Can I Use a Linux Media Server as a Media Center for My Local Network

February 16, 2022 Post a Comment

You've probably heard about home media servers or media centers. They have many different uses, but its main responsibility is to provide media such as movies, tv shows, games, music, etc. in a centralized style. The media server is fabricated possible through the employ of a NAS (Network Attached Storage) enclosure or a dedicated computer. With this type of system, y'all are able to spotter view content on a connected television set or stream it through your home network on diverse devices.

Steps to Set Upwards a Media Server

So, how do you prepare upwardly a media server for a dwelling theater? The process for setting upwards a media server is non all that complicated. Here are the general steps for setting it upwardly:

Buy a NAS or set up a defended estimator.
Install hard drives to store the media files.
Connect the media server to the network via an Ethernet cablevision(south).
Transfer the files to the difficult drives and install whatever apps you would like to use.
Brainstorm using your media server as a streaming service, support storage solution, etc.

For a more than detailed explanation of each footstep, continue reading. Nosotros will go in-depth on all of the above steps. This includes whether you should use a NAS enclosure or a regular computer, what blazon of difficult drives you lot should utilize, connecting the device to your dwelling network and how information technology should exist configured, what apps or programs you should use and how to transfer your files. It's a lot to go over, but I'll make this as simple as I tin!

ane. Buy a NAS Enclosure or Set a Computer as the Media Server

Choosing whether to buy a NAS or to build/repurpose a calculator to utilise every bit a media server is dependant upon a few things. How many roles do you want the machine to fulfill? How much fourth dimension do you have to sink into this project? Are you lot a very "tech-savvy" individual or do yous know enough to get by? What'south your budget?

NAS Enclosure Media Server

A NAS (network-fastened storage) media server is an enclosure with slots or bays for hard drives and has the power to distribute files/media throughout a network.When using a NAS as a media server, it will need to have a decent processor and RAM/memory. Its purpose is to provide high-quality video to one or fifty-fifty multiple sources without buffering. If it has a slow processor or modest amount of RAM, and then information technology will be more than susceptible to buffering or lag. The NAS tin perform transcoding to deliver ane type of media to whatsoever type of device. Go on in mind that non all devices utilise the aforementioned blazon of file. Transcoding is taking one type of file and making information technology compatible to play or view on most devices (reckoner, tablet, smartphone, fire tv, etc). Transcoding unremarkably uses a significant amount of processing power. This is why a NAS has a congenital-in processor and RAM, just like a normal estimator. Except, the NAS's processor and RAM are purely dedicated to serving, transcoding, and treatment the files and media contained on the hard drives.

Pros to a NAS Enclosure Media Server:

Defended Purpose – The NAS's purpose is just to handle files and media. It's utilizing well-nigh all of the processing power to serve its purpose. It won't exist running web browsers and lots of fill-in processes that slow typical computers downward.
Features – It is featured-packed with many unlike applications and utilities that are natively available.
Easily Configured – Less of a hassle to fix up and configure through utilize of an easy GUI and operating system.
Availability – It'due south meant to be on at all times, therefore, your media volition always be available. With a calculator, you must ensure information technology is actually on to admission the media.
Low Profile – The enclosure is much smaller than a standard desktop computer or server.
Support – Access to customer support through the manufacturer. They tin assist with more advanced uses if necessary.

Cons to a NAS Enclosure Media Server:

Price – A NAS Media Server comes with a toll tag of $300+. This is more expensive than repurposing a decent desktop reckoner.
Limited Customization – Some NAS enclosures take a limited amount of features and software available. If you are a super-user that actually wants to customize every singles aspect, then you may feel slightly express. Of course, this is determined by the system you are using. Some are extremely versatile in what they are capable of doing.
Less Processing Power – A beefy dedicated reckoner/server will outperform a NAS enclosure easily. If you plan on having a few users stream at the same time and then a dedicated reckoner is likely a better option.
Express Upgradability – Some NAS enclosures will have either 1 or 2 slots for RAM. So you could upgrade the arrangement to include more RAM, merely it will also be express depending on the motherboard of the unit. Y'all are able to upgrade your hard bulldoze storage, merely this is limited to the number of trophy bachelor. You are not able to upgrade the CPU (processor) of these type of units.

I recommend either the QNAP TS-251+ two Bay NAS (click for current Amazon price) or the Synology DS218+ 2 Bay NAS (click for electric current Amazon cost). Both of these units have 2 hard bulldoze bays available with 2 GB of pre-installed RAM, expandable to 6-8GB. The QNAP has a quad-core two.0GHz processor while the Synology has a dual-core ii.0GHz processor. So, the QNAP is a bit faster but is barely more expensive. I suggest either one of these units as a NAS enclosure option!

