NAS to video projector - do I need a Raspberry Pi?

Question

My partner and I will be buying an apartment and moving into it soon, and because we don't really watch TV or play on screen-dependant consoles, we're thinking of installing a video projector on the ceiling and using the wall as a screen. A colleague of mine had told me of all the upsides of having a NAS, and it does seem quite advantageous.

I was wondering if it would be possible to hook a NAS (don't know which brand or model I would need) to a videoprojector via an HDMI cable or equivalent, or if I would need to use a computer to link the two together, for example a Raspberry Pi with very basic software installed. Big upside if the setup can also handle audio, both playing alongside the video being sent to the projector, and independantly just as back ground music.

Answer 1

Most NAS don't have HDMI,DisplayPort or etc output. This is your biggest challenge.

Maybe you can find a projector that will connect to your NAS directly, but it is likely your going to find you have limited video format support.

This is where a raspberry Pi or similar comes in handy as you can load Plex or Kodi or one of a hundred other thing onto it which will convert the video for you to whatever your projector supports.

A Pi 4 has wifi support so it could connect to the NAS wirelessly and the Pi 4 has HDMI and an audio port for you to connect to your projectors. You will likely need samba for file sharing.

So the Pi 4 idea will likely offer significantly more options. If you need to decode h264 or h265 you will likely need something faster than a raspberry Pi 4.