Which Synology, or at all

[bull77ock_gmail_com]

I am new to Plex, and the NAS environment. I have some questions that I partially got answers to, but I wanted to detail my situation and where I am at.

First, I have a 2012 iMac with 1 TB, Netgear Nighthawk router hooked to a Spectrum modem providing about 100MBps. I have an Apple TV 4k hooked to an LG OLED TV. I also have a Tablo OTA tuner that has a 2TB HD attached. I also have Direct TV but my goal is to cut the cord and use the Tablo plus an online streaming service. I back up with Backblaze but wanted an centralized storage area on the network, hence the NAS.

After talking to some local people, I ordered the Synology 218+ and two 6TB WD Red hard drives. After reading through the articles on trans-coding, and that NAS are not the best solution for Plex Media Server usage, I am worried I bought the wrong item. I did talk to who I bought the 218+ from, and even though it is not here yet, they said they would take it back.

The only 4K media I have is iTunes movies I have downloaded from the Apple Store. I will be using mostly media I have ripped from old Bluray or standard DVDs, along with home movies. I believe most of the time, this will be done via the Apple TV. We may use the remote streaming but not an everyday thing.

I have detailed my questions below and appreciate any and all feed back.

1. Should I have bought the 718+ over the 218+ and how does that help with trans-coding? Should I have done something other than the NAS unit?

2. If most of my media is MP4, does that make the trans-coding issue irrelevant.

3. Currently I have the Table TV guide for $5 per month. Can I run the Tablo into Plex and then get a guide via the Plex Pass?

I apologize, being new to this, it can be overwhelming buying the right solution.

Bob

[bull77ock_gmail_com]

Also, I should say, I may want to do some 4K in the future.

[bull77ock_gmail_com]

Trump81,

Thanks for your response…

It sounds like if I want to put PMS on the NAS, I will need to hardware trans-code, which means I need Plex Pass, which I was going to get anyway. Knowing that my iMac is old, would it still be better than the 718+?

Is it difficult to setup the iMac as the PMS and then move all my data to the NAS? I would assume that means I have to keep the iMac up and running all the time to allow clients to access my data on the NAS via PMS?

Tablo is a DVR and tuner for OTA…I will play around with it when I get PMS setup.

Thanks again…

[bull77ock_gmail_com]

Yes, my media is compatible with my Apple TV.

Maybe what I will do is setup the NAS as the PMS first, turn on hardware trans-coding and see how the performance is. If not acceptable, can I then go setup the iMac as the PMS?

A lot to learn but excited to get this going.

Thanks
Bob

[bull77ock_gmail_com]

so far so good with my NAS running Plex…I am also thinking about upgrading my iMac…