.

I then decided to jailbreak my AppleTV and installed XBMC, which wasn't difficult, and streamed directly from my NAS to the jail broken AppleTV. Again I have a video on my YouTube channel on this.

At the moment, I have sold the AppleTV as I'm waiting for a Mac Mini Server instead, but I still stream movies from my NAS straight onto my iDevices fine. I have also hooked my TV up to the network and stream movies from the NAS straight through the network onto the TV directly now, although the user menu isn't great, it does the job for now.

Remember that the Synology also has an iTunes server built in. Hence you can put all of your iTunes content onto the server and share it out to all your iTunes clients also.

A great investment, you won't be disappointed. As I said, I have lots of instructional videos on the Synology on my channel, free free to take a look (link in sig).

 

[Che Castro]

With a non jailbroken apple tv

How would a nas work with the pc off ?

I Have have an airport extreme , do i connect the nas to that? But how will the iphone see it to airplay to the apple tv ?

Do i even need a nas? Wouldn't a regular drive work connected to the airport extreme

I have an appletv 3 so is not jail broken but i want to be able to stream with the pc Off

 

[Lance-AR]

ATV3 streams from iTunes. You'll need the computer to run iTunes. It can stream from a NAS or DAS but it will have to be powered on.

 

[ggoerl]

Check my YouTube videos, you can use an Apple TV to stream movies straight from your NAS via an iPhone or iPad rather then having a computer and an instance of iTunes running.
I have all my movies on my NAS (Synology, DLNA enabled) and I would use my iPhone or iPad to stream a movie for the kids straight through the AppleTV using AirPlay. You can then do anything else, like browse the net, or use you iPad or iPhone as normal since the movie will continue to stream in the background.

I then decided to jailbreak my AppleTV and installed XBMC, which wasn't difficult, and streamed directly from my NAS to the jail broken AppleTV. Again I have a video on my YouTube channel on this.

At the moment, I have sold the AppleTV as I'm waiting for a Mac Mini Server instead, but I still stream movies from my NAS straight onto my iDevices fine. I have also hooked my TV up to the network and stream movies from the NAS straight through the network onto the TV directly now, although the user menu isn't great, it does the job for now.

Remember that the Synology also has an iTunes server built in. Hence you can put all of your iTunes content onto the server and share it out to all your iTunes clients also.

A great investment, you won't be disappointed. As I said, I have lots of instructional videos on the Synology on my channel, free free to take a look (link in sig).

Is it possibly to use any of the Synology units such as the DS1511? or does it have to be one of the home personal units with DLNA®/UPnP? I'm just curious cause I didn't happen to see anything about that for the 1511. Also please explain and elaborate how you would use the mac mini? you got that to replace your atv?

 

[theSeb]

Is it possibly to use any of the Synology units such as the DS1511? or does it have to be one of the home personal units with DLNA®/UPnP? I'm just curious cause I didn't happen to see anything about that for the 1511. Also please explain and elaborate how you would use the mac mini? you got that to replace your atv?

Yes, it is. The upper range models have all of the features in the home orientated budget models. I've the DS1511+ and it has all of the iTunes/UPNP/DLNA stuff built in. It's actually the software that controls all of this and it runs on all of the models.

There is a newer model of the 1511+ now: DS1512+, so make sure you get that and not some old stock.

 

[Ifti]

Is it possibly to use any of the Synology units such as the DS1511? or does it have to be one of the home personal units with DLNA®/UPnP? I'm just curious cause I didn't happen to see anything about that for the 1511. Also please explain and elaborate how you would use the mac mini? you got that to replace your atv?

The main difference between the units are the number of bays. With 3 or more bays you have th eoption of RAID5, whereas with the 2 bay units you can only do RAID1 or 0.

As Seb mentioned above, the same software runs on the entire range so the services will still be available to you regardless.

I havent picked up a Mac Mini yet - am waiting for a possible refresh. I just found the ATV a little restrictive in its 'normal' form. Its better jailbroken, but I dislike having to jailbreak with every update etc.
I want to buy a Mac Mini instead to use as a main server in the house, connected to the main TV in the living room for multimedia. My multimedia is on my NAS so clients would still connect to that as well, as well as the MM itself. I also want to run Plex server on the MacMini - although you can get a package for Plex server to run directly on the NAS, I like to keep my NAS for data storage/backup and CCTV etc, rather then use it as a server as well.

An alternative would be to use the MM as the server itself, along with all data etc. If space is an issue you can always expand with additional external HDDs. Hence rules out the need for a NAS - I guess it depends on your individual choice and requirements.

 

[ggoerl]

So if you set up the MM to be a plex server how would the other tv's in your house even access it though? I mean the tv's don't have software that communicates with the MM. So the only option I can think is you have a splitter and all the tv's run off that MM? But then you all the tv's would be stuck watching the same thing and wouldn't be independent. I'm really curious now since this is what I want to achieve. I was considering an apple tv for each room which connects to the NAS as the media server but I guess it would be better to have a dedicated media server aka MM that just accesses the media on the NAS and have the ATV's connect through the MM?

 

[ianrip]

I was looking at putting separates PC's with TV HDMI in each room connected to the NAS via the router, however Samsung TV's have a very basic browser which can play most files from my NAS on 2 TVs in my house no PC or Mac mini required.

I'm sure some other TV brands do this not just Samsung
this is my set up for now at home, my mac mini will arrive before end of the year, but I used daughters laptop to set up the NAS, then switched laptop off, and can now browse NAS via TV's or via Ios devices

 

[Ifti]

So if you set up the MM to be a plex server how would the other tv's in your house even access it though? I mean the tv's don't have software that communicates with the MM. So the only option I can think is you have a splitter and all the tv's run off that MM? But then you all the tv's would be stuck watching the same thing and wouldn't be independent. I'm really curious now since this is what I want to achieve. I was considering an apple tv for each room which connects to the NAS as the media server but I guess it would be better to have a dedicated media server aka MM that just accesses the media on the NAS and have the ATV's connect through the MM?

Im only really interested in feeding the one TV for now, and my iDevices, so will work fine for me, using Plex.

As it is, with the NAS, my Samsung TV connects straight into the router and can play most file formats directly from the NAS itself with nothing in between. However, I can still do this with a Mac Mini and Plex, since the newest version of Plex also acts as a DLNA server now (or just get a generic DLNA server for MAC) and once set up it will still feed all other TVs independently.