Newbie struggling to set up Plex, no media is viewable, only thumbnails

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
42

Nothing comes close to the “NVIDA Shield” for the very best experience with your media & Plex, There are 2 version of it but you only need the cheaper 179.00 one unless you have extra money to burn and or you want the extra storage of the “PRO” version, Storage size is the only difference between the two. Have a look below for some links for it. You will be more then happy with the simplicity and performance of this box. I have been down the road of HTPC and other less expensive boxes and I can tell you don’t bother…

amazon.com/dp/B075RXV2VR?tag=amz-mkt-chr-us-20&ascsubtag=1ba00-01000-a0049-win10-other-nomod-us000-pcomp-feature-scomp&ref=bit_scomp_sav0&th=1

arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/10/nvidia-shield-android-tv-review-a-powerful-do-it-all-box-that-lacks-content/

androidcentral.com/nvidia-shield-android-tv-specs

On closing all I can say is YES devices such as TV’s have a built in player and or there is a Plex client for them and yes it allows you to stream content, They are in no way as good as the other clients offered. What you have is great for lets say secondary TV’s, Bedrooms, ect. For for the main TV go the best NVIDA Shield…

43

@ChuckPA said:
As first step, May I suggest subscribing in a Plex Pass? I’m not trying to sell you anything but do ask if the $5 is worth seeing what the NAS you have can do?

It’s a monthly subscription (at minimum)… you can cancel it if you don’t like it

I could not agree more. I don’t work for Plex I am just a very happy “Lifetime” PlexPass user for many years, The value you get for 5.00 is unmatched, Even if you don’t use some of the features offered to PlexPass users your putting a nice cup of hot coffee on there table for those very late knights working on Plex…

44

Thanks Ray for clarifying the Plex Pass. I thought I might be overstaying my welcome without paying for the service. I just signed up.

45

I looked at your file. It seems most of your videos are progressive right?

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I believe so, except for some really old stuff which is 480i and 1080i. Everything going forward should be progressive, 4K. Thanks for the recommendation about Nvidia Shield. I’m trying to avoid a solution, if at all possible, that requires a direct HDMI connection to my TV since I’m running out of ports (Directv, 4kDVD player, Amazon 4k, and Apple TV (2nd gen)). Hence, I’m hoping someone here can tell me if there is a NAS with enough horsepower (more than the Synology DS418play) to be my NAS and be my PMP for home vids.

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NAS don’t run PMP though. You need Shield or NUC with PMP to Direct Play interlaced home videos.

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Achilles, let me make sure I understand your point. The NAS which I have (Synology DS418play) doesn’t run PMP such that I can watch interlaced home videos? But Synology and others advertise their NAS’s as PMPs…

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I may have inadvertently marked “Yes” under “Did this answer the question” after being prompted by the website. Any way I can undo that? Or should I repost this discussion?

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@J_fo said:
I may have inadvertently marked “Yes” under “Did this answer the question” after being prompted by the website. Any way I can undo that? Or should I repost this discussion?

I have cleared the “Answered” flags for you …

51

Thanks ChuckPA! Not sure where to go from here. It seems like my original question has now morphed into several. Can I restart with some yes/no questions in a logical sequence in order to get to a conclusion?

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This is your thread. How you want it to proceed is up to you.

I am here to support wherever you want to take the discussion. If that means getting out my whips & chains, it won’t be a problem >:)

Now that you’ve been able to flush out things a bit, starting over might be a good idea.

If you would like to create a fresh thread and begin again, that’s fine. I will close this thread and link it to your new thread if you wish.

53

Thanks Chuck. I think we can keep this thread going. Looking back at the discussion, I’ve noticed some other users plugging in, which is fine. But since I’m a newbie, I’m having a lot thrown to me at once in terms of information. Now that I’ve got a Plex Team Member plugged back in, I feel more comfortable.
Going back to my original dilemma, it looks like the overall consensus is that my new Synology DS481play doesn’t have enough horsepower to run my home vids through PMP if PMP is hosted on it. It’s fine a simply as NAS, but assuming I want to know if I can kill two birds with one stone and combine NAS and PMP into one device.
Therefore, my question is would the DS918+ provide that horsepower, or would another NAS such as a QNAP product under $1000 do the job? (I ask this b/c I can still return my Synology and upgrade to something with more horsepower)

54

For an article for CPU specs that Plex recommends have a look at the link below-
support.plex.tv/articles/201774043-what-kind-of-cpu-do-i-need-for-my-server/

Basically Plex recommends a PassMark score of 2000 for every 1080P stream that needs real-time trans-coding, 4K will need more, These specs are for software trans-coding. If hardware trans-coding is supported on your server then these numbers change and or don’t apply. the DS918+ has a PassMark score of 2159 so it can trans-code one 1080P stream at a time, Of course this is on paper so mileage may vary. cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Celeron+J3455+%40+1.50GHz

What type of devices and how many at the same time are you looking to stream media to? This will play a big role in what power you need on the server. Just food for thought you can also run Plex media server directly on NVIDA shield with trans-coding if needed, Again it all depends what your looking to do.

