QNAP or Synology?

Adnams Drinker · 11 Oct 2015 at 21:39

We've had a pair of Synology DS713+'s at work for a couple of years now - DS1 is the one we work on during the day, which then backs itself up to DS2 at 9pm every night.

They've been no trouble at all - until this Friday just gone. I was doing some admin on DS1 in DSM - emptying the recycle bins as it goes - logged off and suddenly my Mac gets kicked off the NAS. Booted up Synology Assistant and DS1 is listed as 'Not configured' - oddly my PC was still connected fine and could see the files/folders on the drive and other people on the network didn't seem to have a problem either.

A reboot of my Mac didn't solve the issue, so we decided to reboot both NAS's. DS2 booted up fine, but DS1 was basically dead. Status LED at the top was off, green LAN LEDs were flashing as normal and the blue LED at the bottom was flashing, which isn't normal.

Nothing we did got DS1 back on the network - it's basically been with a data-recovery company all weekend, to see if they can get back any of the files that were on it. We're assuming that this was some kind of freak failure, either of the HDDs or the actual enclosure itself, so we're intending to replace DS1 with another Synology, but combining it with some sort of cloud backup service.

Dangerous Dave · 12 Oct 2015 at 18:06

Rather than backing one up to the other each night you can have them in synology high availability mode which runs them active/passive with real time mirroring if the active NAS fails the second takes over automatically.

Worth considering if you are replacing it with another Synology.

kona786 · 19 Oct 2015 at 23:11

Eulogy said:
The Synology has options for what to do when on UPS, and one of which is to shut down when low on UPS power

Can you not connect from a smartphone?

bledd · 20 Oct 2015 at 08:31

kona786 said:
Can you not connect from a smartphone?

Sure you can, nice to think know that it will just take care of itself.

Richdog · 20 Oct 2015 at 08:48

Guys this may sound like a stupid question but if I buy a NAS of modest spec, lets say a QNAP TS-451 (https://www.qnap.com/i/uk/product/model.php?II=143), would then this allow me to stream pretty much any content over my LAN to my Samsung TV? I am not interested in transcoding whatsoever, but what I am confused about is actually how much processing grunt is needed from the NAS side in order to stream high bitrate MKV's throughout your home to Smart TV's and tablets? :confused:

I have my heart set on a QNAP NAS, I'm just not sure what model I need to do it comfortably for the next couple of years until hardware standards rise again.

PS: And no I am not expecting 4k, just 1080p MKV's of high bitrate/good quality (up to 20GB or so on average).

bledd · 20 Oct 2015 at 09:20

You need very little grunt at all for that. A 5 year old NAS would be able to handle that no problem.

I used to use a Pentium II -300mhz as a file server, it would max out the hard drive speeds without breaking a sweat.

Simply sharing a file is a very low CPU intensive operation.

ChrisD. · 20 Oct 2015 at 09:23

DSM 6 has some very nice features.

CGrieves · 20 Oct 2015 at 10:32

Richdog said:
Guys this may sound like a stupid question but if I buy a NAS of modest spec, lets say a QNAP TS-451 (https://www.qnap.com/i/uk/product/model.php?II=143), would then this allow me to stream pretty much any content over my LAN to my Samsung TV? I am not interested in transcoding whatsoever, but what I am confused about is actually how much processing grunt is needed from the NAS side in order to stream high bitrate MKV's throughout your home to Smart TV's and tablets?

I have my heart set on a QNAP NAS, I'm just not sure what model I need to do it comfortably for the next couple of years until hardware standards rise again.

PS: And no I am not expecting 4k, just 1080p MKV's of high bitrate/good quality (up to 20GB or so on average).

Yeah my 453 Pro streams everything I've thrown at it, so should the 451. For higher bitrates you need a decent LAN connection though obviously. I use 500Mb/s homeplugs without problems, but if you go that route best to borrow and try first to see if it works with your mains.

If the NAS will be within shouting distance of your TV though, use the HDMI port, or an HDMI over UTP extender...

bledd · 20 Oct 2015 at 12:55

^Your homeplugs won't be anywhere near 500Mb/s. Test by copying a large file over them.

Richdog · 20 Oct 2015 at 15:03

bledd. said:
You need very little grunt at all for that. A 5 year old NAS would be able to handle that no problem.

I used to use a Pentium II -300mhz as a file server, it would max out the hard drive speeds without breaking a sweat.

Simply sharing a file is a very low CPU intensive operation.

Hmm, well I perhaps mistakenly thought it wasn't simply a case of the NAS "sharing a file"... isn't it using the NAS's CPU to act as the driving force for playing the MKV file to the Samsung SmartTV? Or is it in fact the TV's processor doing the work? Currently I use my TV interface to browse the files on my Twonky-enabled laptop HD, so I thought the laptop was doing the processing work...

