NAS as Media Player

I’m looking at a NAS storage solution to act as my media server.
My question is: what the best solution?
– Having Kodi or Plex (or both) installed on the NAS linked to my TV? or
– Just using NAS as storage and still using Kodi/Plex on my FireTV linked to my NAS?
Is there any advantage with having a NAS for the latter…?

Ideally, I would like to use the NAS for file storage as well but would like big storage for videos (12-16TB+).

Because you are mentioning Kodi I will suggest getting 53B (53Be as a budget option) series from Qnap. It will transcode videos if necessary to watch them remotely when away from home. Or for playing unsupported file types on mobile devices. It also has HDMI port for direct connectivity and playback of uninterrupted H265 4K video files.

There is definitely an advantage of having NAS as a media server. It has unlimited storage capacity, RAID protection, and accessibility.

 

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What can I connect to a NAS?

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.

 

Apple TV

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.