NAS media streaming to Macbook to replace USB hard drive use?

Hey,
So this is just a general question about NAS devices...

For years I have just used USB-connected hard drives to play music, watch films on my Macbook with iTunes/Swinsian/VLC, and now I would like to do the same, but wirelessly so I don't have to keep plugging and unplugging anytime I want to watch/listen to things.

I have little knowledge or experience on NAS, but in my head I'm thinking I can get one, stick some drives in, connect to my router so it will show up on my network, then access it from my laptop with a password or something and then just use it as I would a USB-connected hard drive.

But from some googling and reading, it doesn't sound like it would be that simple at all. Lots of talk about setting up different servers and such which sounds beyond my expertise.

Can you give any help or advice on this? I'm looking at a Synology DS420J if that helps.

Thanks.

It is that simple. You can map a network drive on your computer, so it will appear similar to your C: drive. You can then open those files with any app you want, either VLC, Windows player or anything else.People talk about setting up iTunes servers, Plex servers and so on so that they could eliminate a need for a PC in the middle when they stream to their TVs. They can simply browse all multimedia on a TV using a remote.But if you prefer PC access only - a mapped drive is all you need.I hope this helps.