Can I stream 4k on a NAS?

I have an ancient 2013 model Synology and it streams 4K files just fine, over my Gigabit home network. I'm not asking it to transcode anything though. Are you trying to transcode files? Or are you trying to use WiFi in an area with mediocre reception?

EDIT: Oh I see you mention you have 30 Mbps internet. Are you trying to access the NAS remotely over the internet? If you have 30 Mbps download speed, your upload speed is likely much, much slower, which would explain why the performance is so bad if you're trying to do this away from home.

Which Synology box is being used?

Accessing files locally or over the Internet?

Are these full 4k rips with lossless audio?

What devices are using for playback?

Are you accessing DSM GUI via Lan or Internet?

EugW wrote: ↑I have an ancient 2013 model Synology and it streams 4K files just fine, over my Gigabit home network. I'm not asking it to transcode anything though. Are you trying to transcode files? Or are you trying to use WiFi in an area with mediocre reception?

EDIT: Oh I see you mention you have 30 Mbps internet. Are you trying to access the NAS remotely over the internet? If you have 30 Mbps download speed, your upload speed is likely much, much slower, which would explain why the performance is so bad if you're trying to do this away from home.

audit13 wrote: ↑ Which Synology box is being used?

Accessing files locally or over the Internet?

Are these full 4k rips with lossless audio?

What devices are using for playback?

Are you accessing DSM GUI via Lan or Internet?

I'm using it as a "home cloud" so my wireless devices can backup and view pictures. It's either on a phone, ipad, or notebook so nothing is plugged in. The wifi terminal is right next to most of the devices. I mentioned the speed of my internet because I figured it is affecting my speed but come to think of it that should be determined by the speed of my router?

I'm using the 4 bay one. Not sure of the model but only 2 of the bays are being used. Files are accessed locally and played back on my laptop.

pprider wrote: ↑ I'm using it as a "home cloud" so my wireless devices can backup and view pictures. It's either on a phone, ipad, or notebook so nothing is plugged in. The wifi terminal is right next to most of the devices. I mentioned the speed of my internet because I figured it is affecting my speed but come to think of it that should be determined by the speed of my router?

I'm using the 4 bay one. Not sure of the model but only 2 of the bays are being used. Files are accessed locally and played back on my laptop.

If the playback devices do not support native 4k playback, the Synology may be trying to transcode the files to a lower resolution. If this is the case and the Synology is doing all of the transcoding via software for multiple streams, this may be causing the problem.

I have an older 4-bay Qnap that I use to locally stream full 4k rips to my Apple TV 4K and Zidoo players via WiFi. Both playback devices access the NAS via SMB with zero transcoding by the Qnap. If my old Qnap can do this, your Synology can do it too.

Posting the Synology model would be helpful. Also, are the devices using a Plex client to access the NAS?

do a file share and check the speed. Now if it hits +50mb/s your fine for most stuff others want +100mb/s. Just use your nas...store the files and nothing else. Nowadays you don't need to pay alot to upgrade you just swap the load from the nas to something else thats alot more affordable.

Now if its for media server. The best thing to do swap the load of being a media server to somewhere else like an rpi4/sbc or a capable old tv box or pc. Use a ssd for the media serverss file directory and cache. Your plex or jellyfin will run off it for client apps to view metadata/scrapes/thumbnails and be quite quick and it will point to file and stream the actual source material over https://x.x.x.x etc from your exisitng nas storage.

How big are the files that you're trying to open?

You should have your NAS connected to your network over a wired connection.
If you're streaming over wifi to your devices, you may need to configure your network correctly or at least make sure that you're connecting on the fastest channel. (if you're close to the router, use the 5GHz channel over the 2.4GHz).

Also, if you;re running Plex, there could be transcoding happening, which would slow things down quite a bit. You need to make changes to the server settings as well as the client to fully disable transcoding.

audit13 wrote: ↑ If the playback devices do not support native 4k playback, the Synology may be trying to transcode the files to a lower resolution. If this is the case and the Synology is doing all of the transcoding via software for multiple streams, this may be causing the problem.

I have an older 4-bay Qnap that I use to locally stream full 4k rips to my Apple TV 4K and Zidoo players via WiFi. Both playback devices access the NAS via SMB with zero transcoding by the Qnap. If my old Qnap can do this, your Synology can do it too.

