Looking for a NAS - Archival, Time Machine, 4K HDR playback

[AbeTrve]

So my father and I have been scrounging USB thumb drives, external drives and SD cards plus old laptop hard drives around the house since my mother passed away in September and I've introduced him to the idea to buy a NAS mainly for:

· Photo and video archival.

· Time machine backups. I have a 2011 iMac for work use which is getting RAID 0 SSDs and my dad uses to check his work's email, check the news, look up recipes... I normally use a 2016 MacBook Air and we have a Mac Mini that's not getting any use so we're parting with it once I rescue all the photo and video files it has)

· 4K HDR playback because we're replacing our broken LG tv finally. I've been fiddling with Plex these past weeks and I think it is a very simple solution for music and video playback to our iPhones, I'd like to have the option to use it with our new tv too.

 

With this said, we're looking for something that isn't really in the way since it will sit close to our router (kind of obvious) and TV, probably in the console next to them; easy to install, set up and use; that will stay idle most of the time.

I've glanced at the big names like WD, Synology, QNAP but I'm a bit lost so any suggestions are welcome!

[jslowik]

I run a Synology DS416 that ticks off every box you mention. The one thing I'm not 100% sure on is the 4k HDR content. I know for plex I have to encode my content (only 1080 stuff fwiw) in a format my Apple TV will play natively because the processor can't keep up with transcoding content during playback. If there's a similar method for 4k content then you'll probably be fine.

 

It's pretty small, very quiet, and packed with options. I'd definitely purchase it again if I had to do it all over. Maybe 4 bays is overkill, but sometimes I don't think about that.

[Ryois]

6 minutes ago, AbeTrve said:

So my father and I have been scrounging USB thumb drives, external drives and SD cards plus old laptop hard drives around the house since my mother passed away in September and I've introduced him to the idea to buy a NAS mainly for:

· Photo and video archival.

· Time machine backups. I have a 2011 iMac for work use which is getting RAID 0 SSDs and my dad uses to check his work's email, check the news, look up recipes... I normally use a 2016 MacBook Air and we have a Mac Mini that's not getting any use so we're parting with it once I rescue all the photo and video files it has)

· 4K HDR playback because we're replacing our broken LG tv finally. I've been fiddling with Plex these past weeks and I think it is a very simple solution for music and video playback to our iPhones, I'd like to have the option to use it with our new tv too.

 

With this said, we're looking for something that isn't really in the way since it will sit close to our router (kind of obvious) and TV, probably in the console next to them; easy to install, set up and use; that will stay idle most of the time.

I've glanced at the big names like WD, Synology, QNAP but I'm a bit lost so any suggestions are welcome!

You could always build your own NAS but I would recommend a Synology for their diskstation software. There are numerous videos and pages talking about both brands.

https://www.synology.com/en-us/support/nas_selector https://www.qnap.com/en/product_x_selector/ both have convenient selectors based on the usage you are going to use it for.

[Essence_of_Darkness]

4 minutes ago, AbeTrve said:

 since my mother passed away in September

I feel bad for you dude. 

 

6 minutes ago, AbeTrve said:

So my father and I have been scrounging USB thumb drives, external drives and SD cards plus old laptop hard drives around the house since my mother passed away in September and I've introduced him to the idea to buy a NAS mainly for:

· Photo and video archival.

· Time machine backups. I have a 2011 iMac for work use which is getting RAID 0 SSDs and my dad uses to check his work's email, check the news, look up recipes... I normally use a 2016 MacBook Air and we have a Mac Mini that's not getting any use so we're parting with it once I rescue all the photo and video files it has)

· 4K HDR playback because we're replacing our broken LG tv finally. I've been fiddling with Plex these past weeks and I think it is a very simple solution for music and video playback to our iPhones, I'd like to have the option to use it with our new tv too.

 

With this said, we're looking for something that isn't really in the way since it will sit close to our router (kind of obvious) and TV, probably in the console next to them; easy to install, set up and use; that will stay idle most of the time.

I've glanced at the big names like WD, Synology, QNAP but I'm a bit lost so any suggestions are welcome!

Synology DS718+ ($399.99)

WD Red 4TB NAS Hard Disk Drive ($133.99)

[jools]

build your own , mite be worth looking at. they are just pc,s

[kladzen]

18 hours ago, AbeTrve said:

So my father and I have been scrounging USB thumb drives, external drives and SD cards plus old laptop hard drives around the house since my mother passed away in September and I've introduced him to the idea to buy a NAS mainly for:

· Photo and video archival.

· Time machine backups. I have a 2011 iMac for work use which is getting RAID 0 SSDs and my dad uses to check his work's email, check the news, look up recipes... I normally use a 2016 MacBook Air and we have a Mac Mini that's not getting any use so we're parting with it once I rescue all the photo and video files it has)

· 4K HDR playback because we're replacing our broken LG tv finally. I've been fiddling with Plex these past weeks and I think it is a very simple solution for music and video playback to our iPhones, I'd like to have the option to use it with our new tv too.

 

With this said, we're looking for something that isn't really in the way since it will sit close to our router (kind of obvious) and TV, probably in the console next to them; easy to install, set up and use; that will stay idle most of the time.

I've glanced at the big names like WD, Synology, QNAP but I'm a bit lost so any suggestions are welcome!

FYI... Plex is broken with HDR content... and you propperly have to transcode the 4K content.. even though your new TV may support all 4k and hdr types.. like the new OLED tv's from LG...

 

The issue is plex! - If so if you want to view 4K HEVC, HDR content... use DNLA to see media files... - And use it together with plex + your TV.. and don't have plex stream your content...

 

otherwise your plex will transcode the content.. and btw a 8core/16threads ryzen cpu is having 100% CPU load when transcoding 4k HEVC, since it transcodes it to x264.. and i even get stutter... due to this kind of transcoding is INSANELY taxing on the CPU..

 

However as i said.. if you enable DNLA inside plex and browse your media files from your TV with DNLA, you will play the files directly and won't have the transcoding and HDR will work!

[Mikensan]

If this is going to connect directly to the TV, then for 4k HDR you're better off using a native app for that specific media.

 

What's your budget, how much tinkering do you want to do, and are you comfortable with used equipment?

 

Turnkey ready to go, QNAP/Synology are hard to beat. After that a custom build with unRaid would be very easy.

For media playback and such, I'd suggest custom built. Lot more flexibility and power to do more with. Plus you can pick a custom case that looks "pretty" to fit in.