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Thanks Ray. I’ll be using the following devices (maybe 1 or 2 at a time):

  1. Sony Bravia XBR65A1E
  2. iPhone X
  3. iPhone 8
  4. iPhone 7s
  5. iPhone 6+
  6. iPhone 5s
  7. iPad Mini 2
  8. iPad (original)
  9. iPod Touch
  10. Macbook Pro (2017)
  11. XBox One
  12. HP ZBook14

The main thing I’d like to do is what home videos on the Sony Bravia that were shot in 4k on GoPro, Sony Handycam (though I haven’t purchased this yet), iPhones.

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I’ve always been here and following. Achilles is an extremely knowledgeable and experienced engineer. He and I were discussing your case a short while ago before he headed off to his day job. (He is a volunteer)

I think I’m seeing where this wealth of info has muddied the waters. If you’ll permit me, I’ll back up a bit and present the composite Plex architecture to you. It should help make better sense of what everyone is talking about

The architecture is comprised of three pieces: Storage, Plex Media Server, and Players

Storage

  1. The hard disks on a computer holding all your media
  2. NAS boxes, which are specifically designed to be appliances, holding all your media

Plex Media Server (PMS) and the computer it’s hosted on

  1. Analyzes your media and generates all the nice displays with metadata and posters you see
  2. Makes the determination how best to play whatever you want to watch on the player you’re trying to watch it on, at the instant you hit “Play”
  3. PMS then takes whatever action(s) are needed to make playback happen sending the audio/video stream to the player

Players

  1. Desktop / Laptop computers with Web browsers .
  2. Smart phones & tablets.
  3. Smart TVs / projectors
  4. Dedicated playback appliance computers connected directly to your TV / projector (Some have considerable processing power unto themselves. ). Appliances like: Roku, AppleTV, Intel NUC, etc.

The initial step you took (the Synology) is a common, and perfectly valid, step. The NAS box combines the Storage element while providing the processing resources necessary to run PMS. The only question there, as you’ve discovered, is “How much processing power do I need?” The answer to that question depends on the Players.

If the players are ‘dumb’ or ‘limited’ (smart tablets, phones, or a web browser), PMS must do all the work and send only the resultant A/V stream to it for rendering on the display glass.

If the players are, unto themselves, very capable appliance devices with substantial processing power, PMS can and will offload as much of the processing task to the player as it can. The Intel NUC (computer in a small box) is one of those devices.

Ways of implementing

A. Purchase a Computer or NAS (most popular) which has enough CPU processing power to handle all possible playback scenarios for all the media which will be played. Most folks purchase these such that multiple concurrent playback sessions are possible (e.g. Three TVs each with a different movie playing)

B. Purchase a mid to upper range NAS tp store the media and host PMS but not a top-shelf ‘Monster’ capable of everything, and offload a portion of the processing to those appliance devices (like the NUC computer in a box) or a Smart-TV or an upper-tier Phone or Tablet. (e.g. Apple iPad Pro 10.5 or iPhone 8)

C. Purchase whatever finances (and spouses) permit :slight_smile: , and perform manual pre-processing of the media to make certain it is as playable on every device you will be viewing it on.

Most common implementations

  1. Purchase a NAS with very substantial processing power which is capable of a) Host the PMS software b) expandable to fit future needs c) handle any playback scenario for all the media which will be viewed by all the devices c) capable of serving more than one device at a time (most shoot for 3-4)
  2. Purchase a mid-range NAS which is capable of a) Host the PMS software b) reasonably expandable to fit future needs c) capable of providing basic processing & playback services while concurrently sending audio/video streams to the appliances (Smart TV, computers in a box, Smart Phones & Tablets) which are, unto themselves, fully capable of handling the rest of the rendering / playback task.

Determining the best solution

The most important part here is, obviously, constructing a line-item requirements list. Everything from TVs to devices including the media itself. (It’s not a viable solution if it can’t play all your media)

I will stop here and give you a chance to review and comment.

