Can I use 2 x SAMSUNG - QVO 870 2.5" Internal SSD - 2 TB in the Synology DiskStation DS218play? I want to use Plex Media Player and I have the latest Nvidea Shield Pro (2022) hooked up to my TV for my media.
See what Synology has listed for compatible hard drives. Keep in mind, they only list what has been tested and proven. There may be other HDs that work fine.
See they have the 850 EVO on there but I have the latest version (probably the last of this type) which is the Samsung QVO 870, which has significantly higher transfer speeds.
Hopefully someone else has used that HD and can comment. Personally, I’ve never deviated from the Synology compatibility list for HD’s, but have with memory and no issues. I just get nervous about the HD’s.
That question is probably better asked on the Synology forum.
FWIW, I have several hard drives in my DS918+ & DS414 that are not on Synology’s list. It has never been a problem. For hard drives (not SSDs) make sure to use CMR drives, not SMR drives. Also, the Seagate Mach 2 dual actuator drives may not work w/o an update from Synology.
Note that using SSDs instead of HDs provides no advantage for Plex. The read/write speeds of a 5400rpm drive is more than sufficient to stream media. 5400rpm drives have read speeds in the neighborhood of 180 MBytes/sec. 4K HDR Blu-ray rips rarely exceed 100 Mbits/second.
Regarding running Plex Media Server on a Synology NAS:
Read these two documents. They will save you a lot of time and trouble.
- Installation & Setup of Plex Media Server on Synology
- Synology FAQ - Questions, Answers, and a few How-To’s
Also, do not install the version of Plex Media Server available in Synology Package Manager. It is outdated, and, if running DSM 7, not fully compatible. Unfortunately, Synology will not update their systems.
Instead, download the current version from plex.tv (https://www.plex.tv/media-server-downloads/#plex-media-server) and perform a manual installation. The documents linked above have the necessary details.
Suggestion: Install the public version, 1.29.2.x. Based on a number of posts in the forum, it appears to be more stable than the current 1.30.x beta (which is not entirely unexpected, since it is beta…).
For the DS218play you want the ARMv8 download (Reference).
DSM 7
DSM 6
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Following ChuckPa system guide for installing PMS on a Synology NAS Setup of PMS on Synology I did successfully download the latest PMS from the link and setup a shared folder on my Synology 215j. However, as I expected when I tried to open a film I put in a shared folder set up for Plex, I got the following error.
So obviously my current NAS is not suitable, so looking at getting the Synology 218play which I hope will do the trick.
I selected the DSM 7 version and got this error.
The version that did work for me is PlexMediaServer-1.29.2.6364-6d72b0cf6-armv7neon_DSM7.spk which I got from Chuck PA link above.
What I do have is a media shared folders on my NAS that I created prior to getting PMS and on my NVS I can play the same films OK. I am attaching a screenshot from my NAS folders.
Now the shared folder called Movies with Thor in, is the one I created using the procedure Chuck showed. That is the one where it will not play on TV via NS. However the lower version in the shared folder of Films which is a sub folder of Video, does play via NS on my TV which puzzles me.
The 215j is fine for direct playing media. It is not powerful enough to transcode video.
The 218play will not be much better. The ARM based units have very limited transcoding capability. See Plex NAS Compatibility List.
If you are going to run PMS on a Synology NAS and need to transcode video: (a) you will need a Plex Pass, and (b) you want a model with an Intel CPU.
Synology NAS targeted towards home users have low power CPUs, which have very limited video transcoding capability. The Celeron CPUs in some units contain Intel QuickSync Graphics. On those units you can enable hardware accelerated transcoding if you have a Plex Pass. Examples include the 220+, 720+, 920+, etc. The new models with AMD CPUs do not support hardware accelerated transcoding. Details: What kind of CPU does my Synology NAS have?
An alternative is to keep the NAS for storage and run Plex Media Server on another system.
For example, consider a PC with an i3-8100. It will transcode one or two 1080p streams even without a Plex Pass. With a Plex Pass and running Linux, it will transcode 4K.
FYI, Plex Pass is on sale through Sunday, 27 Nov, for $89.99 USD (25% off) with code FANFRIDAY22. Check your e-mail inbox.
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I do have my main PC with PMS on and that is Intel(R) Core™ i5-10400 CPU @ 2.90GHz 2.90 GHz. I also have another PC with Linux on but the CPU is AMD FX™ - 4300 Quad Core Processor; I have 12gb RAM in the Linux and 16gb RAM in the Windows 7 with Intel.
Can install PMS on the Linux and buy a Pass to transcode 4K?
Basically, regarding my Synology 215j NAS I use it mainly to store media content, backups of my PC system and other files that I can read on other media systems. I do share my NAS with my family members when they want to download media from it; it is running 24/7.
Q: Does the AMD system have a Nvidia GPU? If so, what model?
Q: Does the Intel have a Nvidia GPU (in addition to the on-board graphics)? If so, what model?
Plex does not support AMD GPUs for hardware accelerated transcoding.
Short Answer:
The AMD system probably won’t work. Definitely would not put any money into it.
The Intel system would work if running Linux. Also if running Win10 with a Nvidia GPU.
Additional Info:
The AMD system, if it had a Nvidia GPU that supported 4K HDR, would most likely still struggle to transcode 4K HDR, given the age of the CPU. Plex still needs the CPU for certain tasks, such as transcoding audio, remuxing streams, and burning subtitles. The FX-4300 is 10 years old, with a 2959/1488 PassMark. That will not work if you have to burn subtitles when transcoding 4K HDR media.
The i5-10400, if running Linux, would transcode & tonemap 4K HDR media using the onboard Intel graphics (or Nvidia if available).
The i5-10400, if running Windows 8 or later and with an appropriate Nvidia GPU, should transcode and tonemap 4K HDR. You would need to run the 64-bit version of Plex Media Server, which requires Win8 or later. Note: Should really be Win10. Win7 is no longer supported by Microsoft, and Win8 reaches end of support in Jan 2023 (in 2 months).
I run PMS on a Lenovo M90q w/ an i5-10500T running Ubuntu 22.04. It will transcode and tonemap 4K HDR media. It sometimes struggles with burning subtitles when transcoding 4K HDR media. A system with higher single core PassMark scores would perform better at subtitle burning. It has zero issues transcoding multiple 1080p video streams to my remote users.
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