Duo v2 streaming video wirelessly

readynas123 wrote:
Hi, I want to purchase a ready nas duo v2, but have seen a lot of people posting on here saying it has poor performance.

Over a wired gigabit connection if you have a powerful client machine then yes you'd be disappointed. Over wireless for most things it should be just as fast. The wireless network connection is the bottleneck.

readynas123 wrote:
I would have it pluged directly into the router and want it to be able to stream video media wirelessly to my wd live media player with out any lag. At the moment my PC is performing this task fine.

What's the CPU usage of the PC like when doing the streaming? If the video doesn't need to be transcoded (converted on the fly) then it should work fine, I think. I don't have a WD Live

readynas123 wrote:
Also does the bit torrent program work well?

Don't really use it myself but it's written by a great add-on developer. If you have any problems with it you can let him know. He even has his own forum that he monitors regularly: http://readynasxtras.com/forum

readynas123 wrote:
have also seen people posting the duo v2 is limited with add on's available?

Some add-ons are only available for x86 (Intel) units e.g Dropbox add-on. The Duo v2 has an ARM processor. There's not as many things that will run on that architecture as on x86, though still quite a wide range. It's a new platform and it will take some time for more add-ons to be made for it.

There are great add-ons from NetGear like ReadyNAS Photos II, ReadyNAS Replicate and ReadyNAS Remote available.

Be sure you're getting a v2 when you order. The model is RND2000-200 and it should say ReadyNAS Duo v2 on the front.

Thanks for the replies, very helpful. Just want to be sure before i go spending the money. I stream movies from my PC wireless through n150 router (netcom nB6Plusa4wn) and that seems to work ok, most of the movies are 720p .avi files and from what i've seen on here it should be ok as long as it's not HD. I'll check what the processor is doing while streaming but i don't think it will be much, running i7 with 6gb of ram. If I have to put a ethernet port in the wall and run a cable to the TV i will just will be a pain that im trying to avoid. I really like the price of the duo v2 but I'd consider getting a better readynas if there would a big performance gain from streaming movies and better add ons.

Be careful not confuse or conflate streaming with transcoding

To "stream" a movie the NAS/PC transmits the media as-is and so only needs to be capable of fully using the available bandwidth of your network connection - Any ReadyNAS unit is capable of saturating a wireless connection. Typically technology like Wireless-N can only support upto ~15MBps, whereas the Duo v2 can support around 2-3x this bandwidth ie the CPU is powerful enough for pure streaming as this the key function of a NAS.

Now, if the video needs to be transcoded prior to being consumed by the client, then that is a different scenario and you may need to investigate further the CPU capabilities of the chosen server

sphardy wrote:
Be careful not confuse or conflate streaming with transcoding

Agreed. Any ReadyNas is more than fast enough for simple streaming. Even full BluRay only requires 5-7 MB/s of network (though it is good to have some margin, especially on WiFi). I had no trouble streaming HD with my Duo V1, and the V2 is a lot faster.

Your WiFi speed is certainly the limiting factor - though if it works reasonably today with your PC, it should work similarly with the NAS. If your PC is also wireless, it should work somewhat better since there will only be one wifi hop if the NAS is wired to the router.

If you do need better performance you can try upgrading the router, using powerline, or a wifi bridge. Though running that ethernet cable (cat 5e or 6) provides the best performance (and of course you could hire someone to do it).

Also, your WDTV can use either DLNA ("media servers" on its interface), or CIFS/SMB ("network share" on its interface). Both can work, though generally you will get better navigation if you use CIFS/SMB

Thanks again for your help guys, think im pretty much sold on the duo v2 sounds like it will do the job well, i just might need to look into if the .avi files need to be transcoded im not really farmiliar with that.

readynas123 wrote:
Thanks again for your help guys, think im pretty much sold on the duo v2 sounds like it will do the job well, i just might need to look into if the .avi files need to be transcoded im not really farmiliar with that.

How are you streaming from your PC? More than likely you are not transcoding, as the WDTV will play most AVIs without it.

Just have a folder shared from the PC, then under network shares on the wdtv i play the .avi

readynas123 wrote:
Just have a folder shared from the PC, then under network shares on the wdtv i play the .avi

Ok - that is not transcoding. You can do exactly the same thing with shares on the ReadyNas.