Newbie to NAS

[dazzlex]

Hi everyone.

I'm very new to NAS and looking to purchase one for storing and playing the following on.
I currently have loads of films on some external hardrives, and I'm getting fed up with how many I have and I want a better solution.

Films
Full fat 4k HDR films that I have downloaded, and also ones I have ripped with Make MKV.
1080p + 720p downloads and rips.
Codecs - H.264, HEVC, MPEG-4, MPEG-2,
Formats- MKV, AVI
Audio - DTS, DTS-X, Dolby Atmos, DD, DD+

Music
Various music I've downloaded or ripped from CD's
Format - FLAC, AAC, WAV, MP3

TV
Panasonic FZ802 OLED
Soundbar
LG SN11RG

My question that I have is what would be a good NAS to put these on and stream to my TV or Soundbar OR if it can be plugged straight in via HDMI ?
How would I go about setting the NAS up and playing/streaming the files
Would I need something like Plex or Kodi to play these or perhaps send them to something like an Nvidea Shield Pro?

Does it require a super fast broadband speed?

Any help or advise would be very useful.

Many thanks

 

[mushii]

Something like the Synology DS418 Play would be ideal for your needs. The Play variants are optimised for movie streaming and transcoding.

Plex is generally the easiest way to do this. For 4K movie streaming it will need to be hard wired into a network and whatever you are looking to playback on should be wired too.
If your TV is pretty new then it maybe OK running a Plex client if it’s not then you may need an endpoint device like a Shield or a Linux Media Player.

 

[dazzlex]

Thanks for the reply Mushii

My TV and Soundbar.
TV
Panasonic FZ802 OLED
Soundbar
LG SN11RG

By "hardwired" do you mean connected to the WiFi?
So would I connect it like so.
NAS to NVidea Shield then to TV or Soundbar?
My TV won't play DTS audio files ( which I need ) as about 50% of the film's i have are DTS audio.
So would I connect the NVidea Shield to the soundbar, and let that send the video to the TV?

Many thanks for your help

 

[rs6mra]

Without knowing the set up by being hard wired your NAS would have to be connected to your router or a switch (a device that increased your ethernet ports), Your TV and/or client device such as Nvidia will also need to be connected via ethernet to the router or switch.
If you connected just the client device then that will be your only playback source and as such everything would need to go through it.

 

[dazzlex]

Cheers rs6mra

So basically as I see it.

NAS connected directly to the router with an ethernet cable.
NVidea Shield Pro connected directly to the router with an ethernet cable.
NVidea Shield direct to either TV or Soundbar.
(which would best in your opinion)

Many thanks

 

[rs6mra]

I do not know what the difference is between the Nvidia models you have quoted but in essence you're correct. I'll connect the Shield to the soundbar as it would be a better to deal with what you throw at it than the TV.
My TV's are all connected via ethernet and the only benefit of that is that I don't have to have my surround system or sky box on everytime I want to watch something.

 

[dazzlex]

Ok that's great
I tend to use my soundbar for most of my playback as the TV audio is absolutely rubbish.

Thanks again for your help

 

[Sloppy Bob]

NVidea Shield Pro connected directly to the router with an ethernet cable.
NVidea Shield direct to either TV or Soundbar.

Regardless of which Shield you go for. They both have to be connected to your router, either by ethernet, powerline adapters or wifi in order of preference.
They both have to be connected directly to your TV or soundbar. Preferably the soundbar if it has the ability to passthrough audio.

The difference between the devices is the Pro has 500GB of drive space, has USB ports and can be used as a Plex server. You don't want to transcode any video to your TV as that's reducing quality so unless you need to transcode then you don't really need to spend the extra on the Pro.

The regular Shield has more than enough grunt and can be used, as can the Pro, as a Plex client or to run Kodi on.

 

[dazzlex]

Thanks for your reply sloppy Bob

I think from what your are saying, I might as well go for the NVidea Shield ( not the pro version) save myself a few quid and put it towards the Synology DS418 Play.