I’ve been running PMS on a custom built Windows Server for many years, without any performance issues. Now I’m looking for a upgrade/replacement, and maybe a NAS can do the job…
Which NAS would you recommend? I have no previous experience with any NAS, but I’ve heard of issues related to CPU performance and transcoding (with 4K material, with subtitles, remote access, etc).
It’s only me and my girlfriend using the PMS, so only 1-2 concurrent transcodings are needed. Subtitles are often used, both builtin and external. Most material today is 1080p, but there will be more and more 4K (my TV is 4K but my projector is still only FHD). Audio is often 5.1, but I have a few 7.1 movies.
Plex clients are Xbox One X, Chromecast Ultra, Chromecast, Android phone and tablet, iOS phone.
Media is in many different formats.
90% of the use is local in-home, but some remote viewing is done.
4+ HDD bays needed.
How much RAM is recommended?
I’m not currently a Plex Pass user, but I read that is needed to enable hardware acceleration (for transcoding).
Would a Synology DS418play (dual core Celeron J3355) be able to do the job?
Is the quad core DS918+ a better choice?
Or the QNAP TS-453? (B, Be, Bmini)
Other recommendations?
Or is it better (for me) to continue using a “proper” server running Windows or Linux? (with faster CPU, GPU, etc)
It depends. I am in the group of people that like to separate storage and (beefy) server. The beefy NAS are really expensive, while you get e.g. a NUC with much more power for a lower price tag.
The advantage with the NAS is normally that is very easy to setup. But that is about it in my opinion.
Since you are planing to use subtitles and non-ideal clients, transcoding will regularly occur. This can maybe done with the hw transcoding capabilities of the NASes Celerons, but I have not much experience with it.
So if you want easy setup in one place -> go with a beefy NAS.
If you are price sensitive and/or want more power -> go with an affordable NAS and a NUC.
If you don’t have a NAS yet, it might be more cost effective to get a beefy NAS, the calculation is up to you.
The DS1019+ only has a Intel Celeron J3455, which is not a really strong CPU (passmark ~2000). It can’t encode H265 and at best might be able to hw transcode 4k in H264, but haven’t tried that.
Edit: Sorry, wrong info, it can hw transcode H265.
I see no reason to have two separate devices, since I only plan to use 4 disks. Size and noise is also important factors since I live in an apartment.
It’ll be either a NAS, if it can handle the processing/transcoding, or a new server with faster CPU and GPU.
A NUC with 4+ disk bays might be a good compromise. Do you know if something like that exists?
The NUC is small and quiet. A NAS with a decent CPU will cost 1000€+, while you can get a fully equipped NUC i5 for 500 €.
The NAS is good for keeping your files nice and save, but power really costs money. I wouldn’t put the drives on the NUC, but there are external HDD housings which do the job via USB.
According to this, subtitles transcoding needs to be done in software, your J3455 will not be capable of doing that, I guess this at least is true for picture based subtitles like PGS. SRT might work in hw.
No NAS in the compatibility sheet is really fast enough to guarantee transcoding. That rules out using a NAS only.
I still see no reason to use a separate storage-only NAS for PMS. That rules out using NUC+NAS.
There are no NUCs with 4+ drive bays? RAID with external USB drives wouldn’t be a good solution. That rules out using a NUC only.
So I’m basically back to my original solution that I chose 9+ years ago - building a new server again… Guess I had higher hopes for a modern NAS solution
Something to keep in mind when making your decision is that, unless you’re going to invest in a very powerful CPU, hardware accelerated transcoding is likely going to be required (for clients incapable of directly playing your 4K content). And that is a Plex Pass feature:
Another option would be to maintain two copies of your media: A 4K original for playing on 4K-capable clients and a separate 1080p version for other devices. You can use Handbrake (or a similar application) to pre-transcode the 4K version to 1080p so that the server doesn’t need to do it in real time. Your 4K content could live in a separate library or you can store the two copies in the same one and select the appropriate version at playback time. Obviously, this option requires additional storage.
Finally, this thread has some ideas about how to work with 4K content:
