Replacement for ADSL router/NAS?

1pudding1 · 21 Jul 2012 at 23:36

Hi,

Current gear is a Netgear DG834 adsl modem on Virgin ADSL, which is connected with a single network cable to a Linksys WRT54GL router. I have my PC connected to this via ethernet and tablet/laptop/squeezebox/xbox360 etc wirelessly.

I am wanting to get a NAS to store my DVD and Blu-rays on and then very soon get a HTPC. Then connect this to my AV amp in order to get the HD video and HD audio. First step I want to do though is buy the NAS, and a gigabit enabled router in able to stream the vids smoothly in future to a HTPC. I'd planned on getting the following after a bit of reading:

Synology DiskStation DS212J

Western Digital Caviar Green Power 2TB 64MB Cache Hard Disk Drive 6Gb/s - OEM

And then to replace my modem/router combo in order to get a gigabit network, and to hopefully to get better wireless reception too, a:

Billion BIPAC 7800N - wireless router - DSL - 802.11b/g/n - desktop

Can anyone see a better solution? Also, any recommendations in respect of the above spec on what HTPC/streamer would be good to stream blu-rays ripped to mkv's via HDMI to my AV receiver in order to get both HD video and HD audio with no stuttering?

Thanks for any tips, i'll carry on reading

Edited to add: I'd like the solution to be as energy efficient as possible as it'd be running 24/7, and also not too complicated to set up.

pauljen296 · 22 Jul 2012 at 11:53

I can't comment on a different wireless router but I can tell you the gigabit network does make a different I was maxing out the standard router I was getting speeds of 12 mbs now on the gigabit network I get around 50mbs so it's worth changing.I use a WD live streamer as a media streamer and it's an awesome bit of kit. it can play anything I throw at it and it has optical out for the audio, all that for under £100
http:// http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330

I have a sinology 211j and it's a great bit of kit you can't go wrong with it, my advice would be to get the biggest hard drive you can get buy. The hybrid raid allows you to increase the size at a later date but it's worth getting bigger one to start with. sinology will soon be releasing an update called video station which will allow media indexing and transcoding and you will also be able to record live TV soon using a USB dongle.

1pudding1 · 24 Jul 2012 at 00:40

Ok, well I've ordered all of the above, and also a Dune HD 101 media streamer in order to get HD bitstream over HDMI to my AV amp. Should arrive in the next day or so.

What's the latest stable firmware and useful packages to install on the NAS, and best way to set it up? There seems to be quite a few available like photo station, music station,cloud station? Do I need the media station package on the Synology in order to stream the mkv's to the Dune media streamer?

pauljen296 · 24 Jul 2012 at 07:39

The latest firmware version for your nas is Version: DSM 4.0-2233 which brought with it cloud station which allows you to have a folder on mutliply computers which will sync with each other so you will alway have the latest files on every computer I use this for document more so than anything else.

I also use download station with an rss feed to download stuff automaticlly off newsgroup so it will check every 6 hour to see if there is anything new to download it. In DSM 4.1 they will have automatic unzip which will be a great feature. You can also copy youtube url and drop that on to it which will then download to your nas in MP4 format thats a cool feature. you also have bittorrent but I haven't used this so can't comment.

You will need media station install to stream to your Dune media streamer, its pretty straight forward how to do it, If you have problem check out there website or there manual, I'm no tech wizard but I had this all setup in an hour with me being able to see it on my phone via synology dns server. My advice would be spend an afternoon reading the manual.

I use music station and photo station also but on my phone I have an android phone and i Download off the play store DS audio and DS phone which allows me to upload photo off my phone straight to the nas, I then use DS audio to stream all my music off the nas to my phone then out of my car stereo on the way to work.

The list can go on really with what you can do with it and i've only touched the surface. Hope that helped