A Pretty Good Entertainment Setup

My entertainment setup is relatively simple but I’m happy with it. All my content is stored on a Synology DiskStation DS213 NAS with 2x2TB RAID 0 configured drives. This is hands down the best NAS I’ve ever used. It’s super easy to set up and the interface is awesome (all linux-based).

I’ve set it up with Dynamic DNS/Port Forwarding so it’s accessible from anywhere. The DS213 supports torrenting via the “Download Station” and I use various RSS feeds to automatically download content right on the NAS itself. Pretty regularly I will start a download on the NAS from work(or my phone) so it’s done and waiting to be watched when I get home.

I stream content from the NAS to a Pivos XIOS DS device running XBMC on the local network. This little streamer is officially supported by the XBMC team (Pivos sponsored XBMC development) and so XBMC works with it “out of the box”. After installing XBMC the XIOS easily handles 1080p content and supports all XBMC features (addons for Hulu/Netflix, etc…).

The Pivos is connected to my TV/Sound System and I use an MX-500 Universal Remote to control everything. The MX-500 is a great remote with amazing IR range, you don’t need to point it anywhere near your components for it to work. Also, the macro IR learning features make it very easy to customize.

All in all I really like this setup - it’s simple, requires virtually no maintenance and it works perfectly for what I want.