Media Streaming NAS for Christmas?
Hey all,
Looking to convert my parents DVD collection to a NAS for Media streaming to 2-3 TVs.
It started with my parents asking about streaming boxes. My initial thought would be to get a few chrome cast sticks, and have them stream from a NAS with all the media. Not sure if its the best options.
Ideally its gotta be smooth streaming, easy to view and select movies / DVDs to play, and if possible have a remote?
So any suggestions? also whats the ball park price range to get this running? Canadian pricing
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Honestly unless they're capable of troubleshooting random connection issues themselves, it might not be the best idea.
If you want to go down that road, my recommendation would be to get a NAS that can run plex, and then matching streaming boxes to do that. Plex is probably the prettiest and easiest in home method.
but honestly, unless you're dead set on this, really think about something like an Apple TV, Andorid TV, or Roku and like year's worth of Netflix.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/BretonBrawler
I beleive roku has a plex app, so you could always go a roku route, and then if they really want the NAS solution add that in later. I just look at the NAS option and think "do I want to get a phone call every time for some reason it doesn't work?"
Between those streaming services, your parents should have access to nearly their entire DVD collection, minus workout videos (the main thing I use my blu-ray for these days). The very few DVDs that aren't on a streaming service, just let them pop those into the blu-ray player.
Now then, if you have asian parents, get them a TVpad4, which is similar to a Roku, but designed to pull content from asian TV stations. Practically every single channel from every single asian country puts their broadcast TV shows online (ok, that's stretching it a little, but only a little).
You missed the part where he said Canada, where we aren't graced with the presence of Hulu and Amazon Prime Video.
You are looking at considerable cost and time to do what you want though.
You need 2-3 Rokus, a NAS and hard drives etc. then you need time to get the movies on there.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/BretonBrawler
even if the older mac only has USB2, consider that most HD streams like that *might* get as high as 40mbit/s, DVD like you're talking about will be a lot less than that. USB2 can do 480. so 2 would be no problem.
That is excellent, time to do some purchasing and throw it together then.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/BretonBrawler
Suggestions:
Make sure you have a fast external , don't get a 5400rpm backup drive and think it's going to perform.
Pick a video compression method and stick with it - something your end user boxes will playback. Depending on the mac I doubt it will support more then 2 on-the-fly conversions for video playback unless it's a Mac Pro (2008 or newer) or it's one of the new 5k macs.
If you are using uncompressed rips or random divx/mkv/etc files from the net then prepare to troubleshoot all day long.
My suggestion is find a workflow for you, a platform for you, and stick with it.
I've been doing media servers since 2003. I've ran into many many lessons learned. ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR LIBRARY.
If anyone really wants to know more about it just ask.
(Currently: Running a single library of .h264 AppleTV 1080p/5.1/23.976fps compatible files - roughly 3,330 of them... playback is via Mac Pro running iTunes for AppleTV Gen 3 playback, Plex running on a QNAP TS810pro for mobile and AppleTV Gen 4/Raspberry Pi 2 Plex Media Player build playback.)
As for External hard drive speed, most USB external hard drives don't list the RPM in specs, So I guess its best to get an external drive and not a "Backup" external drive.
This has all been supper helpful By the way.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/BretonBrawler
Just get a regular hard drive and an enclosure. That way you pick the drive yourself.
One question as per quality. Is it better to do a straight DVD Rip then encode? would that result in better quality? or is it not even worth the time?
This is great info, I only had a few in MKV before I switched over.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/BretonBrawler
But it's never just one.
Ripping should be faster then rip/encode in one process...
The way I do it is rip, encode, repeat... with the encode phase being where it backs up.
I use MakeMKV for the rip, and Handbrake with AppleTV 3 profile (switching the fps from variable to 23.974fps) for the encoding.
Also learning the Fun of organizing TV series. The straight rips leave quite a mess, but I just gotta go back and setup the proper file folders.
Can't wait until the large transfers are over and then its just little maintenance with new movies.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/BretonBrawler