Synology or QNAP? (Black Friday)

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
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Newbie here after some advice,

My current setup is an old laptop running Linux which streams my media (through powerline adapters) to a Raspberry Pi which is connected to my LG Smart TV. The laptop only has an 80gb hard-drive and i find i get a lot of buffering (could be the laptop or Pi or both…).

I’m looking to purchase a NAS, connect it straight to my router and use plex on my LG Smart TV to watch media from the NAS.

I’ve been reaching alot over the last through days but seemed to have confused myself even more. So far i have been learning more towards the DS218play:

https://www.synology.com/en-uk/products/DS218play

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If you don’t need any transcoding you can setup Plex Media Server on Pi 3B+ and connect an external drive to it. That’s the setup I have and it works flawlessly, as long as no transcoding is done. Make sure your files are .mp4 H264 then it should be all right :wink:

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since your asking for advise, my advice is to get the 718+ if your looking for a 2 bay

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Think i have one of the 1st revisions of the Pi. I’m currently using OSMC/Kodi.

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Yeah DS718+ is a bit out of my price range. I washoping to spend about £300 in total for a NAS with two 1 or 2 terabyte drives.

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Yeah DS718+ is a bit out of my price range. I was hoping to spend about £300 in total for a NAS with two 1 or 2 terabyte drives.

I’m not sure if there is a better QNAP device or even an HP microserver (but they are pricey)

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@Man2u2uk Again have you considered going with a Pi 3b+ 1GB RAM? It comes with hdmi+ethernet port and the arm cpu is just about as good if not better as most budget NAS for ~200€ plus some budget nas don’t even have 1GB RAM. As long as you avoid transcoding by storing the files in an appropriate H264/mp4 format you’ll be good to go. The Pi sets you back only 35€ leaving enough to buy some external hard drives + backup drives.

Anyway, maybe this helps you:

and

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Thanks @Ympker

Pi 3b+ looks good, around £60/$77 for the case, charger, card, etc.

Very useful and informative website. I did find the following on that site that sheds a good light on the DS218play: https://nascompares.com/2018/11/02/synology-ds218play-nas-plex-media-server-test/

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They also do have a YouTube channel worth tuning in @Man2u2uk .
Also I assume you already saw on their website they got a Synology and QNAP NAS Guide also showing their comability with transcoding etc :stuck_out_tongue:

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Probably a bit late now but I’ve got the 216play and it’s great. If I had the cash I’d upgrade to the latest play device to have proper 4K playback.

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Yeah i went for the DS218 from Ebuyer in the end. My first ever NAS and really quick to setup.

Black Friday made no difference to the price though unfortunately.

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