Home Multimedia

[Enquiries]

I have 350+ DVDs and looking for a NAS to upload and view on our multiple TV's. Also need a place to upload all the pictures and videos we have... looking for speed and access.

[ed]

For a home multimedia setup like yours, where you want to store and stream a large DVD collection across multiple TVs and also back up family photos and videos, you’ve got a healthy budget to work with. Speed and access are absolutely achievable here.

In your price range, I’d recommend looking at a 5–6 bay NAS with a strong CPU, plenty of memory, and support for SSD caching to keep everything responsive even when multiple people are streaming. Here are two excellent options:
• Synology DS1621+ — Very reliable and easy to set up, with Synology’s DSM software that’s excellent for photos, videos, and family use. Great for Plex if you don’t need much 4K transcoding (since Synology relies more on raw CPU power). Plenty of storage room and M.2 slots for SSD cache.
• QNAP TVS‑h874 — This is a step up in terms of raw power and expandability. Comes with an Intel Core CPU, 2.5 GbE ports (with upgrade options), and supports Plex and even virtual machines comfortably. Slightly more complex software, but it’s ideal if you want maximum performance and flexibility.

If you expect to stream 4K movies to TVs that can’t play 4K files natively, go with the QNAP — it has the horsepower to transcode. If all your TVs and devices can play 1080p/4K files directly (and you just need fast file access), the Synology will also do very well and is simpler to manage.

For drives, I’d recommend pairing the NAS with 4–6 WD Red Plus or Seagate IronWolf NAS drives, sized according to your future storage needs — 8–12 TB per drive would give you plenty of headroom and redundancy.

You could also add a pair of NVMe SSDs for caching if you want even snappier access to your photo and video library.