Advice for setting up a movie/music sharing solution on my home network

ReDLaNN

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Apr 9, 2015
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Hello, i would like to setup an easy to use media sharing solution on my home network, what i need is to share Movies or Music over wifi in all my rooms ( with wifi TVs ). What i was thinking about was to buy a NAS which supports multiple sata but i would like to know if the use of the nas is simple from the TV, what i want to know specifically is:
- Can i play movies on my TVs using the TV interface and remote? ( using for example the sources the TV will find )
- Are NAS easy to configure?
- Is there any other easier solution to share movies from a storage to multiple TVs?
NOTE: i have some smart TVs which are relatively new products, i can already share movies and music ( all legally bought don't worry :D ) from my pc using DLNA with stuff like samsung link etc..
 
If you can stream from the computer, you will be able to stream from the NAS, it's the same type of sharing connection.

NAS setup depends on the product, many makers are coming out with NAS devices made for regular home users instead of techies or IT workers so those would be your best bet as to ease of setup. Something like the WD My Cloud is made for simple setup. http://www.cnet.com/topics/storage/best-hard-drives-and-storage/network-attached-storage/
 

kanewolf

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WIFI streaming of HD video is iffy at best. Especially if you want more than one stream simultaneously. You will need a wireless AC router to have ANY chance of multiple simultaneous HD streams. As many devices as possible need to be wired rather than wireless. Most TVs that have wireless ethernet also have wired.

A commercial NAS from one of the "big three" (Synology, Q-NAP, Thecus) will support DLNA, Plex, Itunes, etc. You will want to have the NAS connected to the network via a wired gigabit network.
 

ReDLaNN

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Apr 9, 2015
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kanewolf

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I am not familiar with that brand. If any of the three brands I mentioned above are available, I would recommend them. They have very stable firmware with regular feature updates.

A NAS would work the same as your PC from a performance perspective.
 


Can't really read it, but that looks to be just an enclosure and you need to supply your own hard drives, which is find if that's they way you want to do it.

What you are doing is not quite streaming, it's connecting to a network share and playing the file off that. For a stream, you set up a movie/music to play on the computer, then whoever connects to that computer using the streaming link will get that movie/music playing. The network sharing of files works differently. There is nothing setup for a pre-set connection, you just browse the network, find the file you want, and play it, just like if you were selecting it on the local computer the file was stored at.

The end result is the same, but network sharing is not "streaming".

To use an analogy, because I like to ;), streaming would be like walking up to a flowing river, dipping a cup in and drinking. The river flows when you are not there, it will flow when you are there, and after you go, and when you dip your cup in, you are getting whatever is in the river that it gives you. A network share would be you going for a walk with a water bottle. You pick what water you take and where and what you put in that bottle and when you open it to drink it.