NAS or server for plex?

Wheety

Hope this is the right forum.

Recently had the house rewired and had the electrician install CAT5e throughout the house.

Now I want central storage for my media which can be accessed by devices around the house. Was thinking of using Plex as the software to handle this but from my limited knowledge, I will need a NAS with a good processor to handle any transcoding on the fly (if needed).

Can anyone recommended one? Not hugely expensive either. Was thinking of a 2 bay to begin with a 2TB drive with the ability to add to it in future. Will probably keep a copy of all media on pc too but don't want to have to turn that on to access it so that's why I was thinking NAS drive.

Was also looking at wake on lan so it powers down / hibernates when not in use.

Would it be cheaper to build a small server pc?

Fatal Except1on

I use a HP MicroServer.

It is, without a doubt, the single best purchase I have ever made.
It stores all my media on 4 x 4TB WD Red drives and runs Windows Server 2012.

I have several devices running Kodi that connect to a shared MySQL database on the server so that watched status/playtimes/artwork etc are synced across all Kodi devices.

squonk

I'm running Plex Server on a Mac Mini backed up over LAN by two QNAP NAses, 1 a 4 bay, the other an 8 bay. Originally I used the Mini as both server and player however I've recenly purchased an Apple TV 4th. Gen and now use that as the Plex front end.

My recommendation, don't rely on the NAS to act as a Plex server. Get yourself a dedicated machine for that. In my case I use my Server as a general purpose Mac as well so it's handy. If you don't want bells and whistles go for a cheaper no frills NAS. I'd warn though that I started out with the cheap, no frills option and, over time, my requirements grew. Being able to administer your system away from home is a big bonus however you probably don't need that for now.

degsie

I've never seen the need for a Plex server in my setup. I have my media served from a relatively low end NAS to the KODI application on my FireTV's and Nettop PC's. Can play 1080p seamlessly.

chrismon

Fatal Except1on wrote: »

I use a HP MicroServer.

It is, without a doubt, the single best purchase I have ever made.
It stores all my media on 4 x 4TB WD Red drives and runs Windows Server 2012.

I have several devices running Kodi that connect to a shared MySQL database on the server so that watched status/playtimes/artwork etc are synced across all Kodi devices.

I didn't know you could set up mysql!
Very cool.

mass_debater

degsie wrote: »

I've never seen the need for a Plex server in my setup. I have my media served from a relatively low end NAS to the KODI application on my FireTV's and Nettop PC's. Can play 1080p seamlessly.

You are not transcoding to stream to devices that need it

degsie

mass_debater wrote: »

You are not transcoding to stream to devices that need it

That's simply because I don't need to.

mass_debater

degsie wrote: »

That's simply because I don't need to.

Yes but it's one of the main features of Plex to minimise bandwidth for low power devices or for using it outside your home, sharing with family etc

degsie

mass_debater wrote: »

Yes but it's one of the main features of Plex to minimise bandwidth for low power devices or for using it outside your home, sharing with family etc

The disadvantage is that you need to have an always on Plex server.

mass_debater

degsie wrote: »

The disadvantage is that you need to have an always on Plex server.

There are ways, Google Plex remote wake on lan

Wheety

Sorry, didn't realise I had replies to this thread. I went ahead and bought the QNAP TS-251.

Have been using an old hard drive in it just to try it out. Was watching some videos and there was a lot of buffering. In know that NAS can only transcode 720p so I have only been trying videos of that Bitrate but it's still struggling. I ended up dropping the quality down to 320p on the Plex server and it worked fine but obviously the quality dropped.

I have a Raspberry pi somewhere and was thinking of using this to access the video files directly on the NAS. I used it before with a hard drive plugged in to the pi and it handled 1080p files.

Would this work accessing the files over ethernet (house is wired with CAT5e)? I know I can map the NAS drive to the pi.

Mine is a Raspberry pi 1. Would it be worth upgrading to a 3?

Johnboy1951

The Pi should work ok on a wired connection - particularly if it is a 'B' model, but well worth trying in any case.
I use Openelec here on Pi B & Pi 2.
Very lightweight for using Kodi.
I will probably graduate to LibreELEC in the coming months (a fork of Openelec).

Dr_Bill

I use a dedicated server for Plex which is used for transcoding movies and the likes. Its always on 24/7 and typically when idle pulls about 10W of power so not bad. Not all NAS boxes have enough juice for transcoding so you need to do your research and see how many cpumarks it has and baseline off that as a guide.