| Page 1 of 1 |
|
|
 Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 00:10 Post subject: NAS + Chromecast = streaming |
|
 |
I'm going to buy a chromecast soon (for Netflix mostly) and I have been thinking about getting a NAS for music and shows/movies for some time now. Having to put shit on USB to stream is irritating and my ye olde Mede8er is pissing me off.
What I want: stream mkv files and BDremuxes on the NAS properly. Obviously stuff like DTS (ES) support and srt support is required (I don't know if chromecast cares what you stream). Is a proper setup doable for 200 euros? Since chromecast + HDD will be 90 euros, that leaves me 110 for the NAS.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 00:29 Post subject: |
|
|
Chromecast just plays the feed, so the computer needs to be doing all the transcoding. I think some NAS have native chromecast support, but on computer you can use plex for example.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Morphineus
VIP Member
Posts: 24883
Location: Sweden
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 01:22 Post subject: |
|
|
Can't you just stream directly to your TV?
It's what I do with Mezzmo (transcodes the formats my tv can't handle) on my PC.
Plex does have Netflix and others and is free.
I find Mezzmo better but: they only just started with channels and don't have Netflix yet. You have to pay for a license though.
For a NAS, the only ones that peeked my interest where between 300 and 500€  Have no clue on the cheaper ones or if you can get away with 100'ish Euro for a proper setup.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 11:01 Post subject: |
|
|
I don't have wifi on my TV, so I'd have to use a cable. Even if it had wifi, I don;t think it can handle direct streams (how would it?). How would I stream to my TV anyway without NAS? Where would I stream from?
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Werelds
Special Little Man
Posts: 15098
Location: 0100111001001100
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 12:29 Post subject: |
|
|
There are plenty of apps and extensions for this kind of stuff. Several Android apps (LocalCast, ES Chromecast Player), Videostream (Chrome extension), Plex. The latter is also available on some NAS'.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 12:41 Post subject: |
|
|
So it's as simple as "buy good NAS (if available for 100 bucks) -> configure -> stream to chromecast"?
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 12:51 Post subject: |
|
|
Last edited by paxsali on Thu, 4th Jul 2024 21:27; edited 1 time in total
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Werelds
Special Little Man
Posts: 15098
Location: 0100111001001100
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 12:59 Post subject: |
|
|
| Mister_s wrote: | | So it's as simple as "buy good NAS (if available for 100 bucks) -> configure -> stream to chromecast"? |
As long as the video material is h264 (up to High 4.1) or VP8 and the NAS you buy actually has Plex support, yes.
For €100 you won't find a NAS that's capable of transcoding if/when necessary though. SRT subtitles will work with the newer versions of Plex without transcoding. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 13:12 Post subject: |
|
|
Last edited by paxsali on Thu, 4th Jul 2024 21:27; edited 1 time in total
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Werelds
Special Little Man
Posts: 15098
Location: 0100111001001100
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 13:37 Post subject: |
|
|
| paxsali wrote: | | Werelds wrote: | | For €100 you won't find a NAS that's capable of transcoding if/when necessary though. SRT subtitles will work with the newer versions of Plex without transcoding. |
You won't find any NAS capable of doing this even if you spend 500€.
More money usually equals more drive bays, however the CPUs are ARMs or Atoms or some shitty little thing like that.
This is the main reason I'm switching from my Synology DS214play to a custom built NAS with a real CPU and more RAM. |
Not entirely true. ASUSTOR has a load of Intel based (this is the key) models that can transcode most content fine. Thecus has lots of x86 models. You have to get pretty high bitrates for them to struggle. WD's PR2100 and PR4100 are based on an N3700, which can do that just fine because it has hardware transcoding.
There aren't many and they certainly aren't cheap, but they do exist.
