Read
Review Installation & Setup of Plex Media Server on Synology.
The entire document is very useful, helping to avoid various pitfalls. Pay particular attention to the part about organizing your media: Do not use the /plex shared folder; Do not use Synology’s pre-defined media folders.
Update
Make sure you are running the current version of Plex Media Server. The version in Synology’s Package Center is a year out of date. The current version is available directly from Plex. See the Installation & Setup document for information on performing a manual installation. The Synology FAQ has additional details: Synology FAQ - Questions, Answers, and a few How-To’s
Monitor Scheduling & Monitor NAS CPU
If the NAS is busy creating video preview & chapter thumbnails it will make things less responsive. If this is happening, you can schedule it for off hours. In Settings -> Library change the settings from “As a scheduled task and when media is added” to “As a scheduled task.” Set the start/stop times in Setting -> Scheduled Tasks.
You can monitor NAS CPU using the Synology Resource Monitor.
Playback
Make sure your movies are direct playing or direct streaming, not transcoding. The DS220j has an ARM CPU and will struggle transcoding 1080p media. Direct playing means the Plex Server streams the media unmodified. Transcoding happens when the media is not compatible with the Plex client (app), and the server must change it to a compatible format.
You can monitor playback via the Plex Dashboard. This will show you if the media is transcoding.
To help with smooth playback, be aware of the limitations of the various Plex clients. This mostly means watching out for incompatible audio and subtitle formats.
With the Plex Samsung app:
- Enabling PGS or VOBSUB subtitles forces a video transcode.
- If the audio is transcoding, enabling any subtitle format forces a video transcode.
- TrueHD or dts audio will be transcoded, as Samsung does not license those formats.
Movies released on blu-ray disc with TrueHD audio also have a Dolby Digital version of the audio track. Choose the Dolby Digital version if possible, as it will direct play on your TV.
Many movies have dts-HD and dts audio. If you play a movie/show with dts audio, then do not enable subtitles, as it will force a video transcode.