CGrieves said:
Yeah my 453 Pro streams everything I've thrown at it, so should the 451. For higher bitrates you need a decent LAN connection though obviously. I use 500Mb/s homeplugs without problems, but if you go that route best to borrow and try first to see if it works with your mains.

If the NAS will be within shouting distance of your TV though, use the HDMI port, or an HDMI over UTP extender...

Thanks mate and good to hear. I have everything wired up direct ot my rouer via Cat6, so throughput isn't an issue I was only concerned about CPU speed required.

Cosimo · 20 Oct 2015 at 17:01

Been using Synology for a number of years without any problems. The software is very good, updates are frequently and you have great products.

CGrieves · 20 Oct 2015 at 17:17

bledd. said:
^Your homeplugs won't be anywhere near 500Mb/s. Test by copying a large file over them.

Yeah I know that, mentioned it to demonstrate that the 500Mb/sec models are fine for HD video streaming, considering they can be picked up cheaper than the 1Gb/sec models.

Am mentioned though it depends on mains noise and wiring quality, so best to try before you buy.

bledd · 20 Oct 2015 at 20:10

Richdog, it will only be using CPU of the nas if it's transcoding.

I've never ever transcoded, don't see the point

Richdog · 20 Oct 2015 at 21:09

bledd. said:
Richdog, it will only be using CPU of the nas if it's transcoding.

I've never ever transcoded, don't see the point

Ahhh then I can basically stream high bit rate mkv from almost any NAS? If so then very interesting, as I have zero interest or need for transcoding either. Im guessing a TS453 Pro will be the absolute max I need then for streaming and encryption.

The only question remaining is what size HDs I should start with for RAID5... Im thinking 4tb drives should be enough for the foreseeable future.

Carbon Copied · 20 Oct 2015 at 21:21

Correct; as long as the device that's receiving the file knows how to decipher the streams in the mkv container, transcoding will not be required. My Sony Bravia has kittens when I ask it to read mkv files; hence it needs transcoding prior (plex or whatever) - likewise delivering the file to a HTPC (as an example) it's all recognized on the end device, so the HTPC just plays it off the cuff as the file is "served" up.

Richdog · 21 Oct 2015 at 07:08

Carbon Copied said:
Correct; as long as the device that's receiving the file knows how to decipher the streams in the mkv container, transcoding will not be required. My Sony Bravia has kittens when I ask it to read mkv files; hence it needs transcoding prior (plex or whatever) - likewise delivering the file to a HTPC (as an example) it's all recognized on the end device, so the HTPC just plays it off the cuff as the file is "served" up.

Ahhh OK, I thought the CPU was used to stream the file in the TV even without transcoding , especially via HDMI.

Thanks guys, you just saved me some money.

bledd · 21 Oct 2015 at 16:35

Woah, via HDMI ?

If it's HDMI from the NAS to the TV, then the NAS is playing the file and it's more of a media player with internal hard drives than a pure NAS device..

FrankJH · 21 Oct 2015 at 17:03

bledd. said:
Woah, via HDMI ?

If it's HDMI from the NAS to the TV, then the NAS is playing the file and it's more of a media player with internal hard drives than a pure NAS device..

Exactly

Saying that cheap as chips android boxes (based around AMLogic cpu's and Mali gpu) are capable of decoding high bit rate MKV's as long as the network is fast enough so even then "grunt" isn't such a big factor anymore

So a relatively recent NAS will still be ok

The only thing I would be wary of is getting a NAS that's too restricting in regards to growth of your data. Personally I would go for a device which has capacity for disk failure / rebuild but also spare drive bays as well to give you headroom in the future

Richdog · 21 Oct 2015 at 19:39

bledd. said:
Woah, via HDMI ?

If it's HDMI from the NAS to the TV, then the NAS is playing the file and it's more of a media player with internal hard drives than a pure NAS device..

To be honest I can do both, my only goal is to stream high quality MKV's to my Samsung TV with no fuss, whether that is via wired LAN or HDMI makes no odds. So if LAN to TV works fine then that's what I'll do, either way my entire network is wired.

bledd · 22 Oct 2015 at 12:12

Richdog said:
To be honest I can do both, my only goal is to stream high quality MKV's to my Samsung TV with no fuss, whether that is via wired LAN or HDMI makes no odds. So if LAN to TV works fine then that's what I'll do, either way my entire network is wired.

What I'm saying is..

If it's NAS to TV via HDMI, the NAS CPU will be doing the work. (nas will 'play' the file)
If it's NAS to TV via network, then typically the TV CPU will be doing the work. (unless you pick transcoding)

Personally, I use Raspberry Pi, android phones/tablets and a Windows pc (all with Kodi on them) to do the playing. So my NAS is network only, hidden away in a room on it's own.