Although I built a Plex server some time ago and never used it, now I find myself trying this again.
I setup a Plex server on a mini- Windows 10 PC. i7-4600U, 16GB ram. This PC is one I had around, but I suspect it will not be up to the task of thumbnail generation. Possibly even running the server may be a problem, too (untested. Waiting on storage).
I will need to do thumbnail generation, but read it takes quite a bit of resources. I don’t understand how the thumbnails are stored on the server. My gaming PC has plenty of power to do the thumbnail generation, but are there additional file(s) generated? If so, where would these additional files need to be stored on the server for them to work correctly?
If you enable the preview thumb generation, Plex will store those in its server data directory. The files aren’t necessarily organized to be easily accessed (naming can be quite cryptic).
Let me ask a basic question since I am just beginning and if I need to switch gears it is nothing lost.
My goals is to have a Plex server for content recorded via Audials One (recording streaming content). Both would be on one computer. Just using Audials One I can already see the mini-PC is not up to the task. This would only be compounded by a Plex server generating thumbnails or transcoding. This is why, in the meantime, I was thinking to record and process the programs on my gaming PC and move the completed content over to the Plex server on the mini-PC. Not a great situation. Just trying to find a workaround for my current situation.
I am not looking to house thousands of movies. In all likelihood once the content is watched it will be deleted. For that reason I would like to keep the investment costs low, but the system has to be up to the task.
I know nothing about NAS. Whatever device I use would need to run the Plex server and the Audials One program. I would remote into it to set programs to record on Audials. The content recorded would be dumped into a directory used by the Plex server.
I know nothing about how an NAS works. I am sure the right NAS would do the job for Plex. Is it even possible for me to remote in from desktop PC and run a Windows program?
That being said, the main purpose of a NAS is to provide networked file shares. It is certainly no big deal to copy a file from a Windows computer to a network file share. Once set up, it’s as complicated as coyping files from one internal hard drive to another.
Well, my assumption was correct. That rules out a NAS. Thank you for confirming.
This leads me to a PC with enough power for transcoding and video processing from the Audials program. My gaming PC does this effortlessly. I will upgrade soon and use my current hardware to build a PC for this purpose. Thank you for you guidance.
