Sony Bravia & NAS compatibility

[timleedham]

I already have a Sony KDL-EX46 503 TV and now i want to buy a NAS to use the DLNA funtion of the TV.

The Netgear Ready NAS Duo seems to tick all the boxes but having looked on this and other forums around it seems there are a few problems streaming video directly between these devices.

Do i need another device between these two in order for the TV to deal with the streaming issues, and what is best for this?

Any recommendations gratefully recieved.

[Anonymous]

Hi there

I am also looking into this as well. I would like a product, that once setup, is what I call Mum/Dad/Wife friendly. What you need is a NAS that supports on the fly transcoding of video.

I believe that the ReadyNAS duo cannot do this (someone please correct me if I am wrong).

I have been however looking at the Synology range of NAS. Especially the DS213 and the DS213+. These can support the serviio software (which i am familiar and happy with). I am still conducting my research on this however. They are more expensive though. But I just want a no fuss solution (once setup) to stream video files (like MKV at 1080p)

All I can say, is research, research, research, to get the product that fits your requirements.

Hope that helps

[Catmambo]

if you have any questions on Synology - happy to advise as I've had several and indeed a bunch of people in the office now use them as well. I think they are superb personally - yes they cost a bit more, but they are ultra flexible.

rgds

[Anonymous]

Purrrrfect,

Care to send one my way

On a serious note, do you have Serviio installed? If so, how does it handle streaming large MKV files onto Sony devices (as in NX723 TV and PS3)?

Noise levels would be my next concern. Is it quiet enough to have it in a lounge room or on the TV cabinet shelf itself?

Cheers

[Catmambo]

I've used serviio a few times on there and it works well as you have a ton of apps you can now install directly too it. Previously it was a real pain, but Synology now support 3rd party apps. Frankly the inbuilt Synology server is very competant and I think can transcode on the fly possibly?

Noise is no problem - I'm running a 411 with all 4 bays filled and its very quiet. Sits to the side of my desk by the router. Obviously if there is HDD access, noise levels jump a little, but then can depend on the type of HDD's you have also.

They are a stand up company, and have even logged in remotely to the device to sort out a error I created which was very impressive. Remote access work brilliantly, negating the need for the minefield of port forwarding, download client is excellent.

Would personally either get a 2 bay or 4 bay so you have some storage redundancy if you setup the HDD's in RAID 5 or the Synology equivalent...

Hope this helps

[Nielsen]

Interesting topic, since I'm also considering a NAS solution to release my laptop. Any experience shared here is highly appreciated.:smileyhappy:

I think more muscle is required for transcoding large mkv's than delivered by the SOHO Synology range - specially ARM based architectures.

Two alternatives with small  (and quiet) NAS :

Pre-transcoding all video files into TV likeable format.

Or use a DVD player with massive codec/ format support, or use a playstation as "muscle".

QNAP is also supporting serviio btw.

[Anonymous]

Cheers Catmambo

Nielsen - Thats my intention too, to release and free up the laptop (for other things)

[Catmambo]

Yes .mkv's need some grunt. This years TV's will support them natively which is good news and Blu-ray players have had support for a little while I think.

I tried a QNAP ages ago, wasn't a big fan, but maybe they have improved since then. The Netgear boxes are meant to be ok also. Personally wouldn't go near the Windows Home Server boxes. Just dreadful even when used with a PC - noisey, clunky, drank power. Real shame as I had hoped MS would have done a better job..

[rosspl2]

Hi,

I recently was in the same boat, I had a Sony Bravia Smart TV and wanted a NAS mainly for streaming films to the TV.

I decided to take the cheap option and buy a DLink ShareCenter DNS-320L, and have managed to get this streaming to the TV fairly easily.

Only need to set up the NAS drive and the enable the UPnP on the NAS drive then the TV just picks it up.

So for a cheap, fairly simple to set up and wife/parent prrof solution I would highly recommed the DLink ShareCenter

There are also alot of tutorials on how to set up SickBeard and other bit torrent clients on the NAS which could be very useful for some users. http://www.nasdestruction.com/

Hope this helps.

Best

Ross