Just a shame that building one yourself is still cheaper really 
That N3700 mentioned above is the same CPU used in the bottom end NUC5PPYH. That costs about €170 (still needs an SSD and RAM on top though). |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 14:42 Post subject: |
|
|
Last edited by paxsali on Thu, 4th Jul 2024 21:27; edited 1 time in total
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 22:15 Post subject: |
|
|
Last edited by paxsali on Thu, 4th Jul 2024 21:27; edited 1 time in total
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
couleur
[Moderator] Janitor
Posts: 14330
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 22:45 Post subject: |
|
|
Whats better? Having an Atom based NAS that decodes or having an arm based NAS and than a NUC in the living room to play all your content stored on the NAS. I'm asking since I'm about to get a 2 bay Synology NAS and either an atom or i3 NUC as a htpc in the living room. Also, whats the cheapest 2bay backup NAS solution you guys would recommend?
Sorry for hijacking the thread Mister_s.
"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) "Have the courage to use your own understanding," is therefore the motto of the enlightenment."
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 22:49 Post subject: |
|
|
Last edited by paxsali on Thu, 4th Jul 2024 21:27; edited 1 time in total
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
couleur
[Moderator] Janitor
Posts: 14330
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 22:53 Post subject: |
|
|
If it works the same, the NUC gives even more possibilities. As an emulation box or steam streaming f.e. Are you satisfied with that skull canyon btw.? I find it too expensive.
"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) "Have the courage to use your own understanding," is therefore the motto of the enlightenment."
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 22:55 Post subject: |
|
|
Last edited by paxsali on Thu, 4th Jul 2024 21:27; edited 1 time in total
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Werelds
Special Little Man
Posts: 15098
Location: 0100111001001100
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 23:16 Post subject: |
|
|
| Mister_s wrote: | I guess a good NAS isn't doable for 100 bucks  Can you guys give me some types so I hunt for a used one? How's the SYNOLOGY DS213+ for example? What kinda specs should I look for?
Would it be stupid to invest in a weak NAS now if I plan to invest in a 4K OLED in 1-2 years? |
Not necessarily. Lots of new TVs have Google Cast built-in now; not sure if LG do though, since they have webOS rather than Android TV.
I don't know if any of them support separate SRT subtitles though. In that case, you would still need a NAS or PC to run Plex Media Server. Note that you can also use your own PC or laptop, run PMS on that but storing the files on a standard "weak" ARM NAS. You would then use the PC as "source", but that in turn would take the files from a NAS.
Another option is to build an HTPC and run MediaPortal, Plex or Kodi on that. One of the NUCs is *more* than enough; the NUC5PPYH (based on an N3700; a full setup is €250-€275) is perfect for anything up to 1080p. It can play back higher quality, but as it lacks DisplayPort and HDMI 2.0, you can't really display that.
And then there's the option of Nvidia Shield TV with Kodi. Basically the same as an HTPC, just a little less flexible.
| couleur wrote: | | Whats better? Having an Atom based NAS that decodes or having an arm based NAS and than a NUC in the living room to play all your content stored on the NAS. I'm asking since I'm about to get a 2 bay Synology NAS and either an atom or i3 NUC as a htpc in the living room. Also, whats the cheapest 2bay backup NAS solution you guys would recommend? |
Get a cheap ARM NAS then. Synology DS213+, Thecus 2310/2520, Asustor 1002T.
I've built 6 or 7 NUCs in the last year and a half, those things are truly amazing. I'm currently using an NUC5PPYH (above) as my HTPC (running MediaPortal because that's what I'm used to, been using it for a decade or so) but will be swapping it for a NUC6i3SYK for 4K content. I do still have a Chromecast next to it to make use of apps like Netflix because I'm too lazy to do it via a wireless keyboard/mouse
The NUC6i3SYK is plenty powerful, you don't need the Skull Canyon.
For both of you: I don't have a NAS myself. I have a separate PC compiled from old/cheap components that acts as my file-/downloadserver. Up until last year I had my Pentium EE 955 in it (gift from Intel 11 years ago ), but sadly a couple of capacitors on the motherboard blew and I couldn't be bothered to fix it or try to find a LGA775 board. Now it's running on a G3240, think the whole thing (excluding disks) would cost maybe €175 to build and it's far more powerful than any NAS under €500, whilst also giving me far more bays to work with (if I want to anyway). It's only a G3240 as well, so it's pretty much silent.
