Synology package thread

Plex Media Server Desktops & Laptops
41

From the last thread and this one (and my own experience with the DS411+ II, which has the same processor), 1080p is not possible.
720p may work, but barely.

Yeah, transcoding and NASes really don't go well; just a few processors can run it (the Intel ones), and even then, transcoding is limited due to a slow processor/lack of RAM.
In your case with multiple ATV2s, you should really go for the second option with the Mac Pro.

Also, pcr23: not sure for the icon, but hey, if it's running, it's good (I don't use the icon that much anymore: fixed IP and bookmark to the Media Manager).
42


I don't actually know the answer to that because I am truthfully not sure where the transcoding is taking place. I can tell you this though, I have 3 Apple TV's with XMBC running on all 3. I have XMBC accessing my movie folders on the DS1511+ via SMB. I have had all 3 Apple TV's going at once showing a mix of 720 and 1080 movies and there weren't any problems at all. With that said, I don't know enough about this but isn't the Apple TV's actually doing the transcoding and the DS1511+ just basically sending them the file?

Now that I think I have PMS working on the DS1511+, I want to install atv flash from Firecore so that I can have the Plex client. In that case, I believe the transcoding does actually take place at the server level, but again, I don't know enough about all of this to understand how any of it works :)

Sorry, wish I could give a better answer.
43

No, don't be sorry, you totally got it right (well, in XBMC's case, it's not transcoding on the ATV, it's just decoding the file).
And yeah, going back on this, your Macs won't have any issue playing from the NAS, but the ATV with Plex client, especially on 720/1080p movies, will fail.

You can still go hybrid: Plex Media Server running on the NAS, Plex clients on the Macs, XBMC on the ATVs.
44


Cool...Thanks for the info. Hybrid will be the way to go for me.
Thanks again for all of your help today. Very cool of you to do so.

Paul
45


Figure I share my experience with streaming/transcoding 1080p videos from my DS1511+ (w/ 3GB RAM) to my iPhone. Over 3G, it's essentially unwatchable for me, can't seem to change the setting since the Plex app doesn't allow it. Over Remote Wi-Fi, 1.5Mbps seems to play smoothly, though the quality is still only 480p. On Local Wi-Fi, 2Mbps plays smoothly with good quality, anything above it just causes the video to pause and buffer(?).
46

Hmm, maybe adding RAM can help. Dunno if it's easily feasible on mine...

edit: okay, on the DS411+ II, feasible, but voids the warranty. Maybe I'll get around it someday.
47


I'm not entirely sure, didn't try it until I upgraded the RAM; it could have helped.

I'm curious why you got DS411+ II rather than a DS1511+; aren't they about the same price?
48

Thanks for the info guys. I guess I’ll go hybrid as well. Would have been nice to have to have less devices spinning the electric meter outside but that’s the price you have to pay…



@PCR23 you used smb to mount the volume and not iSCSI? Does smb automount after sleep / startup?



Thanks!

49

There was a sale on the 411, it was 200 euros cheaper at the time.
Also, same processor, and I only have 3 drives in it, so the 1511+ would have been too much.
50


Ah, I see; makes sense, and a great deal!

Thanks again for your work!
51


Truthfully, I used SMB because I have no idea iSCSI is :)
On the ATV's, I have XMBC pointed at SMB://NAS ip address/movies. The drives on the DS1511+ are set to sleep after 20 minutes of no activity but the unit itself stays on 24/7. Sometimes there is a slight delay on the ATV's if the drives need to spin up from sleeping but other than that, I have no problems with the set up even after power outages, unplugging ATV's, etc. The same can be said for Plex on my Macs accessing the same movies folder on the DS1511+.

If there is a better way to be doing it, please let me know. I am just learning all this since I recently switched from a Windows set up using Media Center.

Stupid question of the day. How do I point the Plex client on the Macs to the PMS on the DS1511+? Can't seem to figure that one out.

