First NAS purchase - Looking at a Synology DS.
#1
Hi there,
Buying my first NAS soon and I feel like I have no idea at this stage. I was looking at the 214play from synology but I'm hearing so many bad things about the video transcoding. Right now my set up is mainly my raspberry pi running raspbmc.

After talking to a few people on reddit, they recommended that I go and get a 4 bay. Is transcoding required at on the nas end at all if I was using the pi? If it isn't then I would be inclined to follow their advice and get the 414 instead of the 214play.

Thanks for any help in advance.
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#2
It actually depends what your requirements are.

If you just need a NAS to share the media files with the PI via network shares, any NAS will do.
Also make sure you understand the difference between Redundancy vs Backup

And last, this is a great place for info in regards to NAS.

I currently have the WD My Book Live.
AFTV (non-rooted + Kodi)
WD My Book Live NAS
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#3
As a suggestion, you may want to consider building your own Synology NAS rather than buying one - its a LOT cheaper and the processors in the home-build ones are a lot faster. I had a DS211j which I loved but it was way too slow when unpacking files or in general use. I read about the "roll your own" Synology at http://www.avsforum.com/forum/39-network...211-a.html followed the suggestions, read-up a bit more on the 'net and eventually moved to using an HP N54L (about £100 on sale) along with the free Xpenology software ( http://xpenology.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=2 ) and it was like moving from a tractor to a Ferrari!

I had no experience of building an NAS before and other than a couple of self-induced "oh no, its all going wrong" heart-attack moments everything worked very well and has done for the past 5 or 6 months. I had considered getting a 414play but the price was ridiculous and out of my reach, now I would not even think about buying one especially as the N54L outperforms the 414 by a fair margin.

The N54L acts just like a real high-end Synology but for about a quarter the price!

I use an NUC (N2870) with XBMC, sorry Kodi, rather than a Pi, with the NAS networked to the NUC and the NUC feeding the TV via HDMI. No transcoding required. I would imagine it would be the same with the Pi. With the DS211j, I started off with 2 drives (it only held two but on moving to the N54L I added a third). Took 3 years to fill the the two drives (2x2tb) but as always your mileage may vary.

If you do buy a 414, I would buy 2 x 4tb drives, use SHR (which means you are using RAID protection and as such will initially only have 4tb storage) and add more drives as and when you actually need them. Buying say 4 x 4tb drives now would be a waste as they will take time to fill up (but like I said, ymmv).

Whichever way you go (build your own or bought off the shelf) an NAS is a great thing to have especially with XBMC (sorry, Kodi). Couldn't live without one to be honest!

Best of luck whatever you decide!
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First NAS purchase - Looking at a Synology DS.0