I don't do disk pooling or any of that nonsense, I'm using simple CIFS (Samba/Windows File Sharing) folders on the drives themselves. The only downside to this simple approach is that it's not that fast using it from my Mac due to Apple's crappy CIFS client, but I can live with that. I should perhaps look into fixing that at some point, but meh |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 23:26 Post subject: |
|
|
I have a HTPC I built years ago, I don't use it anymore, but the point was to have a low profile database from which I could stream my stuff. I am also thinking about those multi-room speaker setups, for which I'll need a central music database. I was thinking modern NAS were more powerful. As for my OLED question, I assume there will come a day when I stream 4K stuff with whatever codec is available at that time.
I don't think I really understand how powerful a system I need to stream. In which scenario the NAS would have to transcode?
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
couleur
[Moderator] Janitor
Posts: 14330
|
| Posted: Sat, 30th Jul 2016 23:28 Post subject: |
|
|
@paxsali @Werelds thanks for the tips!
Werelds, if you're still using that n3700 NUC I'd not upgrade to NUC6i3SYK now. Apparently kaby lake based i3 NUCs will be able to do hdmi 2.0 and 4K HDR. (the skylake nucs only do 4k but no HDR, no?) But maybe thats just speculation.
"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) "Have the courage to use your own understanding," is therefore the motto of the enlightenment."
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Werelds
Special Little Man
Posts: 15098
Location: 0100111001001100
|
| Posted: Sun, 31st Jul 2016 00:09 Post subject: |
|
|
| Mister_s wrote: | I have a HTPC I built years ago, I don't use it anymore, but the point was to have a low profile database from which I could stream my stuff. I am also thinking about those multi-room speaker setups, for which I'll need a central music database. I was thinking modern NAS were more powerful. As for my OLED question, I assume there will come a day when I stream 4K stuff with whatever codec is available at that time.
I don't think I really understand how powerful a system I need to stream. In which scenario the NAS would have to transcode? |
In cases where the receiving end can't play back the video material. In the case of a Chromecast, that's anything that is not H264 up to High 4.1 or VP8. HEVC? Not on the current Chromecast. Although I'm pretty sure by next year at the latest we'll see a new Chromecast that does HEVC + 2160p, in which case that'll become my recommendation once again. The ease of use of a Chromecast is just great.
If you still have that HTPC but don't use it, why not repurpose it as a NAS instead? Get a cheap midi-tower case if you currently have it in an HTPC-suitable case (and to reduce noise, get one that's dampened; like a CM Silencio) and job done. Power consumption shouldn't really be a problem unless you used a power hungry CPU. The only issue might be space to place the tower I guess?
A NAS really doesn't do anything special. It provides network sharing protocols to disks. That's it, really. They all run a form of Linux, which you can easily install yourself (or you could opt for FreeNAS), or you can just run Windows on it to have something familiar.
| couleur wrote: | @paxsali @Werelds thanks for the tips!
Werelds, if you're still using that n3700 NUC I'd not upgrade to NUC6i3SYK now. Apparently kaby lake based i3 NUCs will be able to do hdmi 2.0 and 4K HDR. (the skylake nucs only do 4k but no HDR, no?) But maybe thats just speculation. |
They don't do HDR right now I think, but they do have HEVC hardware en-/decoding, even in the 520 that's in the NUC6i3SYK. It can do 2160p60 without a hitch (built one for a friend a while ago, naturally I "tested" it)
I'm not replacing my N3700 NUC yet, as I'm still on 1080p right now. I will upgrade to OLED at some point and almost all of those are 2160p so when I do that I will upgrade my N3700 as well. Or perhaps I'll make the switch to a Chromecast-only setup by then, as I find myself using that most of the time. The only downside to that is the fact that I can't easily download subtitles (both MP and Kodi allow you to fetch them from sites like Podnapisi and OpenSubtitles from within the interface). Not a problem for most things, but every once in a while I watch stuff with the sound turned way down or I watch Danish/Swedish/French content. I don't speak those languages well enough to follow it 100% without subtitles, especially not when it goes into French dialects |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Page 1 of 1 |
All times are GMT + 1 Hour |
