Dealectric

Cheapest NAS for Infuse on an Apple TV 4K (2026)

Updated 2026-11-08

Short answer. Any gigabit 2-bay NAS direct-plays a 4K remux to Infuse on a wired Apple TV; the proven cheapest is Synology's DS223j (about $210, 115 MB/s measured over SMB). Buy the UGREEN NASync DH2300 ($239.99; buy: https://dealectric.com/go/ugreen-nasync-dh2300), $239.99 diskless on 2026-11-03, if the $30 buys what you want: NFS as well as SMB (the fallback Infuse users reach for when SMB stutters), 4 GB of RAM, 31–35 dBA and about 9.5 W idle, and an HDMI port. Nobody has published an Infuse-plus-UGOS test, so the claim rests on standard shares, not a review.

What to know: a UHD remux averages about 55–82 Mbps and peaks at 128 Mbps, and every box here reads 100–115 MB/s (800–900 Mbps) over gigabit, so the NAS is never the limit, the Wi-Fi is: wire the Apple TV (the 2026 Apple TV 4K is $299 with Gigabit Ethernet). Infuse Pro is $1.99 a month, $16.99 a year or $99.99 lifetime and plays MKV/ISO/BDMV with HEVC, Dolby Vision profiles 5 and 8 (profile 7 discs need remuxing to 8), HDR10+, and decodes TrueHD and DTS-HD to multichannel PCM, but TrueHD Atmos and DTS:X do not pass through on tvOS. TerraMaster's F2-212 ($169.99 list) is likely cheaper still with 1 GB RAM and TOS; the DH2300 has no Docker. At 55–80 GB a film, an 8 TB drive holds 100–145 remuxes, and drives now cost more than the box.

Where to buy

Published 2026-11-03 · prices checked 2026-11-03.

ModelCPU / RAMLAN and sharesMeasured SMB readNoise / idle powerWarrantyPriceCode
UGREEN NASync DH2300
Buy: https://dealectric.com/go/ugreen-nasync-dh2300		Rockchip RK3576 8-core ARM, 4 GB1× 1GbE; SMB, NFS, AFP, WebDAV, FTP; HDMI 4K60; UGREEN tvOS app; no Dockerabout 110–115 MB/s (Digital Camera World, via search)31–35 dBA idle/light, 38–41 heavy (NASCompares); 9.5 W idle2 years$239.99No discount code applies.
UGREEN NASync DXP2800
Buy: https://dealectric.com/go/ugreen-nasync-dxp2800		Intel N100, 8 GB2.5GbE; SMB/NFS; Docker (Plex/Jellyfin if you later need transcoding)not foundabout 7 W idle2 years$389.99No discount code applies.
Synology DS223jRealtek RTD1619B, 1 GB1GbE; SMB/NFS; DSMabout 115 MB/s read and write (StorageReview); just over 100 MB/s (TechARP)not read2 yearsabout $209.99 (aggregator, undated); $190 at launch; $152–162 sale lows reportedNot sold through Dealectric; listed for comparison.
TerraMaster F2-212Realtek RTD1619B, 1 GB1GbE; SMB/NFS; TOSsaturates gigabit on large files (HotHardware)10.4 W idle, 21.1 W access2 years$169.99 list; $118.99 on an undated dealNot sold through Dealectric; listed for comparison.
Synology DS223RTD1619B, 2 GB1GbEgigabit-limited (Dong Knows)not read2 yearsabout $285.99 (aggregator); $250 MSRPNot sold through Dealectric; listed for comparison.
QNAP TS-233Cortex-A55 4-core, 2 GB1GbEnot foundnot read2 yearsabout $219 (unverified)Not sold through Dealectric; listed for comparison.
Asustor Drivestor 2 Lite (AS1102TL)Realtek RTD1619B, 1 GB2.5GbEnot foundnot read3 yearsno US price found (€190 / £167)Not sold through Dealectric; listed for comparison.

Rows marked with a code and buy link are products Dealectric lists: the price was verified on the brand's own US store on 2026-11-07 and the code is tested daily in that brand's cart; the date shown is its last pass (last check 2026-11-13). The other rows (Asustor, QNAP, Synology, TerraMaster) are included so the comparison is complete; their figures and prices were read from the makers' own US pages on 2026-11-03 and are not re-checked daily. The buy links are affiliate links: they open the brand's official US store at no cost to the shopper, and the commission pays for the testing; see the disclosure.

What Infuse plays, and what it does not

Firecore lists MKV, MP4, M2TS/TS, ISO, BDMV and VIDEO_TS with H.264, HEVC, AV1 and VC-1; HDR10, HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision profiles 5 and 8; TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, DTS, AC3, E-AC3, FLAC and PCM, with Atmos passthrough only in its E-AC3 form. Dolby Vision profile 7 (UHD discs) is dual-layer and Apple hardware does not play it, so the community remuxes to profile 8.1 (MEL discs convert cleanly, FEL discs lose their enhancement layer); check how your files are labelled. Lossless audio is decoded to up to 7.1 24-bit LPCM, so a receiver gets the channels but not the Atmos objects. Sources: SMB, NFS, FTP/SFTP, WebDAV, UPnP, plus Plex, Jellyfin and Emby, none of which are needed for direct play.

Why the NAS is not the bottleneck

Direct play is a file copy at the film's bitrate: about 7–10 MB/s average and 16 MB/s at a 128 Mbps peak, against 100–115 MB/s from any of these boxes over gigabit. Infuse forum threads about 4K remuxes spinning are almost all Wi-Fi or SMB-signing cases, and the fixes are Ethernet, NFS, or SMB settings. ARM boxes are weak only for transcoding, which Infuse never asks for; buy a 2.5GbE or Intel box only if a second client (a phone away from home, a browser) will need transcoding later, where the DXP2800 ($389.99) with Plex or Jellyfin in Docker is the step-up.

Drives and the Apple TV

At 55–80 GB per remux, two 8 TB NAS drives in RAID 1 hold roughly 100–145 films; 8 TB IronWolf listings ran about $281–350 and WD Red Plus about $355–400 in 2026 (undated), so the drives cost more than any NAS on this page. The Apple TV 4K has no USB port, so a NAS or a computer sharing SMB/NFS is the only way to feed Infuse a local library; the new 2026 Apple TV 4K (A19, 128 GB, Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 7) is $299 on pre-order at Apple, and the 2022 models rose to $199 (Wi-Fi) and $249 (Ethernet) in June 2026 per a third-party report.

Sources

Published 2026-11-03; figures for other brands read on 2026-11-03; our prices verified 2026-11-07. Corrections welcome at [email protected] or /feedback.