NAS or not?

[Pyrofunto]

Hey, I would lime some help. Me and my famaily looks a lot of movies that we download on the web but there are some problems: we are actually using tree diferent external hard drives and we always need to put the movie on a pen drive to play it on the TV. I thought about getting a NAS with like 4 terabyte qnd connect it with the TV somehow and the all 3 computers of the house via ethernet cable or usb. I would need some help to know what raid would be the best (dont forget we will read but also write a lot) and can i use USB cables instead of ethernet, if no can i just use the cables from my internet network and how? And do you guys think it is worthy?

[Sunshine1868]

@Captain_WD

[Justin_]

If you are using only 2 drives (Recommended minimum) I would recommend RAID 1,. RAID 1 provides redundancy by having a clone with each hard drive being identical. If you have 3 or more I would recommend RAID 5. RAID 5 will still have redundancy to provide safety but it will only "remove" the storage space of one drive as compared to RAID 1 which will only let you use %50 of your storage.

The reduced transfer speed on a RAID 5 should not cause an issue as you will not max out your transfer speeds of the drives because of your network limitations.

 

Techquickie Episodes on RAID

0, 1, and 10

5 and 6

[Pyrofunto]

And does anyone knows if there is a way to play the movies that are on the nas directly on the TV (not a smart tv) without using a computer?

[Captain_WD]

~snip~

 

Hey there Pyrofunto,

 

Here are my two cents on this (thanks @Sunshine1868 for mentioning):

 

- Regarding the NAS - it is a great idea. NAS devices give you access to your files over the network from multiple devices and it is a great solution for backups and file sharing. I could suggest checking out WD My Cloud series and see which of them would fit your needs and budget (feel free to ask if anything for them): http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=G5OcLD

 

- Regarding your current setup - you are actually able to share your files from these external drives by either connecting them to your router via a USB (if the router offers this) (this will actually be a NAS on its own) and making the proper settings. Another way would be to connect them to a computer tha would always be on and configure those drives as shared folders across your network. 

 

- NAS devices should be connected via a Ethernet cable to the router and thus they will be accessible through all devices on the network (regardless of how they are connected to it). 

 

- Playing files from external devices is entirely up to your TV's capabilities. If there's no way of connecting it to the network you should either get some USB device that enables the TV to see files on the network, get a HDMI cable (for example) and connect it to a computer which can play the files for you or connect another device to the TV (many people do this with gaming consoles) which can access your NAS. 

 

- The RAID type depends solely on what you prefer from your NAS (redundancy, storage space or speed boost). Having 4TB of usable storage space can be done in several ways: 2x2TB drives in RAID0 or JBOD or SPAN, 1x4TB drive, 2x4TB drives in RAID1, 3x2TB drives in RAID5, 4x2TB drives in RAID6 and RAID10, etc. Each type of RAID offers different amount of redundancy and speed boost.

 

Post back with any further questions!

 

Captain_WD.

[Pyrofunto]

Thank you verry much for this precise explanations. I probably will go with a 2 bay NAS from TRENDnet (low budget, can't afford WD) and 2X 2TB WD red NAS