I see mixed information on using a Synology DS216+ to record and stream live TV. Most say its not possible, others say with a HDhomerun extend (which does the transcoding) or a new release of DSM coming or both. I don’t mind spending the money, (HDextend 173, plex pass , NAS$$$. HD antenna 30-60) but I’m not clear if it will work? How do I validate before I buy all this stuff.
- Don’t buy 2016 stuff (any Synology product ending in xx16). Current is xx18 and xx18+
- Don’t buy any of the ARM based systems or the RealTek systems. NO hardware transcoding. No support for the RealkTek at all
- The 4-bay DS x18+ is popular.
- If you have a Plex Pass, you gain two things: a) Hardware transcoding b) you don’t need H.264 output from the Tuner MPEG2 is just fine because of Hardware Transcoding to H.264 for your devices
DSM upgrades won’t give us more video processing capability. They can’t invent ability that isn’t already in the machine.
Thx, but I’m still confused. I should of clarified I already own the DS216+. Its strange that some info list the CPU as Intel celeron Duo core and others ARM.
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So a DS918+ would do it? The DS718+ has the same CPU listed and is cheaper, would that work?
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Yes I would get Plex pass for live TV/DVR. So if I have Plex pass could I use my DS216+ and Could I just use the HD connect, or would I need the extend ?
Thx!!
Yes, DS918+ / 718+ work well.
It has been observed to buy additional 4GB of memory and bump it up to its full 8GB. Synology only offers 2GB DIMMS so they tell you the max is 6GB lol.
I apologize, but I’m not following. My point question is.
“So if I have Plex pass(which you say does HW transcoding) could I use my DS216+ and Could I just use the HD connect, or would I need the extend ?”
Also I’m confused on you statement that having a plex pass gives hardware transcoding. How is it doing that? Plex pass is a cloud service, how does it give you HW transcoding?
Thank you very much.
You need Plex Pass for the DVR feature to activate.
So I bought the HD Extend and it sort of works. I thought the HD extend would handle the encoding and off load the Synology of that process, but it doesn’t seem the case. When I try and stream it pauses a lot and looking at the Synology it is pegged at 100% cpu. Any setting I could change to help this out? When I steam Home movies I have on the unit they stream fine.
One other question. Somewhere online it mentioned to only update the Plex app from within the Synology interface. It seems like a newer version for Plex is out, but the Synology interface isn’t giving the update as an option. Do I need to wait for it to appear in Synology, or can I update it a different way? If so what is that way.
My guess would be that Synology needs to approve the newest version?
Thank you.
PMS is installed using the Synology Package Center application. This is how it’s done.
The ‘trick’ here is to download Plex from www.plex.tv/downloads
Synology does not provide the required 64-bit package in their Package Center.
You need to download from Plex and perform a Manual Install of the SPK file you downloaded from Plex.
This, with a Plex Pass, will enable hardware transcoding.
I have the plex pass, will try the manual install tonight.
If I don’t have the 64 bit installed, since it was via PMS, then I will have to uninstall and then reinstall manually?
Yes. Uninstall and reinstall the package binaries in Package Center.
Do not be concerned about your library metadata. I do not delete them when uninstalling the package.
When installer runs, it searches for your existing Plex share and uses it if found.
It is done this way because of storage space limitations and other package restrictions .
Thx, I think it might be working, but now I’m getting a message “No write access to destination” when I try and record to DVR. I can’t seem to find out where its writing to? I think ‘/var/services/homes/plex’ and I think an account called plex. Put I can’t find that account and how its linked? Maybe the uninstall and reinstall broke the permissions?
now I’m getting a message “No write access to destination” when I try and record to DVR. I can’t seem to find out where its writing to? I think ‘/var/services/homes/plex’ and I think an account called plex. Put I can’t find that account and how its linked? Maybe the uninstall and reinstall broke the permissions?
What are you running your plex server on? I’m continuously having permission issues on my ubuntu server with plex. Keeps changing directories to read only etc. Sometimes it’s fixed with a reboot. Other times I have to re “chown” directories, then reboot server, and connected devices to reset the connection information.
