# NAS Recommendation for MediaShare



## Hey_Hey (Aug 23, 2006)

I'm looking to get a NAS box for my home network and I would like it to support DirecTV MediaShare for MP3's, photos and possibly home videos. Any recommendations? 

In addition to serving files to my HR20 and HR22, I have these other devices that would share audio, photo and/or video files off of it:

Sonos ZP120's 
Sonos S5's
Panasonic P65VT30
Samsung PN50C800
Panasonic BlueRay player (forget model)
Samsung BluRay player (forget model)
Pioneer SC-07 A/V Receiver
PS3
Wii
Windows 7 computers

I could save the home videos in whatever format works best with HR2x's using Premier Elements.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

I would buy a computer dedicated to HTPC. For a couple hundred more than a NAS you could have a machine that would give you much better functionality.


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## FHSPSU67 (Jan 12, 2007)

Shades228 said:


> I would buy a computer dedicated to HTPC. For a couple hundred more than a NAS you could have a machine that would give you much better functionality.


Very much agree!


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Add me to the list. I never could get an NAS to work with everything like a PC does. Plus the extra premium price. Get a cheap HTPC with lots of case space, and a hefty power supply. Just add a 2tb drive when what you have fills up.


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## Hey_Hey (Aug 23, 2006)

Is an HTPC something you can buy off the shelf? If so do you have recommendations for one?

While I'm technically capable of building and configuring my own box, I simply do not have time to do so. I want something simple and easy with minimal maintenance. Most important is sharing MP3s and photos. If sharing videos is too hard I would give that up.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

Hey_Hey said:


> Is an HTPC something you can buy off the shelf? If so do you have recommendations for one?
> 
> While I'm technically capable of building and configuring my own box, I simply do not have time to do so. I want something simple and easy with minimal maintenance. Most important is sharing MP3s and photos. If sharing videos is too hard I would give that up.


Any computer with a network card and an HDMI (assuming HD TV) output can be a HTPC. Some will argue that without a tuner card it's not one but that's a preference.

With Windows 7 you have media center built in. Sharing media will be a breeze. www.avsforum.com has a section on HTPC with some great info there.

An entry level Sandybridge PC with hdmi on the board would work. Just order an extra 2 TB HD to start and you're good.

Just did some quick reading there and people are building i3 HTPC's for $350.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

HTPC is actually a PC with tuners and assorted video stuff in it. For what you are wanting to do, you simply need any PC that has #1 a case large enough to add hard drives to, with enough SATA ports to plug them into, and #2 a power supply large enough to handle #1. They do have premade servers, but are usually more expensive, since they often use Raid, etc.

There are bunches of them on Tigerdirect.com. Personally, I bought the case (tower), an ASUS motherboard with 3GHz AMD processor, 1gbit lan built in, HD video built in, then added 3 GB of ram, a copy of Windows 7 32bit, and 4 drives, 1 500gb 7200rpm boot drive, and 3 WD 2TB data storage drives. Install windows, share the 2TB drives, and you are good to go. You can then install Playon, Tversity, or any other media sharing programs of your choice. If you have an Xbox, you can also enable Windows Media Center to access all your videos and music and photos with that as well.

Two things you want to keep in mind...get a 1gbit lan port if possible, even if your system is currently 100bit, add extra fans inside to keep the drives cool.

Here is a sample link to one that would work for you. Just add Windows and hard drives: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=61043&CatId=2846


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

Davenlr said:


> HTPC is actually a PC with tuners and assorted video stuff in it. For what you are wanting to do, you simply need any PC that has #1 a case large enough to add hard drives to, with enough SATA ports to plug them into, and #2 a power supply large enough to handle #1. They do have premade servers, but are usually more expensive, since they often use Raid, etc.
> 
> There are bunches of them on Tigerdirect.com. Personally, I bought the case (tower), an ASUS motherboard with 3GHz AMD processor, 1gbit lan built in, HD video built in, then added 3 GB of ram, a copy of Windows 7 32bit, and 4 drives, 1 500gb 7200rpm boot drive, and 3 WD 2TB data storage drives. Install windows, share the 2TB drives, and you are good to go. You can then install Playon, Tversity, or any other media sharing programs of your choice. If you have an Xbox, you can also enable Windows Media Center to access all your videos and music and photos with that as well.
> 
> Two things you want to keep in mind...get a 1gbit lan port if possible, even if your system is currently 100bit, *add extra fans inside to keep the drives cool*.


I would get a case that has a 120mm fan slot available then get a quite 120mm fan. The less fans you can have the better so make the ones you use count. I have 1 120 fan in the computer I use in my living room and you can't hear it running even with all of the other electronics off.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

I would suggest a WDTV box or a BluRay player that'll play stuff off your network. It can be cheaper and easier. A PC in your TV area isn't always practical.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

sigma1914 said:


> I would suggest a WDTV box or a BluRay player that'll play stuff off your network. It can be cheaper and easier. A PC in your TV area isn't always practical.


I think he just wants a server, not actually an HTPC.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

Davenlr said:


> I think he just wants a server, not actually an HTPC.


