# Internet TV & Synology NAS



## mba (Jun 17, 2006)

Must have been a good boy as Santa bought me a Samsung UE40ES6540 for Christmas. It is one of Smasungs smart TVs and comes with networking/internet capabilities which i have never had on a TV before.

I had been looking for a storage device for my aging PC and was going to settle on something simple like a external USB hard drive (£100), but after much research I have opted for a Synology drive (DS212j) and as it didnt contain a HD i got the Western Digital Red 2Tb (£250). I know i might be behind the times or come across as being geeky but this NAS is awesome, i can stream movies, music (inc itunes) and photos to my TV, iPad and over the internet when i work away. Includes its own download station, media server, mail server, cloud storage facility (like DropBox) Link to Synology

Anyone considering getting a NAS i cant recommend these enough, not for the novice user but certainly a great tool for anyone who has a lot of media.

Those people that are using Synology NAS drives do you use PlexMedia server or the inbuilt Synology one?:thumb:


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## leon20v (Jul 7, 2007)

I'm just about to post my own questions about NAS and home server set ups. That Synology NAS looks good :thumb:


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## Bero (Mar 9, 2008)

Plex rocks! I use it with Apple Time Capsule NAS.


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## digimac (Oct 31, 2005)

I run plex on my imac with all the files on an external usb drive. The media server then streams to my TV via a 500mbps tp-link homeplug network to a roku media box connected to my TV via hdmi. Plex is awesome and the wee roku box are great too. Plex client is a downloadable channel on the roku


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## olliecampbell (Jan 30, 2007)

Synologies are excellent and so is the support.

I've just had the SATA cables replaced on mine for free and it's well out of warranty.


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## Dizzle77 (Mar 27, 2010)

I have the Synology 211+ wit ha couple of 2TB drives. I recently got a Panny GT50 Smart TV, which works seamlessly with the NAS. 

Not tried Plex yet, but the included media server that comes with the NAS does the job nicely. Streaming bluray rips (MKV) direct to TV without any problems at all.


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## Saj (Dec 24, 2012)

I use to have a Western Digital NAS, until if failed and I lost everything,

since then, not sure if I can put my trust in a HD which is on 24 hours?


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## Dizzle77 (Mar 27, 2010)

Saj said:


> I use to have a Western Digital NAS, until if failed and I lost everything,
> 
> since then, not sure if I can put my trust in a HD which is on 24 hours?


Got my 2bay NAS set up in RAID, so that all data is automatically mirrored. At least there's some backup if one of them fails.

Did both your drives fail or did you just have one?

I know what you mean about hard drives though. I don't completely trust them either, but had my NAS two years now and so far so good. I use my NAS for time machine backups, but I also have my important documents backed up elsewhere too.


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## Saj (Dec 24, 2012)

Dizzle77 said:


> Got my 2bay NAS set up in RAID, so that all data is automatically mirrored. At least there's some backup if one of them fails.
> 
> Did both your drives fail or did you just have one?
> 
> I know what you mean about hard drives though. I don't completely trust them either, but had my NAS two years now and so far so good. I use my NAS for time machine backups, but I also have my important documents backed up elsewhere too.


i only had one in the system it was a western digital one which came wih the hard drive already in it, back then it was 250gb, in the days there were brand new tech !

Maybe things have got better.

Is a 2 HD in RAID easy to set up?

Also been considering the routers which has NAS built in, so slot the HD into the router !


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## shl-kelso (Dec 27, 2012)

Raid is not a backup, if the raid controller fails you could still lose data on both drives. Many Nas drives have a USB port so you can plug in a separate drive to properly backup on a separate device.

At the end of the day if the data is important or irreplaceable (digital family photos are one of my important backups) then you need several copies, preferably with one kept off site. This way you are covered should there be a fire or major calamity at home.


