Newbie: Media Server - PI or Windows for Plex with NAS

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1

Hi,

 

I am looking to dump my Windows PC for a Pi. I run Plex on my Windows media server with a NAS storage setup. What kind of performance and what effort would it take to move from Windows to Pi running Plex with a NAS?

 

Also is there a workable Pi based NAS option out there?

 

Home media guy

2

It sounds to me as if you want to run a ‘Plex Media Server’ on the RPi, which is simply impossible.

The RasPlex project is an OpenELEC implementation of the “Plex Home Theater” client program only.

There is no known implementation of “Plex Media Server” for the RPi, and I consider such an implementation next to impossible to achieve, considering the tasks a PMS server is expected to perform. The RPi simply isn’t capable of media stream transcoding with decent performance.

Best regards: dlanor

3

There are people who build a NAS based on an RPi. You can install OpenMediaVault or any of the other NAS linux distributions. Then you can install Plex on top of that.

Whether that is a wise option is questionable though. First of all, the RPi as a NAS will be accessing drives through USB, which is slow. Secondly, the RPi will not have enough processing power to do any transcoding, and will only serve the files (very slowly). So your client will have to be beefy enough to read and render the files directly.

If I were you, I would use the Windows PC as the Plex server and the RPi running Rasplex as the client. Or if your NAS has a decent-enough Intel CPU, then you can install Plex Media Server on the NAS.

4

Thanks  everyone. I was thinking of using the Pi as a NAS because of the different versions of Windows on my media related PC's. and issues with drive mapping, rights, etc. I know Synology has products that will work, but I don't have the money. I was also thinking of installing NAS software on my media PC that runs Plex and Playon. But with only 4GB of memory, I am not sure it would be wise.

HMG

5

A NAS doesn’t need that much RAM. There are NAS units that have puny ARM processors and 512MB of RAM, and others with Xeon processors and 16GB. It all depends on what you want to do with it. Running full Plex Media Server with transcoding requires an Intel processor and 4GB is plenty.

The Raspberry Pi is great as a Plex client with its dedicated Home Theater front end. It’s not very useful as a server.

If I were you, I would setup an old PC as as dedicated Plex server. Stick it in a closet with a network connection and run it headless (no monitor and no keyboard, access through Remote Desktop or web interface). Whether you run a NAS operating system (which is basically Linux) or Windows as the OS is irrelevant.

6

Could I connect the Pi with external drives (content, movies, photos, etc) and the Media PC I have now with Plex loaded and running great together so I can sit upstairs and transfer content files from my laptop to the NAS and have Plex on the Media PC find them? How would I physically connect the Pi to my current media PC? a hub?

7

Could I connect the Pi with external drives (content, movies, photos, etc) and the Media PC I have now with Plex loaded and running great together so I can sit upstairs and transfer content files from my laptop to the NAS and have Plex on the Media PC find them? How would I physically connect the Pi to my current media PC? a hub?


Suggest that you should read the Plex (support.plex.tv/hc/en-us) and Rasplex (Rasplex.com) support pages as a good starter, this will give you all the answers you need to get things up and running. Once you have done that come back here if you have any Rasplex specific issues. We like to help but you need to help yourself first.

Regards
8

Sorry for being so obtuse. I have Plex server running on a Windows PC. My media is on a connects (USB 3) external drive to the PC. I have 2 laptops with other windows versions that make drive mapping and file transfer relegated to USB sticks from laptop to laptop to media PC. So I was looking for a possible NAS option for the external drive with the media so my media PC and laptops can all access the external drive with mapping issues. that is why I was looking for an Rpi solution. I am not sure if I loaded FreeNAS on the media pc (already loaded with Playon and Plex) would be another option. it only has 4GB of RAM.

I have found RPi forums that discuss using Open Media Vault successfully with Plex. I provided links below.

http://phpbb.openmediavault.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1203

https://flexion.org/posts/2013-08-plex-media-server-on-open-media-vault.html

I was also looking at FreeNAS as an option

9

Sorry for being so obtuse. I have Plex server running on a Windows PC. My media is on a connects (USB 3) external drive to the PC. I have 2 laptops with other windows versions that make drive mapping and file transfer relegated to USB sticks from laptop to laptop to media PC. So I was looking for a possible NAS option for the external drive with the media so my media PC and laptops can all access the external drive with mapping issues. that is why I was looking for an Rpi solution. I am not sure if I loaded FreeNAS on the media pc (already loaded with Playon and Plex) would be another option. it only has 4GB of RAM.
 
I have found RPi forums that discuss using Open Media Vault successfully with Plex. I provided links below.
 
http://phpbb.openmediavault.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1203
 
https://flexion.org/posts/2013-08-plex-media-server-on-open-media-vault.html
 
I was also looking at FreeNAS as an option


So your enquiry has nothing to do with Rasplex, suggest you search the Internet for how to set up a Raspberry Pi as a NAS, to get you started read this http://elinux.org/R-Pi_NAS

Regards
10

Agreed. But I have nothing that talks about the performance issues with the setup I described earlier. I was hoping someone has done this before in this forum that would give me a real assessment of how such as setup really works.

Windows 7 media PC with Plex and Playon servers (4GB RAM)

2TB external drive connected to media PC.

Laptop with Windows 8.1

Laptop with Windows XP

Want to be able to move files between devices seamlessly (RPi NAS?)

Not sure Open media vault or Samba on an RPi connected to the 2 TB drive will give me the performance for file access/transfer if the external drive is not connected directly to the media PC.

11

Agreed. But I have nothing that talks about the performance issues with the setup I described earlier. I was hoping someone has done this before in this forum that would give me a real assessment of how such as setup really works.
 
Windows 7 media PC with Plex and Playon servers (4GB RAM)
2TB external drive connected to media PC.
 
Laptop with Windows 8.1
Laptop with Windows XP
 
Want to be able to move files between devices seamlessly (RPi NAS?)
Not sure Open media vault or Samba on an RPi connected to the 2 TB drive will give me the performance for file access/transfer if the external drive is not connected directly to the media PC.


As I said this is not related to the Rasplex client, suggest you ask the question on the Raspberry Pi user forums and not Plex forums. I could do a thousand word post on this, but it is not relevant to this forum. Last response from me on this.

Regards
12

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