Advice needed please... gigabit network

I everyone,

I’m a new one here.

I’m starting my new gigabit network and need some advice.

I’m new at this and need help to start me up.

What I want to do is quite simple.

I already started to encode my whole movie collection of dvds and blu-rays with ISO movie-only files. I want to put the files on a network  NAS and be able to watch them on my 2 TVs (basement and living room). On the TVs, I want to be able to have the movie covers, within categories (action, comedy, etc.), and by clicking on the picture the movie starts. Is the WD TV Live Hub is a good choice (vs. Boxee, SmartTV or others). The device need a gigabit port. Can I add on my network a NAS, like a WD My Book Live or a 2-bay or 4-bay NAS (D-LINK DNS-343, Netgear ReadyNAS Duo RND2000, Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ 4 Disk NAS, other?). What do you suggest for my need. My whole network is already wired on CAT6 Gigabit, so I will not use wi-fi streaming for watching the ISO movies. I need advice also on the router I need to buy (Netgear WNDR3700, WNDR4000, other?) and possibly a Gigabit swicher (Trendnet TEG-S80G, other?) for extra ports. Thanks in advance for your help. Frank.

Any advice anyone please…

dvdtekno,

I’m running WNDR3700 and it’s the most stable router I have ever owned. The WNDR4000 specs look good also. I’m running 2x NetGear GS108E switches (1 for the pc side and 1 for the media room) and I’m using TRENDnet TPL401E2K Powerline AV Adapter Kit because of my low pitched roof.  I have never had any problems with Netgear products and TRENDnet suprises me how well their product perform. 

I never have any lag issues whether it’s streaming from my workstation, from my server, laptop, or accessing the net.

I highly recommend WNDR3700 because of its features and its rock solid performance. 

Thanks a lot for your answer. Any advice on the WD TV Live Hub, an extra NAS and the ISO Blu-ray reading from these ?

I haven’t tried any Blu-ray conversions to ISO streaming myself, but search the forums. There are some recent post about Blu-ray conversions, so I would think it works.

I haven’t tried a NAS either, I currently use my server as my NAS. There’s a lot of NAS options out there, so it would depend on your needs for a NAS (RAID options, dual NICS, max storage, etc.). I have even seen some NAS that have a bulit in Blu-ray drive. :wink:

I’ve got mine connected to a 4TB NAS (Synology DS209) on a Netgear Gigabit DSL Modem/Router (DGN3500) with D-Link Gigabit switches all around. Same Blu-ray ISOs and files that you want to use. It works perfectly. I personally would avoid a NAS like the WD or ones that are basically external harddrives with an ethernet port, because those are slower and less reliable. Your best bet is to make a NAS (extremely easy, you just buy the NAS box [I recommend SYNOLOGY brand, they are affordable and the best performance/reliability in the industry, look them up] and buy two or more regular internal hard drives and stick them in the NAS and turn it on, format it (RAID if you want, everything is just 1-click) and you’re good to go. These real NAS’s are much faster and much more reliable, as well as being user-serviceable. I suggest the real NAS for speed because our Bluray rips use quite a bit of bandwidth when streaming, so you just want to be safe, and you also mentioned you might want to set it up on 2 televisions. If that’s the case, you’ll definitely need a proper NAS to be fast enough and support the bandwidth necessary to stream the Bluray to two televisions/HUB units simultaneously, should the occasion ever arise. Any other questions?

Thanks snackbidi for your answer… Just bought the Netgear WNDR3700v2 which I installed yesterday. My gigabit cabling will be finalized the coming weekend. I already started to do ISOs of my DVD and Blu-Ray movies on a temporary USB drive. Now I need to buy my NAS, I’ll follow your advice. I think a 2-bay would be OK, please give me the models you suggest to buy besides the one mentionned. How about Netgear ReadyNas Duo. Can I configure it without the RAID option. I just want to see my 2 drives independently of each other. Thanks and have a good day, Frank.

Hi,  I use the live hub for more then 8 months, i a regret  the buy of the hub, starting with de gigabit ethernet port, more then 10 m/bs is not reacheable, its a  selling gadget, i have a g/bit switch with cat 6 cables and still no gigabit.

Futher is there no dts-hd-ma p**bleep**trough via hdmi, and no bd-iso support.

Its plays iso’s but no menu.

The hub plays 3d sbs m2ts files fine, but no dts-hd-ma sound.

Its all about lincenses, wd will not pay.

the hub was my second wd player but my last.

I need a player with is not being produced.

If you dont use dts-hd-ma and bd iso and 10 m/bit is fast enough the live hub is a perfect player.

Greetings henk

Henk, the 10mb you’re talking about is just transfer speed to and from the internal drive on the Hub, which is admittedly quite slow. The actual throughput the unit is capable of handling, which is what we need for the blurays, is much higher. It’s just the internal drive on the Hub that’s slow. I have owned one of every single WDTV player, and our full quality blurays sometimes have trouble playing on the Live and Live Plus, but the Hub handles them all perfectly. The speed of copying files to and from the Hub’s internal drive IS NOT REPRESENTATIVE of its actual bandwidth.

Frank, I’ll look up some NAS units and post back in a bit.