QNAP TurboNAS Firmware: 3.5 Deep Dive Part Six: Media Streaming

This is Part Six of our QNAP TurboNAS Deep Dive series and we look at media streaming capabilities. Read on for details!

In Part One of this series, we told you how to set up the ISCSI target functionality in TurboNAS 3.5. In Part Two, we covered adding users. In Part Three, we covered volume management and SMART data. In Part Four, we covered cloud backup services. In Part Five, we covered the remote access capabilities inherent in TurboNAS 3.5.  In Part Six, we’ll cover the media streaming capabilities.

Media Streaming Features

TurboNAS has three main media streaming features: a Twonky media streaming DLNA server, and iTunes server for sharing music, and the Multimedia Station for streaming media over the internet and network to connected devices.

Twonky Media

The current release of Twonky Media being used on TurboNAS is 5.1.6.  Under Application Servers, click on UPnP Media Server and follow the link to the Twonky configuration page.

Here is what you’ll see:

Click on PC Media Browser and you’ll see this:

Click on the wrench for settings and then click on Sharing.  Make sure that your media directories are all listed.  I am only sharing Multimedia here.

If you want to use transcoding of your content, click on Transcoding under Advanced Setup and check off the selections that you want to use.  Be careful here; these devices run on Atom chips and don’t have tons of memory, so your mileage will vary.

That’s it!  I’ve streamed primarily MP4 video (AAC/H.264 encoding) and WMV video files with a combination of PlayStation 3’s, a Sony blu-ray player, my HP TouchPad and various PC’s in the house with very good results.  They content just plays.

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