Hi I wish to use a NAS to store my movies and Plex server to stream them. I would like to stream 4k content aswell as 1080 etc… I will be streaming only to my Samsung UE55KS9000 4k UHD TV via Bose cinemate 520 with the latest software updates which allows 4k. My question is do I neccessarily need a NAS that transcodes as the clients are capable of receiving 4k? If I do they are all at the top end at about £1,000 which I cannot afford. Can anybody that understands these things recommend a decent NAS preferably Asustor or QNAP that will be capable of streaming 4k to these clients without breaking the bank please? Many thanks
No, as the requirements for transcoding 4K are exceeded by the CPU specs of either manufacturer you suggested. If you try streaming a 4K in the wrong codecs, the NAS won’t be able to RT transcode to stream to your device. It’s going to buffer.
Yes, if you make sure your media is in a format that can Direct Play 100% of the time to your client devices.
As you can see this is a two answer question, and a lot depends on what format the media is in, what codecs are used to encode the audio and video streams, and what codecs are supported by your streaming devices. Basically it comes down to how you maintain your media. And that’s going to require testing.
Another issue you have in place is your budget. You have serious money on the TV and other HT equipment, but aren’t prepared to spend the requisite moneys on the device that’s going to host and stream your media to those devices. It’s like buying a high performance race car and putting a 4 cylinder VW Bug engine in it. If you expect the performance the rest of the system could have, you are going to need to spend accordingly to get a device that can support the demands you place on the whole.
Shortcutting one means you shortcut it all.
I have an Asustor AS-7004T. And it can easily handle high bitrate 1080p streaming. (20Mbps+) But that’s Direct Play. and since I maintain my library in as much of a Direct Playable format as I possibly can get it, I know the limits of the system quite well. It uses about 2-4% for each Direct Play stream. But transcoding that 20Mbps stream down to something else uses 80-90% of the CPU to play on my tablet or Roku that can’t handle that high of a bitrate. I can easily support 5+ Direct Play streams, and 2 streams transcoded, but can’t do that while transcoding high bitrates. The CPU requirements ramp up considerably as the bitrate of the source goes up. Expect the CPU requirements for transcoding 4K 32Mbps to be roughly 8K passmarks or more… (H265 introduces it’s own problems with 10-bit color depth, and other issues transcoding.)
If I had everything to do over, it would be to get the 7008T or 7010T and having the extra bays for more internal drives, as well as more room in the case for cooling, to put in an i5 or i7 CPU with higher passmark scores. The 7004T is too small for adequate cooling for these faster chips. The faster the chip, the more capable the transcoding of the whole NAS. The 7004T has an i3-4330 CPU in it. With about 5K passmarks. The socket can go to an i7 with 9500+ passmarks, but the case can’t support the cooling needed to drive that CPU.
I seriously think you need to evaluate your budget. Don’t short change your system because you aren’t ready to spend the money needed to make it worry free, and able to perform to the requirements you want. As I said, it is going to take some testing, but it’s also going to take the proper hardware. Without either, you can expect to be disappointed.
Isn’t it fun spending other people’s money? Many insist that you need a honking great server to run Plex & it’s simply not true. Choose your clients well & no transcoding is necessary. I am currently using a Seagate Personal Cloud for my Plex server & it must be the lowest powered NAS on the market yet I can stream at least four simultaneous 1080p streams to various devices (Roku 3, Roku Ultra, Amazon Fire TV 4K, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 5s, PMP on MacBook Pro).
The OP like me & many other Plex users (possibly the majority) just wants to stream to one screen at a time in their own home. With a decent client the load on the Plex Server is minimal & even the slowest NAS will suffice.
@nigelpb said:
Choose your clients well & no transcoding is necessary.
There’s far more than just what client you use that determines if transcoding is triggered. Network bandwidth, subtitles, bitrates, codecs… one little thing and bam, trancoding is initiated, the hardware can’t keep up, and now the user is complaining that Plex isn’t working as advertised.
This is why people suggest getting a server that can handle transcoding. It’s the only way to get the advertised Plex “experience”… otherwise you’re in for a world of OCD management, pre-transcoding, configuring your files for the lowest common denominator, and other things that get you close to, but never quite 0% chance of transcoding.
