Mac Mini, Synology, Apple TV, iTunes - where to start

Hi Alex Sirota

The cost of my set-up is quite difficult to work out as the CAT 6 wiring was done at the same time as I rewired the house. One of the issues in the UK is the power allowed for wifi is less than the USA so range is lower and it is streaming more than one video would not work very well.

I put the network in to allow efficient back-up of a number of workstation and so I could access my server on which I have stored a massive collection of photographs and other work I've been involved in. I used CAT 6 because a friend who is a network engineer had 100 meters left over from a job he'd been doing on a factory and gave it to me so all my network cost was 12 CAT 6 network boxes. I would have used CAT 5e and am sure this would work fine and think putting a home neworking in would cost about under $100 if you do it your-self.

Like the network I already had the MiniMac server which is an I7 with 4MB of RAM and is about 2 years old. It origannally cost $1,000 but I'm sure a second hand one would work well.

The only things I actually bought for the media system was the DS213 and 2 x 3TB hard drives which worked at about $500 and a managed switch, in part so I could seperate my work stuff from my media, but also allowed me to priorities media streaming and this cost $100 but was a challange to set-up.

Hope this is of help

Tam

Very helpful Tam. The wiring of CAT6 is usually the most expensive piece I find depending on the size of the job. To wire up 10 rooms costs about $1500-2000 for the job so about $150 per room with materials and labour all in.

So I am reading that the setup is about $1500 for hardware and about $150 per room for wiring. If you have wifi that probably can be done for under $200 for a decent Wireless N router. You neglected the AppleTV cost, which is about $100 at least.

For many a $2000 investment (taxes or VAT all in) in a home entertainment system of the likes you have is prohibitive. If you want to wire it ends up being over $3000 depending on the size of the home.

This is why an AppleTV solution without a server is really the only scalable business model. A $500 NAS with a decent router and AppleTV at $100 each should be under a $1000 investment (onetime) and that's probably as much as anyone would ever want to pay.

Many reuse equipment that is no longer used elsewhere (macmini) but that is not an option for most.

A solution that is AppleTV-based with an inexpensive 1 hard drive NAS for under $300 for the NAS+AppleTV would sell like crazy in my mind. That would require a NAS to be about $200 with a hard drive which is not feasible now. This is what I think Roku is aiming for. Most people use NAS's for media streaming with backup being a distance 2nd or 3rd in usefulness and actual use.

Thanks again!

I agree a combination of an Apple TV and a 1 disk NAS is ideal and would sell like hot cakes, this is where ROKU has the advantage of being able to run Plex

Most people seem to ignor backing up - friends seem to regulary come to me to recover their presious music and photo. I'm fanatically about backing up as the my first experience with hard drives was in the late 1970's and they were huge and had a 5 MB capacity and failed every few weeks. I back-up everything to another NAS off-site using Rsync

Alex,

Just FYI, the cost could be much less if you do the cabling yourself. As Tam did on his house, I also installed my cabling during a remodel because all the walls were exposed (no drywall) and I could run the cable somewhat quickly. I don't have an attic space, so I had to drill holes through each of the vertical wall studs in the path, and the number of 1-inch holes you'll need depends on the type of cable you'll run and how many runs will travel along the same path. I used CAT-6A rather than CAT-6 because it can support up to 10 gigabit speed over copper (which is usually only attainable with fiber), and because I wanted to "future proof" for as much bandwidth as poissible for HD and 4K-HD streams. Unfortunately CAT-6A is larger than CAT-6 (due to the extra cladding and shielding), therefore you can only fit about up to four CAT-6 cables per 1-inch hole in a wall stud. CAT-6 and CAT-5 (or CAT-5E) are much smaller in diameter, and can probably fit up to 8 cables through a single 1-inch hole. If you have an attic space, then you only have to worry about passing through horizontal "fire break" studs, but running the cable would be considerably easier.

