Best NAS For PLEX Media Player

Old McGroin

Hi all, hope this is the correct section for this thread!

I recently purchased a NOW TV box for the sole purpose of streaming my video content straight to my TV using PLEX media player. At the moment I am using my laptop as the PLEX media server with two external hard drives hooked up to it. Works a treat but with this set up there are wires everywhere and it can be a bit inconvenient in general. I want to buy a NAS to use as a server but I wouldn't be 100% sure which is the right one for me and have found that it can be a bit of a minefield as not all makes and models support PLEX.

Any bit of advice would be appreciated. I know there is a list of supported NAS systems on the PLEX website but it can be a bit confusing for someone like me who isn't up to speed on his tech info! I would be looking for a system that can hold 4TB to begin with but with the potential to expand if needed. I also have a couple of buddies who would be interested in streaming from my library so would I need a NAS system with a little extra grunt? Maybe someone could tell me of their own experiences with this set up and what works for them?

I have looked on E-Bay but can anyone tell me where else I can look online that would have NAS systems to buy with memory included? On E-Bay all the results tend to be from the US so if someone could point me in the direction of somewhere a bit more local that would be great. I have tried Maplin's in Blackpool in Cork but a couple of the staff didn't really know what I was talking about! So any websites within Europe would be great!

Thanks in advance!

Johnboy1951

Qnap, Synology, Netgear etc

Have a look at sites such as Komplett.ie and Dabs.ie to gather information and price range.

Old McGroin

Thanks Johnboy, I was just on Dabs.ie (saw it mentioned in a similar thread), think this one would do the trick? - http://www.dabs.ie/products/synology-ds214-play-6tb-2-bay-desktop-nas-92SX.html?q=synology%20ds214&src=16

They're not cheap but 6TB would last a few years for me!

Johnboy1951

A friend recently bought a Qnap with which he is very impressed ...... particularly with the user interface and how easy it is to use.

Others on Boards praise the Synology products highly.

IMO, you need to do a lot of reading before making your decision ...... and compare the functions/facilities of each in your price range.

Personally I would stretch the budget as far as possible to get up to four bays in the expectation that such a machine will last for many years and what might seem like plenty storage now could be limiting in the future.

The other aspect is ..... what is the largest HDD each bay will take? That impacts greatly on the total storage capabilities of the machine with size of HDD.

I don't know anything about Plex, so will not make any comment on suitability of a specific machine, sorry

Old McGroin

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

A friend recently bought a Qnap with which he is very impressed ...... particularly with the user interface and how easy it is to use.

Others on Boards praise the Synology products highly.

IMO, you need to do a lot of reading before making your decision ...... and compare the functions/facilities of each in your price range.

Personally I would stretch the budget as far as possible to get up to four bays in the expectation that such a machine will last for many years and what might seem like plenty storage now could be limiting in the future.

The other aspect is ..... what is the largest HDD each bay will take? That impacts greatly on the total storage capabilities of the machine with size of HDD.

I don't know anything about Plex, so will not make any comment on suitability of a specific machine, sorry

Cheers Johnboy, I've had a look on both Dabs.ie and Komplett.ie, think I'll get this: http://www.komplett.ie/komplett/product/zkb-01opsl/80005918/synology-diskstation-ds412-4-bays/details.aspx#tabpanel

4 bays and the extra drives don't seem too expensive, a 3TB drive is 120 Euros - also this model, DS412+, looks to be Plex compatible on this list: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhqU12yGv_OxdC1VYjYtMmRiSlVReVZhNVBLZ0JxSmc#gid=0

Komplett looks to be a bit cheaper as well, the same NAS is 70 Euros more expensive on Dabs.

Johnboy1951

Will you ever want to connect this machine directly to a TV?
If yes then it does not provide HD video out ..... just a thought ..... I wouldn't want that myself, but some might.

Old McGroin

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

Will you ever want to connect this machine directly to a TV?
If yes then it does not provide HD video out ..... just a thought ..... I wouldn't want that myself, but some might.

No, won't ever need to connect directly to the TV, going to have the NAS tucked away on the other side of the house running off Wifi, cheers!

long_b

Has anyone tried a HP Proliant 54NL for plex streaming? How does it handle transcoding?
Which OS ?

vibe666

the HP microserver isn't going to have enough grunt to transcode all HD content, so your clients will need to be able to play the various formats natively.

I'm on my 4th NAS now (although one was the first NAS but upgraded). First one was a Thecus 7 bay with 1.5tb disks, then i built a freenas box as a VM with 8x 2tb disks and towards the end of last year i upgraded the thecus NAS with 4tb disks and their most recent OS, but then I got fed up with it and just bought a Synology NAS (their current 12 bay model) and all I can say is that I wish I'd started with synology in the first place as i never would have gone with another mfg if I'd started with synology.

if i have any criticisms of the synology its that the IP camera software only comes with one camera licence and more licences are prohibitively expensive, but other than that it's pretty much perfect and i couldn't be happier.

remote access and management is a total breeze (even on mobile) and more importantly (for this thread at least) it runs plex like a champ and the plex client on my NowTV hasn't had any trouble playing back any content at all, from movies to tv shows, everything plays perfectly.

mine has a 2.13ghz atom cpu and 2gb ram, so your mileage may vary, but i'm planning on buying some of the lower end models for family members for xmas/birthday etc. so that will tell you how in love i am with synology at the moment.

Tazium

I have the Synology ds214play. Absolutely love the thing. So much more than a media server there are a lot of additional packages available and some of the best mobile apps too. By way of a comparison I tested it against a new Asus model that included a hdmi port. The synology won out with the dsm software being the primary difference and the maturity of the mobile apps. The Asus was still very capable but had the appearance of a product early in the development life cycle.

Have a look at the demo on the synology site for examples of what can be done. I went for the 214play for the built in transcoding specifically.

Good luck!

long_b

Have to disclose that I've a very limited budget and am only considering a home NAS as the HP is relatively inexpensive.