NAS Confusion

Jonnibravo

Standard Member
Joined
Jul 4, 2010
Messages
27
Reaction score
2
Points
11
Age
48
HI All,

I am very confused by the many options available for NAS and streaming 4K.

What I want to achieve is 4k hdr wireless streaming various formats at home and no more than 1080p streaming on the move and server access to games, videos and music. Because my Samsung Q80R does not support atmos or dolby vision I will need the ability to transcode some 4K videos from the NAS.

I was looking at Synology 218+/220+, or the Qnap TSx53, or the Nvidia Shield Pro tv with a WD mycloud or similar.

Can anyone recommend the best option to go for, my budget is in the region of £200-£500 with some room to maneuver, this is without the disks although would be good if I could squeeze one out of the budget.
 
Sorry, wondering why you need to transcode ?

No sure what your requirements are, you want to be able to able to play back Atmos ?

As for mobile device, I can playback 4k video on my non 4k phone. You will probably need to transcode if trying to do it over public internet.
 
Sorry, wondering why you need to transcode ?

No sure what your requirements are, you want to be able to able to play back Atmos ?

As for mobile device, I can playback 4k video on my non 4k phone. You will probably need to transcode if trying to do it over public internet.
Because any video with dts, or dolby is not supported by my tv, it is frustrating when I can't play many of the 4k downloads and I have to hunt down specific formats, would also be useful to have the option.
 
Because any video with dts, or dolby is not supported by my tv, it is frustrating when I can't play many of the 4k downloads and I have to hunt down specific formats, would also be useful to have the option.
Remux your source to mkv and your TV will play them just fine.
 
Not if it's DTS or higher, newer Samsung TVs won't play them at all.
 
Odd, I have Q80R and it can play mkv, mp4 seamlessly. Since Samsung dropped DTS support back in 2018, it can't play DTS titles. That said, my little Plex server can easily transcode DTS to AC3, problem solved.
 
Odd, I have Q80R and it can play mkv, mp4 seamlessly. Since Samsung dropped DTS support back in 2018, it can't play DTS titles. That said, my little Plex server can easily transcode DTS to AC3, problem solved.
Yes your right it will play mkv but most files I have are dts now, plex will play dts files but I don't want to turn my pc on everytime I want to watch a video and it would be good to share with the household.

What would you recommend, nvidia and a cheap nas or more expensive nas.
 
Personally, I'd do a bit of checking on your wifi network speed first.

You want to stream full 4K remuxes over wifi without transcoding. Unless you've got some good equipment that's not that easy to do. I can't even stream 1080p over wifi and the forum gets a lot of questions with issues of people trying to do the same and they have to resort to powerline adapters or hard wired.
A UHD remux has a much higher bitrate than a 4K Netflix stream.

Also, IMO. I'd buy a NAS and use it for what a NAS is for, data storage/reading/writing. You start putting requirements for 4K transcoding and the price starts going way up.

The Shield Pro (has to be the pro) makes a great Plex server according to many. I prefer Kodi myself as I don't want to transcode.
 
According to this thread the Firestick 4K Ultra supports Dolby and Atmos, currently £50 on Amazon but they sales quite frequently.



If you want a NAS that can transcode then you are going to need something with a reasonable Intel chip that supports Quicksync.
 
Be aware that MKV is not a file format, it is a "container" that can wrap itself around many other type of media streams. Thusly, it's entirely possible that a device will refuse to play an MKV file because it is not compatible with the content: Ability to play MKV does not imply universal support for all formats that MKV can wrap itself around.

I concur with those arguing for remuxing and/or re-encoding your source for the benefit of devices that don't supports it and/or low bandwidth transmission media such as Wi-Fi and the Internet - do you really "need" 1080p and 7 channel sound on a phone...? Will SD video and stereo sound be "good enough...?"

I've often argued that spending large sums on a super powerful NAS that can do real time tran-coding is less preferable than spending the money on more storage and trans-coding the media off line (once) and storing it in a format that is compatible with everything required, even if that means storing two versions; say one super duper full fat multi channel sound for the "big" TV where quality matters and one SD stereo (which will be much smaller) for where it doesn't.

Equally, I agree with those saying that if your TV cannot playback format X, you'd be better off adding a media streamer to it that can, (e.g. the aforementioned stick,) rather than asking a NAS to transcode on the fly.

