# Local streamer for home theatre



## jack121 (Aug 25, 2021)

Hi and thanks for reading. I am looking for a local hard drive player for use in home theatre, something that can support an internal 8 tb hard drive via sata port connection.

There are plenty of streamers and hard drive players but most do not support internal drives. Most have hard drive support via external usb. Don't want to use usb as it degrades the audio and video.
 I plugged an external hard drive into my pc via usb 3 port and used it to watch a movie, then i took the hard drive out of its external enclosure and plugged it straight into the motherboard's sata port, immediatly noticed an increase in picture and sound quality. Think it is something to do with the hard drive sata interface interfering with and processing the sata signals from the hard drive into i2s, then into something else, then the pc's usb processing the i2s into something else. Sorry not a techie, it was all way above me. My feeling is the direct into motherboard solution avoids some of this processing
I need a streamer or hard drive player which accepts internal 8 tb hard drive, a high-end quality model with strong processor plenty of ram and features.

Many thanks.


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## Toothless (Aug 25, 2021)

So, basically you want a small desktop with lots of storage.


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## TheLostSwede (Aug 25, 2021)

Sorry, but do you even know what I²S is?
This post reads like a bunch of mumbo jumbo you picked up from some A/V geek site that is utter BS.

First of all, computer files are encoded as 0's and 1's and digital content either works as intended, or not at all, this isn't analogue technology where a better connection could clean up the picture or audio.
PCs don't really use I²S and it wouldn't be involved in the part where the data moves from an external USB drive to the system, where it's then processed and put out through your graphics card. As such, the only way a USB drive could have a detrimental effect on the audio and video would be if there's interference between the external drive and the data getting to the PC, i.e. through the cable. This is possible, as some USB cables can be of questionable quality and some USB 3.0 cables can cause interference with 2.4GHz wireless devices.
There's no "USB processing" as the data is never changed from 0's and 1's to something else.

Also, by your logic, anything you download/stream over the internet, would be bad quality...

For audio, PCs tend to use the Intel HD Audio standard, not I²S, however, it's commonly used in ARM based devices, as it's a fairly simple audio interface.
So if you're going for a typical ARM based media player, yes, you'll get audio over I²S.

As to what device to get, what's your budget? Have you considered getting a NAS with HDMI output? QNAP and Asustor has several models that double as media players and you can obviously keep expanding your storage if needed if you get something like this.

These companies might have something that suits your needs otherwise, but it won't save you any money compared to a NAS, but they might look nicer under a TV.





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## Blue4130 (Aug 25, 2021)

TheLostSwede said:


> digital content either works as intended, or not at all,


While I agree with the rest of your post, this part just isn't true. Even though data is ones and zeros, it can still be corrupted and this can manifest in glitches in the video. (but in this case, I don't think this is happening at all)


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## TheLostSwede (Aug 25, 2021)

Blue4130 said:


> While I agree with the rest of your post, this part just isn't true. Even though data is ones and zeros, it can still be corrupted and this can manifest in glitches in the video. (but in this case, I don't think this is happening at all)


Yes, glitches can happen, but that means part of the content is broken as the 0's and 1's are missing. This is why we have error correction that these days can continue to play files like that. Back in the "good old days" you'd just end up with a file that would stop playing at the point you got a glitch. If you were lucky, you could skip past that part and it would continue to play.
This doesn't seem to be the OP's problem though.


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## Athlonite (Aug 25, 2021)

Don't want to use usb as it degrades the audio and video.

Don't know where you heard that from but that's a load of bollocks the only thing that will affect that is the hardware you are using to play it through ie: Poor audio codec (old realtek stuff for example) and low end graphics cards and slow as shit CPU's 


jack121 said:


> then i took the hard drive out of its external enclosure and plugged it straight into the motherboard's sata port, immediatly noticed an increase in picture and sound quality


the only difference between the two is the distance the data has travelled the rest is purely a placebo unless you have screenshots of both to compare to one another that specifically show a difference as the @TheLostSwede has already said it's all 1's & 0's they either get there or the don't

any 3.5" or 2.5" USB3.0 4700~5400rpm HDD has more than enough throughput for 8K video including Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS or Atmos audio heck even my old USB2.0 WD 2TB 5400rpm green HDD has no problem pushing enough data over the USB2.0 bus to play 8K video


