Smart Home - network HDD for EVERYTHING

[Nex]

Okay, I just bought a freakin smart TV, oh my the possibilities.

 

So, the idea here is.

I get a router which supports DLNA, connect a HDD to it, then share it on the network.

 

I can, in theory, access every movie and series I want from that HDD on my LG TV.

Now, what I want is, to ditch the HDD from my PC, and use that one on the network, to install games on it.

 

Again, in theory, I have 125 MB/s (1gbps) read speeds from the HDD, which is not that much less than the speed of a 7200 RPM local HDD.

 

Oh, and I have a Steam Link under the TV, which is connected to the network, and I stream games to it from the PC.

 

Can this work or am I just a mad man?

[The Benjamins]

Just now, Nex said:

Okay, I just bought a freakin smart TV, oh my the possibilities.

 

So, the idea here is.

I get a router which supports DLNA, connect a HDD to it, then share it on the network.

 

I can, in theory, access every movie and series I want from that HDD on my LG TV.

Now, what I want is, to ditch the HDD from my PC, and use that one on the network, to install games on it.

 

Again, in theory, I have 125 MB/s (1gbps) read speeds from the HDD, which is not that much less than the speed of a 7200 RPM local HDD.

 

Can this work or am I just a mad man?

make SURE the router can handle the HDD to ethernet throughput, some NAS units will say 60MBps max even though ethernet is 125MBps.

 

if you are on wifi it might not be that smooth but if you are on ethernet it should be fine. I have all my media on my 16TB NAS and it feels like it is local. (my speed is 600MBps R 200MBps W for the drive array)

[RickL]

Install PLEX on your TV. Run a PLEX Media Server on your PC. Install a Network drive such as a Western Digital RED, put all your content on there, link it in the server GUI (Web based) and POW! Off to the races.

[Nex]

1 minute ago, The Benjamins said:

make SURE the router can handle the HDD to ethernet throughput, some NAS units will say 60MBps max even though ethernet is 125MBps.

 

if you are on wifi it might not be that smooth but if you are on ethernet it should be fine. I have all my media on my 16TB NAS and it feels like it is local. (my speed is 600MBps R 200MBps W for the drive array)

And you play games from that NAS as well?

[Nex]

1 minute ago, RickL said:

Install PLEX on your TV. Run a PLEX Media Server on your PC. Install a Network drive such as a Western Digital RED, put all your content on there, link it in the server GUI (Web based) and POW! Off to the races.

But then I have to run the PC for the Plex Server.

[RickL]

I still run my pc as a normal PC but it also has linked to it some CCTV software for the IP Camera's which record to a WD Purple. PLEX Media server for all content on the RED, the OS on the SSD and the programs etc, games on the WD Black

[RickL]

I think the real question for you here then is what ROUTER to run or do you need to run a NAS no?

[Nex]

Just now, RickL said:

I still run my pc as a normal PC but it also has linked to it some CCTV software for the IP Camera's which record to a WD Purple. PLEX Media server for all content on the RED, the OS on the SSD and the programs etc, games on the WD Black

Ah, see, thats it, I don't want to run my PC to get PLEX going.
I was thinking on getting a Netgear Nighthawk X10, that would (in theory), provide everything I need. Question is, can I get sufficient read speeds from the connected HDD to power the games?

[Electronics Wizardy]

I'd get a nas. Don't use the hdd on the router. There normally slow and have a very bad interface to manage them with. I'd look into synology nas. For games most will work fine on a smb share, but some need a local drive. For those make a iscsi share and your good. 

[The Benjamins]

5 minutes ago, Nex said:

And you play games from that NAS as well?

I ran applications off of it, but for some reason steam can't find it on my machine but my friends machine sees it. my setup is fast enough to run apps and games from that drive no problem. my bottleneck is the 1Gbps connection on my PC.

[RickL]

Ok, well im reading this...

https://www.netgear.com/images/datasheet/networking/wifirouter/R9000.pdf

 

According to that.... Plex Media Server is already part of the router, so thats your TV sorted right away!

 

Then I guess it just relies on USB 3.0 Transfer speeds + your connection to the router itself for your game files. Im trawling the net now to try and find you that information.

 

Just reading a response posted just before mine.... good point, its the connection to the router that will be your bottle neck here at 1gbps. Wouldnt be as quick to open applications for sure I should imagine.

[Nex]

Well damn, we are probably not there yet. Maybe with a 10Gbps network in a few years.

I'll probably opt in for a Raspberry 3, and power up a hard drive from external power, then run PLEX Server on that.

[The Benjamins]

3 minutes ago, Nex said:

Well damn, we are probably not there yet. Maybe with a 10Gbps network in a few years.

I'll probably opt in for a Raspberry 3, and power up a hard drive from external power, then run PLEX Server on that.

The issue I had with running plex on my old NAS box is CPU power for transcoding, if you can run native then it went fine but it cant handle more then 1 person transcoding media. my new setup runs on a Xeon D-1541 and now I can have 4+ people transcode at the same time. 

[Nex]

2 minutes ago, The Benjamins said:

The issue I had with running plex on my old NAS box is CPU power for transcoding, if you can run native then it went fine but it cant handle more then 1 person transcoding media. my new setup runs on a Xeon D-1541 and now I can have 4+ people transcode at the same time. 

Strictly one user.

 

But okay, lets deal with the elephant in the room. What the hell does transcoding mean for PLEX??? Do I even need it?

[The Benjamins]

6 minutes ago, Nex said:

Strictly one user.

 

But okay, lets deal with the elephant in the room. What the hell does transcoding mean for PLEX??? Do I even need it?

Transcoding means to decode and re encode a piece of media on the fly to give it more device compatibility and/or bandwidth reduction (for out of the home use). my old NAS box would struggle to do 1 user which made seeking slow and it started the media slowly if it needed to be used. sometimes plex will force you to use transcoding for example h265 videos almost always gets transcoded.

[RickL]

Mate, for a single user, dont worry about it unless your going to start running 4k stuff.... which you cant even regularly download yet so i wouldn't worry about that.

 

From the sounds of this thread so far, if you get a Nighthawk, it will be able to support your TV with the amazing app (Plex) provided you fill the drive connected to the router with content. You could use it as your media storage... but dont try to start running programs from it. You will end up being throttled AND TBH... if you get a external drive it wont be 100% suitable as a make-shift NAS drive if you are hitting it all the time.

 

MY advice would be to do the same as I do. Its minimal cost. To keep my PC on 24/7 as my server in the background costs around £3-4 extra a month. I put a network drive in, run the server, harness the CPU thats installed (FX-6350) and pow sorted. I play by games on it, work on it, standard user stuff, then when im out the home I have my FTP on it, PLEX, TS3 Server, CCTV Programs. I have to water cool the CPU but its still a cracking little set-up in my opinion. No problem seeking on plex etc and thats even when im out the country on a regular basis with a good connection.

[RickL]

https://www.wdc.com/products/business-internal-storage/wd-red-pro.html