With only 2 drives, you can only use SHR on Synology. You need 3 drives for RAID.
You can RAID 1 to start (e.g. Mirrored), then add an additional drive later on, to give you RAID 5. Of course they would need to be of the same size if using RAID.
If I remember correctly BTRFS is not available on SHR.
Personally going to raid 5 gives you 3 disks of storage and 1 disk of redundancy, on a 4 disk array, which is a reasonable compromise.
@ChuckPA said:
@TheBillionaire said:
I just purchased the Synology DS918+ 4gb and I am struggling to get even two streams with plex. Iâm using an HD Homerun prime to record shows via plex DVR. The streams are unfortunately streamed from Verizon in Mpeg2 and transcoded by Plex. I am a newb at this and itâs not going well. Any suggestions?A lot has to do with the file and its contents .
Can you hover over one of the files giving you trouble, click âGet Infoâ and âView XMLâ. Then post that XML here.
Also, if you can recreate the playback which causes it. Play until the problem occurs, then Settings - Server - Help - Download Logs, attaching that ZIP file here, we can look at it and see what is actually happening and what PMS had decided to do
Thanks. I will do that. I have to get rid of a few possible bottlenecks first. I purchased a new router and I am upgrading my streaming devices.
@jaywerrett said:
well after gone for a nuc setup now for the extra power thanks to advice from @ChuckPA i was originally gonna get the DS418Playi went cancel my order but seems to late and been dispatched
so gonna have a mess around with it and see how it performs, as be good to see how far behind the DS918+ it is for using with plex in general
Howâs your testing with the DS418play going, Jay?
@jcwacky said:
@jaywerrett said:
well after gone for a nuc setup now for the extra power thanks to advice from @ChuckPA i was originally gonna get the DS418Playi went cancel my order but seems to late and been dispatched
Howâs your testing with the DS418play going, Jay?
well currently nearly finished copying my 4000+ films to it from my DS116 and waiting for the release of the DS118 so can test that out
just got wait on @Mi Key as to what files he willing download from the link @ChuckPA gave, so we can test the performance of these two devices when comes to DS418Play and DS918+ with direct play and also transcoding
Hello, looking for some information. I currently own a 1513+ which is mainly only used as a plex server (3x3tb and 500gb ssd for cache). Own a new Oled HDR tv and would like to be able to play/transcode 4k content when more becomes available. Would preferably like to stay around or below the $1000 mark. Was looking at the ds418play, ds918 and the ds1517+. Also read some about the qnapâs but love how user friendly synology devices are.
I made the transition from Synology (DS1813+ and DS1815+) to QNAP in 2 weeks. If youâre technically inclined, youâll love the amount of control you have. If you like a clean / lean UI, Youâll like it. My only hiccup was customizing the Dashboard ! (forgot about the âoptionsâ button :DOH:)
If your HDâs are the same size, while the QNAP will reformat them, RAID setup is the same. Synologyâs current edge over QNAP is their hybrid raid (SHR) which allows different size drives to be used. (they perform volume reshaping automatically ⊠at the expense of a LOT of processing time)
Thatâs also something i really love about synology is the SHR raid, i know at some point i will prob start putting in 4 or 5 tb drives and definitely like how simple it would be with the synology. I am fairly technically inclined but have very little experience when it comes to using linux or command prompts. Was hoping one of the synology devices listed above would be up for the job.
You donât need to do scripting on either.
One nice thing you can do with qnap: you can create a directory somewhere and create a share which points at it regardless of location. Synology restricts us to putting everything at the top of the /volumeX level
Would you say the DS918, ds418play or the ds1517+ would be able to do much on the 4K transcoding side of things? Also bought a couple lisences for DsCam so would rather stick with Synology if any way possible
The DS1517+ cannot do any hardware transcoding. It uses the Atom C2538 CPU.
https://www.synology.com/en-us/knowledgebase/DSM/tutorial/General/What_kind_of_CPU_does_my_NAS_have
Missed that when I looked at that link. Any qnap
Around the 1000 mark you would recommend for 4K transcoding?
1000 Passmarks is barely enough to run PMS. The Atom C2538 is 2500 Passmarks and itâs sluggish. It can only handle 3 audio transcodes.
