Hello All. I am knew to the forums, but have been using Plex for quite some time. I have been noticing some issues lately and wanted to get some feedback or opinions.
I have a QNAP TS 469 Pro, with Plex server installed and running on my home network. I stream Plex remotely all the time at work, or locally in home office from my MacBook or PC and have never noticed issues. As well as at home with mini PC connected to my projector. Lately though I have noticed severe buffering or transcoding issues when playing from my iPhone or PS4. That got me to thinking, when I use a computer does the system offload the transcoding to that device? If so, that explains why my NAS CPU is maxing out when streaming from mobile/PS$ and not from my MacBook. If this is the case, would it be better to setup a pc as my Plex server, with NAS as the network drive instead of server? Would this then handle the transcoding that the NAS cannot when using mobile device or gaming system?
Just trying to understand so I have better streaming across the board. Thanks for any input.
Depends on your use case. As you described, things turn into a huge pain when your clients cannot deal with certain media and require the server to transcode. That’s when the limitations of a NAS start to truly show. https://support.plex.tv/articles/201373823-nas-devices-and-limitations/
A halfway current mini pc has significantly more power and power consumption should still be ok.
A halfway current mini pc has significantly more power and power consumption should still be ok.
Thanks for the response. The NAS was super easy to set up, but as you’ve stated, it’s definitely showing it’s limitations. I will try to set up a new server from a computer. I have a few spare laptops and a Mac Mini that are not being used. All are i5/i7 so should be enough power. I can run the Mac Mini headless and leave setup next to NAS in the office. I will look into the power draw this will cause, as well as Mac OSX vs Windows for running server.
My other option was to buy an intel NUC since they’re low power, but have great processing.
Hello, I am having a bit of an issue. I have setup PMS on a spare pc in my office. I have mapped my NAS via network drive to the PC. And I was able to launch Plex, setup my media folders, and Plex found the content from the NAS. However, when I try to play content, it will not play. Any ideas what the issue could be?
Yes, I will pull it back up to see exactly what it said. I spoke to one of the network team members at work and he said he thinks it’s a bandwidth issue. The pc is connecting to the network to get the media, NAS is transcoding over the network sending back to pc, and it’s a constant loop. He suggested I just use a desktop with spare bays, or connect the external directly to the pc via USB and cut out the network as a middle man.