Keep in mind, however, that a 1000-foot spool of CAT-6A is quite expensive in comparison to CAT-6. In the U.S., a 1000-foot spool of CAT-6 currently costs anywhere from $150 - $200. CAT-6A can be easily triple that price. You'd also need a CAT-6 (or 6A) EIA-568B punch down panel, as well as a CAT-6 RJ45 Ethernet jack, and wallplate or biscuit box for the jack for each drop, or multi-port plates if you have multiple runs to the same wallplate. You'll also need a punch-down tool if you don't have one (and wire stripper/cutters). If you know someone who has a cable tester you can borrow, that could save you lots of grief in checking connections.

Labor is the prohibitive part of having a vendor run the cables, so it can save lots of money to do it yourself.

Hi Tam, All

Superb thread.

Quick question if I may - I am close to purchasing a Synology 713 with 4x 3TB drives in it. I'd like to do as you've done and move my iTunes, iMovies and iPhoto folders/libraries to it as a network share. I'd read on another forum that these libraries needed to be on disks formatted to Mac OS Extended [Journaled] - yet reading the 413's specs it looks to only do EXT4 for internal disks - have you experienced any issues - or does the Synology NAS model you are running offer a wider range of formats ?

Many thanks

Hi Cagenuts

I have my iTunes Libray on my Synology DS213 which is formatted EXT 4 and it's not a problem but haven't tried with iMovies or iPhoto.

Cheers

Tam

Fantastic thread! I've got a similar setup to many of you, with a Mac Mini as home media server, but have just ordered the Synology 713+. I was pointed to the Synology by 9to5mac.com as they mentioned that the new DSM 4.2 can now stream to Apple TV. That seems to plug a gap that has come up a lot in this thread.

I opted for the 713+ as the release notes indicate that the 213+, which I originally ordered, didn't support transcoding video. I'm not sure how important that will be to me, but I want this as not only a NAS, but really a full home media server and I think I'll be able to retire/sell the Mac Mini now. I think the faster processors and more RAM may make this model a little longer-lasting, and $550 isn't so much for a good home media server...

This setup will help me cut cable with an HDTV antenna (and HomeRun) and the Apple TV for iTunes and Netflix. I think it will be simpler and easier to work with than the mini and provides a few other nice extras:

• Share photos over the web (retire smugmug account)
• CloudStation - like DropBox, can create for the kids who move between two households
• Kids can also access media at either household now
• Have a robust linux server to play around with (maybe pull some services back from Dreamhost account, nothing high-volume though)
• Oh yeah, backups!

Thanks for all the great info!

-Tom

Tom

That sounds ideal I wish my DS213 did transcoding. Though I also use my minimac for playing music with a keyboard and guitar.

I've now added offsite backup from my synology and minimac using rsync to a old netgear NAS i've got off site.

Now I've got everything setup my family has given me strict instructions from my family to stop tinkering and let them enjoy it. I'm going to find this a challange as I still can't listen to the radio from my TV Tuner over the network but like you I have decided the next project is to turn the last remaining windows machine I own into a Linux server.

Tam

I'm updating my unit to the DSM 4.2 beta as we speak. If it really will stream to my Apple TVs, then we may have a winner here. I'm very curious about how this works. Will report back tomorrow with an update.

I'm updating my unit to the DSM 4.2 beta as we speak. If it really will stream to my Apple TVs, then we may have a winner here. I'm very curious about how this works. Will report back tomorrow with an update.

Yeah....this doesn't work.

What actually happens is, you start the video playing from your computer, and then there's an option to send it via Airplay to the ATV. I realize Synology is working within the very limited window of access that Apple chooses to provide, but still...this stinks. I cannot tell my wife, "You want to watch a movie? Fine, just go into the study, load up the video player on your laptop, find a movie, start it playing, click the Airplay button, pause it, come back to the media room, locate the Airplay video on ATV, and click play. Easy as pie."

Right.

Hello,

Just been reading this thread and have encouted the same issues as most. I would like to mention my work around which i found to be a simple amd effective way to sort out the iTunes library syncing on multiple macs.

