Synology says the ds218play+ is better, the Plex NAS comparability guide says ds218+ Is the only one that supports hardware transcoding and 4K.
But when I look at the hardware transcoding specs of the ds218play on Synology.com it states it suports 60fps and the ds218play+ only says 30fps and otherwise the specs in that category are the same. A friend of mine is using the play and has no problems playing 4K video to his Roku stick+ connected to a 1080p tv.
I’ll be only be using the Synology for downloading torrent tv shows h264/h265 1080p and 4K and then hosting them to my devices (Roku Stick+, Samsung Smart TV’s, iPad) via Plex. Which NAS should I get?
Update: I purchased the DS218+ and updated it to 8GB RAM total. Plex struggles transcoding 1080p (x265). In comparison, my friend has the DS218Play and playing the same files to the same Roku Stick he has less issues.
My next step is the swap out my Apple AirPort Extreme with a different router. But, even with Ethernet direct from synology directly to other devices like a Samsung Smart tv and 720p transcoding it still struggles. It also wants to transcode way more than my previous 7yr old DLNA NAS did (WD).
I do have PlexPass and hardware encoding turned on in settings… that’s part of my major frustration, how much this costs and the usability vs others like twonky, serviio, and xbmc.
I like plex, the interface is great… but for the price I feel like they should be able to make the functionality better and at least try to match that of the free solutions. Voicing my opinion in here is one of the only ways to possibly get them to take notice.
