I’m one of those users who buought DS218play just to learn it’s not supported by plex yet (bummer)
So the way I see it, I got two options:
Wait for plex guys to solve the situation (which I believe will be very soon)
Switch to different NAS like DS218+ which is very powerfull and supported by plex.
My question:
Assuming that very soon, both platforms will be supported by plex, is it possible at this point to estimate which one will be more powerfull? will plex be able to utilise HW Transcoding in both cases?
Anotherwords… Shall I stick with 218play or switch to 218+ for best plex performance?
I too purchased DS218Play on a very good deal just before Xmas only to be shocked by lack of Plex support. On reflection I had reads something about this lack of support previously, but not registered in my mind.
Whilst I understand it takes time to add support for new Realtek processor, it just seems strange that Synology and Plex don’t seem to be co-operating well on this.
If you need the server to transcode, then switch to the 218+. For transcoding on the NAS, you need hardware acceleration assist. To get that, you need the intel processor, not the arm processor. Also, to get access to hardware acceleration assist, you need a valid plex pass subscription. Other thing to keep in mind, eventhough the apollo lake class celeron support several codecs, plex supports only few of them to use with hardware acceleration. Plex doesn’t yet support mpeg2 hardware decoding. If liveTV is important, you need to keep this in mind.
Among other things I decided to grab DS218play for its HW Encoding support. Well I’m just a simple user so I thought that was all I needed to know I used a DS215j till recently and more and more often I was comming across HD movies (not even 4K) that my NAS could not handle. I use an Apple TV Plex app. I thougnt DS218play is just a thing for me. I guess not so?
Um ChuckPa… DS218+ is working on Intel Celeron J3355 from what synology.com is telling me.
Either way I got you… there is no telling at this point how do they compare in plex performance.
I’ll wait for you guys to do you thing and make our 218play’s fly
The J3355 is used in the DS218+ and is supported. There are threads which report its performance.
Regarding the RealTek processor: There is no guarantee of support and, most importantly, how well it will fair up given it is ARM based. Traditionally ARM CPUs are not capable of transcoding.
As further advice to all. Whatever Synology has published about HW transcoding in their products, please be advised It is proprietary and inaccessible by PMS.
So even if 218play will be supported, HW transcoding still wont be.
Well… it turns that waiting for 218play is pointless.
After much consideration I decided to switch to DS218+
It seems to be the best solution.
We are almost in April. And there is still no compatibility with the realtek processors, and not only are the new nas of synology but also those of qnap.
My question is, are we going to have this support or a solution? If at least it could be installed, the tracing part if it stays will solve IT…
We are almost in June. And there is still no compatibility with the realtek processors, and not only are the new nas of synology but also those of qnap.
My question is, are we going to have this support or a solution? If at least it could be installed, the tracing part if it stays will solve IT…
@TRnX said:
We are almost in June. And there is still no compatibility with the realtek processors, and not only are the new nas of synology but also those of qnap.
My question is, are we going to have this support or a solution? If at least it could be installed, the tracing part if it stays will solve IT…
I will further add, if and when there is anything to be done on the Realtek processors, I will be the first to know because I’ll be the one doing the work.
(bummer)
I used a DS215j till recently and more and more often I was comming across HD movies (not even 4K) that my NAS could not handle. I use an Apple TV Plex app. I thougnt DS218play is just a thing for me. I guess not so?
