Blu-ray is dead

By Roadrunna
in Home Theatre Discussion

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SakuraKira

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It's ironic I buy $50-60 games (like 2 in a year) but I refuse to pay $40 for a new movie (on BD that is)

You get more for your money when buying a $50 game though. If a game's play time is at least 10 hours, that's about 5 movies, at $200 total if they're all BD. That doesn't even factor in the hours and hours of online play that some games are capable of.

Grand Master

Coldgunner

Posted
Posted
could happen if blu-ray hardware & movies don't fall in price dramatically. Wasn't that what accelerated DVDs onto our screens?

Dvd's took a few years to really crash in price, Blu ray is still considered a 'new' format, blu ray is currently been parrallel to the DVD timeline.

Mentor

NateB1

Posted
Posted

Just FYI - I went to someone's house, and they have a 5.1 surround sound system - with 5 out of 6 speakers in front pointed at them from beside the TV. The other one was on a table somewhere on the side.

If they don't care how their surround system is set up, they certainly won't care if the image is sharper on their TV. DVD is plenty fine for most people - only audiophiles/videophiles can justify spending $$$$$ to set up an HD system.

Grand Master

bdsams Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

it will take off, it will be quite some time before physical media takes off...

If you think about it our generation is the first that accepts buying something doesnt mean having to actually be able to hold it....software, music downloads, ect

Our parents still like physical media and the movie studios will push blu-ray out

Grand Master

Emn1ty

Posted
Posted
I can notice a difference on my 40" set, but true the smaller you go the less important it really gets.

Actually the PS3 will be quickly being phased out as the Blu Ray player to get amongst casuals, as Blu Ray players can now be purchased for cheaper.

For someone not interested in gaming, what's the point in spending the extra cash?

Or someone who isn't invested heavily in specifications, most likely the casuals who in many cases prioritise price over features.

Downloads will always co-inside with physical media for movies, but right now I do not foresee downloads passing physical for the foreseeable future, meaning there HAS to be a physical option on the market, making this whole topic of "is blu ray dead" rather pointless.

The PS3 won't, because for a marginal price increase you get a player that is constantly updated through the web, meaning it will always be up to date with its software making it more future proof than any of the other players. Then throw in the ability to use it as a multimedia device for both digital downloads, music, and gaming you can't beat the PS3 has a home entertainment system. At target the cheapest Blu-Ray players we sell are a mere $50 cheaper than the PS3. At those price people really don't care what is "cheaper" anymore and only want what will last.

Just FYI - I went to someone's house, and they have a 5.1 surround sound system - with 5 out of 6 speakers in front pointed at them from beside the TV. The other one was on a table somewhere on the side.

If they don't care how their surround system is set up, they certainly won't care if the image is sharper on their TV. DVD is plenty fine for most people - only audiophiles/videophiles can justify spending $$$$$ to set up an HD system.

Exactly my point.

Grand Master

+Audioboxer Subscriber²

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The PS3 won't, because for a marginal price increase you get a player that is constantly updated through the web, meaning it will always be up to date with its software making it more future proof than any of the other players. Then throw in the ability to use it as a multimedia device for both digital downloads, music, and gaming you can't beat the PS3 has a home entertainment system. At target the cheapest Blu-Ray players we sell are a mere $50 cheaper than the PS3. At those price people really don't care what is "cheaper" anymore and only want what will last.

Um what?

You have like a bajillion topics on NW from people complaining about Blu Ray prices and you're now saying price doesn't matter, people will buy the most feature packed?

Uhhh no, not if market trends are to go by.

Complete saturation comes when you can get players dirt cheap, and I guarantee you there will end up more standalone Blu Ray players worldwide, than there will be PS3s used as a Blu Ray player.

Plus how many DVD players do people own in their home on average? I do not think people will be buying 2-3-4 PS3s per household.

And FYI as well, many standalone Blu Ray players out there now will update from the internet as well, through a USB stick.