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## Jetster (Aug 25, 2021)

As far as USB vs SATA on video and audio there is no processing. Something else is causing the interference.
Not sure what you are referring to as "streamers" but is you could list
your hardware
budget
cabling
monitor

That would help

Guys he's probably using like Chromecast google TV, Fire, Roku  or something like that
"plugged hard drive into a PC"
Of course a PC is going to work better

Build a HTPC or use that computer and set up a Plex server to your Roku (or whatever you have)


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## ThrashZone (Aug 25, 2021)

Hi,
Sata will always be faster than usb3.
Only issue with sata is if you have enough sata ports/ room in the pc case for all your os and storage needs/ cooling seeing externals also have their own cooling systems.


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## Easy Rhino (Aug 25, 2021)

jack121 said:


> I plugged an external hard drive into my pc via usb 3 port and used it to watch a movie, then i took the hard drive out of its external enclosure and plugged it straight into the motherboard's sata port, immediatly noticed an increase in picture and sound quality. Think it is something to do with the hard drive sata interface interfering with and processing the sata signals from the hard drive into i2s, then into something else, then the pc's usb processing the i2s into something else.



More than likely your streaming software (plex, emby,jellyfish?) is downsampling the audio and video when you attached via USB because of limited bandwidth.


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## CityCultivator (Aug 25, 2021)

Easy Rhino said:


> More than likely your streaming software (plex, emby,jellyfish?) is downsampling the audio and video when you attached via USB because of limited bandwidth.


Even that is doubtful.
Downsampling would work if the user is saving data to the drive, while encoding, not when watching.
The data will need to be copied as is from storage to processor for decoding; the stream cannot be selectively skipped while playback.


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## Easy Rhino (Aug 25, 2021)

CityCultivator said:


> Even that is doubtful.
> Downsampling would work if the user is saving data to the drive, while encoding, not when watching.
> The data will need to be copied as is from storage to processor for decoding; the stream cannot be selectively skipped while playback.



Really? If it is a slow USB connection for whatever reason software like plex will lower the quality while streaming. This has happened to me before when streaming across a slow internet connection.


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## CityCultivator (Aug 25, 2021)

Easy Rhino said:


> Really? If it is a slow USB connection for whatever reason software like plex will lower the quality while streaming. This has happened to me before when streaming across a slow internet connection.


Steaming a file from the internet is usually different. The sending server can transcode the content and send a version with a lower bitrate. Like Youtube lowers the quality when you have a low Internet speed.
On a local USB drive, the file cannot be transcoded by the hard drive itself.


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## elghinnarisa (Aug 25, 2021)

Easy Rhino said:


> Really? If it is a slow USB connection for whatever reason software like plex will lower the quality while streaming. This has happened to me before when streaming across a slow internet connection.


But plex still has to read the original file to transcode it to a lower resolution, so it wouldn't fix the "slow USB connection" problem either way. It has to read the whole file to transcode it. 
And either way, its the user that decide what quality plex will transcode at, not plex itself, irrelevant of the setup being capable of doing said work or not. 
For network bandwidth plex can adjust, but it works on a persumption the server is capable of transcoding the material no matter what. Which is not always the case since my plex cannot handle 4k source material without turning in to powerpoint, yet it happily tries to transcode said material because of bandwidth limitations on the network side. Which of course just results in a massive failure.


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## Jetster (Aug 25, 2021)

Lets wait till he responds with what the hell he's using


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## jack121 (Aug 26, 2021)

Thanks. Will have to disagree that connecting a hard drive directly into the motherboard gives better audio and video quality, then compared with going in through a usb port.

I do appreciate your points of view but these are theoretical and inexperienced, my points are from real world testing. May i politely suggest you try my experiment and listen to some music or watch a movie via usb, then remove your hard drive from its enclosure and plug it straight into the motherboard sata, i gaurantee you will be surprised at the result It is a quick and easy test, and will cost you nothing.

Going back to the original question, any streamers or hard drive players with internal sata hdd support.

Many thanks.


