Beginner seeking advice for Plex NAS

[Mike-G]

TLDR; A bunch of newbie questions…

I’ve had PMS and PMP running on my Windows 10 Pro box for a while for a test drive and having some good results. Enough success that I’m now beginning to research possibilities of running PMS on a NAS and after reading dozens of articles and posts on how to choose a NAS for Plex, I’ve gotten a bit confused. Perhaps someone could give me some advice to help me get things straight (or even point me to things to read that I may have missed)…

My first couple questions are about the Plex NAS Compatibility chart.

[1] I very much appreciate the time that was put into the chart, but I was wondering if it’s exhaustive. For example, as I’ve been researching, I’m finding NAS models that claim to be “Plex compatible” but aren’t on the chart. I know there are potential issues with PMS being able to access the hardware-level transcoding on some NAS models, there may be insufficient CPU power to do software transcoding, etc. and I’m inclined to trust the compatibility chart more than a manufacturer’s marketing materials. But I was wondering if there’s anyway to classify a NAS that isn’t on the chart (in case it just hasn’t been verified and posted yet).

[2] The second question is about the transcoding characteristics. It seems to me that if a NAS in the compatibility chart lists it supports a particular type of hardware transcoding, then it really doesn’t matter whether or not if it supports the same kind of software transcoding, since hardware transcoding would always be preferred. Is that correct, or am I missing a key point?

[3] It looks like (as of this post) most/all of the options for the 4k transcodes are “Decode Only”. I think I read that transcoding is required when showing subtitles if they’re not burned in to the source. So would that mean that there’s no way to get subtitles optionally on/off for 4k content since there’s no way to transcode it (and not transcoding 4k is one of the rules of Plex)? Maybe I totally misunderstand the subtitle/transcoding thing… [I don’t have any 4k content yet, but I’m trying to plan ahead a bit, and also want to set things up to direct-play with pre-transcoded stuff as much as possible, anyway, but I do use subtitles a lot]

[4] Looking through the Plex forums, there seem to be a wealth of positive and negative experiences with PMS on the different manufacturers’ NAS devices. Is there any particular brand that you all would consider more reliable than others? More capable? Less issues when PMS is updated? I want to use the NAS not only to run PMS but also for other stuff (I plan to look into how I’m going to partition things into volumes later, but plan to use at least Raid5 for everything).

[5] Some of the NAS models come with beefier power supply options. (For example, QNAP TVS-882). When would it make sense to consider a more robust power supply?

[6] I was trying to estimate space/bandwidth for capacity and connectivity. I was using 25Mbps as a guide for a single stream of 4k HDR. Would that be a good estimate? I was not able to find consistent estimates for space for 4k video at h.265. Does anyone have any first-hand experience for that (I realize that it can vary quite a bit depending on how it’s transcoded, like with Handbrake, for example).

[7] A bit off-topic, but thought I’d ask anyway – I’m also thinking about a box to use for streaming services, but would also want it to run the PMP client. Thinking about Shield or Roku. Anyone have opinions?

Sorry for such a huge wall of newbie questions, but I’ve read so may posts on so many topics with help from the Plex community, I thought I’d ask about this stuff so I can understand better before spending several thousand dollars on something that I might later regret.

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience, knowledge, and helping me to learn. Very much appreciated.

[Mike-G]

@trumpy81 --That’s a lot of great info. Thanks! I knew things would be pricey to go the NAS route, but the price tags on the core-i7 QNAP NAS boxes are a bit extreme (to me).

So you got me thinking (which is exactly what I was hoping for )…I was planning to build a new PC in the not-too-distant future. Perhaps I’d get more mileage for my dollar by having that do multi-duty by also using it for my Plex server instead of a NAS. Maybe put something like a i9-9920X in it with a decent RAID box connected by Thunderbolt3 or USB 3.1 Gen2 and a RTX2080ti to leverage hw transcoding? That would cause re-thinking of the non-plex stuff on a NAS, but that’s an acceptable compromise.

I think I’ll have to do some research on the DAS route as part of a new PC build and see how that would compare to a i7-based NAS (both functionality and price). But I’ll post any questions about that in a more appropriate forum.

Thanks again for your insights!

[nokdim]

I use the mediasonic 4 bay enclosures with esata connected to a small form factor system which holds 3 drives itself so I have room for 7 drives and you can add a 4 bay enclosure as needed for growth plus no giant tower…

I’d also suggest you look into a soft raid setup so you can mix and match drive sizes and get the same benefits as hardware raid.

I use unraid myself but I believe freenas provides the same functionality.

Also I have a SSD cache drive and the rest are cheaper spinning disks this and all new data gets written to SSD and copied to the soft raid set onna schedule so all new recordings or downloads are fast to access and gets written to raid after hours.

[DonShockley]

I too am a newbie to both Plex and NAS worlds. I did a bit of a test run with a Synology 218j knowing it would be replaced as underpowered if I did stick with it.

But it was a cheap way to test before going further. But now I’m ready to go further.

I’m pretty sure I’m going with the 1019+ but need some advice on what type of drive to use for the Plex server host. I plan to do two mirrored volumes, one for the actual media storage and another for assorted backups.

But the fifth bay will be for the single drive with the plex metadata and other assorted files.

It’s this “running” drive I need advice on.

Do I stick with the same WD Red drives I am storing the media on, would the extra speed of the Red Pro be better for Plex performance on a daily basis, or would I see significant improvements stepping all the way up to an SSD?

Any input would be appreciated.

[DonShockley]

I had read about the NVME cache SSDs not being much use in Plex. Now that the Red Pro is eliminated, I was thinking the 2.5" Seagate IronWolf 110 480GB NAS SSD for $125 vs 4TB Red a bit cheaper for 10x the storage. Since I plan other drives for most media, I don’t mind the storage loss if it really improves Plex performance. I would hate to cheap out and still have sluggish performance. But I also don’t want to spend the extra if the difference is minimal. I’m not terribly picky on my video and rarely notice SD quality drop when streaming it instead of HD, so I don’t know if I personally would see the benefit of the SSD or not.

I know I am wasting a bit of capacity with separate volumes, but I think it will be easier, from a personal organization of files view, with the backup strategies I am considering. I’m not too worried about the Plex media files since I still have the physical discs as backups, so the mirror for drive failure should be fine. Just some wasted time re-burning discs if there’s anything more than that.

For backup of my important files I currently cross copy periodically between two computers in the home. I want to add more automated full computer backup to the 1019+ on the second backup volume. Then I am considering shifting the 218j to offsite backup of only the backup volume, not the plex / media volume.

Thanks again for the prompt help.

[DonShockley]

Thanks again for the instant responses. I think I’ll go the SSD route.

I know the software will handle the backups fine either way but my brain is old fart locked in on thinking “my important stuff is on this drive, that drive I don’t need to worry about as much.”

And I do plan to grow the storage in stages. Currently have 5TB WD Blacks in the 2 computers for media & bakcups, mostly duplicated. Some more important stuff also on ext drives in safe. That will all stay as is. Also currently have 8TB WD Reds in 218j with backup and media in same volume. Plan to purchase 1019+ and single extra drive (SSD) for daily running of Plex server. Will move 8TB drives from 218j to 1019+ and initially use for combined media and backup. Later, add pair of 10-12TB Reds and split media and backup volumes. A while later, get another pair of High-TB Reds to repopulate back in 218j for offsite backup volume duplication.

May change it up a bit depending on drive age and capacity as I actually make each purchase. But that’s the general plan.

[DonShockley]

With 2500 movies on the streaming services that I want to start downloading and 500 local discs not yet purchased digitally I’m going to need high TB or a lot of NAS units.