Hello All.
I am very new to this but changing over from DVDs to digital. I KNOW I need to utilize a NAS but, there are so many choices I am overwhelmed. I wanted to ask in the NAS section but that forum is manufacturer specific. I want to first start with what is the most reliable Manufacturer brand. I was looking at Synology, Thecus and QNAP. Once I find out which one I should be looking for/at. Once I figure that out I can start to post in the specific forums for better information.
Any positive input would be greatly appreciated. Keep the negative comments to yourself.
Thank you.
@g9s8r said:
Hello All.
I am very new to this but changing over from DVDs to digital. I KNOW I need to utilize a NAS but, there are so many choices I am overwhelmed. I wanted to ask in the NAS section but that forum is manufacturer specific. I want to first start with what is the most reliable Manufacturer brand. I was looking at Synology, Thecus and QNAP. Once I find out which one I should be looking for/at. Once I figure that out I can start to post in the specific forums for better information.
Any positive input would be greatly appreciated. Keep the negative comments to yourself.
Thank you.
Even before we speak about what NAS to buy, what are your requirements ?
How many streams at once do you expect ?
do you expect transcoding of your ripped files from DVD ?
@starbetrayer said:
@g9s8r said:
Hello All.
I am very new to this but changing over from DVDs to digital. I KNOW I need to utilize a NAS but, there are so many choices I am overwhelmed. I wanted to ask in the NAS section but that forum is manufacturer specific. I want to first start with what is the most reliable Manufacturer brand. I was looking at Synology, Thecus and QNAP. Once I find out which one I should be looking for/at. Once I figure that out I can start to post in the specific forums for better information.
Any positive input would be greatly appreciated. Keep the negative comments to yourself.
Thank you.Even before we speak about what NAS to buy, what are your requirements ?
How many streams at once do you expect ?
do you expect transcoding of your ripped files from DVD ?
I would honestly say no more than 2 at a time if even that. But, I also don’t wish to set something up that limits me to 1 or 2 just in case of bad timing.
I don’t expect transcoding but just like the first answer. If I have to use a transcoder, which I have read to be CPU extensive, I want to be able to find a system powerful enough to handle the load.
Thank you for the response. As I stated, I am kind of new and I just don’t want to buy some cheap hardware or opposite that spend good money on one and waste money because it won’t serve my purpose. Especially if a more financially fitting system would suffice. (I was leaning toward liking the Thecus N5810pro but there are many others where I might be going to cheap or over killing)
I also come from an area where I don’t really know many “techies” that I could ask in person.
My two cents. First brand. I would opt for Synology. I like their hardware and software.
I know a lot of people using Nas’es and 95% is using Synology.
Maybe that video would help you answer few questions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcocxpPampU
You see for me important is storage. Amount of bays for now and upgrade possibilities in future.
I said it many times, NAS should not be considered as Plex server. I know there will be people saying otherwise. It’s main purpose is to store safely data, to serve it, backup your clients and backup it self.
Plex Media Server can be “resource heavy” even when not transcoding.
Let’s maybe define your storage needs and budget and we can look around for solution(s).
Thank you Bartlomiej Baraniec. Honestly, I would like it to serve as a Plex server. However, I am not against using it just as a storage device for all my media (pictures, movies, music and legal files) and using something else as the “plex server”. I would like to eliminate all the extra computer components that would take up the energy costs. So, using it as a plex server would end up being the most cost effective (I would assume) but perhaps not, considering it would be on at all times anyways. I don’t see it being a viable choice but I’ve seen Raspberry pi 2’s used as a media server with a simple transcoder. Hence, using the NAS as just the storage.
As far as budget goes, not including hard drives, I was looking around a max of 700/800 dollars if need be as I know the hard drives would be the biggest costs. Looking at WD 5tb or 6tb drives. Ideally, I am not made of money so the most affordable for what I want is what I want to spend. Basically meaning if I can spend 300/400 for something that does the exact same as a 700/800 unit or, for what I want done than I prefer to save the money for other resources.
Once again, Thanks for the input .
Maybe Synology DS1515+ would be something for you: https://www.synology.com/en-global/products/DS1515+ 5 bays and possibility to hook up expansion unit in the future.
There is topic about PMS on Raspberry PI: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/145717/i-have-pms-running-on-raspberry-pi-2/p1
I would consider NAS+RPI2 or NAS+cheap NUC (I can’t imagine Plex without transcoding to my phone while I’m on my way to office).
You have a lot of reading and thinking and calculating to do. I hope more people will share their opinion but it might just make your decision harder. I know for sure, I would never run Plex on NAS.
