Starting to wonder if you’re way overthinking (I’m really good at it, too, BTW).
Keep the Synology DS-418 you already have.
Grab the NVIDIA Shield ($179)
Connect the Synology as a network drive to the shield (takes 20 seconds)
Install the Plex media server to the Shield with all your libraries hosted on the Synology.
Put the Alienware computer out to pasture and call it done.
The shield is a great low power server AND player.
It plays any codec, does both hardware and software transcoding, has Google AI, so you can do voice searches of your library, and it’s a kick butt streamer in general for not only plex but Netflix, amazon, hulu, whatever.
This way, you have a killer system and you’re out less than $200. Win-win. Done.
@matterpro said:
Starting to wonder if you’re way overthinking (I’m really good at it, too, BTW).
Keep the Synology DS-418 you already have.
Grab the NVIDIA Shield ($179)
Connect the Synology as a network drive to the shield (takes 20 seconds)
Install the Plex media server to the Shield with all your libraries hosted on the Synology.
Put the Alienware computer out to pasture and call it done.
The shield is a great low power server AND player.
It plays any codec, does both hardware and software transcoding, has Google AI, so you can do voice searches of your library, and it’s a kick butt streamer in general for not only plex but Netflix, amazon, hulu, whatever.
This way, you have a killer system and you’re out less than $200. Win-win. Done.
Okay, quick question… how is this any different than my TCL TV with Plex installed? I mean…and I am not versed in this Nvidia tool, this looks like a Roku… and, heck… I already have one of those built into the TV.
Essentially, this looks like an xbox that I plug into my network or TV and it accesses the network and streams movies.
So…my TCL already does that.
I am fine with “one more thing plugged into the entertainment area”… heh, but any idea if a universal remote would be able to control it?
I know, voice control, but I trust that as much as I trust Siri… and I hate Siri… heh
I need to look at this a lot deeper. To me, and I am not versed in it as you are, it looks like another Roku. Not sure how it would become the media server.
It’s funny to me that I came across your post today. Not to hijack it, but I am going through exactly what you are right now! I have been doing research for the past 4 days and this thread has helped me a bit.
This last post regarding using the Shield TV device may work out for me because I already have a 500 GB Pro in the Living Room being served by my HTPC that is currently sitting behind my Entertainment Center where Plex is set up and running to serve out my 200 movies and TV Show recordings currently.
I also have the Nvidia Shield 16 GB sitting upstairs connected to our bedroom TV that I use when we are up there.
I have gone back and forth on getting a NAS device, converting my HTPC into a NAS, blah, blah, blah.
I am going to do some research on using the Shield as my server and see if it may work out for my usage. It’s just me and the wife, no friends streaming outside. We may need to stream on rare occasions we are out of town, but that is about all.
@jrbarnard05 said:
Okay, quick question… how is this any different than my TCL TV with Plex installed? I mean…and I am not versed in this Nvidia tool, this looks like a Roku… and, heck… I already have one of those built into the TV.
Good question, the answer is that it’s WAY different. Ha. The Shield is an HTPC pretending to be a simple set top streamer. Strong CPU, crazy good GPU (which does the transcoding, BTW, so the CPU doesn’t struggle) and good RAM. Which means it can work as a server, not just a player. In fact, Plex recommends using it as a server, not just an end use player. But it does that, too.
Your TCL TV and your Roku are ok for playback ONLY. Moreso the Roku. But they can’t ever ever ever be a SERVER. Just a player. Which is fine, keep them for just that. Let the Shield be a server to them and now you have 3 ways to watch plex.
@jasonmcroy as long as you have drives that you can connect via usb 3.0 to the shield directly or are accessible as a network drive on your home network with decent read write speed, the shield will work great. That’s why it’s a knockout with a NAS/Shield combo. If the NAS isn’t powerful enough to be a server, but serves data just fine, the Shield can do the heavy lifting.
I used only the Shield and (2) 2TB USB drives plugged in the back for a long time before adding a NAS. It worked great, I just needed more storage.
@jasonmcroy as long as you have drives that you can connect via usb 3.0 to the shield directly or are accessible as a network drive on your home network with decent read write speed, the shield will work great. That’s why it’s a knockout with a NAS/Shield combo. If the NAS isn’t powerful enough to be a server, but serves data just fine, the Shield can do the heavy lifting.
I used only the Shield and (2) 2TB USB drives plugged in the back for a long time before adding a NAS. It worked great, I just needed more storage.
Thanks. I have 2 questions for you:
You were able to plug in two hard drives to the back of the Shield and they both worked? I read somewhere this was working correctly. Maybe they fixed it in a recent update?
If I set up a cheaper solution to storing data on my network (IE., I have been thinking of just using my Raspberry Pi just to back up storage to, not try and use it as a server per se) and I access that from the Shield, the Shield can do the transcoding (using the Plex server)?
This could be a workable solution. I realized that for my usage scenario, which is very simple, I only need my movies and TV recordings backed up somewhere off of my hard drives that the data is being pulled from for viewing. In that situation a NAS is likely overkill for me and I am not sure redundancy vs physical backup is what I want.
@jasonmcroy said:
Thanks. I have 2 questions for you:
You were able to plug in two hard drives to the back of the Shield and they both worked? I read somewhere this was working correctly. Maybe they fixed it in a recent update?
I definitely had two drives connected, however I haven’t tried that in over 6 months since add the NAS. Can’t see why they’d stop that from working since then. They do have to be properly formatted drives for the shield to be able to both read and write to them. And if you use DVR function you have to set up a special folder on the drive for Plex to save to. It’s in the help section on Plex somewhere. Something to do with permissions on Android OS.
If I set up a cheaper solution to storing data on my network (IE., I have been thinking of just using my Raspberry Pi just to back up storage to, not try and use it as a server per se) and I access that from the Shield, the Shield can do the transcoding (using the Plex server)?
It should, as long as the Raspberry Pi can serve up the data fast enough on the network and the drives are visible and mountable. As long as the Shield is set up as the server and you tell it where your libraries are located and they’re 24/7 accessible, it should work fine.
Well hell. I went to return the DS-418 and they ended up giving me a full credit and told me to keep the DS-418 so…guess unless I sell this thing to someone, I have no need to buy a new NAS, so will work on having this one serve the content and something else serve up Plex.
@jrbarnard05 Guess it’s time to have a raffle / open a bid and see who wants it? When your minimum is met, you can then take the refund + proceeds and get the QNAP you wanted in the first place