Posting the Synology model would be helpful. Also, are the devices using a Plex client to access the NAS?

I believe it's the 918+. I just try to play the files on my notebook.

lead wrote: ↑do a file share and check the speed. Now if it hits +50mb/s your fine for most stuff others want +100mb/s. Just use your nas...store the files and nothing else. Nowadays you don't need to pay alot to upgrade you just swap the load from the nas to something else thats alot more affordable.

Now if its for media server. The best thing to do swap the load of being a media server to somewhere else like an rpi4/sbc or a capable old tv box or pc. Use a ssd for the media serverss file directory and cache. Your plex or jellyfin will run off it for client apps to view metadata/scrapes/thumbnails and be quite quick and it will point to file and stream the actual source material over https://x.x.x.x etc from your exisitng nas storage.

I have a Synology 918+ and I don't think it hits 100mb/s when I'm transferring the files. Maybe 30mb/s max? I don't recall so I'll need to check it later.

Are you saying I should connect it to a PC? Then what's the point of having a server if I'm connecting it via a cable anyways?

Canuck_TO wrote: ↑ How big are the files that you're trying to open?

You should have your NAS connected to your network over a wired connection.
If you're streaming over wifi to your devices, you may need to configure your network correctly or at least make sure that you're connecting on the fastest channel. (if you're close to the router, use the 5GHz channel over the 2.4GHz).

Also, if you;re running Plex, there could be transcoding happening, which would slow things down quite a bit. You need to make changes to the server settings as well as the client to fully disable transcoding.

The files are around 4gb but it's like that even for smaller files. When I try to load image thumbnails, it would take 10 seconds just to load 6.

My NAS is physically connected to the router. On the 5GHz network.

pprider wrote: ↑ I believe it's the 918+. I just try to play the files on my notebook.



I have a Synology 918+ and I don't think it hits 100mb/s when I'm transferring the files. Maybe 30mb/s max? I don't recall so I'll need to check it later.

Are you saying I should connect it to a PC? Then what's the point of having a server if I'm connecting it via a cable anyways?



The files are around 4gb but it's like that even for smaller files. When I try to load image thumbnails, it would take 10 seconds just to load 6.

My NAS is physically connected to the router. On the 5GHz network.

The 918+ is capable of transferring files to and from a wired computer at close to or over 100 MB/s because the NAS and computer would be using Gigabit LAN connections.

With my old Qnap, which is much older than your Synology, can copy files from a Windows or Mac desktop via Ethernet at 100 to 110 MB/s.

A download speed of 30 MB/s would probably be enough to stream 4k files that are 4 GB in size unless the NAS is being asked to transcode the stream to a lower resolution. Transcoding will not occur if the playback device is capable of 4k.

Your Synology 918+ is a good NAS in my opinion.

audit13 wrote: ↑ The 918+ is capable of transferring files to and from a wired computer at close to or over 100 MB/s because the NAS and computer would be using Gigabit LAN connections.

With my old Qnap, which is much older than your Synology, can copy files from a Windows or Mac desktop via Ethernet at 100 to 110 MB/s.

A download speed of 30 MB/s would probably be enough to stream 4k files that are 4 GB in size unless the NAS is being asked to transcode the stream to a lower resolution. Transcoding will not occur if the playback device is capable of 4k.

Your Synology 918+ is a good NAS in my opinion.

Oh, I'm using a 2019 Mac with an Intel processor so probably not?

I didn't know the NAS would need to do transcoding as I thought that if you're streaming data to your computer, it would do it locally on the computer.

Is there a way to access the pictures or 4k movies over wifi or does it have to be a hard connection?

pprider wrote: ↑ Oh, I'm using a 2019 Mac with an Intel processor so probably not?

I didn't know the NAS would need to do transcoding as I thought that if you're streaming data to your computer, it would do it locally on the computer.

Is there a way to access the pictures or 4k movies over wifi or does it have to be a hard connection?

Is the NAS running Plex Server? If yes, stop the app for now.

Connect the NAS as a network drive to your Mac and you should see the NAS files from your mac. Now, you can use a video app to play the file from the NAS. You can use an app to view the pictures from the NAS as well.

I don't think Plex was ever mentioned by the OP. What do you mean by "stream data"? Do you just double click on files and open them in whatever player?