Grand Master

Emn1ty

Posted
Posted
Um what?

You have like a bajillion topics on NW from people complaining about Blu Ray prices and you're now saying price doesn't matter, people will buy the most feature packed?

Uhhh no, not if market trends are to go by.

Complete saturation comes when you can get players dirt cheap, and I guarantee you there will end up more standalone Blu Ray players worldwide, than there will be PS3s used as a Blu Ray player.

Plus how many DVD players do people own in their home on average? I do not think people will be buying 2-3-4 PS3s per household.

And FYI as well, many standalone Blu Ray players out there now will update from the internet as well, through a USB stick.

From my experience selling these things in actual retail, once prices hit over $250 to $300 or so people begin to make bigger leaps in cash for better products. At a difference of $349.99 for an OK player to $400 for 80GB of hard drive space, an player that is constantly updated, the ability to stream music AND play games, would you not spend a mere $50 extra? What I am trying to say is that these people want their money's worth alongside something that has a decent price tag. The PS3 is just that.

And right now, people usually only want one blu-ray player for their main entertainment center. Most people buy normal DVD players from Target and not the PS3 or Blu-Ray. Updates for the PS3 are also automatic with less hassle. Most people probably don't know you have to go to Sony's website, download something, put it on a flash drive and then plug it into the player. They never had to do it for DVD so what makes them think they should do it for Blu-Ray?

Grand Master

Southern Patriot

Posted
Posted
All I was pointing out was TVs being sold now are largely in part coming with full 1080p at many entry level sizes.

No TV below 40" being sold at most Wal-Mart stores supports 1080p, they are all 720p. Most of the 42" and above TV's do support 1080p (other than the plasmas, all of which are 720p), but sales of those are far outnumbered by the sales of smaller sets, at least at the store where I work.

Grand Master

+Audioboxer Subscriber²

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From my experience selling these things in actual retail, once prices hit over $250 to $300 or so people begin to make bigger leaps in cash for better products. At a difference of $349.99 for an OK player to $400 for 80GB of hard drive space, an player that is constantly updated, the ability to stream music AND play games, would you not spend a mere $50 extra? What I am trying to say is that these people want their money's worth alongside something that has a decent price tag. The PS3 is just that.

And right now, people usually only want one blu-ray player for their main entertainment center. Most people buy normal DVD players from Target and not the PS3 or Blu-Ray. Updates for the PS3 are also automatic with less hassle. Most people probably don't know you have to go to Sony's website, download something, put it on a flash drive and then plug it into the player. They never had to do it for DVD so what makes them think they should do it for Blu-Ray?

There is no way in hell a $250-300 movie player is going to saturate the casual market Emn1ty.

And if people don't know squat about updating what makes you think they'll even consider the PS3 automatically updating.

Standalone Blu Ray player sales will trash PS3 sales from a pricing perspective, no doubts at all.

Look at the PS2, it's still $120 or something, you can get a DVD player for like $30.

was it ever alive?

My Blu Ray discs talk to me, I think they are breathing just fine? :iiam:

Grand Master

Emn1ty

Posted
Posted
There is no way in hell a $250-300 movie player is going to saturate the casual market Emn1ty.

Which is why I have said Blu-Ray is not for the casual market.

And if people don't know squat about updating what makes you think they'll even consider the PS3 automatically updating.

Because they don't have to consider it beyond plugging it into a internet connection. The PS3 does it automatically, normal players don't. Automatic = less thought process.

Standalone Blu Ray player sales will trash PS3 sales from a pricing perspective, no doubts at all.

Sure, once they are at least $100 cheaper for a decently sized player (right now they are roughly twice the size of a normal DVD player, at least at Target).

Look at the PS2, it's still $120 or something, you can get a DVD player for like $30.

Cause DVD was out before the PS2 and was already gaining popularity. Besides, both the XBox and GameCube used a form of DVD so this is not the same situation.

