Top five affordable NAS servers: Home backup made easy

CNET editor Dong Ngo picks his top five advanced affordable NAS servers for home networking backup. 

I can’t stress enough how important it is to have backups of your data. If you have a single computer at home, getting one of these great external drives will get the job done. But if you have multiple computers, it’s actually more economical to get a network attached storage (NAS) device that can take care of the entire network at the same time. 
A NAS server is similar to an external hard drive but instead of connecting to a computer using a peripheral connection (USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt, etc.), it connects to your router (or switch) using a network cable and makes the storage space available to every computer on the network. Apart from acting as a backup destination, a NAS server can also work as a streaming server, file sharing server, and even a personal cloud server, as well as many other functions you can’t find in external hard drives. 
On this list are the top five NAS servers that are affordable and will make a great backup server for a home. They are listed in review order with the latest review on top. 

 

Synology Disk Station DS214se 
When it comes to NAS server, Synology has been the most well-known vendor. Thanks to the DiskStation Manger (DSM) operating system, Synology NAS servers are easily the best on the market in terms of performance, functionality, and reliability. The DS214se is the latest in this crowd. It runs DSM 5.0, and is designed as a budget NAS server for a small home. The server can house two internal hard drives to offer up to 4TB of protected storage space (in RAID 1) and it supports Time Machine natively. It also comes with Data Replicator software for backing up your Windows computer. At the current price of just $160 (diskless) or $340 (4TB included), it’s quite a steal. It’s just as good value in the UK and Australia — it’s available from various resellers with different amounts of storage, but you’ll find it disk-less from around £120 or AU$180. 

 

WD My Cloud EX2 
The My Cloud EX2 is a dual-bay NAS server from WD and is one of the most affordable among dual-bay servers on the market costing just $390 (£366, AUS$400) for 4TB (6TB and 8TB servers also exist). While it doesn’t offer as many features as the Synology above, the server is very easy to use and will make a great backup server for both Windows and Macs. It also has a very user-friendly personal cloud features for you to access and share data on the go. 

 

WD My Cloud 
The My Cloud is very similar to the My Cloud EX2 above with one exception: it’s a single-bay NAS server. This means it houses only one internal hard drive on the inside and doesn’t have a way to protect data if this drive fails. For this reason, it should only be used as backup drive and not one which holds a single copy of your important data. To make up for this drawback, it’s a very affordable NAS server, currently costing just $150 (£120, AU$220) for 2TB of storage space. 

 

Seagate Central 
Similar to the WD My Cloud above, the Seagate Central is also a single-volume NAS server. The server also supports Time Machine backup natively and comes with backup software for Windows. It’s not as easy to use or as fast as any of the above servers but it’s definitely the most affordable with a current price of just less than $130 (£115, AU$170) for 2TB. 

 

Apple AirPort Time Capsule 
Windows users need not apply, but the Time Capsule is a great backup server for Mac users. In fact, as a storage device, it can’t do much else other than act as the backup destination for Time Machine and share files between multiple computers. The device is easily the least capable NAS server you can find on the market, but for Time Machine backup on a Mac, it’s about as good as can be, especially considering the fact it’s also a 802.11ac Wi-Fi router. So if you use just Macs at home and are also in need of a new router, at the current price of $280 (£250, AU$350) for 2TB (it’s also available in 3TB) the Time Capsule is totally a decent investment. 

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Top five affordable NAS servers: Home backup made easy

Pavtube 40% Off Spirit Halloween Coupons & Discount

Pavtube 40% Off Spirit Halloween Coupons & Discount 
Pavtube launched 40% OFF Halloween Promotion from October 21 to November 6, 2015 when users can get top Video/DVD/BD Converter for Win/Mac with the least money. 
pavtube halloween promotion,halloween special offer, halloween sale 2015 

Halloween is coming. To give you a better Halloween celebration, Pavtube holds 40% off Halloween promotion from October 21 to November 6, 2015. During the period, you can get the professional Blu-ray/DVD Ripper and Video Converter for Win/Mac with less money than any other campaign. 

