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Forum Discussion
Using ReadyNAS as Multicast Video Streaming Server
Any one try using ReadyNAS as a multicast video streaming server broadcasting video to LAN client?
raymondc wrote:
...multicast video streaming server broadcasting video to LAN client?
I haven't seen anyone here doing multicast streaming. Lots of folks are doing unicast.
Any particular reason you need multicast?
Just want to find a solution using ReadyNAS as a media server and broadcast video for clients (e.g. teaching material, live video, etc.)
raymondc wrote:
Just want to find a solution using ReadyNAS as a media server and broadcast video for clients (e.g. teaching material, live video, etc.)
I don't know of any app for any ReadyNAS model that supports either multicast or live streaming. There are some linux packages that you could manually install (for instance VLC), but you would need to also deploy compatible clients. You'd need to do some work to automate (or semi-automate) what it streams.
What ReadyNAS model do you have, and what firmware is it running?
Seems like a good thing to go Google and find some answers. You just may end up using a Server and maybe a NAS just to hold the files. I don't think most NAS units would be fast enough to do MultiCast. What are your needs. How many people do you expect to be streaming to at once?
If it was just to a couple people, I'd say PLEX or EMBY both work similar. They are a few differences. But they are not Multicast. More like your own personal Netflix Server. You can set up outside friends accounts. If you're streaming in a format that doesn't need to be on the fly transcoded, you can stream to even more people, limited by your Upload bandwidth. But again, not Multicast.
VLC can do Multicast. You can check that out here. It's amazing how much VLC can do these days.
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/streaming.html
I have haven't tried it myself. I don't have the need. You can grab a copy here.
https://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-debian.html
The ReadyNAS is using a version of Linux called Debian. You would have to SSH into the ReadyNAS to manually install. I've done this in the past for a few apps I wanted to run that were not in a nice wrapped .deb file. Will this do what you want??? It's not going to be simple to get working and doing what you want. You can also easily screw up your NAS where it may not boot back up. You may want to do it on a Windows system, server, and just use the NAS for your file storage.
JBDragon1 wrote:
I don't think most NAS units would be fast enough to do MultiCast.
I don't understand why you think that. Sending a multicast stream is no more difficult than sending a single unicast stream - it consumes the same bandwidth, and puts the same load on the disks. It's just distributed differently by the routers and switches.
One challenge here is that since it isn't on-demand, you need a convenient way to schedule programming (and start/stop any live programming). VLC doesn't really have a usable interface. Another is that the network needs to be configured to support multicast.
I suggest that the best path is to start by using a linux PC to host the multicast server software (perhaps storing the files on the NAS). After you settle on the streaming platform you want to use, you can look into migrating the server onto the NAS if that is needed.
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