I was looking for a way to stream my live and recorded OTA TV from my home to my cottage that has no OTA reception. About 2 months ago while I was researching the solution to this problem, I discovered Plex. As a “proof of concept”, I installed the Plex Media server on an old Windows 10 laptop. From my cottage, I used a 2nd old Windows 10 laptop to access my Plex Media Server at home using my home routers VPN that I set up. It worked without issues - I was able to watch live TV at my cottage.
I am now ready to move beyond the “proof of concept” and start using real hardware. I am going to start with the Plex Media Server. I know I can’t use my old Windows 10 laptop - it is not powerful enough to do the job long term. Therefore, I need to acquire new hardware - but what should I use?
I tend to lean towards a Windows or Linux desktop or mini PC since I am very familiar with using both of those operating systems at work. But I have also seen discussions indicating the an Nvidia Shield TV Pro also makes for a good PMS. I know nothing about this device - but if it is good for my use case of streaming live and recorded OTA TV to my cottage, I will study the details to learn how to use it. I am leaning away from using a NAS since I have never used one - I assume learning how to use a NAS would be more complex than learning a Nvidia Shield TV Pro.
I anticipate having only 1 client accessing my PMS at any given time. And when I am not at the cottage, I wouldn’t have any clients accessing my PMS. At home, I have an old Magnavox DVR that I use to record OTA TV - I don’t need my PMS for streaming at home - at least not now. That could change if my Magnavox DVR dies.
I have read posts describing transcoding with a 7th generation or later Intel processor or an Nvidia GPU graphics card. I think I understand that issue. At my cottage, I have a Samsung smart TV. I could either install the Plex app on that TV to use as a client. Or maybe I should use a 2nd Windows or Linux desktop/laptop or perhaps an Nvidia Shield TV Pro. I don’t know yet. I was also thinking of using Tailscale to access my PMS from the cottage since I wouldn’t need to punch a hole in my home firewall to allow access. But I don’t know if I can get Tailscale to work. I suspect only some devices will support Tailscale - I doubt I could use Tailscale if I used the Plex app on my smart TV.
I would appreciate receiving some insight from experienced Plex users as to what hardware setup I could use to achieve my objective of streaming live and recorded OTA broadcasts from my home to my cottage. I have already purchased the Plex Pass needed for the DVR function.
Thank you.
Kevin
