Please help someone with no idea - NAS type media adaptor thingies

Rotty · 8 Mar 2011 at 00:18

I want to set up something on my LAN which allows me to play media files on my TV

do I need a NAS box and/or something else

sorry if I sound clueless but I am

Anewbe4u · 8 Mar 2011 at 03:48

I have a cheap Nas with a WDTV Live and it works great. All my household can access the Nas to drop things on and the WD is easy enough for them to use.

You could just use your PC as the storage too but that would mean always having the pc on but if you don't mind that, you can get one of the many many media players available.

MagicBoy · 8 Mar 2011 at 03:52

Similar here. I've got the original WDTV (USB only). I just drop the media on a USB hard drive that's plugged into it. Not found anything it won't play yet.

I'm tempted to upgrade to the latest networked version and NAS-ify the USB hard drives...

Fr0dders · 8 Mar 2011 at 07:30

the best NAS devices that do media streaming are ones from

Qnap

I'd look at one of the Two bay Home Devices like the TS-212

And from Synology

And for synology, have a look at their Home/ Small Office 2 bay NAS the 211j

Or the WD TV thing mentioned above.

Rotty · 8 Mar 2011 at 11:02

thanks folks

so if I were to get something like this

WDTV 1TB Live Hub Media centre

that would be everything I need, I just connect wirelessly to my network and vis HDMI to my TV and evrything is good ?

is wireless ok or would I be better using a cabled connection ?

just a though, it would be hard wored to my TV so the wireless is just data aceess over the network, it wouldnt strem over netwrok so wouldn't matter , is that correct ?

Rotty · 8 Mar 2011 at 11:03

MrLOL said:
the best NAS devices that do media streaming are ones from

Qnap

I'd look at one of the Two bay Home Devices like the TS-212

And from Synology

And for synology, have a look at their Home/ Small Office 2 bay NAS the 211j

Or the WD TV thing mentioned above.

with these things as opposed to the WDTV would I need something else to connect to the TV

Fr0dders · 8 Mar 2011 at 11:14

Rotty said:
with these things as opposed to the WDTV would I need something else to connect to the TV

Yes You'd need some kind of device that can play DLNA content.

So PS3 / Xbox / Blu Ray Player or a TV that can be networked and playback DLNA content.

atmax1 · 8 Mar 2011 at 11:17

I think you can buy them tv media players with built in drives? but if you like me with loads of content it prob best to get something like a ps3 or a device that can find a nas, get a nas with 2 bays and allows streaming and put some drives in it..

As for wireless, I found wireless to be ok if not far from the router but we have everything plugged in by cable as me and my dad love things to be quick lol

Rotty · 8 Mar 2011 at 12:12

cheers

the WDTV 1TB doesn't have wirelless anyway unless you use usb adaptor

so I am heading towards the WCTV 1TB as that seems an easy solution, as I right that this is all I need and a way to connect to netowrk ?

my TV is nowhere near the router but I do have a poweline thing which is behind the TV and used to connect a slingbox to the router

could I just put a cheap 4 port ethernet hub attached to the powerline and connect the slingbox and media server to that ?

Pestilence · 8 Mar 2011 at 12:15

I take it these boxes do all of the decoding "on board", so to speak? The only solution I have in place for HD streaming (.mkv) is PS3 Media Server to the Xbox 360. Obviously, this is reliant on my computer's processing power alongside network bandwidth, so I tend to have to drop the quality a bit to prevent pausing.

Should players like the WD Live work just as well as plugging a USB stick with the videos on straight into the TV, if the TV were one with a USB port?

Clipsey · 8 Mar 2011 at 12:56

Wait a short while and get an Xstreamer, these look awesome and you'll be future proofing yourself a little

londonbairn · 8 Mar 2011 at 15:00

Boxee box, I love mines

Rotty · 8 Mar 2011 at 15:46

rafster said:
Boxee box, I love mines

looks great for stuff like 4od and iplayer but from what I can see I would need NAS boc as well and so would end up costing about 300, the WDTV has the NAS type storage built in

looked at the xstreamer but can't really tell if it's what i need or not

Fr0dders · 8 Mar 2011 at 21:20

the WDTV sounds ideal for what you want tbh. Nice and simple.

Rotty · 8 Mar 2011 at 21:45

Simple does it for me

shame it doesn't do iPlayer etc

Pestilence · 9 Mar 2011 at 11:51

Just bit the bullet and ordered the Viewsonic VMP74. I'll mainly be streaming over the home network so the option to add an external USB drive is all I need in case I decide to do it. Also does iPlayer, too.

I should have it tomorrow, so will let you know what it's like!

danoliver1 · 9 Mar 2011 at 18:18

I use a synology ds110j NAS with a 1.5Tb drive connected to a sony bd370 blueray player which I use to stream films/music. Also connects to iplayer etc for internet streaming.

SexyGreyFox · 9 Mar 2011 at 18:47

Anybody know if the Xtreamer Prodigy will stream Iplayer?
I can't see it anywhere.

Pestilence · 11 Mar 2011 at 13:12

Well, the Viewsonic's in and it's doing pretty good so far! It's a very small and good-looking piece of kit. Attaching a USB drive to it, you can access it as a network share and add files in case your network can't keep up with the hi-def streams.

I only tested a few divx and mkv files on it, both streaming and from USB, and they all played perfectly fine (even files that caused the Xbox 360 through PS3 Media Server to go all screwy and out of sync).

I did notice an issue where it suddenly stopped connecting to the network shares (though uPnP still worked, strangely), and wouldn't play any mkvs - instead just coming up "file not supported" - but I just restarted the box and it worked a treat after that.

iPlayer worked first time, and watched "How TV Ruined Your Life" with no issues whatsoever, though as far as I'm aware you can't pause/rewind/ff iPlayer on this box but I didn't try that.

Over the weekend I'll be hooking it up to the amp via optical to test the surround capabilities. I did get some jerkiness from a 720p Blu-ray rip when streaming on the network during a fast-moving sequence in a forest, but I assume that's more down to my network speed than the box itself. I'll test the same file off USB tonight to be certain.

All in all, at just about £60 I can't complain at the moment. Does everything I wanted it to, even if there are a few little niggles.

SexyGreyFox · 11 Mar 2011 at 17:32

Pestilence said:
Well, the Viewsonic's in and it's doing pretty good so far!

How do you get on the net with it?
Do you have to type in with the remote?