Is there any benefit in running a HDMI cable directly from the NAS into the TV

Or is that not the way Infuse/Apple TV will work?

I ask because I see that a new QNAP router can do this.

Thanks!

No benefit to Infuse. Infuse is powered by the Apple TV and that has the HDMI output that handles Infuse output.

Does that mean infuse has zero latency?

Infuse does not run on your NAS, it only runs on the Apple TV. Infuse reads video files from your NAS via the LAN (Ethernet or WiFi) not through your TV. An HDMI cable from your NAS to your TV has no bearing on Infuse.

With an HDMI port, the NAS can effectively function as a mini PC, allowing you to run apps directly. I suppose this could be useful for some cases, but if you watch the demo video launching an app like YouTube takes about 10 seconds. IMHO, this negates any benefits you might get from having media files stored locally on the device.

With regard to actual playback, as long as you have a decent Wi-Fi or Ethernet network, it’s unlikely you would see any noticeable improvement in real world usage when compared to running Infuse on an Apple TV.

HDMI on the NAS means the NAS is both the video player and the storage unit. It’s basically the same as hooking a computer up to your AV/TV and playing everything direct.

I guess it would also mean you wouldn’t have the really slick UI that you get with Infuse?

For me this question is because I still can’t decide how best to store my movies, somewhere in the cloud, in a NaS, in an attached disc to the router (although I tried this recently over WiFi and it started buffering with a 60gb file), etc etc.

What is the cheapest way?

I go with the saying “if you want it right it won’t be cheap and if you want it cheap it won’t be right”.

If you want max performance for 4K you’re going to need to invest in a fast NAS and have everything wired via Ethernet. Routers are slow and you should always stay away from wireless. Some people claim they have no problem running via wifi but there are many factors that can affect wifi quality it’s safest to go wired.

Yeah I agree with that saying!

So in terms of using Ethernet, (I am lucky as I live in a new flat where I have an Ethernet port by the router in the cupboard and another one by the TV), if I build a NAS, once it’s connected to the network, I assume I just plug an Ethernet port into the back of the Apple TV?

One goes from the router to the NAS and another from the router to the Apple TV. Make sure your NAS gets a static IP (contact your ISP if you need help With that).

Yes that’s what I meant.

I think I will get the DS218+. No reason for anything more for my needs I assume? I will also store FLACS on it and can then also back up my photos. Will do RAID1, a direct replica of each drive. And therefore will get two iron wolf 4TB

Should work perfectly.

Having done more research overnight, maybe a NAS is still overkill if I use a raspberry pi or similar with a hard disk attached to it, and then connected into the back of the appleTV via Ethernet?

Performance can’t be guaranteed. You’re also looking at supporting the entire thing yourself. Time = money.

Read second post here. Seems lot of performance restrictions that will affect performance in general.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=139688

Thanks. So maybe an even better idea is to build a PC and beat both a NAS and the PI.

Having said that, if the PI is hardwired to the TV, presumably it’s not a problem?

I’m guessing you will still have the same IO issues restrictions (sata/usb/cpu) plus you will be adding more processing on top of the pi to be a player too.

What do you mean? Sorry I don’t understand

If you connect your PI directly to the TV then the PI will have to do all the decoding and playing of the video files to your TV. This will take up processing resources to handle other tasks such as reading from disks.

i thought you support the if you want it right it wont be cheap phrase, nothing you want to buy supports this…4 TB really ? that drive will be full in no time