Proficient

rpgfan

Posted
Posted

I think Blu-ray will be around for a while, mainly because of the game consoles. I don't follow the format wars very closely, but last time I saw the numbers, HD-DVD was dead, leaving only Blu-ray. If game consoles don't use Blu-ray, will they go back to multi-disc games using DVDs? What about the HD content? Something's gotta give, and I doubt it'll be Blu-ray.

Grand Master

I am Reid

Posted
Posted
Sure, once they are at least $100 cheaper for a decently sized player (right now they are roughly twice the size of a normal DVD player, at least at Target).

The size of the player has NOTHING to do with anything, they are not meant to be portable.

besides, the PS3 is huge, so dosnt that kinda contradict what you have said?

Grand Master

Coldgunner

Posted
Posted
I think Blu-ray will be around for a while, mainly because of the game consoles. I don't follow the format wars very closely, but last time I saw the numbers, HD-DVD was dead, leaving only Blu-ray. If game consoles don't use Blu-ray, will they go back to multi-disc games using DVDs? What about the HD content? Something's gotta give, and I doubt it'll be Blu-ray.

You make a pretty good point, you can bet ur ass the Xbox720 and PS4 will use it.

Grand Master

Matrix XII

Posted
Posted

I don't think blu-ray will be around forever, but I think it will for at least 2-3 more years.

We all know that someday it will be all online buying/downloading movies and shows, but people like to get their hands on something that's physical and I don't think that an online store will appeal to the mainstream any time soon.

Seems like most people can hardly turn on an LCD TV and put in a blu-ray movie into a PS3 (or standalone) properly, let alone go through the 'hassle' of buying it online.

I say this because of experience (worked at Future Shop)..

Grand Master

+Audioboxer Subscriber²

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Which is why I have said Blu-Ray is not for the casual market.

Because they don't have to consider it beyond plugging it into a internet connection. The PS3 does it automatically, normal players don't. Automatic = less thought process.

Sure, once they are at least $100 cheaper for a decently sized player (right now they are roughly twice the size of a normal DVD player, at least at Target).

Cause DVD was out before the PS2 and was already gaining popularity. Besides, both the XBox and GameCube used a form of DVD so this is not the same situation.

Which is why I have said Blu-Ray is not for the casual market.

Player posted in here last week for $140 with 4 movies.

That comment is just plain stupid Emn1ty, Blu Ray is for everyone when it's affordable for you, and as prices drop below PS3 prices, standalone players become more viable for everyone.

Because they don't have to consider it beyond plugging it into a internet connection. The PS3 does it automatically, normal players don't. Automatic = less thought process.

Read my point again, if you're talking about a casual person who has no idea about updating, they won't consider the PS3 automatically updating as they know nothing about updates.

Sure, once they are at least $100 cheaper for a decently sized player (right now they are roughly twice the size of a normal DVD player, at least at Target).

Glad we agree there.

Sure, once they are at least $100 cheaper for a decently sized player (right now they are roughly twice the size of a normal DVD player, at least at Target).

Games consoles will never outsell standalone, as standalone will always become cheaper quicker.

Look at the PS2, it's still $120 or something, you can get a DVD player for like $30.
In the U.S., mass retailer sales of DVD-Video titles and players began in late 1997.[17] By June 2003, weekly DVD-Video rentals began out-numbering weekly VHS cassette rentals, reflecting the rapid adoption rate of the technology in the U.S. marketplace.[18][19] Currently DVD-Video is the dominant form of home video distribution worldwide.

True but look how long it took to really kick off.

Veteran

DaDude

Posted
Posted

Take a look at this article I found on yahoo: http://green.yahoo.com/blog/the_conscious_...efficiency.html

Here's a quote from the last part of the article: "Viewing movies on a stand-alone unit is a lot more efficient. The Playstation 3, for example, uses five times more power than the stand-alone Sony Blu-Ray player to play the same movie."