What software are you running to view video? On a Mac my favourite is Infuse.

What real world speed is your WiFi connection to the Mac?

audit13 wrote: ↑ Is the NAS running Plex Server? If yes, stop the app for now.

Connect the NAS as a network drive to your Mac and you should see the NAS files from your mac. Now, you can use a video app to play the file from the NAS. You can use an app to view the pictures from the NAS as well.

I don't think I've ever enabled it unless it's enabled by default? For Windows, I used DSM to connect my drives. For Mac, I saw it on my network and connected automatically with the login and password.

alpovs wrote: ↑I don't think Plex was ever mentioned by the OP. What do you mean by "stream data"? Do you just double click on files and open them in whatever player?

Yes, exactly what I mean. When I open explorer or finder, the thumbnails would generate very slow as well.

EugW wrote: ↑ What software are you running to view video? On a Mac my favourite is Infuse.

What real world speed is your WiFi connection to the Mac?

Quicktime and VLC for Mac. For Windows I use Kplayer. I find that it's much slower on the Mac but that could be of the 2019 Macbook Air wifi chip.

I'm not quite sure what my WIFI connection is but it's connected on the 5GHZ wifi network. Is there a way to test that?

pprider wrote: ↑ I'm not quite sure what my WIFI connection is but it's connected on the 5GHZ wifi network. Is there a way to test that?

Please do a speed test at https://speedtest.net and post the results here. For phone/tablets they also have an app. Look for a speed test app from Ookla.

pprider wrote: ↑ Quicktime and VLC for Mac. For Windows I use Kplayer. I find that it's much slower on the Mac but that could be of the 2019 Macbook Air wifi chip.

On the Mac, Infuse is much better for video playback than both Quicktime and vlc, but it costs money.

https://firecore.com/infuse

I'm not quite sure what my WIFI connection is but it's connected on the 5GHZ wifi network. Is there a way to test that?

See if you can at least consistently max out your 30 Mbps internet connection with www.speedtest.net.

30 Mbps is not ideal for 4K streaming, but if you can't even max that out, then that could be your bottleneck.

alpovs wrote: ↑ Please do a speed test at https://speedtest.net and post the results here. For phone/tablets they also have an app. Look for a speed test app from Ookla.

EugW wrote: ↑ 30 Mbps is not ideal for 4K streaming, but if you can't even max that out, then that could be your bottleneck.

OP is trying to access his NAS locally. So internet speed and doing speed test is not going to help in his case.

Something in his network is not working quite right. What router do you have, and have you tried rebooting your router?

nosnoop wrote: ↑ OP is trying to access his NAS locally. So internet speed and doing speed test is not going to help in his case.

Something in his network is not working quite right. What router do you have, and have you tried rebooting your router?

Yes, I forgot that the OP's bandwidth is low. My WiFi is slower than my internet connection, so for me such a speed test would be indicative of my LAN/WiFi problems but not for the OP.

OP, when you copy a large file from your computer to your NAS or the other way around what speeds do you get?

nosnoop wrote: ↑ OP is trying to access his NAS locally. So internet speed and doing speed test is not going to help in his case.

I'm aware it's local; see my previous post.

My point was that if s/he can't even max out his 30 Mbps internet connection, the WiFi signal could be the problem.

alpovs wrote: ↑ Please do a speed test at https://speedtest.net and post the results here. For phone/tablets they also have an app. Look for a speed test app from Ookla.

EugW wrote: ↑ See if you can at least consistently max out your 30 Mbps internet connection with www.speedtest.net.

30 Mbps is not ideal for 4K streaming, but if you can't even max that out, then that could be your bottleneck.

My download is 28 and my upload is 6.

nosnoop wrote: ↑ OP is trying to access his NAS locally. So internet speed and doing speed test is not going to help in his case.

Something in his network is not working quite right. What router do you have, and have you tried rebooting your router?

I'm using the Telus modem wireless router.

alpovs wrote: ↑ Yes, I forgot that the OP's bandwidth is low. My WiFi is slower than my internet connection, so for me such a speed test would be indicative of my LAN/WiFi problems but not for the OP.

OP, when you copy a large file from your computer to your NAS or the other way around what speeds do you get?

I don't have the exact speeds as it quickly went from 2 minute to about a minute but it started at 2 minute to calculate a 4 GB file.