@sremick said:
@nigelpb said:
Choose your clients well & no transcoding is necessary.There’s far more than just what client you use that determines if transcoding is triggered. Network bandwidth, subtitles, bitrates, codecs… one little thing and bam, trancoding is initiated, the hardware can’t keep up, and now the user is complaining that Plex isn’t working as advertised.
The OP wants to play his content on one TV in the home so network bandwidth will not be an issue. Why assume that subtitles, bitrates, & codecs will be an issue?
I can only talk about my own case but I suspect that I am more typical of the average Plex user than those who have invested $$$ in honking great servers. I have 12+TB of movies & TV shows some ripped by me & others acquired from random sources. I have made no special effort to only collect videos in a particular format although I have always avoided oddball stuff like FLV & WMV as playing that on any devices can be problematical. I set my clients (Fire TV 4K or Roku 3/Ultra) to Direct Play in Original Quality & the only format that I cannot play is the few DVD ISOs that I have now converted to MP4 with Handbrake. I have no desire to watch a movie on my iPhone or MacBook Pro but I have tested those clients & they play everything too. I have no need for subtitles. I don’t have a 4K TV but I tested some H.265 1080p files & they played OK on the Fire TV 4K.
I realise that if you want to share your Plex library remotely then transcoding to a lower bitrate is inevitable but if the OP doesn’t require this functionality then it’s a waste of money to build a system set up for heavy duty transcoding when it will never be necessary. Why overcomplicate matters? The Seagate Personal Cloud costs little more than a USB 3.0 external disk of the same capacity & must be the lowest powered NAS capable of running Plex Media Server so my suggestion is simply to buy one & try it out as a proof of concept before investing $$$ in a large server.
Thank you all for taking the time and effort to reply to my enquiry it is appreciated and I have read each. I understand that someone may think yes I have a top TV and sound system and then I am not able or willing to pay a large sum on the server. But I did not want to pay ridiculous amounts for something I would not use to its potential. As I stated I only wish to stream to the TV in my lounge via the bose system. I am not interested in watching a movie on the tablet (wouldnt be able to see it anyway) or streaming while away from home etc… So if I didnt need the major and expensive NAS then why bother? I could buy Asustor 7004T or QNAP TVS-471-i3 both at aprox £900 + HDD’s but why do so if I dont need to? This was my question, as my clients are already well spec’d did I need the NAS to be also or could I have a “lesser” model which would not struggle? I dont really understand NAS’ too much so I was unsure if I had got it right that the clients spec was important? I now know I was. With all the advice given by everyone I will also pay attention to the format and codecs of the media as I add it. Thank you all once again
@nigelpb said:
Why assume that subtitles, bitrates, & codecs will be an issue?
Because usually they are. Not many clients support subtitles without transcoding (Opera TV client for SmartTVs for example doesn’t), not many clients support old codecs like DivX and Xvid that one might have around without transcoding. At least audio transcoding should be taken into account because sometimes it’s needed to fix some incompatibilities and glitches (happened to me for some AAC)
I have a NUC as PMS, I don’t share my libraries but I use my smart tv client (because I don’t want to keep the nuc attached to the TV and because I want to use the TV remote to control Plex) but still it’s a NUC with a passmark higher than 2000 that allows me to do audio transcode with no issues, and add subtitles with no issues on a single 1080p stream.
I have no need for subtitles & as already mentioned I don’t have video in any oddball CODECs like DivX and Xvid> @zpaolo11x said:
@nigelpb said:
Why assume that subtitles, bitrates, & codecs will be an issue?Because usually they are. Not many clients support subtitles without transcoding (Opera TV client for SmartTVs for example doesn’t), not many clients support old codecs like DivX and Xvid that one might have around without transcoding. At least audio transcoding should be taken into account because sometimes it’s needed to fix some incompatibilities and glitches (happened to me for some AAC)
It’s not an issue for me or presumably many others. I have no need for subtitles & as already mentioned I don’t have video in oddball CODECs like DivX and Xvid. I have never encountered any need for audio transcoding & in any case only a handful of NAS devices are unable to do audio transcoding even the Seagate Personal Cloud that I suggested as a test bed is able to transcode audio if necessary. Here is the full list & the overwhelming majority of NAS can transcode audio Plex NAS Compatibility - Google Sheets
@nigelpb said:
It’s not an issue for me or presumably many others.
