NAS Question

[uva25]

I have Apple TV and the Sonos music system throughout my house. The more I stream over my network (from Itunes) the more I worry. I am considering getting a NAS just for my music since the Sonos supports this. That way if my Apple TV is streaming a movie or syncing, I assume my music playing throughout my house won't be impacted, or at least as much. I would appreciate input on this theory as I am by no means a network expert.

If what I proposed makes sense, how can I by music on Itunes, or Amazon, and have both my IMacs hard drive and the NAS get the new downloads. For example, if I buy a song on my Apple TV and it syncs to my Imac hard drive, how do it get it to my NAS. Can you point purchases to download copies to two drives? Sorry if this is a crazy question. Thanks.

 

[Monetthecat]

I have ATV and Sonos in my house. This might not be the most elegant solution, but what I do is copy the downloaded tracks from my iTunes Library to my Sonos Library.

 

[uva25]

I have ATV and Sonos in my house. This might not be the most elegant solution, but what I do is copy the downloaded tracks from my iTunes Library to my Sonos Library.

That is what I am trying to avoid. Do you copy the entire library each time or just the new tunes? Seems like a pain to find individual tracks to copy if they are by multiple aritsts/albums. Thanks for the input. There probably is some software to sync drives but I am trying to avoid that.

 

[uva25]

Any reason I shouldn't just point Sonos and Itunes to the NAS for music?

 

[Monetthecat]

You can do that (point Sonos and ATV to the NAS). I keep things separete because if the Sonos is playing music in one part of the house and the ATV is playing a movie that's a load on the NAS to stream all of that without any issues.

But give it a shot and it might work fine.

I noticed today that Sonos rolled out a new set of products as well as a new software update.

 

[uva25]

You can do that (point Sonos and ATV to the NAS). I keep things separete because if the Sonos is playing music in one part of the house and the ATV is playing a movie that's a load on the NAS to stream all of that without any issues.

But give it a shot and it might work fine.

I noticed today that Sonos rolled out a new set of products as well as a new software update.

I was thinking of using the NAS for music only. My worry was having a party with music playing while kids are streaming movies from the Apple TV on two tvs.

 

[ab2650]

Any reason I shouldn't just point Sonos and Itunes to the NAS for music?

Sonos (and Roku) has great integration with NAS devices. The ReadyNAS I use has firefly server built in to stream to itunes clients and soundbridges.

But I'm unaware of how to connect the AppleTV to the NAS without using an intermediary computer running iTunes. It works, but it's not as elegant as hardware that finds and reads standard protocols.

I was thinking of using the NAS for music only. My worry was having a party with music playing while kids are streaming movies from the Apple TV on two tvs.

If you don't mind my asking, what is the network currently? If you're currently wireless (and you own your home) you may want to consider running Cat5 throughout and putting in a 1000baseT switch. I wired around 2005 and upgraded the switch from 100 to 1000 last year. It was well worth a day or two of crawling under the house.

 

[uva25]

Sonos (and Roku) has great integration with NAS devices. The ReadyNAS I use has firefly server built in to stream to itunes clients and soundbridges.

But I'm unaware of how to connect the AppleTV to the NAS without using an intermediary computer running iTunes. It works, but it's not as elegant as hardware that finds and reads standard protocols.



If you don't mind my asking, what is the network currently? If you're currently wireless (and you own your home) you may want to consider running Cat5 throughout and putting in a 1000baseT switch. I wired around 2005 and upgraded the switch from 100 to 1000 last year. It was well worth a day or two of crawling under the house.

All but one of the Sonos are wired. The two Apple TVs are wired as well to a Gig switch. Maybe I am worrying about nothing?

 

[hotzenplotz]

I have a gig network in my home, with two ATVs + iTunes audio streaming, and it handles everything playing simultaneously with no hiccups.

Just my 2c

 

[ab2650]

All but one of the Sonos are wired. The two Apple TVs are wired as well to a Gig switch. Maybe I am worrying about nothing?

I have a gig network in my home, with two ATVs + iTunes audio streaming, and it handles everything playing simultaneously with no hiccups.

Just my 2c

With a gig switch, I can't see how you're going to be running out of bandwidth soon; even streaming a couple videos and a few streams of audio.

Of course I say this so you're the guinea pig for the rest of us Just how many streams can you run before it begins to get spotty?

But seriously; you're wired and everything is 1000base-T... you're set for a while.

 

[paduck]

All but one of the Sonos are wired. The two Apple TVs are wired as well to a Gig switch. Maybe I am worrying about nothing?

I think the ATV only has 100-Base-T, nor Gig-E, so you won't benefit there on speed. Not that you might benefit elsewhere though.

 

[ab2650]

I think the ATV only has 100-Base-T, nor Gig-E, so you won't benefit there on speed. Not that you might benefit elsewhere though.

It looks like you're right and the ATV is 10/100 only... However, it shouldn't make too much difference since its each ATV that's playing a video. If the underlying network is 1000, connected to the switch it could handle a bunch of 10/100 devices without slowing down. (The inverse would be if one 10/100 device were handling multiple streams)

I'm not totally sure of that, but I imagine that's how it would be...

 

[paduck]

It looks like you're right and the ATV is 10/100 only... However, it shouldn't make too much difference since its each ATV that's playing a video. If the underlying network is 1000, connected to the switch it could handle a bunch of 10/100 devices without slowing down. (The inverse would be if one 10/100 device were handling multiple streams)

I'm not totally sure of that, but I imagine that's how it would be...

Good point. I think your switch should be sending each a stream at 100mbit. I imagine the limitation is going to be on the ability of your server to simultaneously stream to both at speeds at up to 100mbit/each. If the server is Gig-E network out, it still has to be able to push both streams.

My home network is just wireless G right now. I aspire to wire in 100mbit with the possibility to go to 1000 at a later date. Don't really need it right now, but it would be really nice to have. Seems like we might need a new washer and dryer first...