Wanting recommendations for server hardware upgrade

[yydoogie]

Server Version#: 1.21.4.4079
Player Version#: Web 4.51.3, iOS/tvOS 7.13

This is likely the wrong place to ask this question, and I’m happy for it to be shut down or deleted if it’s inappropriate, but here goes. I’ve been a Plex user for a couple of years now, and outside of a few minor hiccups, I’m very happy with my experience so far. My current server setup is using a Raspberry Pi 4, with a couple of external hard drives, serving my content, and that’s covered most of my use cases to this point. I’m firmly ensconced in the Apple device ecosystem for playback, so that means iPhones, iPads, and AppleTVs as the main clients. For travel, I’ve been relying on syncing to my devices (PlexPass user), and I’ve made sure that most of my media can utilize DirectPlay or DirectStream to the devices I use day-to-day (use mp4 container, h264 or the occasional HEVC 4K video, AAC or AC-3 audio).

Now, I’m inviting some friends to share my library via remote sharing. Not all of them are devoted to the same device ecosystem, which leads to the occasional need to transcode. Obviously, the Pi isn’t hardy enough to do that, so I’m thinking about upping my game here, and investing in some new server hardware. I’ve also started gathering a few HEVC 4K sources, so I’m worried a little about transcoding here too. I’m eyeing the Synology DS920+ as the platform, but before I take that particular plunge, I want to confirm that it’ll handle my existing use cases, as well as my new ones. So here are my specific questions:

When it comes to transcoding, can I expect that, with hardware-accelerated transcoding, I will be able to have an HEVC 4K file “acceptably” transcode to 1080p h264? (Yes, I’m aware of the “it depends” caveats associated with transcoding.)

I’ve read of some challenges with the upcoming DSM 7 upgrade. Are we on track to have those ironed out before its final release? In particular, things like the system user changing from “Plex” to “PlexMediaServer” make me a little uneasy, in that I’m going to have to reconfigure a whole ton of stuff after the OS upgrade.

I gather that one “preferred” way of installation is to avoid Synology’s “app marketplace,” and manually download and install the PMS package. When upgrading PMS with the server software installed this way, is upgrading the server an “install over the top” operation? I’ve gotten a little spoiled with using “sudo apt-get upgrade”.

I’m also more than willing to consider other hardware options, if there are others at a similar price point and form factor that would give me a better chance of avoiding limitations. I do like the idea of a NAS as the PMS server, as I can improve my data integrity by using a RAID implementation.

[skwor01]

All spot on but I actually recommend AC over AAC. AAC will have very low audio on some devices when streaming directly to them. AAC is not nearly universal as it is promoted and I even have a technical paper I found written by “Audio Professionals” that demonstrated AC is better quality in certain ranges than AAC. AAC’s only real advantage is it has more compression therefore lower bit streams but audio now really is a small component on network transmission.

Audio transcoding is almost no effort for the NAS range you are in so that would not be a problem.

[skwor01]

I was referring to AC3, sorry for abbreviating it to far.

[yydoogie]

To clarify, I usually encode my media to have two audio streams, one AAC stereo stream (which is “least common denominator” among all of the devices I and my guest users support), and one AC-3 (or sometimes EAC3) stream for my most-used setup (streaming via AppleTV to my main living room receiver and monitor).

[yydoogie]

This is a great response, trumpy; thanks for the information., It helps me feel better that the research I’ve been doing is along the right track, and that I’ve not overlooked anything major in the process. Appreciate the answer.

My main concern with DSM 7 was that if/when I perform the upgrade on the NAS, how many hoops I’d have to jump through to get Plex working again. It sounds like the dev team is working very hard to make sure those hoops are minimal. As a software developer by trade, I thoroughly appreciate the difficulties associated with making the user experience as seamless as possible.

[yydoogie]

Thanks again for your response. I did end up taking the plunge and getting a Synology NAS, but opted for the DS1520+ for the additional drive bay. I’m nearly done migrating my media to the new box, and I do have a more performant solution for direct streaming than I had before.

I’m only mildly disappointed, as my testing of transcoding a 4K (HEVC) stream has shown this particular NAS model to be incapable of performing a real-time transcode to a 1080p (h264) stream, even with hardware transcoding enabled. I’m still glad I made my purchase, because I’m no worse off than I was, and I have more capacity. I just wish I hadn’t set my expectations about transcoding higher than was possible.

EDIT: I’m wrong. It’s transcoding HDR content that’s slow with tone mapping enabled. So that’s a thing. So now, I’m even marginally happier with my upgrade. Would that there were a solution for tone mapping that worked too, but alas. I guess I’ll just have to stick with SDR content for transcoding from 4K.

[yydoogie]

Indeed, I’ve found all of the support threads that talk about HDR tone mapping not being available for NAS hardware. I’m aware that missing drivers are the problem and that Plex devs like @ChuckPa are working hard to bring the feature to NAS platforms. I just need to be patient, even though I wish I had even a vague time frame for a fix*.

And, yes, my settings are in the state you show at present (which is, in fact, how I diagnosed that tone mapping was the issue in the first place). I’m also aware of the Docker container workaround, I’m just not willing to implement it yet.

*I’m a software dev by profession, so I’m not actually asking for an ETA. I know how commercial software development works, and I know all the reasons why a corporate dev team won’t share that info. It’s a conscious, valid business decision, which I fully understand, even if the lack of info frustrates users.