I just setup the Plex server on a Windows 10 desktop, I am thinking of adding an extra hard drive for video storage. I can’t find any information on the space needed to store video, for example, how many hours of video will a 1 TB hard drive hold? Should I go for a 2 or 4 TB hard drive?
Thanks in advance.
That’ll very much depend on what Media you’re going to add and how you save it…
A raw blu-ray rip will take something between 20-30 GB. A raw DVD rip will take approximately 4-5 GB.
If you save optimized versions, this number will go significantly down. You can have ok/good transcodes of a full HD movie in the range of 6-10 GB, for SD content this will be in the range of 1-2 GB.
Those numbers should be true for your average 90-120 minute movies.
Edit: keep in mind the Plex Media Server will als eat quite some amount (easily 10+ GB of posters… I’ve seen users with extreme libraries where this went up to 100+ GB)
Thanks that is what I am looking for HD recorded TV programs, I have a drive with 500GB free, but with black Friday coming, I was think about adding a hard drive for dedicated recording of OTA content.
Thanks
you should consider looking into an expandable NAS solution, like qnap or synology
if you are going to start ripping/collecting video, you will likely find that needing more storage is an on going issue.
I assume you would still run the server on the PC and just store to the NAS?
Is there an advantage to using the NAS versus the PC hard drive.
where you run the server can be done on either.
if you already have a suitable PC, continue to run pms on that.
if you have or buy a nas that can run plex server directly, then you no longer need to keep PMS on your pc.
you can go big pc + small/cheap nas
or cheap pc (or none) + a new/powerful enough nas to host PMS + all your videos
or some just go with stacks of external drives connected to their desktop/laptop.
my advise if you are just getting into this, try to look forward, buy the biggest/best nas you can afford, that will let you add and expand disks as you go along, without a bunch of work/headache on your part.
if you want to go real big, see @ FreeBSD Enterprise 1 PB Storage
That is correct but I do not really agree with the need for a NAS. I do believe that a server should be the only primary duty of the computer that Plex runs on and the it should run nothing else except programs needed for server support.
My Plex server runs on a dedicated computer with about 72 TB of attached storage. To make the storage manageable and expandable I use StableBit’s Drivepool that combines all that storage into one big drive. (Note: do NOT store Plex’s database in the pool.)
Drivepool has many advantages and you can add storage as needed by simply getting a new drive, hooking it to the computer (I use USB) and adding it to the pool.
A computer with external drives and Plex and Drivepool keeps everything self contained and, should the computer fail, all you need do is get another computer and hook up the drives and install Drivepool and the preexisting pool gets automatically reassembled in its entirety.
One gotcha to remember for all NAS or Drivepool or other solutions is that any built in “duplication” or other recovery strategy is NOT a backup and even Drivepool’s duplication does not protect against data loss if two or more drives fail at the same time.
What I use is just one way for a solution to work and there are many many others but it works for me and I have nearly no problems.
I initially went with a 2-bay NAS 6+ years ago. Put in two 2tB drives to mirror for redundancy. I bought two 10TB last summer to upgrade my space. No need to yet. I have an intelNUC i3 chip that runs windows10 (256SSD drive holding OS) and attached the NAS to the wired network as well (these are in the cabinet below the tv next to the cable-modem house entrance point.
Plex doesn’t make it easy to have a Library Summary.
I have 1.76TB of content
685 directories, each roughly a movie (and associated DVD/BR extras). (1.4TB)
36 Series with 1,170 files/items (370GB)
About 2 years ago I started to rip exclusively, when available, Blu-Ray. I have a 10TB external drive that stores all these source discs which is nearly full.
Full analysis. No clue.
Glad I look, as I’m getting ready to need to swap out those 2TB for the 10TP discs.
I have 2 really nice PCs, I will probably just go with a NAS for storage. I am trying to keep it simple for me. I might look into a NAS that can run PMS that can run PMS. I am not excited about running one of my PCs 24X7, but my initial goal is to get a system running that will DVR local OTA content.
If it works out, my second goal is to satisfy my wife so I can drop YouTube TV, and maybe supplement it with with Philo. Regardless, my wife needs to be happy. It just annoys me to pay $65 a month for YouTube TV.
Parting thought, last night was my first night with the PMS, but the OTA channels look crisper and clearer than what we were streaming via YT TV, I was actually surprised.
Thanks for the info
I will probably go the same way for now.
@jim_jbrc_biz You’ll need a beefy NAS to run Plex, especially if it needs to recode on the fly. I got my NUC-i3 for $300-400 and all it does is run plex (and some network sniffing software). I then use Tablo to grab OTA stuff in HD. Tablo has it’s own external desktop enclosed drive (4TB SSD). Also think how your other devices will access PMS. I have my plex box, nas, tablo and other stuff attached to a 16port unmanaged switch. My tv above this gear is cat5e connected to the network. Everything else (including the 65" in the basement) connects via our ORBI mesh router. We use Roku for the integration of everything (something they have been aiming for just as Plex is trying to do – Roku was first out that supported Tablo OTA so what’s not broken…)
$339 NUC-i7 (will need OS and drive). See if a beefy NAS justifies the added cost.
So my i3 has been running for 4+ years no problems. Transcodes and serves many at once (kids 8,10,14yo on their devices, plus 3 tv in the house). Streaming issues rare, on usually with Netflix.
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