During Halloween, many people will not just watch Halloween movies but make Halloween videos by themselves. No matter Halloween movies enjoyment or Halloween video production, you probably need a video converter. For example, when you want to play your Blu-ray/DVD Halloween disc on your iPad Pro, Surface Pro 3, you can rip the disc to the device supported format with Pavtube BDMagic or Pavtube DVAid. Another case, you record the Halloween party scene and you are about to upload the camcorder video to Facebook to show your cool dressup, you’d better choose to transcode the camera video to Facebook or Vimeo accepted video with Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate. No matter what situations about video editing and producing, you can find the software you want at Pavtube Studio. 

Pavtube product is closed-source, not like Handbrake. But it deserves to pay for its life-long technical support and update in time to compatible with any Win/Mac system upgrade. Catch this opportunity and enjoy the best video production experience with the least money. 

The price comparison of Pavtube featured products between Halloween price and original price is as below: 

• Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate: Original price $65, Now $52 
• Pavtube BDMagic: Original price $49, Now $34.3 
• Pavtube DVDAid: Original price $35, Now $21 
• Pavtube ByteCopy: Original price $42, Now $33.6

Note: This attractive price will only be get until November 6, 2015. Please bear in mind all software programs will go back to original prices once the Halloween special offer 2015 ends. 

Time-limited. What are you waiting for? Action now!

Pavtube 2015 Halloween Special Offer - Up to 40% Discount

Summary: Pavtube Studio presents big surprice for Halloween celebration with up to 40% discount on Blu-ray & DVD softwares. 

Festivals are always the best opportunities to purchase the goods you were not willing to buy or had no ability to afford in the past days. 2015 Halloween is coming. Are you ready to open your wallet? To make your Halloween celebration even greater, Pavtube Studio has prepared a great Halloween Promotion – we are offering you a generous 40% Discount on our Blu-ray & DVD Softwares (Windows 10 and El Capitan supported). 

 

Since Pavtube Studio offers many kinds of Blu-ray/DVD/Video softwares that you possibly don't know which one to choose, I can make a brief introduction and a recommendation to you. 

Recommendation 1: If you often do video conversion process, you can take Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate and Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac into consideration. It can accept any Halloween movie source, like Blu-ray/DVD disc and 4K/SD/HD online/local video in any format and transform them to nearly any popular video format you have ever seen. 

  

Recommendation 2: For those who have plenty of Blu-ray discs, Pavtube BDMagic and Pavtube BDMagic for Mac will be the best choice. They are cheaper than the recommendation one but supply the same effect on Blu-ray/DVD Halloween movies. 

  

Recommendation 3: DVD owners who just need to rip and backup DVD disc or copy DVD folder, DVD ISO/IFO can focus on Pavtube DVDAid and Pavtube DVDAid for Mac. It only can deal with DVD movies but it is the cheapest item. 

  

Recommendation 4: Pavtube ByteCopy and Pavtube ByteCopy for Mac are for situation that your Halloween Blu-ray/DVD movies have several subtitles and audio tracks and you want to keep all the tracks and chapter markers while ripping and copying the discs. What's more, it enables you to extract FLAC/WAV audio from Blu-ray audio disc and extract SRT subtitle from Blu-ray movies. 

  

Think about which one is the best choice for you so that you can solve your video conversion problem with the least money. Don't waste the money-saving chance on Halloween. Just do it!

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Pavtube 2015 Halloween Special Offer – Up to 40% Discount 
Up to 40% OFF Blu-ray/DVD/Video Tools - Pavtube Halloween Best Seller 

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Pavtube 2015 Halloween Special Offer – Up to 40% Discount

Rip my Blue-ray/DVD collection to a WD My Cloud Network disk for storage

Summary: Looking for a quick way to rip BD/DVDs? Maybe you have a crap load of Blu-ray/DVDs in your movie collection, let's learn how to backup Blu-ray/DVD on WD My Cloud. 

I have a DVD/Blue Ray collection and have recently purchased a WD My Cloud Network disk – I need a program to rip my collection and any future Blue ray discs I buy onto this network server. The main benefit is the ability to view my blue ray/dvd collection from any smart TV in the house. In conjunction with the WD My Cloud disk I should be able to stream videos on holiday which will be great for the kids. 

Through a google search on the internet, I find Pavtube BD/DVD copying program. I used your 30 day trial option to test out the software to make sure it worked – other software packages did not have this trial feature and Pavtube was the first that I managed to get working so I went with them. I tried out other software product but found Pavtube is the easiest to work with. Overall, Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate can remove the disc protection and copy source disc to computer hard drive with same structure preserved. 

