I agree that Netgear need to fix any issues with OS 6, however as long as the basics work (which for me is file storage, Plex, remote access and a few other features) then I am happy to wait. I decided to go with the ReadyNAS RN516 as compared to other manufacturers to me it seemed to be a good price considering it's specifications (i3, 4GB etc.) it has a lot of potential. I am happy to wait for the OS to develop, just as long as Netgear do keep developing the OS.
Therfore based on this I want to make sure that the hardware will perform as the specification indicate if should.
I am considering getting the 314. I am also disappointed in how disjointed Netgear seems to be on this new product. Most of the stuff is available, but it is hidden.
I saw a review of the 104 on www.smallbuildernet.com that didn't reflect great speed, but it was emphasized that this was somewhat of a trade off with the stronger data integrity of the new file system.
With Plex being a bult-in app now, I would expect some performance data on how well transcoding on Plex works. Granted the new beta Plex rewrites the transcoder (and is quite good), so things will change when that goes public. However, I do wonder if the 500 series would allow me to replace the $600 3 year old PC I have running plex media server. Right now, multiple transcodes can happen without worry. My existing ultra4 often couldn't maintain one decent transcode. That's why I stopped running it there. Outside of Plex, I'm not sure what the excess CPU will buy me.
The ITunes/firefly server is ancient and the original coders have abandoned it years ago. There are issues there that will never be resolved.
We abandoned using readynas remote and went for FTP because of performance issues.
DLNA is always a question mark ,largely due to which client you use and what is it capable of. I find most handle large libraries poorly. I'd love for our cable boxes to hear DLNA servers. Then all the TVs in the house might access the DVD share. When we buy future TV/blurays I'm hoping it will have a good DLNA client built in, but you can never find good info on this stuff before you have your hands on them.
For how well Plex works you might wish to also ask on the Plex forums. As for how many simultaneous transcodes would work that would depend on the quality of the video you are transcoding and the quality you wish to convert it to.
ReadyNAS OS 6 uses forked-daapd whereas older products used Firefly.
That's really the rub... and I'm hoping someone runs Plex on the 516 and aggressively proves that is can transcode at least as well as a $600, 3 yr AMD processor. Otherwise, why spends $500 more on a faster processor and 2Gb more?
I looked up forked-daapd and it looks like github shows the last revision about 3 years ago. So that looks like a dead development as well. I could never get firefly to make my playlists, smartplaylists, or ratings show up. Instead it showed someone else's ratings. I think it may have picked up some ID3 rating tags--which iTunes doesn't support. Anything beyond basic artist, name, track, album, genre, didn't make it. So it really isn't a useful product for someone with a very large collection. If forked-daapd is also un-developed it is another lame duck app that I will never use.
Granted I wonder if I could get MRTG running on it. That would be helpful, but that isn't CPU intensive. The 316 would handle that.
