Create A Media Center Solution – Thecus N4810

Conclusion & Pricing

Pricing

Depending on your location, it can still be a bit difficult to find this exact NAS model, but that will change very shortly as more stock rolls out to the suppliers. At the time of writing, I could find the Thecus N4810 at TigerDirect for $495.99 and at Insight for £453.59, for example.

Conclusion

I’ve been using the Thecus N4810 for a couple of weeks now as my main source of media and it has been a huge joy. It performs flawlessly in all areas and comes with plenty of applications to serve any users needs – and it does so while being 4K capable.

The hardware is truly a solid base for a media center. The quad-core Celeron N3160 CPU performs great and the 4GB memory that it comes with is more than enough with plenty to spare for other features and apps such as cloud usage, backups, and normal cross-platform file sharing. Getting the files you already have onto the new NAS is a breeze too and you have plenty of options such as plain file copy over the network, FTP file transfers, and also synchronization.

Once the server has been installed with drives and powered on, the user, shares, and app installation are jobs which are quickly done and then you can start to enjoy your new Thecus powered media center. Whether you prefer Plex or Emby, Thecus supports both kinds of server and client versions. Both feature more or less the same things, so it comes down to the rest of the devices and which subscriptions you might have already. Both of them also support UPnP/DLNA streaming and Thecus also added dedicated apps for this in case you don’t want either of these installed.

One of the key benefits on the Thecus NAS is the connectivity. With HDMI and DisplayPort you can enjoy up to 4K video resolutions and media playback directly on any screen with the appropriate connector. You can also get digital sound to your amplifier through the SPDIF port for the complete experience.

We have two main choices when it comes to direct playback of media to our screen via the Thecus N4810 NAS: KODI and VLC. KODI is formerly known as XMBC and it is one of the most complete and comprehensive media solutions you can get. As it is, it’s already capable of managing your media library and it can be expanded with thousands of add-ons for everything from subtitles to streaming services. The second option is to use VLC which is my all time general media player and I think it is an application that most of our readers are familiar with already.

No matter which of the above methods you chose, or all of them, the addition of your media library is another easy task. For the most part, the apps will identify the content based on folder and file names and on the occasions where that fails, you can create NFO files with links to the appropriate show or movie and thereby tell the apps how to identify the content and where to look up the information for it.

Pros

• Quick and Easy to set up
• Plex, Emby, Twonky, KODI, VLC, and more media server and players available
• Generally a stable and easy-to-use NAS operating system
• 4K DisplayPort and HDMI output
• Digital audio output
• Quad-core x86 CPU and upgradable memory
• Remote control abilities of almost anything
• Streaming to almost any device

Cons

• No IR remote control – but you get smartphone and tablet apps instead

“Whether you like the basics with just a UPnP server and VLC playback or you rather want to use Emby, Kodi, Twonky, or Plex – The N4810 does it all and it does so with a UHD-4K resolution.”

Thank you Thecus for providing us with the hardware.