@Bartlomiej Baraniec said:
Maybe Synology DS1515+ would be something for you: Synology Inc. 5 bays and possibility to hook up expansion unit in the future.
There is topic about PMS on Raspberry PI: https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/145717/i-have-pms-running-on-raspberry-pi-2/p1
I would consider NAS+RPI2 or NAS+cheap NUC (I can’t imagine Plex without transcoding to my phone while I’m on my way to office).
You have a lot of reading and thinking and calculating to do. I hope more people will share their opinion but it might just make your decision harder. I know for sure, I would never run Plex on NAS.
Thank you for your time and input. I just may look for a NAS now just for storage and let a RPI2 or a NUC be the server and transcoder than. I’ve researched the RPI2 but not an NUC. More research and studying to do.
My advice:
- Don’t run PMS on your NAS unless you’re building your own NAS, otherwise CPU will be lacking
- Have enough drives for 2-drives’-worth of redundancy (RAID6 or RAIDZ2). With modern drive capacities, a single drive doesn’t cut it as there’s too high a chance you’ll get a read failure during a rebuild while replacing that failed drive, and at that point you have ZERO redundancy and lose data.
@sremick said:
My advice:
- Don’t run PMS on your NAS unless you’re building your own NAS, otherwise CPU will be lacking
- Have enough drives for 2-drives’-worth of redundancy (RAID6 or RAIDZ2). With modern drive capacities, a single drive doesn’t cut it as there’s too high a chance you’ll get a read failure during a rebuild while replacing that failed drive, and at that point you have ZERO redundancy and lose data.
You are second to say not to run PMS on the NAS system. I’m not building my own NAS anytime soon. Don’t know enough to even start. I understand the need for the drives, not a problem with that one.
I guess now what I should be asking is, outside of a NAS, what would be fast, reliable and strong enough to run the PMS with transcoding, if necessary, without being a full on computer. Trying to keep the power consumption down. Would an RPI2 or NUC work? Those don’t seem to be any better processor or memory wise than what comes on the NAS. You would think this would be simpler.
A friend of mine uses an RPI2 and an HP Proliant micro server but is running something other than Plex and it works just fine. Not sure what system she is using. I want to use Plex so that I can access it remotely once I get a PlexPass.
So would an RPI2 or a NUC be sufficient enough to do the work as a PMS?
I’ve heard of maybe 1 person using a Raspberry Pi2 to run PMS… and only when he pre-transcoded all his media for the lowest-common-denominator quality for all his clients. It’s a lot of work, requires a lot of control and assumptions, and basically castrates a core feature and benefit out of Plex. If you wan to do that, I suppose it’s an option, but you’d be better off going with a beefier PC to run PC. Some NUCs can handle this, but not the lowest-end ones. I’ll defer specifics to actual NUC users.
@sremick said:
I’ve heard of maybe 1 person using a Raspberry Pi2 to run PMS… and only when he pre-transcoded all his media for the lowest-common-denominator quality for all his clients. It’s a lot of work, requires a lot of control and assumptions, and basically castrates a core feature and benefit out of Plex. If you wan to do that, I suppose it’s an option, but you’d be better off going with a beefier PC to run PC. Some NUCs can handle this, but not the lowest-end ones. I’ll defer specifics to actual NUC users.
Thank you. I was honestly assuming what you somewhat confirmed. A lot of people run it that way and I was also assuming that it must work than. But, I guess theres more to it. Thank you though as you have helped me tremendously. I currently have the PMS on my laptop and watched a few movies on my tv with no hitches. I am assuming that it didn’t need any transcoding for the movies. My laptop worked harder with the metadata for the movies than playing the movie.
So, I would be safe to assume that :
- Unless I build my own NAS to handle the loads of the PMS and transcoding, I am better off having a NAS just for storage and redundancy for safe keeping and access.
- suck it up and use a CPU of some sort for the PMS needs.
Don’t know about this anti NAS for server bit.
I had a Synology 415play and 2 friends have same. I now have a 1815+
All serve/d at lease 2 clients - xbox 360 and s, shield TV , roku 3 and 4,
ALL my media is mp4 .
Many many NAS’s will serve you purpose.
So pick a 4 bay NAS from Synology or QNap - Google best plex NAS.
AND if it doesn’t work out (and I say it will) you then buy a i3 NUC to be the server!
Get an HP Microserver Gen 8 and stick OpenMediaVault on it. For the price of a NAS, you will have a real home server with media streaming capabilities, with an open architecture, and able to run pretty much any software you like.
