Synology Ds218+ or QNAP ts 251

Home user with may 3 people using Me & (son & Daughter) I am stuck on the Qnap TS 251 This has a HDMI Port (no eSata) I like all the features it has.
Then Their is the Synology new DS 218+ which has an eSata port(no HDMI) (The Ds 218 has no eSata port)
So which is would be better esata or HDMI
I will be using for my own cloud storage and files photo’s 2 Bay 4 TB drives. I plain on steaming TV thru something somehow Computer has an HDMI cabled to the TV. I am Hung on Esata or HDMI both have USB3.0

HDMI port is much more useful then esata. In this case, Synology DS218+ esata port is used for attaching the expansion unit with extra 5 drives. But the same thing can be done on the Qnap using the USB port. Also USB3 and esata about the same. HDMI is good when you want to stream thing in top quality without a possibility of playback problems. Streaming over the network will require a LAN port on your TV or a dongle like Chromecast or Firestick.

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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.