New Synology Compatibility: DS418, DS418play, DS918+

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
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To add a datapoint, I have found the DS918+ to handle all but the most demanding 4k files without issues.

All of the Jellyfish videos worked for me (90/120/200 Mbps HEVC 10-bit tested) at about 35% CPU usage including I/O overhead from the RAID 5 array the media is streaming off of. 400 Mbps was barely too much (stuttering every 20 seconds, about 0.9 transcoding speed).

Planet Earth in 4K HDR (40 Mbps HEVC encode) played fine as well.

Results were verified on an iPhone, AppleTV, and NVIDIA Shield TV, all set to convert at maximum quality. I wasn’t able to get Plex Web to work with the files.

My unit is equipped with 16 GB RAM and 240 GB m.2 NVME SSDs in a RAID 1 R/W cache.

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Somehow I made different experiences.

I took a popular H265 File for testing purposes:

<MediaContainer size="1" allowSync="1" identifier="com.plexapp.plugins.library" librarySectionID="2" librarySectionTitle="Filme (gesehen)" librarySectionUUID="b9770cfa-4b5c-4d40-9a5a-840073118ba8" mediaTagPrefix="/system/bundle/media/flags/" mediaTagVersion="1512558791"> <Video ratingKey="20901" key="/library/metadata/20901" guid="com.plexapp.agents.themoviedb://281338?lang=de" librarySectionID="2" librarySectionKey="/library/sections/2" librarySectionTitle="Filme (gesehen)" type="movie" title="Planet der Affen - Survival" summary="" viewCount="3" lastViewedAt="1512325225" thumb="/library/metadata/20901/thumb/1512714000" art="/library/metadata/20901/art/1512714000" duration="8409280" addedAt="1512713985" updatedAt="1512714000" chapterSource="media"> <Media videoResolution="1080" id="48002" duration="8409280" bitrate="4450" width="1920" height="800" aspectRatio="2.35" audioChannels="6" audioCodec="dca" videoCodec="hevc" container="mkv" videoFrameRate="24p" audioProfile="dts" videoProfile="main"> <Part accessible="1" exists="1" id="48135" key="/library/parts/48135/1509948002/file.mkv" duration="8409280" file="/volume1/Path,file.mkv" size="4678116047" audioProfile="dts" container="mkv" videoProfile="main"> <Stream id="109101" streamType="1" default="1" codec="hevc" index="0" bitrate="2146" bitDepth="8" chromaSubsampling="4:2:0" colorRange="tv" frameRate="23.976" height="800" level="120" profile="main" refFrames="1" width="1920"/> <Stream id="109102" streamType="2" selected="1" default="1" codec="dca" index="1" channels="6" bitrate="768" language="Deutsch" languageCode="ger" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" profile="dts" samplingRate="48000"/> <Stream id="109103" streamType="2" codec="dca" index="2" channels="6" bitrate="1536" language="English" languageCode="eng" audioChannelLayout="5.1(side)" profile="dts" samplingRate="48000"/> <Stream id="109104" streamType="3" selected="1" default="1" forced="1" codec="srt" index="3" bitrate="0" language="Deutsch" languageCode="ger" title="forced"/> <Stream id="109105" streamType="3" codec="vobsub" index="4" bitrate="3" language="Deutsch" languageCode="ger" headerCompression="1" title="complete"/> </Part> </Media> <Extras size="0"></Extras> </Video> </MediaContainer>

For Playback I am using an AppleTV 4th gen with most current Plex App. AppleTV and NAS are connected via GigaBit network cable. No Wifi involved.

First I tested with PMS 1.09 and without hardware acceleration. CPU is at 99% and constant stuttering, buffering etc. For testing purposes I ordered a month of Plex pass, to be able to upgrade to PMS 1.10. I enabled hardware acceleration in the Server → Transcoder settings. CPU usage dropped to around 35% and playback is fine for about 1-2 minutes. After that the picture quality drops drastically, looks like a 320p video on my 46’’ TV. Sometimes the picture looked normal, but short stuttering.

The Jellyfish sample files were running fine. But I assume, this was only because they are 30s short.

I played around with various PMS settings:

Settings → Web → Quality

  • disabled / enabled automatic quality
  • video quality set to maximum or 20mbps
  • enabled / disabled recommended settings for home streaming

Settings → Web → Debug

  • enabled direct play
  • enabled direct stream

Settings → Server → Transcoder

  • transcoder quality automatic and higher speed

I could not watch the sample movie without any glitches :frowning:

Any ideas from you guys?