I used a handy app called Chronosync, you install this on each machine and then choose the main itunes "host .xml file to be synced with the other mac on you network. By doing this it updates itunes and then the music you riped on the "Master Mac" will appear on the others. You can set it up to automate once you have it working.

You can also set it up to update both Macs if you are adding files away from home and so on.

Anyhow after much googling i found this to be a simple and effective method to sort the iTunes delema.

Its not 100% automated but really what is. I just thought i would mention it on this thread as i may save others time and frustration.

On another note i pretty sure most are aware that you need to make sure your NAS or Server that you host your files on has enough grunt to serve them and that your Network infrastructure is more than adequate to handel the traffice or the whole thing goes to crap. With the hidef 720p and 1080p rips coming up on the web and Apple lossless music its easy to hammer your network with just 3 or 4 clients.

And finally, i just setup an ATV for a mate.. and well i just would not work over the wifi loss of sync and other issueswith airplay, anyhow hocked it up via Airport Base station ex Gigabit and that sorted out most if not all the querks. I then installed Plex Client and had no issues streaming 1080p 10GB titles all of which looked great and full DTS 5.1 etc From an iMac in the Study, shouuld also mentin for those of you with the same setup, or intended setup, in the plex preference on the ATV set Plex server to do all the Decoding and make sure to set the local network part to 10Gb per second for real HD.

Made several comparions bettrween the iMac handeling the decoding VS the streaming option where the ATV decodes it and i got to say with the fullHD 1080P 5 to 10GB files the imac did a signifigantly better job of the decoding and the end result was a clear vivd glass like image that you weould expect from Bluray as the ATV hardware decding was chopy with a lot of overtones and shadow like distorion.

In short the i7 iMac killed it.

So the moral of the story is WIFI still ***** and CAT 6 Gigabit sorts out all the Querks and i7 smashed the ATV for quality and performance ... obviously.

PS: My first reply was pulled down by Apple moderator because i made reference to the unthinkable modifiactions that some people choose to perform on the beloved Apple TV.

If Apple refined there existing services to be more complete regarding what obviosly a large portinon of the technology community want then all of that could be avoided.

OK rant over, besides that Check out Chronosysnc its great, and has anyone actually got iTunes Match to work from start to finish. Been at it or a few days and due the the automation of the process it just seems to fail.

@Tom: so does your setup (stream from NAS to ATV) work just as fine as the Mac Mini as Media Server?

Hi all, i'm now in a similar predicament. Been using a mac mini with plex media server connnected to a TV to serve movies to all my devices. (I use the plex home theatre software on themini itself to watch movies straight on Tv). I have 3 firewire800 WD externals. But lately one of those externals is acting up and i'm nervous. So I'm conidering of getting a synology (not sure which one yet) to be used as storage.

I'm planning to store all my video files on it and still use the mac mini as the plex media server. This would work considering I can find a way to keep the remote storage mounted everytime I turn on my mini, right? I have cat6 cables wired in the house already so my network is gigabit.

At this moment I don't use ATV or anything and i'd I do decided to add a TV in the bedroom I'd probaby get a Roku with Plex support or something.

Will this work? Should I shell out the money for a synology? Thanks.

Hi Fujita Senpai

I am using a Synologly with a mini mac over gigabit ethernet - it works perfectly - it streams to a couple of smart tv's and a Roku device - it works extremely well - I've been running my synology continuously for 2 years ditto the mini mac only rebooting for upgrades. The only addition I would recommend to the system is UPS's for both the minimac and in particular the synology as this allows the safe use of write caching that makes the system work faster. I don't know if you are aware but some synology disk stations support Plex Server - though sadly not mine.

@TamThread,

Thank you for the response. I think I will go ahead and pull the trigger on a Synology for storage.

I'm aware that some of them are capable of supporting Plex Server, but the price difference is quite large compared to the ones that can't, so I think I'm still going to just use the Mac Mini as the media server since it's been doing that all this time.

Good recommendation on the UPS since I live in Indonesia in which there are frequent blackouts (albeit only for 10-20 seconds before the backup generator from the building kicks in) but I'm sure often enough it might damage the NAS.

Thanks again.