Infrant ReadyNAS + TwonkyVision

Wed, May 23, 2007 (Rating: 5 stars, Click to rate this article!) Loading ...

Note: For those confused by the names below. ReadyNAS is a line of NASs from Infrant that are very popular. TwonkyVision’s TwonkyMedia is a popular addon to the ReadyNAS NV/+ series that allow it to fully support UPnP A/V and stream pictures, music and media off the device to compliant devices on your network.

For those of you interested in the NAS market, and looking at a ReadyNAS because of it’s support for UPnP A/V via TownkyVision’s TwonkyMedia Product, this post is for you.

A lot of folks have been waiting for a long time for TwonkyMedia 4.3 release to make it onto the ReadyNAS NV/+ series (because it added some features and specifically fixed some streaming issues with XBox 360). There were a lot of betas during that time but none of them came out for the ReadyNAS. There was some speculation that something was going on, but it seems the Infrant Team has released TwonkyMedia 4.3 for the ReadyNAS available here.
Folks that installed 4.3 right away noticed that it totally screws up the ordering and listing of media in seemingly random ordering and are downgrading back to the 4.2.1 release.
IanSav pointed out that Infrant should be ready to announce their RAIDiator 4 series firmware here soon as they have been hinting at it. The RAIDiator firmware is the brain of the Infrant NAS’s and encompasses all the functionality of the devices. No news on when 4 will come out, or what’s in it yet (I’ll keep you posted).

So it looks like I’m going to wait a bit longer and see what happens with the following items:

When is RAIDiator 4 coming out and what does it add?
Will TwonkyVision fix some of these issues with TwonkyMedia?

Then I think I’ll be ready to commit to a ReadyNAS device for the PS3 UPnP A/V update!

Update #1: Looks like RAIDiator 4 will be coming out with a beta in a few weeks and the acquisition of Infrant by Netgear won’t stop it’s release. No word yet if it’s a flash-able upgrade for existing boxes.

Update #2: Nice, looks like part of the additions in RAIDiator 4 will be the addition of SSH.

Update #3: ConfirmedÂ by yoh-dah from the Infrant team that RAIDiator 4 will be upgradable on any of the existing ReadyNAS devices out

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This post was written by:

Riyad Kalla - who has written 1615 posts on The “Break it Down” Blog.

Ultimately I just want to provide a resource that folks find useful.

7 Comments For This Post

Mark Says:
May 23rd, 2007 at 5:57 pm

TwonkyVision 4.3 has already been fixed regarding the “ordering and listing of media in seemingly random order”. I believe this was affecting Xbox 360 owners anyway, I don’t know about the PS3. The fix is in the current download of TwonkyVision 4.3 from what I’ve read on either the Infrant or Twonky forums.

I’d really like to see support for iSCSI in RAIDiator, it’d be sweet to have NAS data accessible as a local drive!

Riyad Kalla Says:
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:13 pm

Mark,
That’s great news, thanks for the heads up. Sounds like 4.3 is out, and looking good then.

Grant Gochnauer Says:
May 24th, 2007 at 5:06 am

Riyad,
Great post. I believe RAIDiator 4 will support arrays larger than 2TB. Right now if you have 4 750GB drives or 4 1TB drives, you have an issue where it will only give you 2TB of space total. This will be fixed in version 4.0. I’m waiting to add my 4th 750GB drive until this is released.

-Grant

Mark Says:
May 24th, 2007 at 11:04 am

Grant,

Yes supporting arrays larger than 2TB has become a necessity for many. I’m really looking forward to see what other new features are in store with RAIDiator 4, let’s hope it’s not a let down! I’m holding out on getting an ReadyNAS NV+ until I see what changes with the update! Again I’d really like to see iSCSI support or AoE (ATA over Ethernet).

jmirabil Says:
June 21st, 2007 at 10:30 am

I have a ReadyNAS NV+ and was debating installing the Twonkyvision Add-On. Do you need to have a purchased Twonkyvision licnese to use it or is it a “free benefit” if you load the add-on binfile into the NV+. How would I remove the binfile if I did not want it for some reason… I am currently using EzlinkNG from http://www.ezlinkng.com (got a free license for that, hence the interest in a free Twonky+NV+ license), and would like to have the mediaserver software INSIDE my NAS, not on another computer—so Twonkyvision would be ideal, assuming it suppported all my KISS DP-50x and DP-600 devices I use.
Any advice/input to help? Do I have to pay 30 euros to try thr NV+ Twonky solution? I’m not even sure of it’s compatibility with my KISS DP-500/508/600 (now linksys)media devices…
Advice/amswers? thx much!