Full guide: Make 1:1 Copy Blu-ray/DVD disc on WD My Cloud with Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate 

Step 1. Install the BD/DVD Backup Tool on your PC. 

Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate/iMedia Converter for Mac is an excellent BD/DVD backing up tool that can make 1:1 copy of your source BD/DVD with original structure including extras and menus. Meanwhile, this app is regarded as a great BD/DVD ripping program and Video Converter to help users convert BD/DVD collections and various videos for new how tablets and smartphones including iPad mini, iPad Air, iPhone 5S, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Kindle Fire HDX 7, Google Nexus 7/10 and more. 

Good News! Pavtube Release a New Site - multipelife.com with Product Migration and Name Change. 

To thanks for your continued support, we are holding a 'New Site Special'. You can get20% off Video Converter Ultimate on Windows/Mac platform now. 

Read more: http://video-tips.jimdo.com/2014/05/21/pavtube-new-site-release/ 

Step 2. Launch the best BD/DVD backup tool, and load your Blu-ray or DVD movie from disc drive to the app. 

 
Step 3. Click the “Browse” button to set output folder where you want to save the copied Blu-ray and DVD movies. 

Step 4. Hit the Copy the entire disc icon on Video Converter Ultimate main interface and start Blu-ray/DVD backing up process. 

Tips: 
1. If you’d like to copy only movie content and leave out the extras and commentary, theDirectly Copy is exactly what you need, which copies intact .M2TS/VOB main movie from original BD/DVD disc without extras. 

 
2. There are various output profile presets. 

Many people like me own would love to enjoy movies and TV shows from physical discs to more than one mobile phone and tablet. You can count on Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate because it offers so many output formats that you would find the suitable one eventually. 

The general format is "H.264 Video(*.mp4)" from "Common Video" option. 

 
Tips: 

If you have special requirements on target video, click “Settings” to customize video size, bitrate, frame rate and sample rate. 

3. Video Editor available in this converter. 

Another reason I like Pavtube is it ships with many video editing features, and usually I use it to cut off black bars of original Blu-rays and play full screen on my HD TV at home. Besides, it does more than that. It trims off unwanted commercials from TiVo recordings, add watermarks as copyright protection to your source file, and more. 

For example, if you want to get wide screen or smaller size, you can turn to the crop option to do settings before copying to my WD cloud device. 

 
4. Other small but essential functions. 
Pavtube application takes advantage of the NVIDIA CUDA technology and AMD APP technology, and the conversion speed can be increased up to 6 times faster than ever before. Moreover, Pavtube programs support adding *.srt and *.ass subtitles into video and merge into one file for output. 

5. Support 3D SBS effect. 

After updating to latest Video Converter Ultimate, I find that it supports 3D SBS export now and I can preserve 3D effect in saved MKV, MP4 and MOV files. 

Overall, this is an all-in-one program of Blu-ray Ripper,DVD Ripper and Video Converter. Now you can freely transfer your backed up Blu-ray/DVDs for watching on portable tablets. 

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Rip my Blue-ray/DVD collection to a WD My Cloud Network

Playing your favorite Blu-ray and DVD movies on TV via Personal Cloud Server

This article shows how to remove your BD/DVD protection and rip them into MP4/MKV format, so that you can playback the movies on TV via my personal cloud server.

My job position is in IT and my hobbies are mostly outdoor stuff. Now I have some personal DVD and BD Collections and I'm looking for a way getting them playable on TV via my personal cloud server. Don't need to keep the original file size as we have limited storage, but want to get pretty good video quality.

We did a lot of researches online and searched for the best video conversion software, finally we got this SW named Pavtube Video Converter Ultimate (Windows based); I like the the multiple choices in formats and ease of use interface. It offers me the best features I need in BD/DVD conversion. The most important thing is it accepts my every disc, which Handbrake and Jack the Ripper couldn't. The Mac version is Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac.

For people who want to backup all the audio tracks or subtitles, you are suggested to try Pavtube ByteCopy or ByteCopy for Mac. Download a trial version and do as follows.

How to rip BD/DVD movies to view on TV via personal cloud server
Step 1. Load disc

Click "Load files(s)" to import DVDs and Blu-rays. Note you need to have an external Blu-ray drive if you want to rip Blu-rays.

Keep Internet connected during importing.



Step 2. Choose format.

