a NAS drive for my movies ?

[squig007]

Hi guys i just got an LG 55LW550T 3d led tv and it awseome. A guy told me that i should get an NAS drive to connect to it wirlessly to the tv so i can watch my stored movies that are on the nas drive on my new tv.

Firstly i havnt a clue what an nas drive is or even what it does, could someone kindly shed some light on what piece of kit i should be looking at and how it would work with my new tv ??


regards
squig007

 

[oneman]

NAS drive is a basically a hard drive that is connected to your network. First of all, I would say you may well struggle to play HD films over wireless. Also does your TV even have wireless ?

I would look at homeplug for connecting NAS to TV, cost around £40, get one with passthrough plug if you want.

Getting back to your TV, if it supports USB hard drive then that would be the simplest and cheapest solution.

If you want to use network storage then you need to find out if you need to use DNLA for sending the movie to the TV. This would required a NAS that supports DNLA. Something like qnap or synology both do, but you are looking at around £100 + cost of a hard drive.

 

[Kruger]

basically what oneman has said but if you got a top notch tv and want the best you could build yer own.

I bought one of the hp micro servers that were posted in the bargin section a while back, put 9 and half TB (Yes Terrabytes lol) in it. put ubuntu server on it

and you have more choices and flexibaility than a plug n play one.

i have put

• Sabnzbd+sickbeard to automatically download all my tv shows.
• MiniDLNA
• PS3 mediaserver (will transcode on the fly for your MKV's if you tv or media player dnt support them)

to play/stream media


plus a lot more things you can add later on for like having a server to perform other tasks.

it does take a bit of setting up, i had never ever touched linux until i messed with this, and through trial and error and a couple of re-installs it all up n running fine and is sweet as a nut.

Even use it as a file server when out and about.

Might think this is a bit overkill for streaming media but i had NAS's in past and the more i used it and more i needed it, the ready built ones where not fast enough (although fast enough for streaming)

if money is an issue then a ready to go one might be better, but i bet down the line a wee bit you will want more.

 

[squig007]

cheers lads thanks for the info. my tv does have wirless but i may go with the homeplugs . Kruger your set up sounds awesome but a bit advanced for me pal lol


squig007

 

[oneman]

I had a quick look at the specification for your TV and it supports USB hard drives which will be simplest solution. Plug hard drive into PC to copy movies onto it and then plug hard drive in TV to watch the movie.

 

[squig007]

oh right now that might be a better option then cheers mate

 

[jfish]

I had a quick look at the specification for your TV and it supports USB hard drives which will be simplest solution. Plug hard drive into PC to copy movies onto it and then plug hard drive in TV to watch the movie.

from my experience on LG TV it doesnt detect external hdd - I have a LG PQ6000 42" Plasma no matter which external USB HDD I plug it, it never detects it - only detects USB flash pens. Then again the TV is over 2 years old now so the newer models may support external USB HDD better compared to the older models.

 

[BIG-HOL]

maybe take a look at the xtreamer mate if its just for movies, im in the process of ordering 1, and they look fantastic, have a look on youtube at some of the preview modes for the movies, it makes them look fantastic with the movie covers.

Xtreamer jukebox - YouTube

 

[Jooooles]

Do your self a favour save your self loads of hassle, heres a 1TB media media player that streams wireless and play's everything you chuck at it.

WD TV Live Hub media center - Digital multimedia.. | Ebuyer.com

And my favourite choice the 2TB player not live but you just cant beat Western Digital Products and for around £120 your getting a great media player with 2 TB storage, the user friendly skins are mint there easy to use just so simple. I not into streaming HD movies wireless its a crock of shite ? Get ya self a good decent media player and play them proparly through a AMP and your TV via HDMI you cant beat it.

WD Elements Play Digital - AV player - 2TB Media Drive.. | Ebuyer.com

 

[Jooooles]

Heres a WD TV Live Hub media center - Digital multimedia receiver - 1 TB £150

nifty first time ive seen this one home hub eh ???? looks good

WD TV Live Hub media center - Digital multimedia.. | Ebuyer.com

Western Digital rocks Ive got 3 media players and had there external storage ebooks etc for years never have a problem with one product some of my harddrives are 5 year old never had a problem with any of there products.

 

[oneman]

from my experience on LG TV it doesnt detect external hdd - I have a LG PQ6000 42" Plasma no matter which external USB HDD I plug it, it never detects it - only detects USB flash pens. Then again the TV is over 2 years old now so the newer models may support external USB HDD better compared to the older models.

I also have the pq6000 and I believe it does work with fat formated hard drives.

Also OP TV I read a review which did say hdd support

 

[squig007]

cheers pal ill have a look now

 

[Captin]

According to the LG website that TV has DNLA so you should be able to install and run ps3mediaserver on your pc at stream all of your movies/music/pictures to it. It's would be the cheapest (meaning FREE) option and if it doesnt work you've lost nothing.

Plus most TV's can only read a FAT32 formatted hard drive, so you can't use MKV files larger than 4gb, which leaves out most 1080p Blu-Ray rips.

ps3mediaserver - Java Upnp Media Server, dedicated to PS3 - Google Project Hosting

 

[spiv]

Hi got my new toy a WD tv live network media player, it streams HD movies via my home network and the good part is there is no need to convert the film its all done in box, you can also use a harddrive box with it.

At £71 from ebuyer & amazon you can see reviews on there sites