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## Jetster (Aug 26, 2021)

Well this thread was a waste of time


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## londiste (Aug 26, 2021)

The most likely reason is simply the combination of how fast this particular USB box can transmit the data and bitrate of the video. If the video cannot be read at a fast enough speed you would see stuttering and glitches.



jack121 said:


> Will have to disagree that connecting a hard drive directly into the motherboard gives better audio and video quality, then compared with going in through a usb port.


As a blanket statement, this is simply incorrect.
Playing a video over different sources is something most in this thread have probably done or do all the time. As long as the source can send data fast enough, it does not matter if it is a local drive, USB drive, network or something else.



ThrashZone said:


> Sata will always be faster than usb3.


SATA will always be faster than USB 2.0. And this is as an interface, not necessarily the drive if we talk about HDDs not SSDs.
USB 3.0 is 5Gbit/s (625MB/s), USB 3.1 doubles that rate and USB 3.2 quadruples it.


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## TheLostSwede (Aug 26, 2021)

jack121 said:


> Thanks. Will have to disagree that connecting a hard drive directly into the motherboard gives better audio and video quality, then compared with going in through a usb port.
> 
> I do appreciate your points of view but these are theoretical and inexperienced, my points are from real world testing. May i politely suggest you try my experiment and listen to some music or watch a movie via usb, then remove your hard drive from its enclosure and plug it straight into the motherboard sata, i gaurantee you will be surprised at the result It is a quick and easy test, and will cost you nothing.
> 
> ...


Sorry, what? I guess you're not aware that people in this forum actually work in the tech industry and are involved in the making of the devices you're using. Then you come here and try to tell us we're wrong? That's just plain rude 

What you're experiencing is called a placebo effect.

Also, you clearly didn't see any of the suggestions I made above, or decided to ignore it, as those are pretty much your options for what you want, unless you're going to build an HTPC.


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## ThrashZone (Aug 26, 2021)

londiste said:


> SATA will always be faster than USB 2.0. And this is as an interface, not necessarily the drive if we talk about HDDs not SSDs.
> *USB 3.0 is 5Gbit/s* (625MB/s), USB 3.1 doubles that rate and USB 3.2 quadruples it.


Hi,
That's great and all but i said faster than usb3 and last I checked my sata are 6Gbit not lower than 5Gbitsso I'll stick with what I said thanks though.
I also do use ssd's for media storage.


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## 1freedude (Aug 26, 2021)

Jetster said:


> Well this thread was a waste of time


I think you used a USB port to view this thread.  If you plug it straight into your S-ATA, the quality will improve, I promise


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## kayjay010101 (Aug 26, 2021)

jack121 said:


> Thanks. Will have to disagree that connecting a hard drive directly into the motherboard gives better audio and video quality, then compared with going in through a usb port.
> 
> I do appreciate your points of view but these are theoretical and inexperienced, my points are from real world testing. May i politely suggest you try my experiment and listen to some music or watch a movie via usb, then remove your hard drive from its enclosure and plug it straight into the motherboard sata, i gaurantee you will be surprised at the result It is a quick and easy test, and will cost you nothing.
> 
> ...


Theoretical and inexperienced? Do you not realize what forum you're in? Talk about ignorant...
I can tell you with 100% certainty that my 4K Blu-Rays that I ripped myself to my Plex server has zero difference being played off either an external hard drive or an internal one. I have backups of all my media on external drives so they're identical - and guess what, they're exactly the same when played.
You're experiencing the placebo effect. You feel like a direct connection _should _be better, so your brain convinces you it is. What you should do is have someone else you know perform a blind test on you and see if you can actually tell the difference before knowing the source first.

If you're still adamant that you *need* a direct SATA connection, get an HTPC.


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## ThrashZone (Aug 26, 2021)

jack121 said:


> Thanks. Will have to disagree that connecting a hard drive directly into the motherboard gives better audio and video quality, then compared with going in through a usb port.
> 
> Going back to the original question, any streamers or hard drive players with internal sata hdd support.
> 
> Many thanks.


Hi,
No offense but you seem to be advocating for usb streaming but asking again about sata streaming lol 

Most here have said usb is just as good 

I say it's not but what ever lol move a long and happy streaming of media how ever the hell you want too


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## Easy Rhino (Aug 26, 2021)

Closing because OP is not willing to listen to suggestions despite asking for them.


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