I guess you people may want to think twice before buying a PS3 specially for Blu-ray movies. ;)

Grand Master

+StevoFC MVC

Posted
  • MVC
Posted
I guess you people may want to think twice before buying a PS3 specially for Blu-ray movies. ;)

lol, when I play a blu-ray on my ps3 it's using less power than it usually does. I run folding@home 24 hours a day. Can't do that on my stand alone Samsung downstairs.

Grand Master

Emn1ty

Posted
Posted (edited)
The size of the player has NOTHING to do with anything, they are not meant to be portable.

besides, the PS3 is huge, so dosnt that kinda contradict what you have said?

Oh yes it does. Size has everything to do with it. Size doesn't only matter when things are portable devices. Sometimes people like things to be small and out of the way, or they don't have shelf space for the player so they need one that can fit underneath or in front of the television. Right now, even the PS3 takes up less lateral space than any stand alone Blu-Ray player I have seen. Even the DVD-VHS combo machines are sometimes smaller than the Blu-Ray players.

Player posted in here last week for $140 with 4 movies.

That comment is just plain stupid Emn1ty, Blu Ray is for everyone when it's affordable for you, and as prices drop below PS3 prices, standalone players become more viable for everyone.

No, it isn't plain stupid. Just because the player is bundled and cheap does not make it the best bang for your buck. What I am talking about is getting your money's worth, and right now the PS3 is more for your money. Bundles also are limited time offers, not standard releases, so even considering that as something to base your argument off of is stupid.

Read my point again, if you're talking about a casual person who has no idea about updating, they won't consider the PS3 automatically updating as they know nothing about updates.

This is why you tell them when you sell a product. The PS3 eliminates the need to do or know anything about updating beyond having it plugged into a connection. You tell them as long as it is plugged into the internet they will have THE most up-to-date player software wise and they like the sound of that.

Games consoles will never outsell standalone, as standalone will always become cheaper quicker.

Never said it would. As I said above, I am not trying to say buy a PS3 now and forever since it will be forever the best. What I am saying is that at this moment the PS3 is the best for your money as well as the easiest to keep up to date. It will save you money in the long run as a Blu-Ray player and can even double later as an extended media center with it's upgradeable HDD.

Edited by Joel
Experienced

TogaForComfort

Posted
Posted

Just look in stores. I can only speak for to UK here. But store such as HVM and zavvi have a bigger Blu-ray section every time I go in them.

I'd say Blu-ray is far from dying. I do think mass penetration of the market will take longer than DVD's though for two reasons.

1. The benefits of blu-ray to the general public are not as big as DVD was over VHS (No rewind, immensely better picture and sound, no degredation after repeated viewing)

2. To gain the full benefits you need to buy a HD screen. Again the general public are not up for this. Many people I have spoken to are happy with their 32" SD CRT

  • 3 weeks later...
Grand Master

soniqstylz

Posted
Posted

So, to quote myself....

Actually, that predicts well for Blu-ray. Historically, in hard times, people spend money on entertainment to make themselves feel better. It's how Hollywood blew up during the Great Depression. People have to cancel vacations they can't afford, so they end up buying new TVs/movies/etc.

And to quote this article...

http://uk.gear.ign.com/articles/938/938098p1.html

Blu-ray Sales Off The Charts

Consumers place Blu-ray players at the top of their holiday wish lists.

by Chris Iaquinta

US, December 12, 2008 - The holiday shopping season is at full intensity and consumers have made it clear that above all else they want a Blu-ray player in their stocking. Numerous reports have shown a dramatic increase in Blu-ray sales this year, with experts estimating that many more thousands of units will be cleared from the shelves before the New Year.

Early today, the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) in conjunction with Greenfield Online, announced the findings of their survey data that show that HDTV users have named the Blu-ray as their most sought after holiday wish list item for 2008. In addition, stats from NPD Group and DisplaySearch show that 147,000 Blu-ray players were purchased during Thanksgiving week, a figure up by 300% over last year's sales. Black Friday Blu-ray sales were also off the chart according to an independent DEG analysis, with sales more than quadrupled that of what was sold in 2007.

