M current setup is a 2011 Radeon Mac Mini (no 24p bug) with a 4TB Mybook attached to it. The Mac Mini is my Media Center and i can even control it with my Harmony (thx to “Remote Buddy” Software).
What it lacks is the always on factor. I always dreamed of an always on solution to share the media with family and friends. Letting the Mini run 24/7 is no solution for me due to the power consumption and noise, as it currently resides next to my bed in the same room.
So what i basically need is a mixture between:
Low power consumption
Always on 24/7
Super low noise
Storage <4TB
Perfect client (no judder whatsoever = perfect 24p support)
What i own so far:
Mac mini 2011
NVIDIA Shield
ordered a MyCloud Pro to test the noise and power consumption factor
Fire TV 1Gen
Regarding
2. As stated above the mini lacks the always on factor. I am able to wake it via Magic Packet but friends dont… And i don’t like having it turned on and off frequently to be honest.
Regarding 2.
The Shield as a Plex Server is absolutely no solution to me as i cannot push new movies over to an attached USB Drive via network. It only supports network share for the internal storage.
Regarding 3.
In case the My Cloud is decent enough in noise and power consumption terms… what would be the perfect client for it? Shield? No way… it has a fan which runs all the time… doesn’t matter if its quiet or not… having 2 devices with fans running is no solution for me as it would be a total waste of power as i am not home most of the time.
Does anyone have some tipps for a good solution? Thanks!
There is no “perfect” solution. What one person may say is perfect another will say it is horrible.
For me the perfect has always been my Mac Mini (Mac mini (Late 2012)
2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, bumped up to 16GB), as server and client. Always on, it uses 11W on idle, which to me is not that much. My 5 NAS boxes use more than that. Of course it is in a cabinet next to my TV (not my bedroom) so the noise never affects me (which only comes into play for transcoding any way). Plays anything I can throw at it and can handle a few concurrent streams.
For a client, perhaps check out a Raspberry PI (it is pretty lean on the power). I thought it worked well when I tried it and the noise is, well, non-existent. The sub forum here is a wealth of info and full of very helpful people.
For the server, the WD device may be a good option for you but not sure the power use is going to be what you’re looking for. I tried looking for specs but can’t find any.
Regarding #2. Adding a external to the shield if you let android format it. It then will be treated as internal storage. The draw it is no longer portable and must always be used with the shield, move it and it has to be reformatted
You can build a box like mine for about $800 sans drives. That might sound like a lot until you factor in that it’s both the PMS and a full-blown NAS with redundant storage combined in the same box. It was designed to run 24/7 and does exactly that, drawing about 35W idle and pretty much silent.
PMS on a Raspberry Pi 3 with USB attached storage, OpenPHT for Odroid, will direct play anything including H.265, 10 bit, DTS-MA, Atmos, 4K H.264, plus all the usual lower audio codecs.
@ussalaskamain said:
Regarding #2. Adding a external to the shield if you let android format it. It then will be treated as internal storage. The draw it is no longer portable and must always be used with the shield, move it and it has to be reformatted
My 4TB HDD that i let the shield adopt as internal storage got formatted by the shield as fat32… which is ridiculous as i cannot store files that are larger than 4 GB… Do you have any way around that? Its so strange that it acts that way… I read everywhere that android should format as encrypted ext4
@NedtheNerd said:
PMS on a Raspberry Pi 3 with USB attached storage, OpenPHT for Odroid, will direct play anything including H.265, 10 bit, DTS-MA, Atmos, 4K H.264, plus all the usual lower audio codecs.
Regards
Thx! This is exactly the solution i installed at my parents house and it works flawlessly Thx for all you support and help regarding the Raspberry Pi!
What i would like to have is a server that is capable to transcode some streams at the same time… I am still not sure what might be the best solution for that…
@rsava said:
There is no “perfect” solution. What one person may say is perfect another will say it is horrible.
For me the perfect has always been my Mac Mini (Mac mini (Late 2012)
2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, bumped up to 16GB), as server and client. Always on, it uses 11W on idle, which to me is not that much. My 5 NAS boxes use more than that. Of course it is in a cabinet next to my TV (not my bedroom) so the noise never affects me (which only comes into play for transcoding any way). Plays anything I can throw at it and can handle a few concurrent streams.
Thats interesting… i just feel not good to have a Mac mini run 24/7 as i feel its not made for that… then again i stop myself waking it from outside the network as i don’t want to stress it too much by waking it up too often Thats why i was looking for the NAS. The Synology DS916+ uses the same processor as the My Cloud Pro and is at 30Watt when in use… mh
If you are using OpenPHT for Odroid on an Odroid C2 then PMS won’t have to transcode anything, I haven’t found anything yet apart from VP9 or Interlaced BD VC-1, normal VC-1 is fine.
@André.Je said:
Attaching a drive to shield leads to the fact that ever time you want to add media you have to move the hdd to your PC. Not what I want
Then just leave it attached to the PC and point the Shield to it. You don’t need to move the drive at all. Shield can see it over the network attached to the PC
Thx for all you support and help regarding the Raspberry Pi! 
Thats why i was looking for the NAS. The Synology DS916+ uses the same processor as the My Cloud Pro and is at 30Watt when in use… mh
That is unless i keep my mac mini run at all times… that then could act as a PMS itself 
