QNAP TS-x51 NAS Series: Intel Quick Sync Gets its Killer App
by Ganesh T S on June 22, 2014 6:45 PM ESTConcluding Remarks
This piece originally started out as a small pipeline article. However, digging deeper into the TS-x51 announcement brought to fore interesting information about Silvermont-based platforms in general (and Bay Trail, in particular). In particular, the appearance of Quick Sync as an update to the Bay Trail-D/-M platforms has opened up a a multitude of use-cases. QNAP has grabbed this opportunity to deliver compelling features in the TS-x51 series. Before proceeding further, I wish to comment upon two different aspects.
Value Proposition of the DIY NAS
In the comments section of every 'off-the-shelf' NAS review, we usually see multiple readers indicating how it would be cheaper to build a DIY NAS with a better CPU and/or more number of bays for the same cost. While I would have agreed with them wholeheartedly 2 or 3 years back, the market dynamics have changed quite a bit now, particularly in the consumer / SOHO NAS market. These units are no longer PCs with a Linux distribution, but more of an appliance.
The increase in popularity of mobile devices for both content consumption and creation (capturing photos and videos using a smartphone camera, say) has resulted in a situation where the NAS OS has to be backed up by a complete suite of mobile apps. These apps have to provide a seamless experience while streaming media from the NAS, as well as backing up data, irrespective of the user's location. This also requires operation of a relay server and/or operation of a DDNS service (with appropriate port forwarding). As far as I can see, a one-stop solution to these problems for DIY NAS units is pretty much non-existent. Obviously, these factors are more important in NAS units targeting home consumers and the SOHO market. Even home consumers who are computer-savvy (the typical AnandTech readership) don't want to spend a lot of time building a NAS, configuring it with the appropriate OS, and be on the hook for regular maintenance. In this situation, the value proposition of a DIY NAS for the consumer / SOHO market segment is fading rapidly.
Consumer NAS Market Marches Ahead
In the concluding remarks of the DS214play review, I had praised Synology for being the first NAS vendor to try to bring hardware-accelerated transcoding for media serving into the market. QNAP has taken on the baton now, and brought the more widely tested and supported Quick Sync into the picture. In a similar manner, QNAP deserves praise for being the first to support hosting of virtual machines on the NAS. These types of interesting applications and innovative use-cases are helping the consumer NAS market march ahead.
The QNAP TS-x51 units also sport HDMI ports and XBMC support. In terms of hardware, it is possible to connect either 5- or 8-bay expansion enclosures using one of the USB 3.0 ports. An IR remote is also available as an optional purchase (the TS-x51 units all have an IR sensor for control of media playback). There are a host of other features. Readers interested in getting a more detailed overview are advised to check out the TS-x51 Series Brochure linked on QNAP's website.
I often get asked for NAS recommendations, and irrespective of the use-case, I have always recommended Synology units over the past few years. The reliability and mobile app ecosystem of Synology's DSM has simply remained unparalleled till now. If QNAP manages to deliver on the paper specifications of the TS-x51 (particularly with respect to the video transcoding and virtualization features) and back it up with a good suite of feature-rich mobile apps, Synology might end up with some real competition to worry about in the home consumer / power user / SOHO market.
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ganeshts - Sunday, June 22, 2014 - link
The 'killer app' tag line was written from a HTPC / media-centric perspective. For a long time, users wanted QS to be taken advantage of by Plex. As a media transcoder, QS's potential was pretty much not taken advantage of by non-proprietary applications (OS X - Has Apple even exposed QS functionality to developers? Last I remember seeing, HandBrake on OS X doesn't support QS -- may have changed recently ; Remote Desktop acceleration using QS is not exactly media, but, yes, playback to AppleTV is a valid application wrapped in something proprietary).Another major point I wanted to convey in the piece was that Intel's VA-API efforts (making QS accessible through open APIs on Linux) has finally paid off in the consumer market.
Finally, I couldn't probably tag it as 'Killer App for Media Applications' -- that would just make it too long :)
shank15217 - Sunday, June 22, 2014 - link
Virtualization station is damn useful, imagine a open vpn server or even a samba domain server. If qnap develops this feature a bit more it would essentially make it one of the best soho nas out there.Beany2013 - Wednesday, July 2, 2014 - link
I'd be concerned about resource usage - VMs are different to apps, in that they host the entire OS, crud and all.I'd rather drop the relevant SAMBA domain packages into the NAS, than put it in a full debian VM, chewing resources that it doesn't need; the NAS already emulates the filesystem, why blow (limited) resources making the guest OS also have to do this?
That said, I can see the benefits for some purposes, but it's pretty niche IMHO, until this class of device comes with a minimum of 4gb of RAM, which is by far the biggest limiter here. I'd never want an unattended full install of Windows 7 in a VM, for example, have you seen how big the WinSXS folder can get and how much disk access it can chew up when it's doing housekeeping tasks? Pretty much every time my scabby old (SSD equipped) Macbook starts dragging, it's because the Windows VM I use for troubleshooting has decided it's time to start pissing about with windows update - and not having a Windows (or any, frankly) unattended VM updated is just asking for trouble....
I like having the option, but I don't think I'd use it!
RoboKaren - Sunday, June 22, 2014 - link
FreeNAS running on FreeBSD. About the only thing it doesn't have is virtualization (it does have jails). And I trust ZFS (RAIDZ2) more than RAID5/6.ganeshts - Sunday, June 22, 2014 - link
Mobile apps for on-the-go access? The market segment where that is important is what is being targeted by these types of appliances.tuxRoller - Monday, June 23, 2014 - link
Not sure why you went with wowza when you could have just grabbed vlc and have it handle the quick syncing:)ganeshts - Monday, June 23, 2014 - link
Is that available on Linux? I see Windows support was added last year....tuxRoller - Monday, June 23, 2014 - link
Vaapi has had transcoder support for more than a year, now. The problem has been apps who don't use proper frameworks but their own solutions.For instance, you can use the latest transmageddon (which uses gstreamer 1.4.x) to access quick sync functions. If you feel up to it you can even roll your own pipelines for custom accelerated transcoding by using the commandline tools gstreamer provides.
In the future, go to some of the open source forums and ask for recommendations (don't take what commenters say as gospel). Not trying to lecture you:)
You'd be amazed at what's available (for instance, I'd disagree with your final page summation that you can't still "throw" Linux onto a nas and get comparable features to what you've shown here).
For info, irc is usually the best, but even the Ubuntu forums have vast numbers of knowledgeable folks.
AT might think about asking someone immersed in oss to chime in from time to time.
ganeshts - Monday, June 23, 2014 - link
I am yet to see a Linux-based DIY build which is backed up by a good suite of mobile apps (similar to what Synology and QNAP are providing). All that I see in the various forums are ways to access the mobile interface of the NAS's web UI.Is there some way to automatically back up the photos that I am taking on my smartphone to, say, a FreeNAS-based (or some other similar) OS ? Any mobile app which can access content on my DIY NAS and get it to my smartphone or tablet with the appropriate hardware-accelerated transcoding at the NAS end ? For the latter, Plex could potentially be useful, but they are not bringing hardware acceleration into the picture at all.
lmcd - Monday, June 23, 2014 - link
All I know: that's pretty obnoxious that first-stepping Bay Trail didn't get this. All those "Full Windows" tablets could be doing a whole lot better now if Intel shipped the product in its finished state.If AMD or Nvidia did this, there'd be a lot more coverage.