Is there such a thing as a sub £100 box that will...

[LeMarchand]

...act as a wired/wireless NAS/DLNA media server? If so, what terms should I be searching under?

 

In greater detail, I currently have a load of video, music and pictures on an external e-SATA drive attached to my computer. I can access these files when the computer is on via various means: ORB on PDA, DLNA on TV (via ethernet), Subsonic on tablet. What I'd like to do is to be able to cut the computer out of the equation as Mme LeMarchand doesn't like it being left on overnight and I occasionally like to be able to watch a stored movie in bed.

 

I know I could set up a dedicated small server, but the "box" needs to be something that's quite small and unobtrusive. As it's not something that would be used that often (I could always plan ahead and stuff something on the tablet) I don't really want to pay too much, either.

[jinnantonnixx]

This looks intriguing. If anyone has one, please post a quick review!

 

7dayshop.com - Online Store

[glennda]

HP Microserver?

[pcstru]

How about a hacked Livebox. Should be able to get one for under £20.

[LeMarchand]

This looks intriguing. If anyone has one, please post a quick review!

 

7dayshop.com - Online Store

 

I'm intrigued, but they saw through my fake details to create an account.

 

HP Microserver?

 

Bit more than £100, but worth considering.

[glennda]

I'm intrigued, but they saw through my fake details to create an account.

 

 

 

Bit more than £100, but worth considering.

 

Ah are they not doing the 100 cashback plus your thinking Inc vat which i didn't think about!

[pcstru]

Or , no hacking required, something like a Netgear DGND3700

 

review.

Edited April 17, 2012 by pcstru

[LosOjos]

They're about as hard to get as unicorn poo but the Raspberry-Pi would make a great micro server (I should get mine this weekend!)

[nicholab]

Some router like the Thomson 585n v2 have the ability to share a Hard disk.

[Chris_]

Ebuyer has a few of these Sumvision Cyclone Android media player things. This one has a couple of reviews: Sumvision Cyclone Nano Android Media Player | Ebuyer.com

[LeMarchand]

How about a hacked Livebox. Should be able to get one for under £20.

 

They're about as hard to get as unicorn poo but the Raspberry-Pi would make a great micro server (I should get mine this weekend!)

 

Too complicated for me!

 

Or , no hacking required, something like a Netgear DGND3700

 

Some router like the Thomson 585n v2 have the ability to share a Hard disk.

 

Didn't know routers could do that! I will take a look.

 

Ebuyer has a few of these Sumvision Cyclone Android media player things. This one has a couple of reviews: Sumvision Cyclone Nano Android Media Player | Ebuyer.com

 

That looks pretty good. Has anyone seen anything similar where you can mount a drive inside the box?

[Arthur]

Some router like the Thomson 585n v2 have the ability to share a Hard disk.

The only problem with attaching a HDD to a router is the transfer speeds will be pathetically slow (typically < 15MB/s).

[Marc-Engineer]

There are a number of things that can do this i personaly use an NSLU2 running twonkyvision.

 

Or you can like i am doing at the moment get yourself a Raspberry Pi and do the same thing with mem card should cost you less than £50

 

Marc

Projector Engineer

[mac_shinobi]

Would a 2 bay QNAP nas hooked into a wireless router or a switch with a wireless access point do the trick ?

[LeMarchand]

The only problem with attaching a HDD to a router is the transfer speeds will be pathetically slow (typically < 15MB/s).

 

Is this bad? A 40 minute TV show is around 300MB, so those sort of rates see OK. Or is my maths wrong?

 

There are a number of things that can do this i personaly use an NSLU2 running twonkyvision.

 

Or you can like i am doing at the moment get yourself a Raspberry Pi and do the same thing with mem card should cost you less than £50

 

Marc

Projector Engineer

 

First one looks interesting, if complex. The second is probably more work than I have time for at present.

 

Would a 2 bay QNAP nas hooked into a wireless router or a switch with a wireless access point do the trick ?

 

Possibly a bit expensive, though it did lead me on to other reasonably priced NAS enclosures. Is there a reason for 2 bays?

[chazzy2501]

To make a truly ace media server you should buy an old atom netbook off ebay (even with broken screen) (they normally have an estata socket as well) You can run a linux distro or reinstall windows and use tversity. The netbook will be super low power consuming (approx 5 watts with screen off) and will have it's own battery backup. All for well under a £100. Edited April 19, 2012 by chazzy2501

[SYNACK]

Seagate blackarmor NAS boxes are way cheap, you can get 2TB 2 bay ones for around $350 here.

[Arthur]

Is this bad? A 40 minute TV show is around 300MB, so those sort of rates seem OK.

It's bad in the sense that you are massively bottlenecking your HDD. Modern hard drives have sequential read speeds in the region of 100-160MB/s, but the majority of routers limit the drive to 3-15MB/s depending upon whether they are formatted NTFS or FAT32. It's rare that you get anything better than this.

 

Watching videos like the one you describe will most likely be fine, but there isn't a lot of headroom. e.g. multiple users, 720/1080p HD videos.

 

If you are considering a router, I would check the reviews on SmallNetBuilder first to make sure you don't get a lemon. As you can see below, Netgear and Linksys routers are atrocious IMO. The only good one is the E4200v2, but even then you won't get the kinds of speeds you normally get from a NAS. I typically get 85-100MB/s with my HP Microserver running WHS 2011.

 

http://i.imgur.com/fqQIi.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/Pwu2Y.png

[chazzy2501]

I can run 2 1080p MKVs with DTS sound at the same time and I have 7 HDDs plugged into 1 USB Hub. I'd not worry about it until you need to shift large amount of data between drives. (even then you don't have to stare at it)

[LeMarchand]

To make a truly ace media server you should buy an old atom netbook off ebay (even with broken screen) (they normally have an estata socket as well) You can run a linux distro or reinstall windows and use tversity. The netbook will be super low power consuming (approx 5 watts with screen off) and will have it's own battery backup. All for well under a £100.

 

Not thought of that, thank you. Like the low-power bit.

 

Seagate blackarmor NAS boxes are way cheap, you can get 2TB 2 bay ones for around $350 here.

 

Slightly over budget here, but possibly do-able. I think the NAS route is where I'm headed; a lot of them seem to support DLNA for the TV and have some sort of web interface for other devices.

 

It's bad in the sense that you are massively bottlenecking your HDD. Modern hard drives have sequential read speeds in the region of 100-160MB/s, but the majority of routers limit the drive to 3-15MB/s depending upon whether they are formatted NTFS or FAT32. It's rare that you get anything better than this.

 

Thanks for explaining this. I don't think it's likely to become a multi-user scenario, but I guess it's one of those things where it would be annoying if once it was all set up it got more use than it could handle.

 

I can run 2 1080p MKVs with DTS sound at the same time and I have 7 HDDs plugged into 1 USB Hub. I'd not worry about it until you need to shift large amount of data between drives. (even then you don't have to stare at it)

 

...and thanks for this, too.

[tumbleweed]

LOOQS MeeBox NAS Media Server for £30 + VAT ??

Aria.co.uk Quickcode: 49178

[LeMarchand]

LOOQS MeeBox NAS Media Server for £30 + VAT ??

Aria.co.uk Quickcode: 49178

 

Thanks! Looks a bit more acceptable to the other half than similar devices. The reviews aren't overly flattering, but possibly worth a punt at that price. Must check if it will talk to my TV...