- Home network nas vs external hard drive movie#
- Home network nas vs external hard drive full#
- Home network nas vs external hard drive software#
- Home network nas vs external hard drive windows 7#
Windows 7 and Windows Media Center are DLNA and UPnP certified. Many NAS drives and dedicated media servers are DLNA certified.
Home network nas vs external hard drive software#
DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) is a standard that certifies devices and software to insure that a media player can find and play the files from a media server. While Windows 7 computers use a standard called Universal Plug 'n' Play (UPnP), Mac computers and other PCs may require third-party media-server software to make your files playable on a media player.Ī media player will search your network for computers, drives, and media servers that speak the same language (technically called a "standard" or "protocol"). Media-server software: Media-server software is loaded onto a computer to find your photos, music, and movies and make them available to stream to media players. Designed to be used as media servers, they can be set up to easily share your movies, music, and photos with media players and computers on your home networkĢ. If each of your family members wants to save their media libraries in a centralized location, get a NAS drive, which can store from 1 to 12 terabytes (TB) of files. For example, the Netgear 4500 router is DLNA certified, which means it can stream media files from a connected USB hard drive to media players on your home network. An external hard drive can also be connected to a home router that has the capability of sharing a connected drive. The external drive can be discovered on the network when connected to a computer running media-server software or by creating a shared file folder that points to the media folder on your hard drive.
Saving in designated folders makes it faster for the media player to scan and list the files, because it doesn't have to go through every file on your computer, NAS, or hard drive.Īt some point, your media libraries may start filling up your computer's hard drive, in which case, move your movies, photos and music to an external hard drive. Media players will often scan select folders from various sources. For easier access, save movies, music, and photos to specific folders. Media files stored on a computer, external hard drive, network attached storage (NAS) drive, or media server: Movies and music saved in iTunes and photos in Lightroom, Aperture, iPhoto, or other programs can only be played by compatible media players. So how do you stream media content from your computers, hard drives, and media servers to your displays and audio systems over your local area network (LAN)? Here's what you need:ġ.
Plus, you can potentially download and save files with higher image and sound quality than can be reliably streamed online.
Home network nas vs external hard drive full#
If your online bandwidth drops for some reason, the file will still play at full speed from a local computer or hard disk. If the movies are saved to your computer, you will always have access to them.Īnother argument in favor of saving your media files locally is that they are not subject to the vagaries of Internet streaming. That is, if you buy movies from a service that stores the movies in your online account ("in the cloud"), and the service shuts down, you would lose the movies you purchased.
Home network nas vs external hard drive movie#
Some users advocate saving your own copy of a movie or music file because an online service could potentially fold. Your media libraries may be filled with movies, TV shows, music that you ripped from CDs, and/or digital photos you've taken yourself. Still, you may have downloaded movies and music and stored them on your computer as well. Streaming media from online sources provides a huge variety of movies, TV shows, and music that can be rented or watched for free.