"This recent survey data combined with these sales numbers illustrates that, given the economy, people will be spending more time entertaining themselves at home by watching movies ? and the delivery system they want is Blu-ray," said Amy Jo Smith, Executive Director, DEG. "These stats are particularly encouraging because, even with the consumer anxiety out there right now, Blu-ray is poised for a strong holiday sales season."

Blu-ray players aren't the only benefactor of the current HD craze, as Blu-ray discs themselves are experiencing exponential sales growth. Greenfield research shows that consumers more than ever want to receive movies on disc this holiday season, with most preferring a Blu-ray disc gift instead of a standard DVDExperts cite the tough economy as the reason behind the heightened Blu-ray interest, as consumers with HDTV's are becoming more likely to focus on in-home entertainment spending, such as purchasing Blu-ray players and discs, instead of using the money for out of the home activities.b>

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On the front, you just have your four bays along with LED indicators for the HDDs and power. The welcomed change is having a USB port on the front for quick access, should you need to back up a USB drive, for example. Around the back, from top to bottom, you have a reset pin hole, an HDMI port, two 5 GbE Ethernet ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type A ports with a Type-C port below them, and a connector for the barrel port power source. Again, there's no Kensington Security Slot present, which is a bit of a shame considering it's a data storage device. Left side Right side On the left and right of the F4-425 Plus, it is completely smooth aluminum with a TERRAMASTER logo printed on both sides. On the bottom, there are some holes to assist ventilation. Unlike with the F4-425 Plus, the rubber feet did come unstuck during the teardown, which was also an issue on the 2023 series. It seems like other customers have lodged complaints about them, as TerraMaster now includes two spare rubber feet in the box, in case any of the preinstalled ones are lost; however, this seems more like a papering over the cracks solution rather than actually fixing the issue with better quality rubber stand-offs. There are also four screws that must be removed in order to access the internals. Teardown Upon removing the four screws, you can slide the device out of its shell to reveal the three NVMe M.2 slots (PCIe 3.0 X1) and single SODIMM slot connector, which is populated with a single 16GB DDR5 4800MT/s module. I added a couple of MP44Q M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSDs (2 x 4TB) that can be availed on Amazon for $492.99 that TEAMGROUP supplied us with, along with a 250GB 970 Evo Plus that my colleague Chris White sent me by accident and let me keep a few years ago. As I have said in previous reviews, TerraMaster support staff actually encourage installing whatever you want on their devices, and happily, the USB port for the bootloader is now easily accessible should you want to use it for your own flavor of NAS OS, such as TrueNAS, Unraid, or maybe Xpenology. Yes, because TerraMaster has now switched to a 256 GB NAND Flash card (3rd photo above) for the TOS bootloader. This is also replaceable, but you can also simply add a USB bootloader, access the BIOS, and tell the F4-425 Pro to boot from that instead of the Flash card. Unlike earlier iterations of TerraMaster NAS, you don't have to tear this down any further than the four screws on the outer shell in order to be able to access and manage the memory, NVMe slots, and USB bootloader. However, if you need to access the NAND Flash card or CMOS battery, then eight more screws (four on each side) need to be removed in order to take off the rear panel with the 120mm fan, and then the motherboard can be lifted off and removed from the SATA connector PCB. There's also no risk of threading the screw holes, because the four that hold the shell in place are metal on metal, while the screws that hold the rear panel on do screw into plastic. Either way, like last time when I reviewed the F4-425 plus, I was just happier to see larger screws being used. Overall, it follows some great improvements in build quality from the 2024 series and earlier. Setup BIOS The F4-425 Pro includes an Aptio BIOS from American Megatrends [1, 2], and you can setup pretty much everything here including the boot order, which is locked to the UEFI OS, however above that choice you can enable or disable booting to the USB bootloader so this would still allow you to switch to a USB stick with an alternative bootloader and boot from it, or