Which NAS for Shield TV? – Choosing the Right Multimedia Centre

Choosing the Right NAS for my Nvidia Shield

I recently received a message in our popular advice section and it was a common enough question that I thought it would be good to highlight it here for those that either own or are on the verge of buying the Nvidia Shield. It is a fantastic device for both gaming and streaming media, however, it arrives with pretty poor storage space and the answer to that is a NAS server from Synology or QNAP.

“I have just purchased a Nvidia Shield, with a view to using it as a 1 stop shop for all viewing, including Netflix, Amazon, TV via the tuner, DVR, and to run as a plex server. I have watched your video “What is the NVIDIA Shield and what is the best NAS to use with NVIDIA Shield”, but remain a bit confused.

The NAS options you describe there can transcode, act as the Plex server, and are generally more capable. As I am very much at the beginner end of the market rather than enthusiast, I wonder if it may be viable for me to rely more heavily on the Shield for Plex server duties and use a less expensive NAS purely for storage. I have also considered USB3 direct attached external drives even, but this seems untidy as I had my new house wired with ethernet and have a gig switch tucked away in the utility room.
There are unlikely to be more than 2 concurrent users for several years, and I may consider additional shield units for other rooms if they become necessary. With this in mind, I wondered if a more basic unit may be good enough for me, purely to record shows and serve up shows and films over the home network. For example, perhaps the Synology DS218PLAY which I have also seen your review.”

Answer

The answer is simple- you do not need expensive NAS for Shield TV. All heavy work is done on Shield itself. Shield TV will get all files required through the network. All that matters is a connection between Shield TV and your NAS. For simple HD files or images, you could connect to wifi, but Full HD and 4K will require wired connection 1Gbit or better.

How much capacity will you need?

One/Two drive solution max 10TB

DS115DS218j

Four drive solution capacity 30TB

TS-431PDS418j

Eight drive solution with 60TB

TS-831X DS1817

If you are not sure about total potential capacity get 4 bay NAS but put only 2 or 3 drives inside. Then later more as data grows. If you think it might be useful to connect to your collection while you are away from your home, you will need to look into transcoding capable NAS solutions.

Synology PLAY models or QNAP 53A series.

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Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

Finally, for free advice about your setup, just leave a message in the comments below here at NASCompares.com and we will get back to you. Need Help? Where possible (and where appropriate) please provide as much information about your requirements, as then I can arrange the best answer and solution to your needs. Do not worry about your e-mail address being required, it will NOT be used in a mailing list and will NOT be used in any way other than to respond to your enquiry. TRY CHAT Terms and Conditions   Alternatively, why not ask me on the ASK NASCompares forum, by clicking the button below. This is a community hub that serves as a place that I can answer your question, chew the fat, share new release information and even get corrections posted. I will always get around to answering ALL queries, but as a one-man operation, I cannot promise speed! So by sharing your query in the ASK NASCompares section below, you can get a better range of solutions and suggestions, alongside my own.

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