which NAS and router for a HTC rookie

[Red Fuji]

I am not an HTC buff as some of you are - i just simply want to optomize the equipment and setup. I have a cable Modem, a Trendnet Router, PC, USB printer, Ipad3, ATV3 & Denon AVR. I would like to optimize the Ipad Airplay to ATV functionality-especialy that i have a few backyard speakers hooked up to the AVR along with the TV and mirroring is great. Love it that you can walk around Ipad wireless sending music/Video throughout.
I guess my specific questions are:


1. My current router is 2.4G only. would switching to dual router be a must? recommendation? what to look for in a router?
2. I would like to get a NAS to centralize my PC(s) and ipad but dont know what to get or what specs to look for. Would the Ipad be able to easily pull and store content such as video/audio from NAS? or forget about it.
3. The ATV is currently hooked wireless- would wired be better? what if i got the dual router?

i will also be using the NAS to store digital images from my Nikon D5100. (my PC of 320G is maxed with pics)

Any tips on setup or equipment -small or great will help. Thanks.

 

[blevins321]

1) If everything were wired this would be fine, but I'd suggest getting a wireless N router to speed things up. Especially if you'll be doing much mirroring or AirVideo playing. TBH, the Airport Extreme is a terrific router, but if you want to do everything wireless, the Express is also pretty good.

2) This one is tough. iOS doesn't really have a way to pull media directly off of a NAS without iTunes on a computer in the middle. If you had a HTPC, you could use Plex and have a great mobile streaming solution along with it. Plex provides a TV-viewable interface but also a powerful library function and streaming functionality to many devices (including Airplay-compatible iOS). If you have a lot of iTunes purchases though that are DRM-protected, you have to use iTunes on a computer via Home Sharing to play them; no choice. Unless you were to stream them thanks to the new iTunes in the Cloud functionality, but that's not on all media types.

The ideal solution, I think, would be for you to keep an eye on the Marketplace (if/when you're eligible) here, eBay, Craigslist, or Cowboom for a used INTEL Mac Mini. I'd go for 2.0C2D minimum. Then you could plug in cheaper USB or FW hard drives (or arrays) for expandable storage. Then you could use Plex or iTunes and have a handle little workhorse computer for anything else you might come up with.

3) See #1. Note that the Airport Express router only has one ethernet port - and it will probably be used by your DSL/cable modem in your case. So if you are wanting to have anything be wired, you'd want the Extreme.

 

[Red Fuji]

"This one is tough. iOS doesn't really have a way to pull media directly off of a NAS without iTunes on a computer in the middle"

I was thinking of the Ipad as a 'computer' and it does come with Itunes therefore it should get direct access to a NAS ??

My router is 802.11n, but it is a 2.4 band and not the dual - 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Communication between Ipad to Router and Ipad to ATV(wireless) are at 5GHz- is that right ? if so then my router isnt the best suit-is that right?

 

[blevins321]

"This one is tough. iOS doesn't really have a way to pull media directly off of a NAS without iTunes on a computer in the middle"

I was thinking of the Ipad as a 'computer' and it does come with Itunes therefore it should get direct access to a NAS ??

My router is 802.11n, but it is a 2.4 band and not the dual - 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Communication between Ipad to Router and Ipad to ATV(wireless) are at 5GHz- is that right ? if so then my router isnt the best suit-is that right?

Unfortunately no, it requires an actual desktop or laptop with iTunes to stream it.

Oh ok, I misunderstood your router configuration. In that case I think you're OK IMHO. I've never noticed that much of an improvement over 5 vs 2.4.

 

[Otago Lad]

I'm sure some are going to say that you should hardwire your aTV3 to your router and if that's possible it is the best way to go, however for airplay you will need wifi so my suggestion is the ASUS RT-N66, which is by far the best wifi router I've owned - it is dual band and streams at up to 450mbps and easily handles the 20 to 30gb Bluray rips I'm streaming to my aTV3. Link to the router on Amazon below:

http://www.amazon.com/RT-N66U-Dual-Band-Wireless-N900-Gigabit-Router/dp/B006QB1RPY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339104600&sr=8-1

If you can wait I would go for the Asus RT-AC66U when it is released as this will provide some future proofing for you for the new "ac" protocol with potential speeds of 1.3Gbps, which when "ac" bridges are released will allow you to connect your aTV3 through its ethernet connection to the bridge and then get even faster througput. Link to the release notes:

http://usa.asus.com/News/pkGikj9XeNTbMGII/

Best of luck and I hope you get your network working well, as a well designed network makes a huge difference to the aTV experience.