You need a SkyLake or KabyLake GPU to do 4K HEVC. (KabyLake as the minimum for 4K HEVC HDR)
Hi @ace_300 we are on the same sort of situation but my Syno is the DS1511+ and really having difficulties
with 4K streaming. I would expect my 4K HDR TV with Plex should be able to Direct Play not only 4K video but also TrueHD or DTS HD⊠Unfortunately PMS on the Syno switches to Direct Stream for audio and Iâm getting transcodes like TrueHD to EAC3 and DTS to DCA. Switched on information in the settings of Plex player (Android TV) and Iâm getting the onscreen message my new TV is not able to play this natively? Is that correct or should I config something like Passthrough?
HDMI ARC connected to Marantz receiver.
@ChuckPA said:
I made the transition from Synology (DS1813+ and DS1815+) to QNAP in 2 weeks. If youâre technically inclined, youâll love the amount of control you have. If you like a clean / lean UI, Youâll like it. My only hiccup was customizing the Dashboard ! (forgot about the âoptionsâ button)
Hi ChuckPA,
Not sure it is the right topic to ask, appologies if I am disgressing⊠I have been following this section for several months as I was hoping Synology would finally propose beefier configs this year. It seems that even the ds918+ might be a bit tight for a comfy Plex usage. Only Mi Key seem to have great results but with a config that is close to 1000⏠and possibly helped by a library that is a good fit for Plex?
I am now looking at Qnap and I find that their offering is difficult to âreadâ. Looking at the compatibility list spreadsheet, tvs471 with i3 might be the answer? Would you mind sharing what is the first-in-range version that would easily handle Plex transcoding?
Thanks and sorry again if this question is not in the right section/inappropriate. 
In ALL cases where we want to dial-in on a solution, We first need a finite requirement.
This having been said, please be specific about what defines ââŠwould easily handle Plex transcodingâ
What is comfortable for you is not always comfortable for everyone else.
I have an i7-6700 based machine and want the i7-7700 machine. To me, thatâs comfortable 
Just came back to this thread and I am so psyched to see that you guys finally have the 918+ working decently with HW transcoding. I can finally migrate from my 415+ with separate PMS box to an all-in-one solution. Iâve had a few 10TB drives sitting in the box and waiting for a new NAS.
Is there any (Plex related) reason I should not pull the trigger and order the 918+ ???
@âMi Keyâ said:
@The-Dave said:
Wow?! That is much better than I expected it to perform. How is browsing the library through the client? Does everything update and display rather quickly? Also, do you happen to have an M.2 installed as a cache and know if Plex (Synology) is utilizing it at all?I have 2 x Samsung evo 960 250GB in Read/Write mode.
I have turned off sequential IO buffering.From what I can see the library loads instantly and I believe the majority of plex database/images are sitting in the SSD cache.
From what I can tell transcoding is stored here also as that wouldnât necessarily constitute sequential writing. Most of the transcoding users constantly show throttled which is fantastic.
Iâll monitor it when I have it loaded up with users again tonight but I could see the ssd cache hit reach 100% every 10 or so seconds by looking at the GUI in DSM. If you have any commands for me to run to gather more in-depth metrics happy to do so.
For transcoding is it hardware enabled through Plex pass or are you doing it all through software? How well does it handle H.265 videos?
Think Iâm going to bite the bullet and go all out. I know itâs not as beast as yours ChuckPA but you know of any reasons that it wouldnât work for my needs?
Qnap Tvs-882
3.2GHz Intel Core i5-6500
Thinking of getting 4 HGST drives for now, maybe 5-6tb
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GF7WIKQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_xh66zbQQA25D2
Synology Plex pass users with a GPU on their synology with Quick Sync have the option to switch on transcoding. What level of hardware transcoding depends on the GPU.
Have a look at the Intel Quick Sync wiki page, that lists what generation of process/design, be it skylake, kabylake or before. That will outline what level of hardware transcoding is potentially available.
I for instance have just purchased the DS918+, which is a skylake based CPU/GPU, that does x265 (encode and decode), however doesnât do x265 10 bit (HDR).
I think that is mostly correct.