Sure but maybe it’s an issue for the original poster and he didn’t thought about that. You can still burn subtitles in your video stream if it’s only for “foreign audio”. Of course if you don’t watch movies with foreign audio then no problem.
I think there was one glaringly simple thought in that post I made that was overlooked.
What the OP was asking for was does he need to spend a lot of money on a NAS to stream to his 4K TV and sound system. What the OP (and anyone else reading my reply) should have taken from the 1st two paragraphs is this: There isn’t really an out of box answer. You have to TEST the files you want to stream to understand what requirements you are going to need for hardware to stream to them.
Can’t test ANYTHING if the NAS you use isn’t capable of creating the test files (transcoding) so a low end NAS is going to provide you with an answer of sorts. You didn’t buy enough hardware for the task at hand. Buy the hardware that CAN do the transcoding, and then find out you don’t use the full capabilities of the NAS because everything is Direct Playing? You may have spent too much.
I firmly stand behind the rest of my post. If you bought a fantastic HT system and don’t have the hardware to support RT streaming via Plex, then the costs of the HT was wasted. (Or the costs of the NAS which isn’t capable of performing the task you asked of it.)
Don’t buy twice. Simple… Buy enough for what you ask the machine to do, and give yourself a bit of room for expanding capabilities in the future. You aren’t going to get that capability with a sub-par NAS. I know this from personal experience, having had 2 previous models of Asustor’s NASes and trying to push them beyond what they were capable of. I learned a lot about how to make media Direct Play on smaller NASes, and not many people are willing to go through the hoops I had to hop through to make it happen.
Ultimately, it’s the OP’s money. And his decision on where to spend it. Buy a device that may work, or buy a device that WILL work. Your choice, man. GL with whichever way you decide to go.
@MikeG6.5 said:
I think there was one glaringly simple thought in that post I made that was overlooked.What the OP was asking for was does he need to spend a lot of money on a NAS to stream to his 4K TV and sound system. What the OP (and anyone else reading my reply) should have taken from the 1st two paragraphs is this: There isn’t really an out of box answer. You have to TEST the files you want to stream to understand what requirements you are going to need for hardware to stream to them.
Can’t test ANYTHING if the NAS you use isn’t capable of creating the test files (transcoding) so a low end NAS is going to provide you with an answer of sorts. You didn’t buy enough hardware for the task at hand. Buy the hardware that CAN do the transcoding, and then find out you don’t use the full capabilities of the NAS because everything is Direct Playing? You may have spent too much.
What you continue to ignore is that the OP is proposing streaming video files from Plex Media Server to ONE TV. There aren’t many clients to choose from that will play 4K & there should be no need for any transcoding as all of them will Direct Play in Original Quality e.g. Amazon Fire TV 4K, Roku Ultra or Nvidia Shield. Why spend $1000 just for an empty NAS that you still need to fill with disks when it’s total overkill for one stream of 4K or 1080p video? I wouldn’t recommend that the OP rely on the Plex client in the TV so they will need to buy a client anyway. If gaming might be of interest then choose the Nvidia Shield otherwise an Amazon Fire TV 4K is half the price. A Seagate Personal Cloud costs little more than a USB 3.0 external disk of the same capacity so as I suggested earlier the OP can buy one see for themselves that it works & even if they decide to get a larger NAS with RAID then the Seagate NAS can be repurposed as an external disk for backup.
I have been doing some testing with my Seagate Personal Cloud & the Plex for Kodi add-on available to Plex Pass subscribers. Not only does it allow audio passthru on the Amazon Fire TV 4K so DTS plays but also subtitles play. Just using Plex native on the Fire TV 4K DTS is transcoded to PCM 5.1 & subtitles do not play.