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QNAP TS-469L High-performance 4-bay NAS Server for Home & SOHO Review

Storage/NAS by stefan @ 2013-03-13

The TS-469L is another powerful NAS from QNAP aimed at home and small business users, equipped with a HDMI interface that can be connected to our Full-HD TV. Thanks to its HD Station function and it’s modules, we can transform the server into a fully-featured media center for browsing the web, playing media content with XBMC or even for navigating through the Turbo NAS OS interface, without the need of using a PC. As extra bundle, we can acquire separately the useful QNAP Media Center remote or extra RAM for a total of 3GB.

Introduction

At first I would like to thank QNAP for offering a sample of their TS-469L 4-bay NAS Server for testing and reviewing.

About QNAP:

“QNAP Systems, Inc., as its brand promise "Quality Network Appliance Provider", aims to deliver comprehensive offerings of cutting edge network attached storage (NAS) and network video recorder (NVR) solutions featured with ease-of-use, robust operation, large storage capacity, and trustworthy reliability. QNAP integrates technologies and designs to bring forth quality products that effectively improve business efficiency on file sharing, virtualization applications, storage management and surveillance in the business environments, as well as enrich entertainment life for home users with the offering of a fun multimedia center experience. Headquartered in Taipei, QNAP delivers its solutions to the global market with nonstop innovation and passion.”

Comment from jmke @ 2013/03/13

excellent review and also very interesting product. It can almost replace a dedicated server with all the extra functionality (itunes server, rsync, external backup, time machine,...)
especially interested in the XBMC plugin, how well does it work?

Did you try to play some notoriously difficult high Mbps samples?
http://www.auby.no/files/video_tests/

the first one in the list is a killer

Birds mkv 1080p h264 high profile 4.1 40mbps none none Direct bluray (or hddvd) remux
(comes from BBC Planet Earth HDDVD/Bluray series)

Comment from Stefan Mileschin @ 2013/03/13

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmke

Hi John,

I have tried some HD movies, but also some 1080P rips and they worked without a flaw. Haven't tried though very high bitrate movies so far

Comment from Stefan Mileschin @ 2013/03/13

Update:

Ran Birds -> no issues
Ran hddvd -> no issues
Ran Monsters -> no issues

Comment from jmke @ 2013/03/14

excellent news that!

that XBMC $99 Ouya console at this stage seems to have issues with certain codecs: http://www.madshrimps.be/vbulletin/f...onsole-103422/

Comment from Stefan Mileschin @ 2013/03/14

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmke

excellent news that!

that XBMC $99 Ouya console at this stage seems to have issues with certain codecs: http://www.madshrimps.be/vbulletin/f...onsole-103422/

Indeed, the Ouya seems to have very high GPU/CPU usage even in the dashboard screen of the XBMC, which usually means that the hardware is not that powerful (had the same experience with the Android mini-computers that I have tested in the past).

Comment from jmke @ 2013/03/14

in the menu's high CPU usage doesn't mean video playback will be bad, as soon as the video started, it can talk to dedicated acceleration hardware and CPU usage will drop. Check in the youtube the 1080p MKV H264 sample, it plays fluently http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...4j9hfLE#t=375s , I hope XBMC can tweak the android edition to make the Ouya a valid alternative for a complete HTPC.

if they fail, this QNAP certainly seems to be more than capable of the job

Comment from Stefan Mileschin @ 2013/03/14

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmke

Software support must be indeed offered, otherwise Ouya could not handle HD video at all without the GPU kicking in. I had the same experience with the two Android systems, and when running video it was like playing a slideshow (when the video ran, the GUI was also sluggish and it was also difficult to exit playback). Considering how fast Chinese HDMI sticks with ARM evolve (and their mini-PC form factors), it will be hard for Ouya to keep-up hardware-wise. These mini-PCs are in the $70-75 dollar range, so about the same as Quya without the controllers.

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