Typical Computer prepare as a NAS Media Server

A computer set up as a NAS media server is basically a computer that is specifically being used to distribute files and media. By and large, a computer ready as a NAS media server should exist dedicated to this task, and possibly a few smaller tasks. It should not be bogged downwardly by other processes such as web browsing and everyday typical computer uses. Its main purpose is to shop the files and media on its hard drives, then distribute and/or transcode them when needed. Information technology serves the aforementioned purpose as a NAS enclosure except information technology's exactly like a normal computer. The nice thing near using a normal reckoner equally a media server is that you have a ton of flexibility! Between the hardware, operating system, applications, etc. there are and so many options available to you for full customization.

Pros to a Typical Figurer as a NAS Media Server:

Upgradable Hardware – With a figurer, yous are able to upgrade any component! You tin upgrade the motherboard, processor, RAM (memory), network card, etc. at any point in fourth dimension that you cull. A NAS enclosure volition likely use a laptop motherboard which has a very limited upgradability. A typical desktop motherboard will have more RAM slots and PCIe slots available to further increase the potential of your organisation.
More Processing Power – You are able to achieve much higher processing speeds than a NAS enclosure. If you have an older processor with slow speed, then you can ever buy a better one and install information technology, depending on the motherboard.
Cheaper if using a Repurposed Reckoner – A lot of people have switched from using typical desktop computers to laptops. It likely you can repurpose your semi-sometime desktop computer to be used as the media server. Just ensure it has an appropriate amount of processing power, RAM, and hard drive storage.
More than Operating Systems Options – You aren't stuck with using Windows as an operating system. There are many different Linux-based NAS operating systems out at that place such equally Amahi, NAS4Free, and more than that are bachelor for a fair price or even gratis! These operating systems make configuring the NAS a more uncomplicated process.

Cons to a Typical Computer equally a NAS Media Server:

More Hard to Configure – Between the hardware, operating organisation, and software configuring everything can be a difficult task. Information technology will crave much more time to configure everything on a normal reckoner compared to a NAS enclosure.
Lack of Support – With all of the configuring necessary, you lot will find information technology difficult to find an like shooting fish in a barrel support channel to help with setting it upward. You are kind of stuck with youtube videos and google searches (perfectly viable options by the way).
Larger and Bulkier – Naturally a desktop figurer is style larger than the typical NAS enclosure. Yous won't be able to ready it in your dwelling house entertainment center, you will demand a much larger space to concur the reckoner.
More Expensive when Upgrading Components – Unfortunately, upgrading reckoner components isn't a cheap task. High-cease PC components tin get extremely expensive and volition empty your pockets quickly. Go along this in heed when using an older system that could exist outdated within a couple years.

2. Hard Drives for a NAS Media Server

All NAS enclosures and almost all desktop computers volition utilize 3.5-inch internal HDDs (hd drive). There are many different types of difficult drives out in that location. They are usually designated with a colour such equally scarlet, blue, green, black, purple, or aureate. Each of these colored drives should be used in a certain surface area. NAS drives are designated with the colour Red. They are slotted to fit inside a NAS enclosure. NAS drives are built to run 24/7 and have a college read rate than typical HDDs. Red drives besides support RAID (redundant array of independent disks) configurations.

Without getting too complicated, there are two raid configurations applicable to well-nigh NAS enclosures and computers for media servers. Any RAID configuration should apply identical hard drives. RAID 0 "stripes" data beyond ii drives. This ways you lot are able to utilise the total chapters of both drives and should accomplish twice the read and write performance. However, with this RAID configuration, if one of the drives stops working, yous will lose the data on both drives. Information technology is not very reliable and typically not recommended. RAID 1 "mirrors" data to have an exact re-create of the information on each drive. But this means you cede half of your total storage amount. In the event that one bulldoze fails, you will still accept an verbal copy of that data. For more info on RAID configurations, check out this video.

I definitely suggest using identical, carmine, NAS hard drives in a NAS enclosure or computer being used as a media server. I recommend either the Seagate Iron Wolf NAS HDD or Western Digital Red NAS HDD. Below is a comparison chart of the 2TB (Terabyte) model from both Seagate and WD.

Realistically, you should get a fairly large corporeality of storage. Get more than than you wait that yous will need. In one case you have everything set up properly and information technology's working well, you will start to apply it more than you initially thought. Realistically, you should become equally much storage that will fit in the NAS enclosure or computer and that you lot can afford. Don't break the bank purchasing an obscene corporeality of storage you lot may never use. For an average user, 4TB volition probably be enough. For a power user, 8TB+ is generally recommended.

Install the Hard Drives

Installing hard drives is very simple. NAS enclosures have drive trays that tin be removed from the enclosure. Simply mount the hard drives on/inside the drive tray, then reinsert it into the NAS enclosure. To install a hard drive into a desktop computer, remove the case comprehend, mount the hard drive into ane of the available 3.5-inch drive bays, and connect the SATA and ability cables. The procedure of actually installing the difficult drives should take no longer than 5-10 minutes. It's not complicated, I promise.