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  • Ignore this, asked elsewhere.
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@ChuckPA said:
At this point, only software decoding of MPEG2 for anyone.

This is where Plex fails for me on any Synology and trying to watch live tv or playback any recorded shows. I’ve switched over to using Channels DVR and Infuse for any playback on my Apple TV 4k because they can play those files with ease. Plex client has always struggled for whatever reason, even with direct playback.

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I have advocated again (and again) with Engineering to enable HW decode of MPEG2. There is no reason given nor reply to my queries.

I am sorry. I’m doing the best I can to get MPEG2 enabled.

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Thanks @ChuckPA When you say Engineering, you mean Plex engineers, or Synology? This has plagued any Plex installation that I have tried, the playback of Live TV or recorded TV. Just seems crazy that the other two apps I mentioned have no issues playing back the same content.

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When I reference “Engineering”, I am speaking of our Engineering team.
Were I refer to Synology in any way, I state it as “Synology”.

It is also important to understand the maturity level of Live TV & DVR at Plex. It was introduced as a development beta a branch of PMS 1.6.0 whereas I started using PMS four years ago. Yes, it has some issues but given where it’s come from 1.6.x to now (1.10.x), it’s made huge progress.

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Can any ds918+ user tell me how the nas behave when plex has to transcode video with subtitles with a 1080p mkv file?

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@ChuckPA said:
I have advocated again (and again) with Engineering to enable HW decode of MPEG2. There is no reason given nor reply to my queries.

I am sorry. I’m doing the best I can to get MPEG2 enabled.

I for one appreciate your efforts, having it enabled would be wonderful.

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Hi
Can I ask for some advice / help please.
I have an old DS213Air that used to run Plex (slowly) but that stopped being supported earlier this year.
I’ve just bought a DS918+ and I’m getting it setup and getting Plex server installed on it. My TV is a Sony Bravia. My computer & phone are apple devices. I don’t have Apple TV.
If I want to make use of the HDR capability of Plex, how do I do it using my DS918+ - what else to I need to buy to make this work?
Thanks

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Oops - typo - I meant DVR not HDR! - How do I get my system sorted to be able to record DVR. Thanks

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Personally I use a HDHomerunner. They are fully supported by Plex. It’s independent of the Synology.

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@JohnGLeeds said:
Oops - typo - I meant DVR not HDR! - How do I get my system sorted to be able to record DVR. Thanks

You need a tuner to capture (convert) the broadcast streams

HDHomeRun series tuners, made by Silicon Dust, are one of the best network tuners going (IMHO)

I use the HDHR3 (US - cable card).

PMS speaks to it directly over the LAN

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@JohnGLeeds

I see in your profile that you are not a plex pass user. You need a plex pass membership also to use the dvr feature along with the hardware transcoding capabilities.

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@rouq said:
@JohnGLeeds

I see in your profile that you are not a plex pass user. You need a plex pass membership also to use the dvr feature along with the hardware transcoding capabilities.

thanks - yes I was aware of that. I’m trying to work out how much I do want to use Plex - especially as it won’t work with my current DRM media - and I’ll have to convert it to be able to view which is a real pain.

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@ChuckPA said:

@JohnGLeeds said:
Oops - typo - I meant DVR not HDR! - How do I get my system sorted to be able to record DVR. Thanks

You need a tuner to capture (convert) the broadcast streams

HDHomeRun series tuners, made by Silicon Dust, are one of the best network tuners going (IMHO)

I use the HDHR3 (US - cable card).

PMS speaks to it directly over the LAN

Thanks - very helpful! J

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@“Mi Key” said:
Personally I use a HDHomerunner. They are fully supported by Plex. It’s independent of the Synology.

Thanks - will look into it

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Would the 918+ handle 720p and 1080p content/transcoding better than a 1515+ with its hardware decoder? Wondering if I would gain by getting a 918+. We don’t have any HEVC content yet

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absolutely. The DS1515 is an atom C2538 CPU (like the DS1815+) which cannot effectively do any video transcoding. Audio is the best it can manage until it’s audio in a HEVC stream. At that point it dies. It cannot decode the HEVC stream

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I would like to request:

Those who are encountering problems with these NAS units to please create your own thread so I may properly address it.   
This thread is 11 pages long now and tough to navigate