Here, I recommend MP4/MKV format as it's most acceptable by most TV. Click "Format" and choose H.264 Video(*.mp4) or MKV(Matroska) Video (*.mkv) from "Common Video" option as below:



Step 3. Adjust output settings (Optional)

Click "Settings" to change video size, bitrate, frame rate and audio specs. I chose "original" size to playback on TV.

Step 4. Start conversion

Click "Convert" in the main interface to start the conversion (batch conversion supported). After conversion, click "Open" which is below the "Settings" to find the converted video.

Use a USB drive to transfer the ripped MP4/MKV media file to TV via personal cloud server, now just enjoy your Blu-ray/DVD movies anytime and anywhere!

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Playing your favorite Blu-ray and DVD movies on TV

Upgrade! Pavtube Mac Now Support El Capitan

Pavtube upgrades with support for Mac OS X El Capitan for all its Mac Blu-ray/DVD/Video products, all media converting, playing and editing issues can be solved on El Capitan with Pavtube Mac Products. 

The newly arrived Mac OS X El Capitan featuring the ability to run multiple apps is fantastic. But people are out of luck to entertain themselves with various media files on the new operating system since most Mac video conversion application are not updated with support for El Capitan. To get all those issues fixed up, Pavtube Studio 
Pavtube Sutio has recently updated all its Mac Blu-ray/DVD/Video products with perfect support for Mac’s new operating system - Mac OS X El Capitan. Products that works compatible well with El Capitan including: Pavtube Video Converter for Mac, Pavtube HD Video Converter for Mac, Pavtube MTS/M2TS Converter for Mac, Pavtube MXF Converter for Mac, Pavtube iMixMXF, Pavtube BDMagic for Mac, Pavtube ByteCopy for Mac, Pavtube DVDAid for Mac, Pavtube iMedia Converter for Mac. 

 

Copy/Backup Blu-ray/DVD on El Capitan 
Have problem to copy/backup Blu-ray/DVD disc on Mac OS X El Capitan, never mind, with Pavtube newly upgraded Blu-ray/DVD products, you will get no difficulty to make a full disc copy or the main movie copy of the original 2D/3D Blu-ray/DVD disc on Mac OS X El Capitan. Besides that, the program also enables you to rip/convert Blu-ray/DVD disc to various different file formats on El Capitan platform for playing on iPhone/iPad/iPod, Android phone and tablets, Windows phones or tablets, game consoles, HD media players, streaming to Apple TV/Amazon Fire TV/Roku, etc. 

Play and edit videos on El Capitan 
Play and edit any video files on Mac OS X El Capitan can also be easily achieved with Pavtube upgraded Mac Video Converter applications. You can effectively convert virtually any file formats including AVI, WMV, MP4, MOV, FLV, VOB, MKV, MKV, MTS, M2TS, Tivo, H.265 in SD, HD, 2K, 4K videos to your desired file formats or devices and programs optimized file formats for better viewing. For camera and camcorder users, you will have a fast and fluid workflow on Mac OS X El Capitan with our program by exporting professional video editing codec such as Apple Prores Codec for Final Cut Pro 6/7/x, Apple Intermediate Codec(AIC) for iMovie/Final Cut Express, DNxHD MOV for Avid Media Composer, After Effects CC/Adobe Premiere Pro/Adobe Premiere Elements/Sony Vegas specially optimized file formats, etc. 

Other downloads: 

BDMagic for Mac 
- Pavtube old official address: http://www.pavtube.cn/blu-ray-ripper-mac/ 
- Cnet Download: http://download.cnet.com/Pavtube-BDMagic/3000-7970_4-76177782.html 

ByteCopy for Mac 
- Pavtube old official address: http://www.pavtube.cn/bytecopy-mac/ 
- Cnet Download: http://download.cnet.com/Pavtube-ByteCopy/3000-7970_4-76177783.html 

iMedia Converter for Mac 
- Pavtube old official address: http://www.pavtube.cn/imedia-converter-mac/ 
- Cnet Download: http://download.cnet.com/Pavtube-iMedia-Converter/3000-2194_4-76177788.html 

Video Converter for Mac 
- Pavtube old official address: http://www.pavtube.com/video-converter-mac/ 
- Amazon Store Download: http://www.amazon.com/Pavtube-Video-Converter-Mac-Download/dp/B00QIBK0TQ 
- Cnet Download: http://download.cnet.com/Pavtube-Video-Converter/3000-2194_4-76179460.html 