Riyad Kalla Says:
June 21st, 2007 at 10:51 am

Twonky is a separate product, $40 I believe… which sucks because the ReadyNAS is suppose to do what Twonky does already, but doesn’t do it right for some reason. There is some hope that they fix the issues with the new RAIDiator 4.0 firmware coming out, but that seems to have been delayed forever and now with the Netgear buyout, who knows what is coming or not coming from Infrant anymore.

Honestly if you wanted media streaming, I’d just say buy Twonky and be done with it.

Also twonky offers a 30-day trial, so just download it and install it and see if it works and remove it if it doesn’t.

I tried it on my laptop for a few weeks, but haven’t tried it on the NAS yet. I will probably get around to doing that soon… one of the reasons I haven’t tried it on the NAS yet is I have yet to find a good program that can convert my videos to PS3-friendly format so I *can* stream them in the first place… so I gotta figure that issue out first.

divemaul Says:
July 1st, 2007 at 1:59 pm

Both of these programs work great! They are both free!

DVD to MP4 Converter
http://handbrake.m0k.org

Media Server
http://www.tversity.com

Mark Says:
May 23rd, 2007 at 5:57 pm
TwonkyVision 4.3 has already been fixed regarding the “ordering and listing of media in seemingly random order”. I believe this was affecting Xbox 360 owners anyway, I don’t know about the PS3. The fix is in the current download of TwonkyVision 4.3 from what I’ve read on either the Infrant or Twonky forums.

I’d really like to see support for iSCSI in RAIDiator, it’d be sweet to have NAS data accessible as a local drive!
Riyad Kalla Says:
May 23rd, 2007 at 7:13 pm
Mark,
That’s great news, thanks for the heads up. Sounds like 4.3 is out, and looking good then.
Grant Gochnauer Says:
May 24th, 2007 at 5:06 am
Riyad,
Great post. I believe RAIDiator 4 will support arrays larger than 2TB. Right now if you have 4 750GB drives or 4 1TB drives, you have an issue where it will only give you 2TB of space total. This will be fixed in version 4.0. I’m waiting to add my 4th 750GB drive until this is released.

-Grant
Mark Says:
May 24th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Grant,

Yes supporting arrays larger than 2TB has become a necessity for many. I’m really looking forward to see what other new features are in store with RAIDiator 4, let’s hope it’s not a let down! I’m holding out on getting an ReadyNAS NV+ until I see what changes with the update! Again I’d really like to see iSCSI support or AoE (ATA over Ethernet).
jmirabil Says:
June 21st, 2007 at 10:30 am
I have a ReadyNAS NV+ and was debating installing the Twonkyvision Add-On. Do you need to have a purchased Twonkyvision licnese to use it or is it a “free benefit” if you load the add-on binfile into the NV+. How would I remove the binfile if I did not want it for some reason… I am currently using EzlinkNG from http://www.ezlinkng.com (got a free license for that, hence the interest in a free Twonky+NV+ license), and would like to have the mediaserver software INSIDE my NAS, not on another computer—so Twonkyvision would be ideal, assuming it suppported all my KISS DP-50x and DP-600 devices I use.
Any advice/input to help? Do I have to pay 30 euros to try thr NV+ Twonky solution? I’m not even sure of it’s compatibility with my KISS DP-500/508/600 (now linksys)media devices…
Advice/amswers? thx much!
Riyad Kalla Says:
June 21st, 2007 at 10:51 am
Twonky is a separate product, $40 I believe… which sucks because the ReadyNAS is suppose to do what Twonky does already, but doesn’t do it right for some reason. There is some hope that they fix the issues with the new RAIDiator 4.0 firmware coming out, but that seems to have been delayed forever and now with the Netgear buyout, who knows what is coming or not coming from Infrant anymore.

Honestly if you wanted media streaming, I’d just say buy Twonky and be done with it.

Also twonky offers a 30-day trial, so just download it and install it and see if it works and remove it if it doesn’t.

I tried it on my laptop for a few weeks, but haven’t tried it on the NAS yet. I will probably get around to doing that soon… one of the reasons I haven’t tried it on the NAS yet is I have yet to find a good program that can convert my videos to PS3-friendly format so I *can* stream them in the first place… so I gotta figure that issue out first.
divemaul Says:
July 1st, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Both of these programs work great! They are both free!

DVD to MP4 Converter
http://handbrake.m0k.org

Media Server
http://www.tversity.com

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