WD PR4100 or SYN DS418Play

Plex Media Server NAS & Devices
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Hi, I’d like to setup a NAS for a Plex server and hesitating between the WD PR4100 and Synology DS418Play. I’d like to know if any of the two performs better than the other to play 4K material and long term performance so far of anyone who has used them. The use will be primarily for a home cinema on a JVC RS520 projector. So far the pluses and minuses for me are the following:

PR4100:

  • no need for Plex pass for hardware accelerated transcoding
  • 4GB RAM instead of 2GB RAM on DS418Play
  • metal casing seems sturdier

DS418Play:

  • cheaper than PR4100. Saves $120CAD
  • requires Plexpass of a $160CAD to enable hardware accelerated transcoding
  • Synology Hybrid Raid to allow hard drives of different sizes and brands
  • more apps

I read a lot of reviews on both them but most of them were outdated ones from 2017 when Plex was not fully supporting the hardware accelerated transcoding on the Synology yet.

Any comments are appreciated.

Thanks,

Roland

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Thank you for your quick response, however I’m a little confused. On both this review site PR4100 WD My Cloud Pro Plex NAS – NAS Compares
and the WD site (Plex Media Server + My Cloud NAS for Plex | Western Digital), it states that the PR4100 supports 4K streaming. Is that not the case?

Also this review on the DS418Play mentions that it’s able to play 4K streams
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/synology-diskstation-418play-review/
" The CPU is x86 based, and can handle up to 2 different full 4K h.265/h.264 stream transcoding sessions, which is likely more than you’ll need in a single family home."

To what extend is playing a 4k file on a Nvidia shield better? I have one and I didn’t encounter any issues when the file was stored on a USB drive.

Roland

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Yes, I intend to use the Nvidia shield as my primary Plex client. Will it be able to handle H.265 as well?
For what reasons would you choose the DS418Play over the WD PR4100 if I might ask?
Thanks again for the prompt feedback. I truly appreciate your help on this one.

Roland

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Thanks. I noticed that the WD PR4100 has 4GB of RAM and the DSM 2GB of RAM. If I were to go with the DSM, is it advisable to update the RAM for my intended use or is 2GB sufficient to run Plex?

Roland

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Thanks. I assume though you meant the DS418Play.

Roland

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I was doing some more reading and came across these sites regarding 4k transcoding on the DS918+ and PR4100.

https://nascompares.com/plex/wd-cloud-pro-pr2100-pr4100-transcoding-4k-1080p/ (March 2018)

https://nascompares.com/2017/12/19/transcoding-4k-media-on-the-ds918-nas-server/ (Dec 2017)

What surprised me was that the PR4100 was able to transcode the H265 files and the DS918+ not. Can I assume that the results for the DS918+ are outdated?

Also what is confusing is that the NAS compatiblity list on the Plex side indicates that the DS418Play/DS918+ is able to decode a 4K SDR2160 with hardware accelerated transcoding and the PR4100 not whereas the links suggest the opposite.

Roland

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Well, I think I’m going to get the DS418Play and see if that works. Since most of the 4k movies I have will hopefully be direct play/stream with the Shield, I’ll forego on the hardware acceleration for now. If it doesn’t work, I’ll activate it. If that is still too slow, I might buy a cheap laptop instead like the Lenovo Thinkpad X201: Intel Core i7 M620 2.67G / 4G DDR3 RAM for around 300CAD or some other cheap Intel i7 laptop which seem to be cheaper than the NUC i7 and have the Plex server operate from there.

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I was wondering also if it makes sense to use my existing Shield as a Plex server as well instead of the DS418play and use the DS418Play just as attached storage. Would the Shield be better in transcoding if needed?

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