xbmc and nas

troopa9

Standard Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2006
Messages
102
Reaction score
2
Points
27
Hi guys, Im new to all this networking so help me out please.
Basically here is what i want to achieve....
I have an acer revo r3610 sitting under my bed doing nowt. So im going to put xbmc onto it and use it solely for this. My issue is storage. If i put a 1-2tb hd 2.5" in there i could run out of storage, or i could throw a small ssd in there and get a nas. but thats where im stuck. I know nothing about them.
What should i get or be looking for.
I dont need a top of the range jobby.
I need more that one port and it needs to be able to stream 1080p.
And a quick question. If my acer is wired to my router would it transfer the data from my server using this or would it be wireless?
thanks guys
 
Why bother with an expensive NAS? Get a couple of 1-2tb portable hard drives and load your stuff onto them - job sorted. Run out of space, just buy some additional HDD drives.
 
... I need more that one port ...
Not sure what you mean by this ? What kind of port ?

... and it needs to be able to stream 1080p.
If you're using the NAS to serve to XBMC than pretty much *any* NAS can supply data fast enough for 1080p.

And a quick question. If my acer is wired to my router would it transfer the data from my server using this or would it be wireless?
You should have both the NAS and the Acer (the media player) on a wired network. So either both should be wired to your router, or if your router doesn't have Gigabit ethernet ports, get a small Gigabit switch (like this one) and wire both the NAS and Acer to the switch along with your router. This will give you a fast and consistent link between NAS and media player.

Suitable low-cost NAS units are available from Zyxel and D-Link, from £50 - £100 depending upon features and number of disks it will support - you'll need to get Hard Disks seperatly (or if you have existing 3.5" SATA HDs you could use those. Other NAS units with Disk are available from WD and Seagate.
 
— As an Amazon Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases —
Not sure what you mean by this ? What kind of port ?


If you're using the NAS to serve to XBMC than pretty much *any* NAS can supply data fast enough for 1080p.


You should have both the NAS and the Acer (the media player) on a wired network. So either both should be wired to your router, or if your router doesn't have Gigabit ethernet ports, get a small Gigabit switch (like this one) and wire both the NAS and Acer to the switch along with your router. This will give you a fast and consistent link between NAS and media player.

Suitable low-cost NAS units are available from Zyxel and D-Link, from £50 - £100 depending upon features and number of disks it will support - you'll need to get Hard Disks seperatly (or if you have existing 3.5" SATA HDs you could use those. Other NAS units with Disk are available from WD and Seagate.

Sorry by port I mean. For hdd. So I want more than one hdd.
I was looking at the d-link cloud.
Would this be a good option for a starter along with a gigabit switch. (Or how do I find if my router has one?)
 
— As an Amazon Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases —
The Zyxel NSA-320 and D-Link DNS-320 are reasonably priced 2-bay NAS units, there's not much to choose between them. What make and model number is your router ?
 
I have a sky hub. I have just looked on google and it doesnt have a gigabit. What a shocker.
Gigabit switch it is then.
Am i right in saying, if i add two 2tb hdd's to the nas then i have 4tb of usable space. But if i use RAID i will only have 2tb of useable space but my data will be safer?
 
... Am i right in saying, if i add two 2tb hdd's to the nas then i have 4tb of usable space. But if i use RAID i will only have 2tb of useable space but my data will be safer?

You're correct in that having the NAS organize your 2 disks into a RAID 1 volume will half the amount of available storage space. However, it doesn't really make your data any "safer", to do that you need to take additional backups (more than one) not connected to the NAS. External USB disks are ideal for this.

What the RAID 1 system allows for is the failure of a single disk in the NAS, and for the NAS to continue working. As the data is duplicated on both disks, if one fails the NAS can still operate using the remaining disk (in what's called a "degraded state") until you can replace the failed disk. It's a feature really intended for business use where the down-time associated with replacing a failed disk and restoring data from backup would be costly.

It doesn't replace a backup, for example, if you delete or corrupt some files on the RAID volume, they're gone (but if you have a backup you could restore them from that). Likewise if the NAS fails in a way that fries both disks, your data is history. By having backups on external USB HDs you can get at it from pretty much any PC, you're not reliant on the NAS to preserve your data.
 
Brilliant, I will only have movies and music on the nas, most of which i will have the discs for so i would rather use the full capacity. Speaking of which... What would be the easiest way to get my blu rays onto the nas?
I would obviously need a blu ray drive as the acer has no drive.
So would i use my preferred program to rip it to to pc and then transfer it to the nas, or will it go straight onto the nas if i select it.
 
If you mount the NAS shares on the PC/device you use to do the ripping, then you can rip direct to that drive in just the same way as any local disc. It might be a bit slower, but generally when ripping optical discs, it's the optical drive that's the slowest part.

I use an optical drive mounted in an external caddy c/w USB and eSATA connections so I can use it on any computer. The caddy was only GBP 20 or so.

My favourite ripping program (on Windows) is called MakeMKV. It allows you to ditch all the guff (menus, "extras" and the like) and just extract the programme material. You can also pick and choose the soundtracks and subtitle streams which lets you cut down the storage requirements a little.

Others prefer to retains all the menus etc and use ripper that create ISO (a disc image) files. You pays your money...
 
Yes i will probably use a mkv program.
If i get a D-link server, does it have to have 2 hdd in to work or can i put one in now and another further down the line?
 
I have a sky hub. I have just looked on google and it doesnt have a gigabit. What a shocker.
Gigabit switch it is then.

You don't need gigabit to stream 1080p video. I have a Sky hub and use it to stream Blu-ray rips from a QNAP to a Panny TV, and 100 Mbps is more than enough.
 
I was going to try it without 1st but thank you for the heads up.
Just looking for a nas now...
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom