I have years worth of Word/PPT files that I need access to on 3 different computers, plus I need to give access to a couple of other people. Mostly so they can print out the Word Document, and play the PowerPoint if I’m not available. Right now, they’re backed up via Gmail & an external WD Passport.
I would also like to use it for my Plex Media, which sits at about 1TB of space.
Currently, I have a 1TB WD Book (5/6 yrs old), & a 4TB WD Blue (6 months).
I think this would meet my needs.
Plus another 4TB WD Blue to match the one I have.
Which leads me to my 2 questions.
1. Does this make sense or would you suggest something else?
2. Do I need to move the Plex data to a 3rd spot while I set up the two 4TB HDs as RAID1?
DS418play is an excellent choice because of its compatibility with Plex and built-in transcoding engine. Free Synology Drive app will work as Dropbox software with versioning function and data synchronization across several computers. But the best thing is – there is no monthly subscription fee or capacity limit. Also with latest hacking scandals, it is safer to keep your important files at home. You can share files with private links and your defined security level.
During RAID initialization all data on raided disks will be wiped. So yes, move it to a separate disk before putting it on raided disks.
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What can I connect to a Synology?
Wireless Speaker Sonos
The great thing about Sonos is that you don’t need to pay for music subscription service. With the cheapest NAS at home like DS115j or any other, you can have your backups done for all of your devices and still use your network drive as a Sonos music library. Sonos will connect to your NAS via your network and let access your provided music library. If you have little more of IT knowledge, you can even set up your Alexa or Sonos with Alexa built in to play music on your voice commands (“Alexa! Ask DS Audio to Play Music!”).
Casting devices
Nowadays it is so cheap to upgrade your old TV and make it smart. All you need is Google Chrome or EZcast alternative plugged into your HDMI port at the back of your TV. Now you have great functionality added to your TV to send a video file directly from your NAS to a TV. No need for wires and chargers and other mess. You can use your phone as a remote to go to your movies or family videos and cast that content on your TV during family or friend gatherings.
Amazon Fire TV
You may not have a smartphone, or you just simply prefer to control your content with a remote in that case Amazon Fire TV will be a great addon to get to your TV. It also plugs into your HDMI port and will play content from your NAS to a TV. No wires no mess.
nVidia Shield TV
It gets even better! If you want some more entertainment and all previously mentioned functions – nVidia TV is a great thing to get. You can use it for playing games and watching movies from your NAS. The greatest thing is – shield TV does video transcoding. So even if you have a cheap NAS with a weak CPU, in a combination of shield TV you can now automatically on the fly change video file size and format for a destination device. It is a great way to reduce network load and let older devices to play video content which normally was not supported on the device.
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