My bad, I didn't understand fully.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

Davenlr said:


> I think he just wants a server, not actually an HTPC.


I would say he wants both actually considering he wants to use his HR as a media client and that's never good.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Shades228 said:


> I would say he wants both actually considering he wants to use his HR as a media client and that's never good.


Yea, but look at his list of other clients...I doubt he has room under his TV for a computer


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## David MacLeod (Jan 29, 2008)

best solution is to never use the media share especially for videos. unless you like never being able to do trickplay on them.


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## jdspencer (Nov 8, 2003)

David MacLeod said:


> best solution is to never use the media share especially for videos. unless you like never being able to do trickplay on them.


I agree. I have the WD Whitebook 1 TB NAS which has Twonky media server built in. Since DirecTV media share requires that the videos be in particular formats, I never really got it working too well. So I bought the WD TV Plus unit. This connects to my TV via HDMI and the network. It will play almost anything I can throw at it. WD now has the TV Hub which has a 1 TB drive built in. This combo works best for me.


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## Yoda-DBSguy (Nov 4, 2006)

The WD TVLive+ is great if your wanting it to connect straight to one TV.

However If your wanting to serve the entire network as well as add the flexibility of being able to stream remotely, then I'd suggest you look into a D-Link NAS-323 or NAS-343. The 343 is a 2 drive enclosure while the 343 can house upto 4 drives.

I currently use a D-Lnik NAS-323 housing (2) 2.5 TB hard drives. It incoporates a built in iTunes server which I use to stream to all my computers/devices. I also stream videos/movies from it to my PS3, Xbox 360, iPhones, iPod Touch(s), Desktop PC(s) and Laptop(s) in my network as well as remotely.

I also use the built in FTP server to host/share files for people I have granted acceess to.


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## nuspieds (Aug 9, 2008)

jdspencer said:


> I agree. I have the WD Whitebook 1 TB NAS which has Twonky media server built in. Since DirecTV media share requires that the videos be in particular formats, I never really got it working too well. So I bought the WD TV Plus unit. This connects to my TV via HDMI and the network. It will play almost anything I can throw at it. WD now has the TV Hub which has a 1 TB drive built in. This combo works best for me.


Same here.

I have a QNAP TS-509 NAS and first it had Twonky 5 and Media Share didn't work too well with that version, either. So I eventually waited for a firmware upgrade to the NAS because Twonky 6 was supposed to have built-in transcoding.

Anyway, I tried Twonky 6, and even after giving up on that, I went to TVersity on my PC, but it all just turned out to be too buggy. So I, too, gave up and I bought a WD unit and I love it! No more severe media type limitations as with Media Share.


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## jdspencer (Nov 8, 2003)

BTW, my Samsung TV can access the NAS.

I also use the NAS for storing files for my desktop and notebook PCs.


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## Altcool (Jun 11, 2007)

Synology Nas


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

I would consider going with windows home server 2003. If you have an old machine, load it on there. Works great, offers raid like protection without having to actually set up a raid, backs up your pcs too... I loaded it up to try it out on an old machine late last year, and am still using one now, and it works great.. And it is easy to access from media share, and other computers.


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## calsker (Dec 14, 2009)

Altcool said:


> Synology Nas[/QUOTE
> 
> +1
> 
> ...


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## Hey_Hey (Aug 23, 2006)

"Altcool" said:


> Synology Nas


As the originator of this thread, I would like to thank Altcool for pointing me to Synology. I ended up buying one of those and found it to be totally awesome.

It works well with the DirecTV Mediashare. However I have found that I really don't have a need for Mediashare. I have 3 newer TV's that can display photos and videos natively and are less clunky at doing so than the DirecTV boxes. Part of this is simply that doing it directly via the TV is that there is one less box on. The one older TV that can't display them natively also has a PS3 attached that again is a better choice.

So a big thumbs up for Synology NAS. Works great at serving media of all types to all of the boxes I have. Sideways thumb to DirecTV Mediashare, it works serviceably, but there are a lot of better choices for doing the same thing.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

jdspencer said:


> I agree. I have the WD Whitebook 1 TB NAS which has Twonky media server built in. Since DirecTV media share requires that the videos be in particular formats, I never really got it working too well. So I bought the WD TV Plus unit. This connects to my TV via HDMI and the network. It will play almost anything I can throw at it. WD now has the TV Hub which has a 1 TB drive built in. This combo works best for me.


Not to mention that the Live Hub can also share the two drives that can be plugged into it's USB ports over the network. Functioning as a simple NAS.

I load things into it and the USB drives on it over the network.


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## poppagene (Jul 20, 2007)

Davenlr said:


> Add me to the list. I never could get an NAS to work with everything like a PC does. Plus the extra premium price. Get a cheap HTPC with lots of case space, and a hefty power supply. Just add a 2tb drive when what you have fills up.


I would amend the suggestion to get a cheap pc with lots of case space and plenty of sata connections on the hard drive. It doesn't need to be an HTPC since your other devices are going to be serving up the content from the PC to your TV.


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