Real World Use of the TVS-x82T

[rpacker]

I have been considering the purchase of a TVS-1282T for my media studio, but have been surprised to not find ANY information about how these units are fully utilized with their multimedia capabilities. What are the three HDMI ports used for and what kind of a audio-visual setup might take advantage of these ports for HD and 4K? What type of NAS applications output HMDI and how are they integrated into a studio or home system? Are video editors using the TB ports and how are they are configured with two computers? Are studios using both TB and 10GB connectivity simultaneously and how might that improve speed? There are lots of unanswered questions for someone learning about high-end NAS systems and it would be so great to hear from the practitioners or hobbyists out there who fully use the functionality of a multimedia NAS system such as the TVS-x82T.

Thanks! Randall

[dolbyman]

most questions have been answered here on the forum

I can't speak for "studios" but some photo and video semi professionals have posted here and are using TB connections.

- 3 HDMI ports are for HD station (video playback) and VM station and/or Surveilance Station on several monitors at the same time
- I would generally not use QNAP boxes for direct (4K) video playback, some people have issues with formats of the video or audio used. (wonky/non working 4k 60p / and HD audio output)
- More infos about what apps are using HDMI can be found in the manual and plenty of FAQs that QNAP has on their website

- TB in QNAPs implementation works as a direct network connection between one computer and the QNAP and cannot be chained with other TB devices
- So for single Computers attached to QNAP you can use TB, but if you want more than one computer working on the QNAP, use 10GB Ethernet.

[rpacker]

Thanks Dolbyman for your responses. It would be great to have some specific links but I appreciate your suggestions/ideas.

Regarding TB, if the QNAP is a NAS and a DAS, why would you not use TB when there are two or more computers on the network, doesn't that defeat the purpose of the TB? It is my understanding you can connect two computers via TB, but I suspect they each need to be connected directly to the two ports. It is because of the lack of daisy chaining that I haven't yet purchased one, as I can't fully dedicate a TB port on either of my computers in my studio. This is not a good design in my opinion.

[dolbyman]

here is a forum thread that discusses the TB issue

viewtopic.php?f=45&t=120886&p=569807

[rpacker]

Thanks for the link. I had heard about this and it sounds like a truly horrifying experience trying to integrate QNAP TB with an existing TB configuration. When I called QNAP sales support, they told me they don't even have a Mac with Thunderbolt in their office! So even the people who work at QNAP are relatively clueless about the implications of TB. I suspect you have to call their corporate headquarters in Europe or Asia to learn anything definitive about QNAP TB. So it is ironic that they claim to be an innovator but have really not been able to educate their customers properly. If there are any QNAP people reading this forum, I would love to be corrected, but thus far, I haven't been able to speak with anyone who knows anything beyond what is in their marketing info.

[schumaku]

Zero rocket science know-how required:

The QNAP NAS does support a dedicated TB2 connection Mac <-> NAS only for now. Even if there are multiple TB2 ports on the NAS, these are not bridged - both TB2 ports on the NAS backplane are dedicated host ports - very similar to the ie. two TB2 ports on a MBP up to the six TB2 ports on a Mac Pro ... where all are host ports, not part of a single TB daisy chain, too.

This is very similar to high-end video processing and rendering units with TB/TB2 connections by the way ... and many other high-end or even entry level TB2 block storage devices, by far not every TB/TB2/TB3 device does have two bridged ports allowing TB daisy chaining.

[rpacker]

Thanks so much for the information. I see you have posted 12 hours later than US EST, are you from the Taiwan QNAP headquarters? I am curious about this because I have never received such an informative response from the LA office.

[schumaku]

Thanks so much for the information. I see you have posted 12 hours later than US EST, are you from the Taiwan QNAP headquarters? I am curious about this because I have never received such an informative response from the LA office.

Not a QNAP employee - just an active community member here.

Beyond, I don't have really the bigger picture (yet) why it should not be possible to operate the QNAP QTS NAS Thunderbolt 2 reliably at the end of a TB2 daisy chain, like for example

Mac <-TB2-> Block Storage Device or Display with daisy chain ports <-TB2-> NAS

One set-up which does not work (unless I'm very wrong - no multi TB2 port Mac at hand for testing) is for example...

MacA <-TB2-> MacB <-TB2-> TB-BlockStorage

...the Mac A wont see the Block Storage device, because of the two TB2 ports on the MacB are not daisy chained AFAIK. So the NAS is very similar to the Mac itself.

For the kind of scaled set-up you are behind, I'd stay far away from TB2/USB3.1/TB3 - instead,I would suggest a NAS with multiple 10 GbE or a single 40 GbE interface, a 10 GbE switch (with two to four 10 GbE in a trunk to the NAS) resp. a 10 GbE switch with a 40 GbE uplink. The advantages are obvious (I hope): No daisy chain cabling, no daisy chain units causing issues, full bandwidth 10+10 GbE available per client.

[rpacker]

Great advice.

I have also been seeking advice regarding a hybrid system: DAS for video and audio file workspace, NAS for backup. NAS could be also used for workspace for text documents, etc., that don't need a lot of bandwidth. I have floated this idea around but no one seems to think it's a good idea. Why try and do everything on one big NAS, rather than a hybrid file allocation between multiple storage devices that are best suited for a specific purpose. You could then get by on a 1GE for the NAS, and TB2 for DAS. Then, you also scale up to DAS TB3 without having to reinvest in another NAS. What do you think? Makes sense to me!

[schumaku]

Hybrid is great - however, don't mix production/live data with backup on the same NAS, the same enclosure, the same storage sub-system.

[rpacker]

I was planning on keeping files in separate volumes on the same NAS enclosure to avoid mixing DAS backups with active file space. Is that what you mean?