For me Plex is the best thing since sliced bread. For 3 years now I’ve been using Synology 214-play, a Smart LG TV and Apple TV and it’s been working like a charm, streaming even the biggest video files over wifi with almost zero issues and what few issues there were, the good people on this board resolved them quickly.
The time has come to update tech, though, 4K content is becoming widely available and I zeroed in on Synology 216+II with LG B6 OLED (or Samsung KS8000, something 10 bit with support for as many HDR codecs as possible) after reading here for an hour or so, it seems 4K streaming is anything but a done deal.
My question is, will that setup work, will I be able do download 4K content (either as h.265/HEVC or the big files. I may be wrong here but I understand h.265 makes it possible to have 4K content without files being in the 40GB region) and stream it via wifi to either Apple TV or LG or Samsung’s Plex app as painlessly as I’m being able to stream HD content now? I’d switch from wifi to ethernet, if needed, Synology 216+II has 2 ethernet ports, it’s possible to connect it to the TV set so as to avoid wifi being the weak point, but is Plex able to do the rest?
If not, what other NAS/TV (and possibly streaming device) setup would you recommend?
Transcoding 4K content is not practical with modern hardware and tech. Don’t do anything with 4K that you can’t DirectPlay. This will require a lot of planning and control. I’d advise having a separate 4K library only used by your directplay-able 4K clients and then pre-transcode a 1080p version for all other clients.
Rather than spending $299 on that Synology 216+ (CELERON N3060 Dual Core 1.6Ghz, aka WEAK cpu and 1GB RAM), I would suggest spending $250’ish on a Lenovo TS140 70A40037UX (i3-4150 dual core with HT, 3.5Ghz with 4GB RAM) server on Amazon and installing XPENOLOGY to act as your NAS.
All of those Syno boxes are CRAZY expensive for as slow/low horsepower as what they actually give you. My Xpen box has been running beautifully for 2.5 years.
@nizzplex They might be expensive but they work like a charm, I am so happy with Synology, in terms of product quality and customer support, that I’m willing to spend the extra bucks and now that Apple won’t be making routers anymore, I’m switching to Synology RT2600ac.
As for 4K stuff, I found that the best way to get the full 4K experience is to get a TV that excels in HDR department, something SUHD with 1.000+ nits, and stream content rather than download it. Both on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video the amount of HDR content is increasing rapidly, subscription rates are reasonable and if you add Kodi to the equation (on, say, Nvidia Shield), file sharing and regular TV services are becoming a thing of the past. Better spend money on Plex Pass.
I’ve done a lot of research and actual viewing before buying a new TV and settled on 65" LG B6, an OLED, but unless an OLED can be had at a siginficant discount, as is the case right now with 2016 models, I can also recommend Samsung KS7000 (called KS8000 in US) and Sony XE90 (2017 model). Most reviewers are talking about HDR and luminance these days but for a typical user the vast majority of content will not be HDR, not even 4K, so good upscaling of HD, 720p and even SD is imperative and while Sony probably does this best, LG and Samsung outperform it in other areas. Overall, though, all three TVs are outstanding and won’t disappoint anyone.
4K rips don’t really exist yet. The content you get from “other” sources aren’t disc rips. There currently is no mass marketing way to rip a blu-ray 4K disc. The content you are referring to is usually (no particular order):
Up scaled from a good 1080p source
Captured from a streaming site
Copied from an HDMI source with specialized hardware that fool the chain into thinking it’s compliant.
So in a nutshell there is currently not a way to purchase a player and run something like MakeMKV or DVDFab and rip the disc.
With that said there is more and more 4K content around for the pickings but some of it is questionable and not really superior to the 1080p versions. I’ve gotten 4K with lower bitrates that weren’t as visually good as my higher bitrate 1080p videos (something to watch for).
The 4K you can source now will most surely be using h.265 codec for video and likely will come packaged in an MKV container. MKV is a storage container while MP4 is also a streaming protocol for progressive downloads. Remuxing the file from MKV to MP4 will usually allow it to stream to more players (generally speaking) and doesn’t degrade the quality of the file. You can always remux it back to MKV with no loss of anything except time.
As others have mentioned decoding h.264/HVEC is not for the faint of heart and requires some serious CPU usage or hardware assistance. It uses much more advanced algorithms to get the lower bitrates and these burn CPU cycles to decode.
A powerful Plex server can handle a stream or two (depending or resolution and starting bitrate) if a transcode is needed but a NAS has NO CHANCE or doing this unless it incorporates dedicated hardware.
On my system I have 3 dedicated movie libraries:
is for 3D only (SBS & TAB) and I prefix 3D to the start of the title to identify it during searches or the resume play screens. I only share this library with people who can play 3D content.
2nd Lib is for Hi-Res content including anything over 1080. I only share this library with people who have hardware that can direct play it. I prefix these titles with HR for the same reasons. These will most often use h.264 video container.
My “normal” movie library that contains everything else from SD to 1080. Here I pre-convert everything to MP4/AAC/AAC plus additional audio and SRT subtitles for greatest device compatibility.
You’re new setup really depends on your needs and those of the people you share with. Having 2 or 3 libraries like I do allows you to setup sharing in an efficient manner for your family/friends. Assuming everyone you share with has good download bandwidth and you have good upload bandwidth you can have them make sure they set local/remote qualities to play back at “original” quality and these will direct stream.
That really is the key to getting good streaming. Anything direct played will be as good as your source material. Setup this way the power of your server or NAS really doesn’t play into it much since your not transcoding but just streaming the files you have already setup “perfectly”.
Something to keep in mind for a new purchase is the sound system. If you have or plan to have a state of the art sound system to match the 4K display you need to think about the HDMI chain and how sound will be handled. While there are exceptions if you want 7.1 sound you need to have a device that talks to your sound receiver that in turn hands the signal to the TV. Having a “smart” TV with Plex built in might negate that. If it were me I’d concentrate on picture quality and not the “smarts” of the TV and assume you will bring you’re own “smarts” via a Shield or similar device. This approach will ultimately be more flexible in the long run and give you many more options as well. Plus it’s nice knowing that I can upgrade the “smarts” at any time if something better comes along. So for less than $200 you can add a Shield TV to your setup and $200 is nothing on the price of a new TV when comparing bells and whistles. Concentrate on picture quality and features you MUST have and don’t fret about the apps or interface speed, etc since you can cover that yourself with a device that plays everything you can throw at it.
Sorry for the rant but I tried to cover a bunch of different things that might give you a few ideas,
Carlo