disable it to instead always start from the first disk with an OS installed on it. Initial Setup Setup is roughly the same as the F4-425 Plus, along with the new TOS 7 setup dialogs, so there will be no surprises here. Upon connecting to the LAN and booting up, the F4-425 Pro can be reached by navigating to http://tnas.local. If that doesn't work, you can use the local address assigned via DHCP, which you can find using the TNAS PC desktop application, which is essentially a TerraMaster NAS finder. The setup process is pretty straightforward, through a wizard, and in full below: TOS 7 Initialization As you can see, TOS 7 received a new coat of paint, and the initialization requires fewer interactions. Happily, TOS no longer decides to throw all disks into the same Storage Pool; 2.5-inch HDDs are allocated into Storage Pool 1. This is because two of the HDDs are allocated to hold system files. Previously (with TOS 5 and 6), if you pre-installed HDDs and SSDs, they were all placed into Storage Pool 1, even if you did not select the SSDs for inclusion during the onboarding. TOS 7 Setup On first boot, there is a tutorial and some steps to take to harden the TNAS (or not), which includes an immediate update from TOS 7.0.0616 to 7.0.0706, of which the changelog screenshot is also included in the above gallery. It must be noted that the Security Advisor still contains (in my opinion) a pretty major bug in that if you enable SPC and then do the required rebooting, the Security Advisor still says that SPC is disabled. TerraMaster provided the following statement about it: It is disappointing that TOS 7 has been in beta since December, and this OOBE issue is still there. Shutdown option has moved Instead of a Taskbar option to manage the NAS, all of these options have been moved to a "Start panel", initially I didn't see it and my contact had to show me how to power off the F4-425 Pro. To logout, reboot or power off you can find those controls at the top right of the Panel. It is also possible to power off through the TNAS mobile app beta. Storage setup Above, you can see the steps I took to create the Storage Pools and Volumes. I made a second Storage Pool using TRAID on two 4TB MP44Q SSDs (which, in this instance, is similar to RAID 5), and finally, I added the 250GB 970 Evo Plus drive as Hyper Cache on Storage Pool 1 in Balanced mode. Registering If you decide not to lock down the F4-425 Pro in Security Isolation Mode (blocking all external connections), then you could set up a TNAS device ID through the Remote Access setting in the Control Panel (which must be unique). This works in combination with an online TerraMaster account. TOS 7 TNAS Online Creating a TerraMaster account and linking the device online activates the warranty when you provide proof of purchase and the serial number, but it also gives you access through the TNAS mobile app, which allows you to complete certain operationsб including powering off and restarting the NAS remotely. A TNAS mobile update is required to gain access through TOS 7, and this is provided on the TerraMaster website, as it is not yet on Google Play. The app is evolving all the time and has made leaps and bounds since I first started reviewing TerraMaster devices almost three years ago. It is not quite there yet if you are comparing the likes of Synology, which, sadly, a lot of users online do all the time. OpenClaw setup One of the main selling points of the new F4-425 Pro is the inclusion of OpenClaw, with TerraMaster claiming that it is "powered by the world's first AI-native TOS 7 OS, supporting local-first smart workflows and independent data control." However, I immediately ran into problems trying to enable OpenClaw. After waiting 20 minutes at the "Enabling" message of the OpenClaw app following installation, I decided to do some searching online and discovered that it couldn't complete the installation process due to SPC being enabled, which is something TOS 7 immediately recommends to be enabled on first boot. SPC for NAS (TOS 7) is basically the same principle as UAC in Windows; it blocks executables from being launched by non-Super Users. After reaching out to my contact about these issues, I received the following response: Anyway, this only became clear when I closed the OpenClaw app screen and clicked on the OpenClaw icon in the taskbar; that is when I saw the message about disabling SPC. I think, due to the fact that this is a requirement, this should be a prompt during the installation process, not when closing the App Market and then trying to launch OpenClaw. There's also no 'Getting started' guide for people like me who have never used OpenClaw. I tried to add an LLM and discovered the tutorial