NAS vs All in one solution

Mallers · 17 Dec 2022 at 15:36

Hello, would there be any advantage either way between an all in one box, eg Zappiti neo, or a NAS enclosure plus 1/2/3 or 4 drives eg Synology or the like? I like the idea of an all in one solution for storage (I only intend to use for films) but something like a synology im told will be more versatile, with drive redundancy vs the Neos one drive only. Also, even with the aid of online videos, a little daunted at setting up a NAS whereas a one box will still have some setup required but seems to be a lot simpler. And of course in these times, cost comes into it!

andybird123 · 18 Dec 2022 at 05:24

Depends on your TV, if your TV supports all the formats you want to play then there's usually no real advantage to getting a separate box to play the files for you. But, if you are only using it for movies which you already have copies off elswhere, then a NAS doesn't really offer you much advantage either.
If you do have files that you want to keep back ups of then obviously a NAS offers you that security.

If you don't actually need a media player or a NAS as backup and you want it cheap, could you not just attach an external drive to your TV or to your router?

Mallers · 18 Dec 2022 at 11:51

Hi, i could go that route i suppose. My tv is an LG C1, so i think its new enough to play files. Its storage size that may be a problem. Ive ripped nearly 30 discs (all blu rays so far) and nearly filled my 6tb hdd on my desktop (tbf, didnt start from empty, theres other things on it already). Ive got another few hundred dvd and bluray to go through (not doing 4k yet, ill watch those on the 4k player). So i need something thats got enough storage and can expand later perhaps.
If i had a large capacity external drive, i just load a plex app or some app on the tv, and let that do the work?

andybird123 · 18 Dec 2022 at 14:52

Mallers said:
Hi, i could go that route i suppose. My tv is an LG C1, so i think its new enough to play files. Its storage size that may be a problem. Ive ripped nearly 30 discs (all blu rays so far) and nearly filled my 6tb hdd on my desktop (tbf, didnt start from empty, theres other things on it already). Ive got another few hundred dvd and bluray to go through (not doing 4k yet, ill watch those on the 4k player). So i need something thats got enough storage and can expand later perhaps.
If i had a large capacity external drive, i just load a plex app or some app on the tv, and let that do the work?

I just use either the media player on the TV or VLC player, my movies are all in named folders so browsing is really simple on the TV