I have a DS418 with 40TB, I don’t have a massive collection, but it’s respectable (350 movies, 7000 tv episodes). I have never once lost my metadata in the 5 years with this setup. I did have a hiccup when I migrated my collection to a new drive, but Infuse loads everything back quickly. Just make sure you name your files properly (e.g. “movie.title.2023.mkv” and “tv.show.S01E01.mp4”) to save yourself from the headache of incorrect metadata.

The Apple TV wouldn’t benefit from any further 802.11 upgrades. WiFi 6 is already too fast for what the device is for… streaming. Media streaming averages are 5-15Mbps for your typical apps (Netflix, Hulu, etc). TV+ streams higher than all other providers… around 25-35Mbps. That being said, the Ookla Speedtest app on my Apple TV shows I get nearly 500Mbps over WiFi. So I literally always have a minimum of 400Mbps to spare… upgrading to WiFi 6e, 7, or hell, 10 will yield absolutely no performance benefits for a streaming device.

For anyone who does experience buffering on their Apple TV… buy a decent router and don’t set it up in the closet on the opposite side of the house.

You’ll just want to connect a NAS to your router (I highly recommend Synology). If you’re pretty good at navigating operating systems, you’ll be fine with Synology. Just go into the file sharing settings, then enable SMB or FTP (whichever you prefer, FTP is faster, but SMB is more likely to be supported across platforms). Then on your client device, enter the IP address of the Synology (you’ll see this on the Synology dashboard) along with the username/password that you set and you’ll be in! As long as you have a decent router with low interference from neighbors, your media should play wirelessly without buffering.

Few tips for the scanning feature…

In the files app, “Scan Documents” has also always been located in the menu (ellipses button at the top-right)… no need to create folders and hold on empty spaces. Auto scan is significantly less buggy if there is a lot of contrast between your paper and the background (so set a white piece of paper on dark surface like a countertop or even a couch).

In my experience, around 150 photos is doable… but go over that and then it becomes unreliable. When videos are in the mix, then you’ll have to cut back on the number of photos. If the sender and receiver are Apple devices made in the last couple years (with WiFi 6 antennas) the transfers are much quicker and they seem to handle more files.

Apple has no way of knowing… your friend just got lucky having damaged their phone within the first 60 days.

It’s just interference. There is likely a high-powered transmitter in the area that a neighboring building is connected to. The frequency of the transmitter just so happens to be the same channel as your particular CarPlay receiver, which causes the disconnection. This is no different than your home router experiencing interference from neighbors, Bluetooth devices, and microwaves. There is nothing you can do about it. Your next vehicle will likely not experience the interference in that same area since the WiFi channels vary from car to car (but you may discover that there’s another area with interference).

The FCC recently opened up the 6GHz band for low-powered devices which future vehicles will eventually adopt. This may resolve interference issues in the future, but only if there are no high-powered transmitters on the same frequency… only time will tell this though.

Third party app is the only way to circumvent Apple’s photo processing.

It attempts to, yes. This feature is for people who don’t know how to calibrate color. It’s passable, sure… but far from perfect. With just 5-10 minutes of your time, you can achieve a better-looking image by adjusting the settings yourself.

This is an Apple thing… Infuse wants it just as much as we do, even they recommend us to provide feedback to Apple. https://community.firecore.com/t/help-get-more-dolby-atmos-on-apple-tv/16477

Hasn’t grown on me one bit.