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## olliecampbell (Jan 30, 2007)

Saj said:


> I use to have a Western Digital NAS, until if failed and I lost everything,
> 
> since then, not sure if I can put my trust in a HD which is on 24 hours?


Exactly why I went for a 4 bay jobbie...


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## Dizzle77 (Mar 27, 2010)

Saj said:


> i only had one in the system it was a western digital one which came wih the hard drive already in it, back then it was 250gb, in the days there were brand new tech !
> 
> Maybe things have got better.
> 
> ...


Yep really easy. Just as simple as selecting the option in settings then system does the rest for you. I just selected the Synology Hybrid, which is equivalent to RAID1 as far as i know

Kelso is right though. It would be wose to have another backup off site. I keep meaning to do this for my digital media (photos, music etc), but haven't got round to it yet. Have a spare ext drive, so should 'pull my finger out' and get it sorted really


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## mba (Jun 17, 2006)

Saj said:


> I use to have a Western Digital NAS, until if failed and I lost everything,
> 
> since then, not sure if I can put my trust in a HD which is on 24 hours?


I have at the minute 1x2Tb Western Digital Red, specially designed for NAS/Server 24/7 usage http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=810, they also do Green (Low power) & Black (Super Fast).

RAID is always a good option especially mirroring as with a NAS it is redundancy you are after and not speed.


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## Pezza4u (Jun 7, 2007)

What is it about the Synology NAS that makes it more recommended than other brands? I was looking at the D-Link 320 for around £50 as most of the reviews say it's good, although the interface is not all that. I've watched videos of the Synology interface and it looks like a desktop and very easy to use.

With the DS212 can you connect a printer to it so it's networked to all the computers? That was one of the features with the D-Link that I ideally want.


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## SteveyG (Apr 1, 2007)

Saj said:


> I use to have a Western Digital NAS, until if failed and I lost everything,
> 
> since then, not sure if I can put my trust in a HD which is on 24 hours?


I've fitted enterprise grade hard drives in my home server as I also do not believe that consumer hard drives are up to the job. Potentially obscene money for the average person though.



mba said:


> I have at the minute 1x2Tb Western Digital Red, specially designed for NAS/Server 24/7 usage http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=810, they also do Green (Low power) & Black (Super Fast).


http://www.wdc.com/en/products/internal/enterprise/

 Although personally I never by Western Digital any more after seeing so many failures.


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## mba (Jun 17, 2006)

Pezza4u said:


> What is it about the Synology NAS that makes it more recommended than other brands? I was looking at the D-Link 320 for around £50 as most of the reviews say it's good, although the interface is not all that. I've watched videos of the Synology interface and it looks like a desktop and very easy to use.
> 
> With the DS212 can you connect a printer to it so it's networked to all the computers? That was one of the features with the D-Link that I ideally want.


The D-Link 320 is a drive less NAS so you would still need to buy the hard drive(s). Between that and my NAS for the box only i paid an extra £100, according to the reviews its faster, quieter, easier to use and has extra features, it had what i wanted and more (itunes server & built in cloud storage)

The Synology is a linux based NAS and the control panel is desktop and very easy to navigate. There are 2 USB 2.0 ports on the back and you can connect either extra hard drives or printers that then become networked without the need for it to be attached to a turned on PC.

The streaming of HD/BluRay/3D BluRay are all faultless when viewing on my TV, however the TV has a wired ethernet connection as WiFi can be flaky in my house



SteveyG said:


> I've fitted enterprise grade hard drives in my home server as I also do not believe that consumer hard drives are up to the job. Potentially obscene money for the average person though.
> 
> http://www.wdc.com/en/products/internal/enterprise/
> 
> Although personally I never by Western Digital any more after seeing so many failures.


And yet all i use in the past 10 years has been WD so its really down to personal choice/experiences. All this Red/Blue/Green/Black business is probably all hype and i have fallen for it, but the Synology NAS drives have a "recommended" drive list so i pick from that.


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