Suggestions for NAS Media Server

[m021478]

I would like to get an NAS device to use for sharing my iTunes music, iPhoto pictures, and other random media across my LAN, as well as have access to it from outside of my LAN. I would ideally also love a way that I could stream all of this content to my iPhone, and perhaps even my TiVo.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!

 

[jlwilsonjr]

I'm doing the exact same research. I'm really leaning towards the HP EX490 media server as it will do everything I need now and will want to do in the future (surveillance). It is a bit pricey but worth it IMO.

 

[bt22]

will the HP play purchased music videos and movies from iTunes. I don't think you can sync your iPods or iPhone if your entire library is stored on the HP Media Server. Me and my brother-in-law have been trying to find an ideal solution to this and we have yet to be able to figure it out. I would like to hear what you decide to use and how it works for you.

 

[RandomKamikaze]

I had a home built WHS. It did the job but was very much built for Windows as the client OS. I also couldn't do TM backups as it didn't support it. I did however set it up to stream music by putting my music on it and installing Firefly.

I have now got the Synology DS-409 which can do native TM backups, be an iTunes server and has got 2 iPhone apps for music and pictures. It also has good remote access features. It's small, quiet and tbh probably the best bit of kit I have got in a while (along with my Apple gear as well)

When looking at which NAS to have, it was a choice between the QNAP, Synology, Drobo, HP Home Server and Netgear ReadyNAS.

Decided on the Synology as the for me the HP and Netgear ReadyNAS were too expensive and the Synology has a feature that the QNAP didn't.

I've stuck 2x2TB WD Enterprise Class drives in there and have a RAID1 to protect. I am looking to get another drive tho as they will be full soon.

 

[spaceballl]

It's funny that you should mention this topic because I just finished making a server to do much of the same that you mention.
First off, for sharing music around the house, I LOVE Squeezebox Server. Phenomenal software, and the iPeng iPhone app makes controlling it all a dream.
For hardware, if you're pretty tech savvy, a Sheevaplug is awesome. It's so small and SO low power.
Use rsync to sync over your files to the server. I made some blog posts as I was building my server. here are the relevant posts...
Oh and btw, for remote access of files, I like Tonido!
Building a Squeezebox Server for under $100
Setting up the Sheevaplug as a low power server
Keeping your music in sync
Tonido!

I hope you find those links genuinely helpful. Let me know if you have any questions about how I set my system up, and I'd be glad to help!