Transcoding is a really processor (math) intensive task - the transcoder has to render out the streams to full fat, then re-encode them to something else. It's the re-encoding that requires the horsepower (though some NAS have extra hardware to assist.) To do that in real time, in order to "keep up," compromises may need to be made over picture quality, stream size or both. Worse still if one is asking the transcoder to do so for several streams concurrently. One reads that it doesn't handle trick play very well either. The NAS has yet to be invented that is "powerful enough" to cope with all circumstances and thusly you can spend as much as you like and it still won't be enough to be "just so" every time. For the same money that you spend on NAS horsepower, you could spend on more storage, better playback clients or both, then one doesn't need a powerful NAS - almost anything can "just" serve files successfully.
 
So if you were me what would you get, an nvidia with cheap nas nvidia or external hdd, nvidia with upgradable nas, a straight nas with storage like a synology or qnap?
 
Personally, I'd do a bit of checking on your wifi network speed first.

You want to stream full 4K remuxes over wifi without transcoding. Unless you've got some good equipment that's not that easy to do. I can't even stream 1080p over wifi and the forum gets a lot of questions with issues of people trying to do the same and they have to resort to powerline adapters or hard wired.
A UHD remux has a much higher bitrate than a 4K Netflix stream.

Also, IMO. I'd buy a NAS and use it for what a NAS is for, data storage/reading/writing. You start putting requirements for 4K transcoding and the price starts going way up.

The Shield Pro (has to be the pro) makes a great Plex server according to many. I prefer Kodi myself as I don't want to transcode.
I can easily stream 10-30gb 4k files wireless on my network with plex it does struggle with anything 60gb range but that was mainly due to plex transcoding I also have the new 1gb broadband from Virgin media
 
So if you were me what would you get, an nvidia with cheap nas nvidia or external hdd, nvidia with upgradable nas, a straight nas with storage like a synology or qnap?
Personally as @Sloppy Bob and @mickevh says, just buy a basic NAS for NAS functions then buy a media streamer, such as the NVidia shield to do the heavy lifting. I have an old DS214Play and Nvidia shield and the shield will handle any transcoding issues without batting an eyelid.
 
So if you were me what would you get, an nvidia with cheap nas nvidia or external hdd, nvidia with upgradable nas, a straight nas with storage like a synology or qnap?
Firestick + cheap second hand lower power PC.
 
Running both 4k Firesticks and and Nvidia Shield, the firestick is good, but its nowhere near as powerful as the Shield. In fairness I haven't tried streaming 4k movies on the Firestick but have tried RTSP streams from some of my Hik Cameras and it just about copes with a couple of 5MP streams from TinyCam Pro. It certainly is good value for money but it doesn't live in my Cinema Room that is exclusively the NvIdia Shield.
 
I have a fire stick but for some reason it only gives me the option to mirror
 
Running both 4k Firesticks and and Nvidia Shield, the firestick is good, but its nowhere near as powerful as the Shield. In fairness I haven't tried streaming 4k movies on the Firestick but have tried RTSP streams from some of my Hik Cameras and it just about copes with a couple of 5MP streams from TinyCam Pro. It certainly is good value for money but it doesn't live in my Cinema Room that is exclusively the NvIdia Shield.
I haven't got the 4k ultra but all the sticks I have from 2nd gen onward have no problem streaming untouched 4k bluray rips using Kodi and downscale to HD if needed. All of my sticks have a wired connection, its £13 for the adaptor. I also am using Onvifer to stream RTSP live video from 4 different 5mp cameras, resize them and display them on 2x2 gallery.
 
I'll give ONVIFER a go as I have 3 or 4 different gen firesticks and FireTVs lying around and I will report back. I know a lot of people on many of the other security and CCTV forums that I frequent will be happy if this is an easy and viable solution.
 
I'll give ONVIFER a go as I have 3 or 4 different gen firesticks and FireTVs lying around and I will report back. I know a lot of people on many of the other security and CCTV forums that I frequent will be happy if this is an easy and viable solution.
Its good, but two things,
- You have to sideload it as its not on Amazon store ONVIF IP Camera Monitor (Onvifer) for Android - APK Download
- Its an Android app and not designed to run with the firestick remote but I have a little bluetooth keyboard so manage to work it with that.

I have the paid version but its only a few quid. For Android phones its great.
 
I’ll give it a go. Thanks for the tips.
So I was just having a quick look and looks like its now available on Amazon store so no need for sideload and it works with the remote control so no need for the keyboard. Result.
 
Last edited:
Have you installed Kodi?
Thanks everyone for your advice but I went for a synology ds720+, getting it tomorrow in going to use it for music with my raspberry pi rune player and streaming movies when I'm on holiday or on nights at work.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom