[mkedda]

I am debating between a 2 TB USB 2.0 External hardrive and a DLINK DNS 321 NAS device.


I want to stream 1080p HD Video and TrueHD (LPCM) to a home theater PC.


Which option is faster ?

Is one option to slow ?


I would be running a standard 10/100 ethernet no gigabit.


PLEASE HELP!

 

[kapone]

100mbps = well...100mbps.

USB 2.0 = 480mbps (theoretical).


USB 2.0 based external hard drive will be faster than a 10/100 NAS device.

 

[mjfink]

Yup, what Kapone said. The difference will be pretty extreme, USB is >4X (closer to 5) the speed of 100Mb Ethernet. There's much more loss on Ethernet (packetizing the data, error correction, flow control, setup/breakdown, etc) and the physical rate is 1/5th that of USB. That = MUCH slower.


Even 1Gb NAS devices (consumer grade) are often slower then USB because the processors in them cannot keep up with line rate data from the Ethernet adapter. For example, the My Book World Edition (I think that's the one) has tested out to be much faster on USB then on 1Gb Ethernet. The processor in the NAS isn't fast enough to allow full line rate performance.


All that said, 100Mb/s is really not an option for storage networking. It's just not fast enough, you'll be hating life! But 1Gb switches are CHEAP, get one if you're even considering running NAS.

 

[mkedda]

What if I upgraded to a gigabit network. What would be faster ?

 

[zicoz]

Gigabit is about twice as fast as USB on paper, actuall speed might be alittle different, but there is no problem what so ever watching HD movie on either a 100Mbit or a 1Gbit network. The only thing you'll notice problems with is that it takes longer to move a file to or from the NAS, but you will not experience any lag or skipping on a 100Mbit network. If I'm not mistaken the biggest bitrate a movie has these days is about 50Mbit and that's the toughest BR-disks.


And in my opinion there is not really a choise in this case, NAS is just simply better.


- Always available to all the computers in the network

- Faster

- You can place it whereever you want as long as you have power and network cable there so you can get ridd of a noise-source

 

[mkedda]

are you suggesting a simple 10/100 ethernet network will succesffully transfer 1080p 24fps 1920x1080 with TrueHD/DTS-HD converted LCPM ?


that seems to contradict other posts in the thread?

 

[mjfink]

Gigabit is faster then USB. And a Gb switch will only cost you about 50 bucks, so, if you go NAS, that's absolutely the way to go!


100Mb is fast enough to transfer HD rips. It SHOULD be fast enough for BD (full quality) rips, but, honestly, I've never tried it. I know it's more then fast enough for a 10GB MKV rip of a BD. 100Mb/s is 10MB/s. That's 600MB/min (call it 1GB/2mins). That's 30GB per hour; which is (IIRC) above the spec for BD. Also, remember, wired Ethernet is actually "wire" speed. 100Mb/s transfers are going to be as fast (or much faster) then a 802.11N "300Mb/s" network. 100Mb/s will transfer 10MB/s without much problem.


Also, NAS (Gb), while having the ability to be much faster (because of the higher wire speed) may NOT be faster, depending on the NAS device. Remember, now you're not limited by the computer anymore, but by the speed of the NAS device itself. Most consumer grade NAS devices are not going to come anywhere near 100MB/s (wire speed for 1 Gb networks)!! USB hard drives are not constrained by anything but the wire, so a 480Mb/s USB connection will really transfer 40MB/s pretty consistently.


NAS is better in most cases. However, a high end NAS is expensive! Things like the Western Digital MyBookWorld (NAS) are not going to be very fast, regardless of the network speed!


If you want to go NAS, look at thinks like the Netgear ReadyNAS, those are nice devices. But the cost difference between a "good" NAS and a "good" USB hard drive are pretty large. 2TB USB drive (mirror) will cost about 250 bucks, and write 40MB/s all day long. A 2TB NAS may cost 1000 bucks, and probably won't write dramatically faster then the USB drive (if at all).


NAS is great, it's just more expensive!

Quote:
Originally Posted by mkedda /forum/post/15454393


What if I upgraded to a gigabit network. What would be faster ?

 

[Suntan]

Both options (100mbps network or USB2) will transfer any audio/video formats available today.


Pick the one that best suits your setup. Do you want a USB drive, or do you want a NAS? They both have positives and negatives.


-Suntan

 

[dan4081]

What is involved in upgrading from a 10/100 network to gigabit?


New router? New nic card in the pc?

 

[Suntan]



Quote:
Originally Posted by dan4081 /forum/post/15464892



New router? New nic card in the pc?

Depends on what you already have for equipment.


Of course your network gear needs to be able to work on gigbit (switch/hub/router) but the nic in your computer does too. (A lot of computers sold nowadays are already shipping with 10/100/1000 capability so you may be set there.)


But you may also need to replace your network cables too. If they are not rated for gig speeds (I believe you need CAT5e at least, but not sure) and if they were not routed correctly (adequate bend radiuses, poor quality crimps, etc.) they may not be capable of reliably providing the gig speeds.


-Suntan

 

[dfordham]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mkedda /forum/post/15455330


are you suggesting a simple 10/100 ethernet network will succesffully transfer 1080p 24fps 1920x1080 with TrueHD/DTS-HD converted LCPM ?


that seems to contradict other posts in the thread?

The Blu-Ray spec allows a maximum bitrate of 48Mbs combined video and audio. 100Mb ethernet works fine.


Don

 

[mmugatu]

My router is an Apple Time Capsule, which has gigabit ethernet ports. I have a 750GB seagate drive plugged into the usb port on the router. I also have a popcorn hour with a 1.5 TB drive inside. the popcorn hour only has 10/100. the set up works well. I input the IP of the seagate drive and can access all of its contents on my popcorn hour. I also have a Dell XPS M1210 with a gigabit express card permanently plugged into my tvs (using a vga splitter from cablesToGo. I use the computer for hulu and netflix, but I also use XBMC when I'm on the TV that my popcorn is not plugged into.


I'm running out of space, and have been considering the DLink DNS 323. I haven't pulled the trigger because it's just so much more cost effective to get another usb drive and plug it into my router. My main use of this whole system is to watch videos and personally owned backed dvd (iso files).


Has anyone used a Time Capsule with more than one USB harddrive plugged in?

I know that the time it would take to copy files would be faster with a gigabit NAS with SATA drive inside. But if budget is a slight concern, would I be stupid to go the NAS enclosure route and then have buy two drives to pop inside when the USB drives get the job done?


If I did go the NAS drive enclosure route, is the QNAP worth the extra money over the DLINK? and what's up with Linksys? how do they not have a consumer 2 bay SATA enclosure with gigabit?

 

[RLDWV]

I just (yesterday) watched the BluRay of HellBoy II over 100Mb ethernet and it played fine. I watched it to test this exact proposition, since I have large disks attached to three different PCs on my network. I was consciously looking for flaws, stutters, etc. and didn't see any (OK, we're not talking about the quality or worthiness of the content here

). Same thing with 1080i and 720p TV captures from Media Center. YMMV.


Bob

 

[replayrob]

mkedda...

You didn't mention if there's other people in your dwelling that might want to have access to streaming media...

I started out with local USB storage and migrated to full NAS (FreeNas) because it lets me keep my Hi-def files in one central location to stream to my PopcornHour and my kids watch their favorite programs (Big BangTheory & Farscape) and any new movies I happen to um... acquire... from their respective rooms at their leisure without me getting involved. We also keep our MP3 files on the NAS for streaming to our internet radios & computers in the house.


FWIW- via gigabit LAN from the NAS I can watch hi-def mpeg2 or h.264 while my kids are both watching different mp4 video in each of their rooms and my wife is streaming mp3's to her computer.

 

[JoshDorhyke]

You are basically already setup for gige if you have cat 5e? or 6 cables. The Popcorn hour doesn't do gige anyways but if your laptop or any other computer was connected gige then you'd have that connection speed to the NAS assuming it's gige capable.


I think you should back-up a bit and look at what your present vs future storage needs are going to be. If you will be filling this new D-link in short order then it's not really a good long term solution. You can put together a storage PC that is capable of holding 6 hard drives for something like $250 plus drives and OS. Then, run an OS such as Windows Home Server or unRAID or something else> I know it's not the cheap way but you could be saving money in say 6 months or a year.


Peter

 

[mmugatu]

Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it.


Do you have any suggestions on cases and motherboards? The last time I built a tower, it had a Pentium II.

 

[The Huntsman]

I tried to wire a Gigabit ethernet connection, ran cat-6 cable through the house to connect HTPC with a FreeNAS server. Only thing is that the transfer rate isn't what I expected, it takes a couple of minutes to transfer 1GB; I would have expected it to be quicker, no?


Is the problem with my hub? I'm using the LAN ports on a D-Link 802.11n router to connect PCs. Supposedly the ports are 1000 Mbps rated. Could I speed things up by changing equipment?

 

[stanglx]

I have all 3 options you posed... I will talk in Megabyte not Megabit... I get real world file tranfer


USB 2.0 I get around 22 MB/Sec

10/100 I get around 12 MB/Sec

1 Gigabit Network I get 60 MB/Sec


As you can see there is a HUGe difference between Giabit and 100 Mb... even a huge difference between USB2 and Gigabit...


USB 2.0 and 100 Mb is sufficient for streaming HD.. I have done this with No issues.. on 10/100 full duplex I occasionally get dropped frames.. but none that you will notice with human eye


I ran CAT6 through out my house for Gigabit.. now I can transfer files AND watch a movie without any issues... (Use CAT6 or better.. though 5e spec states it supports gigabit.. it doesnt.. I learned the hard way..)

 

[jhirsch123]



Quote:
Originally Posted by stanglx /forum/post/15797684


I have all 3 options you posed... I will talk in Megabyte not Megabit... I get real world file tranfer


USB 2.0 I get around 22 MB/Sec

10/100 I get around 12 MB/Sec

1 Gigabit Network I get 60 MB/Sec


As you can see there is a HUGe difference between Giabit and 100 Mb... even a huge difference between USB2 and Gigabit...


USB 2.0 and 100 Mb is sufficient for streaming HD.. I have done this with No issues.. on 10/100 full duplex I occasionally get dropped frames.. but none that you will notice with human eye


I ran CAT6 through out my house for Gigabit.. now I can transfer files AND watch a movie without any issues... (Use CAT6 or better.. though 5e spec states it supports gigabit.. it doesnt.. I learned the hard way..)

Stanglx, do you think you could tell us a little more about the setups you're using between the USB 2.0 and the Gigabit Network?


This is very interesting. Are they the same device that has both USB AND GigEthernet? Is the device you're writing to a Server or standalone Nas? Does it have a raid setup? When you're transfering with Gigabit, what router/switch is in between the devices?


I've heard that USB is faster in some cases because of the overhead, and it would seem that gigabit ethernet (packetizing, etc) would have more overhead. However, in your real world examples, the USB was only at 36% of theoretical speed and the gigabit was at about 48% of the theoretical speed.


Finally, were these large files or small files? Sustained transfers?


I found an interesting article of an extremely throrough review of a Gigabit NAS device (Cavalry CAND3001T0 - 1 TB) and was disappointed to see the performance as low as 10 MB per second. Here's the review: [Tried to post but can't cuz of spam protection. You'll find it on overclockclockersclub dot com.]


Looking forward to learning more about your setup. Thanks,


Jon

 

[JoshDorhyke]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mmugatu /forum/post/15797342


Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it.


Do you have any suggestions on cases and motherboards? The last time I built a tower, it had a Pentium II.

Try this for parts for a cheap entry level server build.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128342 - $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103188 - $40
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119152 - $70
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139008 - $65
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820134635 - $23
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817993002 - $21


Total about $275 plus shipping to house 6 hard drives. It has room to expand to 12 drives with a SATA card and another drive cage too.


Peter