Edit: Sorry for the overlap. This took some time to write

57

Wow! Thanks ChuckPA for the in depth and diplomatic explanation. I truly appreciate you putting this all down for me to absorb.
As a tangent, I just added PlexTV Player to my iPhone 5s (‘dumb’ and ‘limited’ player) and played a 1080i home video. Completely unacceptable outcome: It took 3 mins to spool during which saw the Synology CPU go to 90% for about 1 min prior to the iPhone starting to play the video, which it did just fine after starting. So I’ve witnessed first hand the bottleneck with the PMS doing all the work. My wife or kids, my intended users for PlexTV, would have lost interest the second it didn’t play immediately. But I’ll come back to this point after a little more Q and A.
Back to your explanation…So looking at the Ways of Implementing, I’m obviously a #2. Questions:

  1. Would the Synology DS918+ with a quad core processor vs the dual core processor of the 418play qualify as Ways of Implementing #1? If not, what product would at a minimum?
  2. Does pushing the PMS to an Intel NUC then overcome the shortcomings of a DS418play?
58

I’m glad it’s helpful. I wasn’t trying to be diplomatic. I can give you a demonstration of diplomatic and/or direct if you wish? :smiley:

It’s good you’re experimenting. That’s the best way to learn.

Using the 5s as the foundation, depending on how the media is stored, PMS might have been able to start playing it in as little as 3 seconds. This is what confuses most who are just starting out. “Why does this one take so long but the other was instant?” The answer to that is a basic understanding of how video can be stored (there are WAY too many possible formats to learn quickly but learning a few key ones is extremely helpful)

You are 100% correct, the quad core DS918+ is a better option when compared to the DS418play. Not only is it better processor, it has 4 cores and capable of 2x as much processing.

A key point you’ve not yet experienced with PMS is its hardware assist capability. Both the DS418play and the DS918+ are capable of it. A search around the forum will show you how a Synology, which previously could not play a video can after enabling the HW assist. In most cases, the processing load is reduced from the CPU-burning 99+% level to the much more reasonable 25% level. It works for most formats. There are only two formats which aren’t yet supported by hardware. We’re waiting for engineering to enable them.

Pushing a large part of the load to the NUC lets the CPU in the NUC (typically an Intel i5 or i7 which is profoundly more capable than a little Celeron processor) will let the DS418play run as-is. That said; Yes it does overcome the shortcomings of the DS418play but at the cost of setup and maintaining two boxes (the NUC is pretty trivial to setup and maintain but is ‘another link in the chain’ nonetheless )

Here’s the question which must pass “Her Majesty’s approval” :slight_smile:

A. Cost of a DS918+ or other NAS appliance
-vs-
B. Total cost of the DS418play + an Intel NUC capable of playing your media.

The NUC does provide something the NAS can’t. Should you purchase an i7-based NUC, you now have a server for everything in the box. The only need of the Synology is storage because the NUC can’t handle storage. The NUC will read your media from the Synology and then send out to all your devices. It will be where your Plex server is hosted.

If you’ll permit a SWAG retail cost breakdown using first-available pricing I find.

  1. A Top-end NUC. $950 USD. I believe @Achilles uses this one (I’m sure he’ll chime in when home) https://www.amazon.com/NUC7i7BNH-Dual-Core-i7-7567U-Bluetooth-Thunderbolt/dp/B071W55DLH
  2. A strong NUC. $649 https://www.amazon.com/NUC7i5BNH-Dual-Core-i5-7260U-Bluetooth-Thunderbolt/dp/B073SFFVK3/
  3. DS418play - $429 - (You do not need this much CPU power with the NUC in use)

Versus:

DS918+ - $612 - https://www.amazon.com/Synology-bay-DiskStation-DS918-Diskless/dp/B075N1Z9LT/
Extra memory for the DS918+ ( ~ $50)

To bring all this into full play with PMS, Add the $5/month (maybe eventual annual or lifetime) for Plex Pass to enable the Hardware Assist capabilities.

Edit: The NUC solution will be able to play those things the Synology can’t. This is because the main processor of the NUC is an Intel Core i5 versus an older Intel Celeron.

59

Awesome. Now I feel like I’m getting somewhere. Let me press pause on the different machine options and check out Plex Pass.
I’ve already subscribed to the service. I didn’t realize that hardware assist was only available with Plex Pass. And I didn’t realize that I needed to enable it. Give me a few mins while I run a few test videos.

60

So I watched a couple of videos on my iPhone 5 and then on the Sony Bravia. I didn’t notice any improvement in timing on either device.

61

Now I can start debugging.

  1. Did you download Plex Media Server from http://downloads.plex.tv or from Synology. If you downloaded from Synology, the option isnt’ there
  2. If you downloaded from Plex directly, enabling the Plex Pass , did you sign the server out/back in (Settings - Server - General) ?
  3. Lastly, In Settings - Server - Transcoder, you will find the option to Use hardware acceleration when available. Make sure to check the box and Save the change