NAS and Plex

[Adam]

I have recently rediscovered the simplicity of using CouchPotato and Plex for my Media streaming and it's great.
The only down side is my MBP is the Plex Media Server and needs to be on when I want to fire up a movie either on my Samsung Smart TV using the Plex App or Casting to my Bedroom Chromecast via the iOS Plex App.

I am thinking about getting a NAS to take over the PMS functionality along with storing all of the files.
I have looked at the NAS compatibility list for Plex and it's probably going to be between a Synology or a ReadyNAS.

Does anyone do this?

From what I have read, going with a x86 platform will be best though I am not entirely sure how much transcoding is happening on my current playbacks or if all my current Plex Apps (TV and Chromecast) are capable of direct play back so I am not sure on how relevant the CPU grunt needs to be.

Ideally looking at 2TB of storage so recommendations on the drives would also be good.

 

[charltjr]

I would grab one of these:
http://www.serversdirect.co.uk/Hewl...P_2GB-U_B120i_NHP_SATA_712317-421/version.asp
They're a lot more versatile than a NAS box and absolutely dirt cheap with the current cashback deals - under £100. The only downside is unless you've got a copy of windows to sling on it you'll need to be a bit of a techie to get a free operating system like Linux running on it.

 

[Adam]

Yeah I am not sure I want to go down the "full" server route. I am just thinking it would be easier of having the PMS on a 24/7 NAS so I don't have to reply on the MPB.
I would ideally only want to spend upto £200 on a NAS (with storage) anyway... if it doesn't cost in then I wont bother and just make do with the MBP being the server and keep my files on my other network drive.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

I am currently going through the trials and tribulations of setting up FreeNAS (with no prior Linux/UNIX experience).

If you want something simple, I'd buy something from Synology, although just make sure the device you go for can transcode. Not all of them can.

The alternative to worrying about that, is to worry about playing it client side, which you might find yourself at a loss if you're on iPhone etc. But if it's for your TV then you can quite easily buy a small TV box that can play anything- or build it yourself with a RaspberryPi. It's really as simple as pick 2 of the following:

Budget
Performance headroom
Ease of setup

However. It is well worth noting that if you don't already have a backup solution, this is a good opportunity to get something that takes care of everything (i.e. lets you create time machine backups with the Macbook and redundant document/file/media storage).

 

[Nik]

I think you'll struggle with getting a NAS powerful enough to cope with transcoding within that budget. They aren't generally designed to be powerful enough for this, although some of the more beefy recent models might just about do it. The Synology DS415+ is supposed to be ok at it, but that's near £500 bare. It would be better to get an inexpensive NAS without bells and whistles for media storage, and something like the Hp Microserver, a Mac Mini (even a 2-year-old model) or Intel NUC with a Core i5.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

I think you'll struggle with getting a NAS powerful enough to cope with transcoding within that budget. They aren't generally designed to be powerful enough for this, although some of the more beefy recent models might just about do it. The Synology DS415+ is supposed to be ok at it, but that's near £500 bare. It would be better to get an inexpensive NAS without bells and whistles for media storage, and something like the Hp Microserver, a Mac Mini (even a 2-year-old model) or Intel NUC with a Core i5.

And of course the flip side to using an older (i.e. cheaper) NAS is that it won't be nearly as energy efficient as a newer one if you're running it 24/7. You can't have it all. Unless you pay for it

 

[Adam]

What I am not clear on is how much actual transcoding is taking (if any) in my current of using Plex.
I could be wrong but it seems that my 2 devices (Smart TV and Chromecast) are able to play back the media direct from the storage device, so if this is the case then is there much to worry about in terms of how much transcoding a NAS would need to do?

I quite like the idea of a Mac Mini as well.

 

[Adam]

Ok, so after checking my MBP whilst playing a film via Plex through the Chromecast there is a fair bit of CPU processing resource being used...

So yeah, transcoding is very important for my needs :blush:

 

[Adam]

It seems the App on the Smart TV is able to play back the media file directly as there was little to no CPU usage on my MBP for the PMS.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

What I am not clear on is how much actual transcoding is taking (if any) in my current of using Plex.
I could be wrong but it seems that my 2 devices (Smart TV and Chromecast) are able to play back the media direct from the storage device, so if this is the case then is there much to worry about in terms of how much transcoding a NAS would need to do?