led nowhere. That's when I started looking around the official TerraMaster forums, and I found a guide that helpfully explains that you won't get anywhere with OpenClaw unless you have a paid plan, which is disappointing because I imagined there would be an option to use a local LLM as I do in SubtitleEdit with Whisper-XXL. In addition, with the marketing imagery on the official site, it says that the OpenClaw feature is "all processed 100% locally for absolute privacy." which led me to believe that I could install a local LLM, not one that required paid tokens. In any case, TerraMaster does not provide guidance for this new feature, which was also a selling point of the F4-425 Pro! My contact also provided clarification about the above points I raised with TerraMaster Since it is not in the scope of the review to add paid services, I'll leave that to the people who are more qualified with OpenClaw. F4-425 Pro Surveillance App TOS also comes with a Surveillance app, which is not installed by default; it can be found in the App Market recommended section. In addition, after installing, it doesn't drop a shortcut on the Desktop or top taskbar, but you can "Send to Desktop" from the App Market listing for the app for a quick way to open it. Adding my Reolink POE doorbell camera was painless. TerraMaster doesn't appear to have a repository of preconfigured cameras; instead, the camera must be added using ONVIF or RTSP. No mobile Surveillance app TerraMaster still doesn't have a dedicated Surveillance app, although from searching online, Surveillance can be used and managed through the TNAS mobile app. I tried this with the updated TNAS mobile app beta in combination with TOS 7 and got a message that Surveillance was "Only accessible through web browser," so I reckon this must be limited to the stable versions of TOS 6 and the mobile app. More quirks In addition, whenever I minimized the Live View window in the browser Surveillance app, the feed appeared to switch to the Low-bandwidth stream, and there was no way to get the High-quality stream back. To get the High-quality stream back, I had to close Live View and then reopen it. Benchmarking A pretty cool feature of the TOS 7 is that it allows you to install directly to the NVMe M.2 SSD. In order to do that, you would have to leave out any HDDs during initialization, and even then, the system partitions are always written to two HDDs when they are eventually added. With three NVMe slots, this also gives an interesting scenario where you could build a TRAID storage Pool for installing all your apps and Docker on, and keep the third for SSD cache on the HDD pool. Limitless options! SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 A CrystalDiskMark test on a mapped network drive from within a Windows 11 25H2 PC (image above) connected over a 5 GbE hub was well within acceptable ranges. Although the read result on SATA was a little less than with the F4-425 Plus, for some reason, while writes were generally better. SATA PCIe 3.0 X1 I also ran the NAS Performance tester, which tests the link speed performance. As you can see, it pretty much maxes out the 5GbE connection. Of course, you can also opt to bond the two 5 GbE connections for a bit more umph, but I didn't do that. TOS 7, which, as of testing, is still in Beta, comes with an App Center that has a bunch of handy programs you can install right off the bat, such as Emby, Plex, Docker, as well as in-house Backup and Surveillance solutions. As you can imagine, any media streaming services you would want to host off the F4-425 Pro will work great, thanks to the Intel Core N350 CPU and its 16 GB of DDR5 memory. Accessing from mobile is only possible if Security Isolation Mode is disabled, which can put your NAS at risk from external sources, so there was no way to access it from the TNAS Mobile app. It's also quiet. I had this sat next to my computer on my work desk for the past week, and I did wonder if the noise I was accustomed to with NAS devices would annoy me, but all I could hear was a soft whirring of the rear fan (which was a little annoying) when the disks were not actively copying or reading data. Conclusion So what have I learned? Unfortunately, this release raises a few important questions and concerns that I feel haven't been adequately addressed. What I didn't like Our variant shipped with TOS 7 beta, and it's advised not to use it in a production environment. I feel that's a bit limiting on an $800 device. The mobile app is also still in beta and does not support some of the first-party apps, like Surveillance, and it still has quite a few bugs. I am a bit confused about the OpenClaw marketing along with the F4-425 Pro. I