3. Connect the Media Server to the Network

Next, you need to connect the NAS media server to the home network. Delivering loftier-quality media to different devices volition require a high network speed. Your media server will have issues delivering media to devices if information technology has a slow network speed such every bit 10Mb/sec. Well-nigh NAS enclosures volition have at least one GbE (gigabit ethernet) port. A gigabit ethernet port allows for transfer speeds of upwards to 1Gb/sec (1000Mb/sec). Go on in mind that cyberspace speed is different than network speed. Internet speed is how fast a device tin download/upload information outside of your home network (i.e. accessing a website). Network speed is how fast a device can download/upload information within the home network (i.e. transferring a file from your laptop to your desktop computer).

Here are a few things to keep in listen when connecting the media server to your network.

Wired not Wireless – Always difficult wire the NAS with an Ethernet cablevision. Practice Not apply a wireless signal, information technology only won't be reliable enough for the NAS to operate smoothly.
NAS/Computer Transfer Speed – Find out the transfer speed your NAS enclosure or computer'southward network card supports. As mentioned, most NAS enclosures support up to one Gb/sec transfer speeds. Ensure the network card supports at least 1 Gb/sec transfer speeds if you are using a regular computer.
Network Infrastructure Transfer Speed – Ensure your modem/router support transfer speeds up to ane Gb/sec. Nearly newer routers will support this transfer speed. If yours does not, and then I highly advise that you invest in one that does.
Ethernet Cablevision Type – Use a Cat 5e or Cat 6 Ethernet cable to connect the NAS to the network. Both of these cables support network speeds of ane Gb/sec. Cat 6 actually supports ten Gb/sec, merely 1 Gb/sec should be enough of speed for nearly all users.

A maximum transfer speed of one Gb/sec isn't admittedly necessary, just information technology is a very large step upwardly from 100 Mb/sec. You will discover a pretty significant increment in performance with higher transfer speeds.

4. Transfer Files, Install Apps, Etc.

Once the media server has been continued to the network, we can now transfer the media and other files to it and install whatsoever necessary applications. This is where information technology's difficult to requite verbal instructions because it varies for unlike setups.

NAS Enclosure

For a NAS enclosure, the manufacturer will provide pretty specific instructions for initially setting the unit of measurement up. Simply follow these instructions, and transfer your files to it through the preferred method. Yous can transfer files directly from your computer or external difficult drive. A NAS enclosure's operating system will probable have an "app store" with various apps to install. The most popular media server application for a NAS enclosure is likely Plex Media Server. You will demand to pay a yearly fee for access on all devices, but information technology's definitely worth information technology. The Plex Media Server application is very advanced with its transcoding and file management methods. It's able to offer your media on about device such equally a fire TV, Apple tree Telly, smart TV, tablet, smartphone, computer, etc. If you prefer to use a dissimilar service then there are enough of options available. Recollect, a NAS enclosure isn't only meant to exist a media server. At that place also tons of other apps available for backup/syncing, content direction, entertainment, home automation, security, and more than. It has access to many applications to make it more than than just a uncomplicated media server.

Computer NAS

For a Computer NAS, set and configuration is a little more than complicated, merely there are a plethora of options available for everything!

Install the Operating System – To start off with, you lot must choose an operating system to run on the computer. You lot can use Windows, Amahi, NAS4Free, regular Linux, etc. I suggest going with a Linux-based NAS operating organisation. This will definitely help simplify things, and it allows you lot to hands configure and install compatible applications from an app market place. Plus, Linux does not use equally much operating power to run itself, Windows is much more resource intensive and will naturally run slower.
Transfer Media and Other Files – Once you accept your operating system installed, transfer your media files to the hard drives. Practise this by using external difficult drives, mapping drives and transferring files through the network, FTP, etc. The best selection is to map the difficult drive inside of Windows or Mac for easy access to your files from your laptop or other desktop computers. Hither's how to map a hard drive in Windows ten.
Install Media Server Awarding – After all of your files have been transferred to the NAS hard drives, we will need to install a media server awarding to actually distribute the media to different devices. Again, I advise using Plex Media Server. It'due south one of the best (if not the best) media server applications out at that place! Plex Media Server is available on all major operating systems out there, so it's likely compatible with whatever Os y'all chose.

v. Enjoy Your New Media Server

With your newly configured and gear up NAS Media Server, you are ready to rock and curlicue! Just install the Plex Media Player (or other media viewer) on your device you wish to view the media on. You lot will be able to view the media on almost any device from anywhere in your home, every bit long as you lot have a decent network connection. Aye, the ready upward is slightly time-consuming, merely believe me, it's totally worth it in the finish!

(This article in no mode encourages users to borrow on copyright laws.)

Check out another article on using a projector in a living room. This is a great manner to dilate your home entertainment feel!

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