I’ve been running around trying to figure this out and I haven’t been able to come up with any kind of good option that I understand. So I’m hoping someone can explain this to me like i’m 5.
I currently have a self-built HTPC that runs as my server & player. It’s got an HDMI straight to my TV. It doesn’t play 4K. I had two external hard drives connected to it for media, but one of them just up and died, so as I’m getting everything fixed I’m considering changing my setup.
Is there an NAS that has 4 bays (so I can run a RAID and avoid having this issue again) that has an HDMI out and will be able to direct play 4k? Does it need to run Windows or will one of the free Linux versions work?
Plex is a client/server solution.
Which means, there is no need to place the server next to the TV.
The Plex server can be located almost anywhere, as long as it has a fast network connection to the actual Plex client device.
That way, silent cooling is not as important anymore.
If you want 4K playback and want also HDR, Dolby Vision and the modern surround sound formats, I recommend you to take a look at the nVidia Shield as a client device.
There may be NAS devices with HDMI out ports, but these cannot be used for Plex (anymore, that is. There used to be some models from QNAP or TerraMaster, AFAIR which brought their own adapted versions of the old PlexHomeTheater app. But these were never updated and don’t run anymore with modern server versions).
If you have some computer skills you can turn your HTPC in to a Unraid server which will give you redundancy for your files as well ability to run your Plex Server on the same machine in docker. As already mentioned you will want to get the the Nvidia Shield but get the Pro version.
Thanks for the info guys! I didn’t realize they’d moved so far away from having it play directly from an HTPC.
I do have one other question when it comes to NAS… if I’m going through the NVIDIA Shield I know it’ll play 4k directly… but when you talk about transcoding 4k… do you need the horsepower to transcode up or transcode down? For instance if someone remotely is going to watch something I have in 4k but they’re going to get it in 720p quality, do I have to have a CPU with a lot of horsepower? Or do I only need one if I’m trying to up-transcode something to 4k? Does that make sense?
In most cases you do not want to transcode 4K HDR. It is very resource intensive. There is a big thread discussing this here [INFO] Plex, 4k, transcoding, and you - aka the rules of 4k. Drive space is cheap now of days, just make a optimized 1080p versions. Plex will use this version on non 4K TVs and transcode for remote streams.
