I just don't trust myself to build out this setup on my own (and consider all the potential pratfalls), so here's what I'm thinking:
I have a large-ish digitized media library that currently sits on a portable hard drive, including movies and many, many precious photos. I don't feel like my current setup is reliable for saving my pictures, nor are they always conveniently accessible, since I have to plug in the hard drive to a laptop any time I want to see them. I'd like for anyone in the house to be able to view them from any device, if possible.
Also, I want to be able to easily view my movies on my TV without quality degradation. I've tried to stream movies to my TV via wifi (stupid in hindsight) and this barely worked. I'll need something powerful enough to stream 1080p BRs without a noticeable drop in quality. Is this even possible? Or would I need to plug the NAS or whatever into my TV via HDMI?
I'd be fine with some sort of storage device that could live under my TV from which I can watch movies on via HDMI if such a thing existed (something with a simple UI and that can play MKVs). Otherwise, I think a NAS would be the right solution? If so, which one would support what I want to do with it? I have a Mac, if that matters.
I should mention that I don't think putting together a cheap PC will work for me (unless it's extremely small) since I don't have the room for it. I like the relative simplicity (I think) that goes along with using a dedicated NAS.
EDIT: Currently digesting all the responses so far. I should clarify that two drive bays is probably sufficient, since I only have ~2TB of data.
I have a large-ish digitized media library that currently sits on a portable hard drive, including movies and many, many precious photos. I don't feel like my current setup is reliable for saving my pictures, nor are they always conveniently accessible, since I have to plug in the hard drive to a laptop any time I want to see them. I'd like for anyone in the house to be able to view them from any device, if possible.
Also, I want to be able to easily view my movies on my TV without quality degradation. I've tried to stream movies to my TV via wifi (stupid in hindsight) and this barely worked. I'll need something powerful enough to stream 1080p BRs without a noticeable drop in quality. Is this even possible? Or would I need to plug the NAS or whatever into my TV via HDMI?
I'd be fine with some sort of storage device that could live under my TV from which I can watch movies on via HDMI if such a thing existed (something with a simple UI and that can play MKVs). Otherwise, I think a NAS would be the right solution? If so, which one would support what I want to do with it? I have a Mac, if that matters.
I should mention that I don't think putting together a cheap PC will work for me (unless it's extremely small) since I don't have the room for it. I like the relative simplicity (I think) that goes along with using a dedicated NAS.
EDIT: Currently digesting all the responses so far. I should clarify that two drive bays is probably sufficient, since I only have ~2TB of data.
Last edited: