It's a question that any self-respecting tech geek asks at one point or another. Could I setup my own media network? Okay, so maybe not. Anyway, thanks to our friends at Netgear and Western Digital we were able to take a look at their products and decide just that. Plus, throw in game storage too. Because, well, when you're building a media storage solution. Go big.

Streaming services and cloud storage are currently the two biggest bits of tech when it comes to media and online file storage. Not having to worry about a digital collection stored on a hard drive somewhere and being able to access a vast library of content through various networks is, well, convenient. As is the process of backing up personal non-commercial files and somewhat priceless media. Family photos and what not.

But, we’re not here to talk about that – even though we’ll touch on some of those features of the hardware we’ll be using. Instead, after spending another day looking at our physical movie and TV collection and wondered how difficult it would be to turn that into an interactive media app where the data was all stored locally that we could access from any device - we decided to do just that. And go one step further, what about network storage for games that could be accessed remotely from any PC or laptop on a closed or open network?

Click Here to Read How We Became Our Very Own Netflix and Steam

I think you might need to go and seek some professional help K-Man, this s*** is bats*** crazy

For streaming games from my home PC to wherever, I've found the best combo is Hamachi + Steam In-Home Streaming. Works like a charm.

yeah i do this already. I have synology 1815+ with i5 PC as i need more grunt. I also have 100/40 fibre connection so i have enough upload. only problem really is ping lag.

NUC + Kodi + the Covenant adddon is all you need for media heaven:)

it does look like a sales pitch a tech would make trying to find a use for the hardware

So with this, you could be away from home and access your own media library? or is this just for home use?

well yeah, web based remote access. for device remote access there's like a one-time payup for the priv :/

Emby does streaming much better and you can use a custom video renderer like madvr

I use to run Emby but found Plex was better when you have multiple movies streaming at the same time.

ah ok

i don't serve multiple sessions, the responsiveness of Emby is just quicker than Plex, and the Chromecast link doesn't flake out when pausing and resuming something like plex does, consistently.

plex is probably better for multiple sessions, if you have to think of anyone other than yourself. which really sucks.

Tried Emby, and yeah it's really good but not as feature packed as Plex... for streaming movies and accessing away from home you need to pay for a Plex sub

Used both Plex and Emby extensively and found them to be pretty parity feature-wise, but ended up sticking with Emby for one reason - Plex requires you to sign in through its cloud service to use even local LAN stuff and Emby doesn't.

Also, plex and emby are good as media server software, but using Kodi on the client side is imo better than the plex or emby client apps. Kodi has addons that keep its database in sync with either your emby or plex server; works great.

I have stop using Emby quite a couple of years ago so might go back to it. I bought Plex subscription when it was like $80 for lifetime subscription so is my Emby subscription.

if you install Emby on FreeBSD so you can use ZFS, it's very good

you can probably also install it on a FreeNAS install for all the config and plugin management etc

never heard of Emby until now but might give it a go. I used Plex for a very brief while but as Dan noted the requirement to log in made me give up on it pretty quick so if this does away with it that is a big plus!

This is super cool guide. Is there a cheaper option for the router if you just wanted video streaming?

yeah if you want to do wireless you can get a wifi p2p link with a Mikrotik Wireless Wire

https://shop.duxtel.com.au/images/wAP-60ad-Wireless-Wire_lg.jpg

and then if you need more than one eth with Gb routing at either end of it, plug the ww into a hAP ac with 5 GBe, 802.11ac and 2.4 and 5 wifi modes

https://shop.duxtel.com.au/images/hAPac_dual_band_wireless_desktop_gigabit_router_lg.jpg?osCsid=8poq5a11jp9nsfki2csoa8dsp5

or a hap ac2 lite which is 100mbit, 2.4 and 5ghz wifi

https://shop.duxtel.com.au/images/hAP-ac-lite-TC_lg.jpg