feel like that if it's going to be a main selling point, then offer official guidance on how to get started with it. TerraMaster recommends enabling SPC, but then markets the NAS for use with OpenClaw, which requires disabling SPC to be able to use it, opening up genuine security concerns for the NAS; and that's before you get into the security concerns of OpenClaw itself. Of course, the above issues won't be a problem if you decide to install something else on it, or even go back to the stable TOS 6. I wish TerraMaster had just given TOS 7 as opt-in rather than shipping with it. TOS 7 has been available as a preview since December 2025 (so well before my last TerraMaster review), and according to a thread on Reddit where a user shared a screenshot from the TerraMaster Facebook page, it is scheduled to launch today, June 23, but there's nothing about that in the TerraMaster news blog. My contact confirmed over email that TOS 7 exits beta today. The rubber feet also deserve a mention as they continue to be a problem, with them coming unstuck the moment you shift the F4-425 Pro anywhere on your desk. What I liked What it comes down to, though, aside from what I already mentioned, you are still getting a quality, affordable device here, so recommending it will depend on the individual's use case. If you're just looking for a relatively small NAS device to manage virtual machines on, backup your files, and take care of your home theater streaming, then it is a great device that will certainly futureproof you for some time. It provides good performance, takes up little space, and is, on the whole, very quiet. Four bays afford proper redundancy using TRAID or RAID 5, and you can even expand on storage capacity by adding the 2-bay D5, or 4-bay D8 Hybrid DAS over a USB 3.2 (10Gbps) link. Considering the 2024 releases were more about power, with the likes of an Intel Core i5-1235U high-end laptop CPU under the hood, I asked my contact last time if we could expect more of the same in higher-end models and was told: It makes a lot of sense to use Intel's N350 chip inside a NAS; it is more than capable of doing what the F4-425 Pro is intended for, media streaming and backup. The only downside is still the clear lack of community and even staff support on the official forums. In the past, I have had topics go unanswered for days, or there would be generic-type "we've noted this and passed it onto our developer team" type responses. Along with the other things I mentioned, it all ends up costing it a couple of points. If you are comfortable with the command line, Docker, and setting up TrueNAS or Unraid, you'll be fine. You can do great things with this hardware. In TOS, the apps are a bit lacking, and things don't always work as expected.\ AI NAS?! What has become clear to me this year is that we are going to start seeing all kinds of "AI NAS" come to market, and while that might be good for us consumers, be diligent and research these claims. Although the F4-425 Pro technically comes with AI, it is really using a cloud service that is externally sourced off-device through the third party OpenClaw app. My colleague did review a newcomer to the NAS space earlier this year, and it includes a local AI assistant inside the Zettlab D4 NAS, and they do not even use AI in the product name, check out Chris' review here. Where to buy and a discount coupon However, it does not change the fact that this is truly a great entry-level home media-class NAS that you can buy right now. TerraMaster is having a 20% off launch discount, plus you can also still apply our unique 10% off coupon on checkout, which only works on the official website. So here is a breakdown of the pricing that is only valid on the official TerraMaster website. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $575.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = $503.99 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £525.59 TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) + 20% discount + 10% coupon = £460.79 Use NEOWIN coupon code during checkout for 10% discount Over on Amazon US and UK, the F4-425 Pro also gets a 20% launch discount, but here, the above 10% coupon cannot be applied. TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for $639.99 at Amazon US (was $799.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for $559.99 at Amazon US (was $699.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N350) for £583.99 at Amazon UK (was £729.99) TerraMaster F4-425 Pro (N305) for £511.99 at Amazon UK (was £639.99) As an Amazon Associate, when you purchase through links on our site, we earn from qualifying purchases.
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