Level Up Your Home Theater With a NAS

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If you’re looking to get more out of your home theater, then a NAS (network-attached storage) device might be just what you’ve been looking for! A NAS is much more than just a hard drive connected to your network. It’s essentially a mini computer that can provide numerous benefits in terms of storage, media streaming, and even gaming. Some NAS setups, like those from Synology, even provide a dedicated OS (operating system) that can run apps and containers for all of your home automation needs. Let’s talk about why you should consider a NAS for your home theater.

Storage Capabilities

A NAS can be equipped with one or more hard drives, allowing for considerable amounts of data storage and backup capabilities. This makes it an excellent choice for anyone who needs to store large files such as videos or photos, or for those who want extra peace of mind when it comes to backing up important work documents, without paying more and more money to companies to hold onto it for you.

Keeping Your Data Safe

RAID technology can also be used by NAS devices to ensure that the data stored on your NAS will be safe even if one drive fails. This uses additional drives as a form of redundancy, giving you peace of mind knowing that your data is safe. I lost personal data over the years that I’ll never get back, from photos of my two years in Okinawa to voicemails from my mom. I opted to keep my own data safe so that I have control and can make sure I never lose those special memories again.

Your Own Personal iCloud

You can also create your own personal, completely private iCloud alternative using a NAS. If you’d like something easy and user-friendly, Synology products provide a built-in app, Synology Photos, that has AI-supported facial recognition, auto-upload, and more. For those interested in a more complex solution, alternatives like PhotoPrism can be run through a Docker container and paired with apps like PhotoSync to automate your photo upload schedule.

Media Streaming

A NAS is also an ideal solution if you’re looking to stream media throughout your house. With the help of easy-to-use apps like Plex, Kodi, and Emby, you can easily access music and movies stored on your NAS device from any device connected to your network! Additionally, many modern TVs are now equipped with apps that allow them to access content directly from a network-attached storage device using the media apps.

Back Up Your Own Movies and Music

So how can you get the movies and music on your media server? Well, with a little manual setup you can get a Blu Ray drive that can rip those movies off of the discs you own. There are outstanding guides available at the MakeMKV forums to walk you through the process and appropriate hardware, step by step. If you’re buying second-hand, you can find a ton of 4k and 1080p Blu Rays for dirt cheap. I tend to go to my local Goodwill when I want to browse ($1-$5 per movie), and Disc Replay when I’m looking for something specific. Blu Rays at Disc Replay are almost all $3.99 or so, which is a heck of a deal.

Let’s not forget the value of owning your own media instead of paying to rent through a subscription service. Using this solution I’m able to stream my > 350 movies, and around 150 albums, that I’ve purchased. Anywhere that I want.

Playing Your Movies and Music Anywhere

Using a solution like Plex, all you have to do is point the app to the appropriate directories and it will grab all of the metadata for you. Movie posters, descriptions, IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ratings, actor lists and information…you name it. It’s so easy it’s scary. And to top it all off, you can stream these videos anywhere that has the app – and the Plex app is available on pretty much all platforms. Maybe even your dish washer and refrigerator.

I’m personally a stickler for audio and video quality, and after investing as much time and money as I have in my own home theater, I don’t want to compromise with streaming service compression. That’s where Plex comes to save the day: I can direct play the full disc quality direct to my TV or phone over wifi or 5g, straight from my server, with no lag or delay. HDR, Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos all come through beautifully.

Share With Family and Friends

The last thing I want to say about media on a NAS is that you can share your photo, music, and video libraries with anyone you like. Whether it be through a dedicated app like Plex or the onboard software like Synology Photos, sharing is as simple as sending a link to the person. Easy peasy.

My NAS Setup

My NAS setup had humble beginnings and is definitely still evolving. After trying to get things working the way I want on my repurposed gaming PC, I realized that I don’t have the time or desire to customize and troubleshoot like I used to. I opted to buy a prebuilt solution, the recently-released Synology DS923+. This is a 4-bay NAS enclosure that comes with the software suite I mentioned in earlier. I’ve got three 8tb hard drives that provide me with 14tb of usable, fully redundant storage space, and I can access the NAS from anywhere using a web browser. Movies, photos, and files can be accessed quickly and easily. It’s absolutely perfect.

Hardware List

• Synology DS923+ NAS Enclosure
• 2x 8tb Seagate Iron Wolf hard drives
• 1x 8tb Western Digital Red Pro hard drive

Conclusion

A Network-Attached Storage (NAS) device offers numerous benefits when it comes to home theater applications, from providing extra storage space and backup capabilities to streaming media across multiple devices. No matter what type of home theater enthusiast you are, adding a NAS device is sure to take things up a notch! So if you don’t have one already – why not give it a try? You won’t regret it!