Thanks,
Paul
52

@pcr23



To answer your stupid question of the day, they should just show up, mine does on atv and Mac .

53

is it possible to integrate other scrapers then shipped with the package?



i need the “moviepilot” scraper for german users.



Thanks

Ravester

54

Scrapers should be okay, I use the DVD order agent at home.

You just have to add them in the /volume1/Plex/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-ins folder, next to the already installed ones.
55


downgrading to 0.9.2.8 worked for me. I now have a good sized buffer while playing 720p files and I even had sabnzbd+ downloading and unpacking in the background with no hiccups. I'll try the next version though.
56

I’d like to give a quick input on a fix that I found for a problem that I had with Plex on my new Synology 1511+.

I’ve only has my 1511 about a week. After getting it up and running and finding this thread, I installed Plex on it. Plex appears to be working ok, but I have not had a ton of time to test it via my AppleTV using either Plex or the Plexbmc addons.



What has been bothering me was that the Plex Media Server was not starting at boot time of my NAS. I had to reboot a few times because a drive that I moved to my NAS failed.



So… I did see a post a while back from Nudgenudge (either this thread or the old one) that said he couldn’t figure out why Plex wasn’t starting at boot. I have yet to see anything saying that this was fixed and after following the steps for full uninstall and reinstall, that didn’t fix it so I went digging deeper.



As it turns out, the RC startup script for the DiskStation must not like spaces in filenames. I found the startup script for Plex Media Server in /usr/local/etc/rc.d and it was named: “Plex Media Server.sh”

I did attempt to change ownership to root and then back to user 1000 (Plex user) which had no effect. But, when I changed the name to “Plex_Media_Server.sh” with the underscore character instead of the spaces, it ran at boot up.



Hope this info helps out.

57

I repaired one more quick thing on my install - I’ll let someone else add it to the package file if they would like.



The DiskStation desktop icon for plex doesn’t work. I spent a little bit researching this and came up with a replacement for the URL that it was calling.



First, I’m referring to this file: /usr/syno/synoman/webman/3rdparty/plex/plex.cgi



Line 8 was:


echo Location: http://${IP_ADDR}:32400/manage


This url was not working on my 1511+ and would open a new tab/window in my browser, but default back to the DS desktop as others have pointed out.

Since I'm not actually fixing the package, I removed all the IF/THEN statement lines in the plex.cgi file and then replaced the previous URL with: 


echo "Location: http://`echo ${HTTP_HOST} | cut -d':' -f1`:32400/manage"


My entire plex.cgi file looks like this now:

#!/bin/sh<br />
echo "Location: http://`echo ${HTTP_HOST} | cut -d':' -f1`:32400/manage"<br />
echo ""<br />
exit 0


Now when I use the Plex link from the DS desktop, it opens a new tab in Safari with the Plex Media Server loaded.

I do have to give credit to the person that wrote the "Transmission" torrent script because that's where I got the needed info for the above url.
I modified the line to suit Plex and it now opens: http::32400/manage/


[edit]I have to correct my previous statement.... this doesn't do anything for a Plex icon on the desktop, it's in what I believe is the main menu. I'm using v3.1 of DSM. I have not installed the new beta yet. That could also be a cause for some of my problems if others have found that these have been corrected already.[/edit]
58

Just adding in that the official release is working fine for my streaming to my Roku now. The only thing I had to do was team my 1511 Nic’s as redundant so that I did not have a bogus IP address bound to the unused NIC.



Remaining issues I have noted are the same as pointed out by others: Starting on reboot (CrazyC looks to have tracked that down), inteferring with metrics display, Icons no longer seem to work.



Thanks!

59

Getting ready to pull the trigger on purchasing a Synology DS2411+, just wanted to see if anyone has had any issues with it. Also to make sure it;s compatible.

60

Nice work CrazyC, especially on the reboot/restart issue.



I am hoping that the next version has a fix for the resource monitor issue as well.



Thanks,

Paul