I quite like the idea of a Mac Mini as well.

Right.

I looked into this not so long ago when I was considering the Synology 214Play. (Which coincidentally doesn't offer transcoding).

If you stream from server to client and don't use a client that can play anything (i.e. a seperate computer with VLC codecs etc) then you will 100% need transcoding one day. I have streamed TV series before when I've been using a DNLA player on my mobile and it's been fine for the first 10 episodes and then episode 11 is one I've acquired that uses a different codec. It's annoying, and if you have transcoding capability on your server then you don't need to worry about it.

 

[Adam]

Yeah I think the NAS may be out of the question now as it's not worth the risk in paying so much and there maybe transcoding issues. I would rather by a Mac Mini for £399.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

For reference, I built the following setup:
Intel G3220 (£40)
MSI B85 Mobo (£50)
8GB RAM (£40)
NAS case (£70) - it has 4 removable HDD trays and included a 200W PSU
Quiet fans (£25)
USB3 memory stick for OS (£10)

Now ofc you need storage on top of that. I went for Hitachi NAS drives as they seem to get brilliant reviews and aren't much more than WD marque etc but they're still £105 a pop for 3TB.

But that gives you an idea on cost, i.e. it's much cheaper to build yourself. But you'll have to set everything up, which isn't as straight forward as it sounds.

 

[Adam]

Cheers for that.

I use to build my own machines a few years back but since preferred my Mac's , but it's tempting to look at knocking up a self build just for the fun

 

[Adam]

Plus I already have a 2TB WD MyBook Live now which I use in my current setup so all of the files can stay on there and just get a smaller HDD to run the OS.

 

[msremmert]

I would grab one of these:
http://www.serversdirect.co.uk/Hewl...P_2GB-U_B120i_NHP_SATA_712317-421/version.asp
They're a lot more versatile than a NAS box and absolutely dirt cheap with the current cashback deals - under £100. The only downside is unless you've got a copy of windows to sling on it you'll need to be a bit of a techie to get a free operating system like Linux running on it.

I'm a big fan of these. They'll quietly take an upgrade to 16GB of ram and if you're feeling frisky they'll quite happily take a standard desktop Xeon which will give you an exceptionally powerful little box for not a lot of cash. Google it, lots of research has been done by fellow brave nerds for science.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Figured I'd give an update if you've not already bought hardware.

After somehow having a mare with this previously, I deleted the Jail that contained PMS and reinstalled PMS. With no messing with settings it's somehow working. Can watch anything on my iPad with the paid app. TV even shows a native browser for it (so it probably won't include covers etc but saves paying for the subscription). All in all. Winner.

There's a torrent app for FreeNAS too- although I don't know how easy it is to get it to download TV/film straight to the designated folders. It's drag and drop from Windows though.

 

[cgap]

I'm using a raspberry pi running kodi off an sd card. It's connected to a 2tb powered external hdd. Works a dream, controlled by my phone, great interface. Can stream from it to my phone if needed also.

Never used plex, although I hear it's very similar to kodi?

 

[Adam]

Decided to get a Mac Mini to setup what I want as I've been testing out some features on my MBP such as using Roomie Remote with Plex Home Theatre and it's going to be great

Trying to get hold of a 2012 model but they still got for decent money.

 

[Adam]

Managed to get a 2012 Mac Mini for a decent price so that's my server sorted.

 

[J203425]

Just buy a NAS drive and a raspberry pi. There will be no issues with the transcoding as the pi does it. If you've got an Xbox one you could use that instead of the pi.

 

[Adam]

Too late now lol. Mac Mini it is

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

RaspberryPi is fine as a media player but Plex is a bit laggy on it.

 

[Adam]

1 week in with the Mac Mini as my Plex server and everything runs a treat, no issues with transcoding and access to the server remotely is a great added extra.
Also decided to have CouchPotato and SABnzb setup on there as well, so I don't have to have the MBP open all the time - the only down side is the HDD in the Mac Mini is a damn sight slower than the Flash drive in my MBP so it takes CP a longer to move the files onto my NAS, so I may look to get an SSD at some point.