Need help with NAS and Streaming Media Player

[manny9]

I joined this forum recently and have been regular visitor since then. First I would like to appreciate the great work you all been doing in this forum. I am based out of Bangalore and a novice in HT and Streaming and learning a lot reading through multiple posts.
One of the major revelations from me is NAS and Streaming players. With help from one of the forum member I was able to successfully stream some media in my laptop and I got hooked. One of the major problems I have is meeting the demand of every expanding storage need. I have multiple portable storage units but I feel NAS might be the way to go, since I dont want to invest lot of money on HTC. Before I proceed further these are the equipments I have,
- Samsung UA40B7000 40 inch LED TV
- Onkyo HT-S6200
- Sony PS3 Slim (US Model)
- Tata Sky HD+
I also have Kodak PlaySport HD Waterproof Pocket camcorder which shoots in 720p. This and my canon digital camera are the main culprits of my storage shortage.
I would need to help/advice is getting a NAS and a good streaming media player.
1) I feel NAS with built in wireless adapter would help and if I can share the FTP to my friends and family they can pull out the pics and videos without me uploading them. Good idea / Bad idea?
2) Also I feel currently 3-4 TBs might be a lot but if you can suggest a NAS which is flexible to increase the capacity would be helpful
3) Good streaming media with wireless capability
4) Other the usual suspects like Netfilx, Hulu etc., is there any other place to download/stream media legally?
5) Good place to buy NAS and Streaming media in Bangalore or online.
Sorry for posting such a big message, would really appreciate your valuable suggestions.

 

[hemantwaghe]

Santhol,pls can you help this new friend in Blore.You had NAS and currently have Xtreamer pro which has basic NAS capacities.

 

[Yogesh]

1) I feel NAS with built in wireless adapter would help and if I can share the FTP to my friends and family they can pull out the pics and videos without me uploading them. Good idea / Bad idea?

Bad Idea. Reason 1. As everytime anyone accesses anything u wud have to upload it. 2. Low upload speeds. If u upload media anywhere in net it will be available 24*7 to everybody with good speeds.

2),
3),
4),
5)

You have two great choices at present 1. Xtreamer PRO 2. AC Ryan Playon HD. Go thru specs of both to choose. U can also check upcoming 1. AC Ryan HD2, 2. AC Ryan Fluxx, 3. Xreamer Prodigy, 4. Xtreamer Ultra.

 

[thatguy]

2) Also I feel currently 3-4 TBs might be a lot but if you can suggest a NAS which is flexible to increase the capacity would be helpful

Why not build one? Netgear/D-Link/Drobo will sell you one with four hot-swappable bays but the retail prices in India are very high.

I built one a few months ago but my needs are different. I just want a data dump. I do, however, keep my music on it and point iTunes to use it as the primary storage.

I use FreeNAS which I believe can do uPnP. You should be able to get plug-ins for unraid too. But I haven't researched the streaming capabilities of the available NAS software but I am certain it is a solved problem. I did use FreeNAS's DAAP server for a while but it didn't fit into my workflow.

5) Good place to buy NAS and Streaming media in Bangalore or online.

Any of the SP Road dealers will be able to get it for you the NAS (I have checked with Ashirwad).

1) I feel NAS with built in wireless adapter would help and if I can share the FTP to my friends and family they can pull out the pics and videos without me uploading them. Good idea / Bad idea?

Good idea unless you care about security. You don't want to keep the FTP/HTTP port open all the time, do you?

 

[manny9]

Agreed, exposing the NAS to net is a bad idea....thanks for all the suggestions...will got through the specs of the suggested devices....Thanks again...

 

[pguy]

I went the NAS way. I bought a Synology DS411+ (put in 4 x 2TB drives) in RAID so that I can lose any one HD and still not lose any data. After I plug in and replace the broken HD, the NAS would be back to normal. I now use it to stream music all over my home, over wifi, over lan connections.

Bought the synology through ebay.in/geb

Expensive, but once you have it, you really wonder why you didn't do it before :lol:

 

[manny9]

Thanks, Synology looks great and expensive ...

how reliable is to have the stuff in Xtreamer PRO? Is there any scheduled back up into the second drive, so that if one hard disk crashes at lease i will have a backup. I'm torn between buying a dedicated NAS + Media Streamer or just Xtreamer PRO. I have tons of pics and HD videos of my son and I don't want to lose them becaz of hard disk crash... Appreciate all your suggestions...

 

[TaureanBull]

Thanks, Synology looks great and expensive ...

how reliable is to have the stuff in Xtreamer PRO? Is there any scheduled back up into the second drive, so that if one hard disk crashes at lease i will have a backup. I'm torn between buying a dedicated NAS + Media Streamer or just Xtreamer PRO. I have tons of pics and HD videos of my son and I don't want to lose them becaz of hard disk crash... Appreciate all your suggestions...

I would like to know answer to this myself. May be it would be a good idea to ask in the xtreamer thread. I am not sure about if the data in the HDDs are safe when the Xtreamer is connected to net.

It can be a pretty good option as it can accommodate 4TBs. At least for the time being its sufficient.

 

[GeorgeO]

I have ReadyNas Duo from Netgear with a single 2TB HDD.

 

[manny9]

George thanks for the PM, will call you
After lot of reading in the forum and thinking over last night I feel dedicated NAS might be way to go. Yes with Xtremer Pro the data will be open in the internet and from what I gathered from the Forum there are heat issues which might affect the HDD long term, and I am not sure if its RAID.
I am looking for a NAS with two or more bays with RAID capability so that even if I lose a HDD my data is safe. Preferably with wireless and DLNA. My budget can stretch up to 15K. I am really grateful for all your suggestions and advice, appreciate if you could suggest a good NAS based on your personal experience

 

[haisaikat]

George thanks for the PM, will call you
After lot of reading in the forum and thinking over last night I feel dedicated NAS might be way to go. Yes with Xtremer Pro the data will be open in the internet and from what I gathered from the Forum there are heat issues which might affect the HDD long term, and I am not sure if its RAID.
I am looking for a NAS with two or more bays with RAID capability so that even if I lose a HDD my data is safe. Preferably with wireless and DLNA. My budget can stretch up to 15K. I am really grateful for all your suggestions and advice, appreciate if you could suggest a good NAS based on your personal experience

I have Dlink DNS323, it was 2 bays each having the capacity to hoiuse 2TB. Has built in facility for Torrent downloading (need to install an app which is easy to setup and readily available on DLink ftp for download), scheduled http downloading, built in print server through it USB post for USB printers and has the capabiolity to add more storage via its usb port. It has gigabit ports at the back.

For wireless capability I would recommend you go for a wired NAS connected directly to your router as when doing a high data transfer from / to the NAS it will eat up your wifi bandwidth unless you are using some QoS policies in your router if that is supported. If however it is wired when doing the heavy download it will not eat up your Wifi bandwidth.

However I feel that what it lacks is a scheduled power up / power down capability for scheduled downloading which others like Xtreamer does and this will be a useful capability if you want to utlize schedu;eld download.... if your internet plan allows free download in odd hours of night.