HD Video Converter for Mac 
- Pavtube old official address: http://www.pavtube.com/hd-video-converter-mac/ 
- Amazon Store Download: http://www.amazon.com/Pavtube-Video-Converter-Mac-Download/dp/B00QI9GNZS 
- AppStore Download: https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/pavtube-hd-video-converter/id502792488?mt=12 
- Cnet Download: http://download.cnet.com/Pavtube-HD-Video-Converter/3000-2194_4-76177786.html 

MTS/M2TS Converter for Mac 
- Pavtube old official address: http://www.pavtube.com/mts-converter-mac/ 
- Amazon Download: http://www.amazon.com/Pavtube-MTS-M2TS-Converter-Download/dp/B00QIE3U0Y 
- Cnet Download: http://download.cnet.com/Pavtube-MTS-M2TS-Converter/3000-2194_4-76177029.html 

MXF Converter for Mac 
- Pavtube old official address: http://www.pavtube.com/mxf-converter-mac/ 
- AppStore Download: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pavtube-mxf-converter/id502807634?mt=12 
- Amazon Download: http://www.amazon.com/Pavtube-MXF-Converter-Mac-Download/dp/B00QID8K28 
- Cnet Download: http://download.cnet.com/Pavtube-MXF-Converter/3000-2194_4-76177789.html 

iMixMXF 
- Pavtube old official address: http://www.pavtube.com/imixmxf-mac/ 
- Amazon Download: http://www.amazon.com/Pavtube-Studio-iMixMXF-Download/dp/B00QI7MY4Y 
- Cnet Download: http://download.cnet.com/Pavtube-iMixMXF/3000-2194_4-76171460.html 

Further Reading: 
Best Way to Edit Video Files on Mac OS X El Capitan 
Convert Videos on Mac OS X El Capitan with Top Video Converter 
Lossless Backup Blu-ray to MKV on Mac OS X El Capitan 
Convert MXF Files on Mac OS X El Capitan 
3D Blu-ray Main Movie Backup Solution for Mac OS X El Capitan 
Play 4K Videos on Mac OS X El Capitan 

Putting my DVDs to my Personal Cloud

If you have many collected DVD movies and want to share with your friends online, why not put your DVDs on Personal Cloud? Read below article and you will find an easy way.

"My goal is to... Convert my DVD collections into .MP4 so I can put it on my personal cloud for storage (as my present, and I guess future laptop don't have a DVD player), open the video's on my iPad, Laptop and then using APPLE TV mirror them onto any TV. But the only issue is how to get my DVD movies off disc and onto Personal Cloud?"






Although Personal Cloud like WD My Cloud, Seagate's Personal Cloud drive, Toshiba Canvio Personal Cloud, etc. can support a wide range of format like MP4, MOV, AV, due to the reason of lacking DVD drive, it can not meet the demands of put DVD discs via cloudonline. To achieve this goal, an easy-to-use DVD Converter is the key.


Here Pavtube DVDAid is what you need to solve the problem. (Read Top DVD Copy Review) It enables you to rip DVD discs to universal video and audio file types for copying to your Personal Cloud with super fast conversion speed and excellent image and sound quality. What's more, with this DVD ripping tool, you can easily backup your DVD disc with whole content copy or backup main movie only. For Mac users, you can get the mac version. Below I will show you a step-by-step how to get your movies into the personal cloud.

Rip DVD collection to Personal Cloud for backup and sharing

Step 1: Run the DVD Ripper and click "disc" icon to load DVD movies for converting. You can also import movies files from DVD folder, ISO image files.

Tip 1: Before start converting DVD movies, you can backup your DVD contend first with its full disc copy or directly copy features.






Step 2: As Personal Cloud is powerful enough to almost all kinds of formats, you can choose the format according to your own needs like MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, etc.






Tip 2: You can click settings button to customize the output parameters, such as resolution, bitrate, etc, you can also skip this step.






Step 3: After all settings, click convert button to rip/convert DVD to optimized format for Personal Cloud.

Once you've liberated your DVD movie library, you'll make it available for viewing on iPad,WDTV, Xbox One, Roku, etc. anytime, anywhere just with the help of your Personal Cloud. 

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Putting my DVDs to my Personal Cloud