Help with NAS home server

[Asylum]

Ok, so I want to set up a Nas server for my home to store and share movies, music, and pics.

My biggest question is can I play movies stored on my Nas to my TV threw my Wifi on my blueray surround system.

I have a computer I can setup as a Nas and network map it or would I need something like this?
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178450

 

[newtekie1]

Does your Blu-Ray system or TV support DLNA/uPnP streaming?

You can use software on any computer to stream media over the network via uPnP. I used to use Tversity, but it isn't free anymore, so I switched to TwonkyServer, which still isn't free but for the price is much better. You just select what folders you want shared over the network and the software handles the rest. But you have to have a SmartTV or player that supports uPnP.

 

[Asylum]

This TwonkyServer looks pretty good.

Think ill give it a try.

Any other tips you can think of since you been working with this for a while?

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

Not really an expert on storage solutions or media servers (yet anyway) but, no, you don't need to buy an actual NAS (check out FreeNAS.org) but you also don't necessarily need a NAS setup to do what you want with your media and that extra computer, either.

As for "media server" solutions for decoding and delivering the actual content (as opposed to the storing and serving it part) I have heard good things about Plex Media Server as well. Here's a link that looks like it may have some good info about it vs Twonky and another one:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=17041.0

 

[canotryss]

good like,Here's a link that looks like it may have some good info about it vs Twonky and another one:

 

[MT Alex]

I'd just get a WD Live TV box and be done with it. Cheap, and takes any load off your computer, just uses the hard drives.

 

[newtekie1]

This TwonkyServer looks pretty good.

Think ill give it a try.

Any other tips you can think of since you been working with this for a while?

Not really, it is pretty straight forward, basically just go into the setup(it is all web based) and point it to the folders on the computer you want to share. It will then index them and in a few minutes any media in those folders will be available to any uPnP/DLNA capable device on your network. Heck, you can point it to the root of a drive if you just keep all your media on one drive and it will go through and find it all for you.

You can also play around with the Navigation Tree option to find which best suits you. If you select the classic option it will give you a few extra folders on your player that sort the files by different attributes. One sorts everything by the data of the file, newer first, another put everything in separate folders by artist, by album. I use the By Folder option though, which just makes everything available exactly how it is in the the folder structure, since I know where all my media is at, and I'm really just sharing my media folders not whole drives, so it is one click and I'm where I want to me.

Just note that Twonky does not do on the fly transcoding, so the player has to support the file formats and codecs that the files are stored in. For example, I bought a Sony Network Media Player that didn't support Divx, but it did support Xvid. So half my AVI files suddenly didn't work when I tried to play them. And the PS3 supports x264, but only in the MP4 container, if you have MKV files the PS3 won't read them. It is crap like that that kind of gets annoying when doing things like this.

 

[Asylum]

Got me a Samsung 3-D Blu-ray WiFi Home Entertainment System HT-E5400.

It has a Smart Hub with AllShare Play on it that will pull Movies, Music, and Pictures from any device on your home network.

Was real easy to setup and had it streaming AVI movie format from my computer in no time.

Watched a movie last night and never skipped a beat.

Also has all the other functions like Netflicks,Pandora,Web browser and so on.