Hey i’m interested in using a NAS with plex instead of my PC.
I red here that most NAS devices havent enough power to transcode.The Synology DS216+II and DS716+II are the to devices i got my eyes on now.
-DualCore 1,6-2,4GHz (DS216+II)
-QuadCore 1,6-2,4GHz (DS716+II)
Maybe someone can give me first hand feedback.
I would only transcode 2 Videos at the same time.
Most of my 1080p videos got something like 700kBit/s. (Found that number in the properties of the vid file)
But maybe someone could explain me a bit how to calculate the cpu power in need with the bitrates i have.
Im happy to here from you 
At the moment: The DS716+II will probably be able to transcode a single 1080p stream; as long as the bitrate is low… your mileage will vary. Its best to avoid transcoding all together; or use the NAS for storage only and use a more powerful dedicated system for the transcoding.
In the future: If Plex supports hardware transcoding those two systems might become more usuable on that front and theoretically should be able to transcode 1 or 2 1080p streams.
@mickeldaelmans said:
At the moment: The DS716+II will probably be able to transcode a single 1080p stream; as long as the bitrate is low… your mileage will vary._ Its best to avoid transcoding all together;_ or use the NAS for storage only and use a more powerful dedicated system for the transcoding.
In the future: If Plex supports hardware transcoding those two systems might become more usuable on that front and theoretically should be able to transcode 1 or 2 1080p streams.
_ Its best to avoid transcoding all together;_
Much easier said than done !!
If you check the FAQ, you’ll find CPU requirements and the approximate single threaded passmark score required to transcode a 1080p stream.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201774043
If I may augment the ‘re-encode’ suggestion,
- PGS & VOBSUB subtitles are bitmapped images. If PMS needs to use them, they are very CPU expensive as they must be merged into the video stream. Your best option is to SRT/ASS/SSA subtitles (text based)
- Audio transcoding is not bad and usually does well on all the NAS boxes
- Even high bit rate streams (50+), properly remuxed before giving to PMS, play flawlessly as Direct Play.
- The goal is always Direct Play. Direct Stream is acceptable to convert the audio.
- Some containers must re-encode on the fly to convert to your player (e.g. HLS – http live streaming). This is a ‘light transcode’. Best to optimize this first to.
IF at all avoidable: Don’t use HandBrake. Remux the file first (mkvtools, etc). HandBrake is a full encoder. Every time you touch the file, it re-encodes it and you lose image quality.
@kegobeer-plex said:
If you check the FAQ, you’ll find CPU requirements and the approximate single threaded passmark score required to transcode a 1080p stream.
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/201774043
Thank you all for your feedback.
i already saw that site. I was a bit confused because my files got 0,7Mbps and they seem to calculate with 10Mbps.
i looked under properties of the file.
@mickeldaelmans said:
At the moment: The DS716+II will probably be able to transcode a single 1080p stream; as long as the bitrate is low… your mileage will vary. Its best to avoid transcoding all together; or use the NAS for storage only and use a more powerful dedicated system for the transcoding.
In the future: If Plex supports hardware transcoding those two systems might become more usuable on that front and theoretically should be able to transcode 1 or 2 1080p streams.
ok, if you say i could use the NAS only for storage and a more powerfull system for transcoding.
how do you mean that exactly. Is it possible to bind a networkstorage into a Plex Media Server?
DO you mean that?
You install Plex Server on a PC with a strong CPU, and you add the NAS share(s) to the library.
ok that sounds good.
so i will take a look how much money i could save with that
ok and now i see the problem of cpu requirements better.
if i take a look in plex one of my video got a bitrate about 9Mbps.
instead of the Windows properties. Their it shows me only 0,7Mbps.
thats a big diffrence…
I suggest a 4 bay Synology or qnap NAS with an intel CPU
Fill it with the biggest HD’s u can afford.
Then later if the NAS cannot handle the amount of streaming u want to do,
buy an i7 NUC (or PC) as the server and use the NAS as storage .
@spikemixture said:
So much importance is put on the processing power of your PMS box.
I say equal or more should be put on correctly formatting and optimizing your media !
On so many levels I so agree with this. I can do as much with my NAS as a box costing 3-4 times as much, if they didn’t maximize their media for Direct Play to begin with…
I have an Asustor AS-7004T NAS with an i3-4330 cpu in it. With 5100 passmarks, it capable of doing 2+ transcodes, based on the recommended specs. Reality is much more than expectations, though. This box with the HW Transcoding Beta can easily handle a lot more sessions than I can support through my uploads.
To the OP: Buy a NAS with more drive bays than you figure you’re going to need. You want to have the room to grow, and growing via externals can be problematic when you hit 30TB or more. (Trust me!) Forget a 2 bay, think hard on a 4 bay. Take serious looks at 6, 8 or 10 bays. Even if you don’t fill those bays at the start, you can always add more drives later.
Thanks for all of your feedback. Very helpful.
