NAS Streaming - Do I need to transcode

Petrolhead

Petrolhead

Petrolhead

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I am looking to replace my WD My Cloud NAS and been looking around the forum for ideas.

However I see a lot of talk about transcode and the fact some NAS boxed do not have the power for it.

What is transcode?

I assume my current WD MY Cloud does not use it and all the films stream fine to my TVs so why do I need transcode?
 
Hey,

transcoding in this case, is when you change the properties of a video file to something else. For example you might have a movie file with DTS sound. And the hardware you have only supports Dolby or stereo. You then use the power of the NAS or computer to change the sound on the fly to a supported format. It requires a lot of cpu power to do it on the fly. So you can watch the file instantly.

You don't really need a powerful NAS for transcoding, unless you think you will be playing the files back on something that wont support certain formats etc. For example you might use a ROKU that doesn't support all file formats and sound types.

In your case the files play back fine and so you don't need to worry about transcoding.

Andy
 
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If your current device that you use to watch your videos on can play your files that you have now then no you don't need to transcode.

Transcoding is converting one file type to another to make it more compatible with other devices.
 
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