NAS advice - Multiple computers and consoles

[LGShepherd]

Hi MacRumors!!

I am looking buying the Netgear RND2000 ReadyNAS to store my media, mainly movies. Link below:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149510

My current set up is iMac, Windows XP machine, 3xPS3s and and XBox 360. I will soon have a Mac Mini with Plex for my standard 'home theatre' set up. What I am looking to do is store all of my movies and TV shows on the ReadyNAS and access them on any of the machines when I want to.

I would also like to access these movies at my friends house via his PS3 if we ever want to watch a movie there. I can't imagine this is possible, but I thought I would ask.

I am not too fussed about making back ups of my iMac on it as I have a 1TB Time Capsule for that and my music collection will stay on my iMac and be back up with the Time Capsule.

One last question, can this set up be accessed via an iPhone/iPad?

Would this be suitable for my needs or is there a better solution out there? I am new to NAS set ups so any help would be massively appreciated.

Thanks
Liam

 

[Prodo123]

You do realize out of the 2 drive bays that thing has, none of them come with a hard drive in it?

If you're looking for speedy access and/or long life and have a lot of money, get a single-bay ENCLOSURE and a 512GB SSD.
If you're looking for capacity, try LaCie or Seagate.
If your budget is high, get a 6TB NAS. Probably a 3-bay enclosure with 3 2TB HDD's inside.

Since it supports streaming, I think it will be accessible to iDevices too. Beware, iPad and iTouch cannot play AVI files.

 

[LGShepherd]

Hi!

I am aware that it comes without any drives, but drives aren't massively expensive anymore. I believe I can get a decent 1TB drive for about £40/£50.

My main concern is the ease of this device. I have no experience with NAS set ups, but from reading I have done then it seems like the best solution for my needs of multiple devices.

All of my video collections has been ripped and converted to ensure complatibility with my iDevices.

Would you suggest that the readyNAS would be the best solution for my needs?

Thanks

 

[zhenya]

That device will likely do fine, but I'd also look at the offerings from Synology, who appears to be leading the pack in consumer NAS devices.

 

[Chic0]

^^^What he said

I recently purchased the Synology DS211J with and a couple of Samsung F4 2TB drives. I haven't had time to set it all up yet, so I can really comment on functionality.

One of the reasons I bought it though is because Synology have apps that enable you to stream photos, music and I think video to your iDevice. Their apps are on the app store.

Also the Synology software that comes with the NAS seems polished and fairly straightforward to setup. You can view a live demo of their software on their website
http://www.synology.com/enu/products/demo/index.php

 

[LGShepherd]

Thanks guys!

I have just had a look at the Synology DS211J and it looks like a great bit of kit and will do what I need. I have found that a lot of them do what I need and it is down to personal preference.

I am now even more stuck haha!

Chic0 - Could you let me know how it goes when yours is all set up?

 

[Chic0]

Thanks guys!

I have just had a look at the Synology DS211J and it looks like a great bit of kit and will do what I need. I have found that a lot of them do what I need and it is down to personal preference.

I am now even more stuck haha!

Chic0 - Could you let me know how it goes when yours is all set up?

I can, but not sure if you can wait that long. I am away from home at the moment and won't be back for another few weeks. I won't be able to set mine up until Dec 15th If you are in no immediate rush to buy, send me a PM in few weeks and I'll let you know what I think of it.

if you have any other questions, the Synology forum could be a good place to ask too.

Good luck with choosing. I know it can be bit of a headache. Nice headache to have though

 

[Moomba]

My current set up is iMac, Windows XP machine, 3xPS3s and and XBox 360. I will soon have a Mac Mini with Plex for my standard 'home theatre' set up. What I am looking to do is store all of my movies and TV shows on the ReadyNAS and access them on any of the machines when I want to.

I would also like to access these movies at my friends house via his PS3 if we ever want to watch a movie there. I can't imagine this is possible, but I thought I would ask.

One last question, can this set up be accessed via an iPhone/iPad?

It is possible to access your data at your friends house via his PS3 assuming you have a hardware VPN tunnel setup between you, and the bandwidth on both ends is sufficient for the streaming of the data.

One potential issue you may likely run into will be a/v transcoding. With so many different devices it is possible that certain files may not be natively fully comparable with all devices. If this is the case then you will either need to convert the files or do some on the fly transcoding. FreeNAS hacked to include the PS3mediaserver works really well and would satisfy all your requirements. The downside is it is a more technical setup than just attatching a box and drive to your network.

As for iPhone access, it is possible especially if you setup a VPN back to your house. Thankfully, this is much easier to accomplish with an iPhone than a ps3.

Basically, the short answer is yes to everything you want to do is possible. It's just not available in a simple plug and play solution.

 

[LGShepherd]

Thanks for all of your input guys!! It is an awkward problem to have with all of the solutions out there. I would have loved to build a box and run freeNAS but I have no clue about the tech side of NAS haha!

Ebuyer and Netgear are doing an offer with the ReadyNas with 1TB drive and Netgear will send another 1TB drive for free and the total cost would be £185. This seems like a pretty sweet deal to me and it does the basics for what I want.

I am not looking forward to the next bit of kit after my readyNAS, but hey!

Thanks again!

 

[Chic0]

Congrats on the purchase

What is 'the next bit of kit' if you don't mind me asking?

You sure 2x 1TB drives will be sufficient for your needs?
I suppose it depends on how you setting them up too.

My 2 2TB drives shoud be plenty, but I'm going to be setting them up in RAID1.

 

[LGShepherd]

Thanks Chic0!

I am hoping 2x1TB will be plenty for me... for now lol!

I haven't decided how to set it up as NAS stuff is still pretty new to me and I am learning about RAID0, RAID1 etc. I will update once it arrives and I have set it all up.

My next purchase is a IR blaster with wifi so I can use my iPhone as a all in one remote. I like the IR dongles, but I would prefer not to have one.

I am trying to buy all my kit before I buy a house with my girlfriend so I have money to buy stuff for the house and not my gadget needs because I quite fancy sitting on a comfy sofa ha!