NAS Solution (continued)

ED E · 14-06-2016 02:30PM

Now you're on the Plex gravy train.

Depending on where you're moving to Imagines new FWA product FibreConnect may offer a good medium. Check out the thread on Broadband for details but basically you could expect 30Mb down or more at all times, 20GB/day cap after which you're throttled down to 4-5Mb resetting at midnight.

14-06-2016 07:23PM

ED E wrote: »

Now you're on the Plex gravy train.

Depending on where you're moving to Imagines new FWA product FibreConnect may offer a good medium. Check out the thread on Broadband for details but basically you could expect 30Mb down or more at all times, 20GB/day cap after which you're throttled down to 4-5Mb resetting at midnight.

Sounds like they're improving, a 20 Gb daily cap is a bit low, I'd prefer a monthly cap that when you need to download a lot you can. But it's a huge improvement over the 7 Mbs ? Imagine offer.

Plex crashed on the Nas, however, I think this was while it was scanning all my music, I didn't add the Music folder until after my last post. I restarted and still going, I've read that Plex can do that on Arm 7 devices but once the library is built it should be no issue adding a movie or two after, just not a load all at once.

I'll do a test tonight on a lower birtate movie tonight to see how stable it is for the duration.

16-06-2016 12:06AM

So Plex died again and whatever the problem is this time it just will not play any movies what so ever. I keep getting a message "the server isn't powerful enough to transcode at the current settings bla bla" and it gives me the option to stream at the original settings but it refuses to play.

I give up. Plex is useless on Arm 7 for now.

So anyone know of a good OpenVpn client for Kodi ? I can only see ones for OpenElec and they won't work with the standard Kodi.

I guess my only other option is to but a 251+ with the newer Quad core Celeron.

Using my Nvidia Shield TV isn't an option because I need remote access which is impossible on Android ATM + I want to use it for downloading which the Shield is no good for.

If someone wants to make me an offer for a Qnap Ts 231 PM Me.

It will stream via Qnap's own Android apps no problem, the issues lies with Plex.

16-06-2016 08:59AM

This is strange, movies play perfectly on the Ipad but not on my phone or on the Nvidia Shield TV. I get the error "the server isn't powerful enough bla bla" However it gives me the option to play at original quality but doesn't work.

Any ideas ?

ED E · 16-06-2016 12:03PM

Deleted User wrote: »

This is strange, movies play perfectly on the Ipad but not on my phone or on the Nvidia Shield TV. I get the error "the server isn't powerful enough bla bla" However it gives me the option to play at original quality but doesn't work.

Any ideas ?

That'll depend on how the files are encoded. (Made up example):
iPad has HW x264 and DivX support
Shield and Phone have HW x264 support

So when you play x264 files they all direct play but when the android devices try and play DivX files the plex server tries to transcode them on the fly for them so they can play them but obviously the CPU power isnt there. This is what differentiates plex from a DLNA share but also means running it on a beefy unit.

16-06-2016 04:47PM

it worked on the phone and shield no problem before now says the server isn't powerful enough to transcode and gives me the option to direct play but just won't work.

ED E · 17-06-2016 12:13AM

I've had that happen rarely too when there was something else going on at the same time, but I wouldnt expect yours to be doing much unless you've a very busy torrent client.

Is there a "task manager" included in its UI?

17-06-2016 01:41AM

It has a monitor and the NAS isn't doing a lot at the time I go to use Plesx.

17-06-2016 10:20PM

I have resolved the issue with playback, it now no longer says the server isn't powerful enough which appeared like it was wanting to transcode.

The issue ? the Vodafone Junk modem. I just couldn't figure out why the plex server was telling me there was no direct connection from the internet, I was puzzled, while it worked before it was obviously causing an issue because Plex say this can cause play back issues. So reset the router to default and started again and it works and the Plex server no longer says "indirect connection" and now says "fully accessible from outside your network"

Because it worked perfectly on the Ipad I had no reason to suspect the Vodafone modem was the issue !

So the issue was teh Vodafone modem was not forwarding the port 32400. But it is now !

Now that my media library has fully built it no longer crashes, not so far anyway. This is great news , I am really happy it works, at last !!!

Tomorrow I will try connect from Kodi via the Webdav.

ItHurtsWhenIP · 18-06-2016 01:28AM

Deleted User wrote: »

I have resolved the issue with playback, it now no longer says the server isn't powerful enough which appeared like it was wanting to transcode.

The issue ? the Vodafone Junk modem. I just couldn't figure out why the plex server was telling me there was no direct connection from the internet, I was puzzled, while it worked before it was obviously causing an issue because Plex say this can cause play back issues. So reset the router to default and started again and it works and the Plex server no longer says "indirect connection" and now says "fully accessible from outside your network"

Because it worked perfectly on the Ipad I had no reason to suspect the Vodafone modem was the issue !

So the issue was teh Vodafone modem was not forwarding the port 32400. But it is now !

Now that my media library has fully built it no longer crashes, not so far anyway. This is great news , I am really happy it works, at last !!!

Tomorrow I will try connect from Kodi via the Webdav.

19-06-2016 06:46PM

Still working, crashed after a library scan but I can live with this, just stop and start the Plex server and that's all that's needed.

I'm happy with the streaming, it works perfectly and high birate movies also, it takes about 20-30 seconds at the beginning to buffer but I can live with this, it works !

I would at some point like to get a large hard drive for the Nvidia Shield TV so I can transcode on poorer internet connections while away but that's not often I would need this but it would be far cheaper than buying a NAS capable of transcoding on the fly.

I need to try out the cloud gaming now on the Shield, it needs 20 Mbs for 720P and a shocking 50 Mbs for 1080p, I find this pretty excessive, this is the recommended bandwidth but might work on lower speed connections. Playing PC quality games on the Shield would be amazing.

19-06-2016 07:12PM

Oh yes I forgot, WebDav doesn't work with Kodi, seemingly there is an issue with port 80, I don't know this time whether it's the modem or what. Anyway I'm rather happy with Plex, I'm just happy it all works now.

kelledy · 19-06-2016 08:35PM

Very few house properties have fibre directly fed to them , it is almost always only fed to your nearest cabinet
If you are fed directly to an exchange it means you bypass every cabinet ( various reasons for this ) and cannot get fibre broadband
Your internet signal then travels back to the cabinet via the copper pairs in your phone line , and the rest of the way to exchange and beyond on the new fibre line .

So if your copper cable from house to cabinet is of poor condition , then you will loose a lot of Mbps along this line

I work in this industry , but not in ireland

kelledy · 19-06-2016 08:39PM

kelledy wrote: »

Very few house properties have fibre directly fed to them , it is almost always only fed to your nearest cabinet
If you are fed directly to an exchange it means you bypass every cabinet ( various reasons for this ) and cannot get fibre broadband
Your internet signal then travels back to the cabinet via the copper pairs in your phone line , and the rest of the way to exchange and beyond on the new fibre line .

So if your copper cable from house to cabinet is of poor condition , then you will loose a lot of Mbps along this line

I work in this industry , but not in ireland

Apologies wrong thread

19-06-2016 08:40PM

Yes I'm wired to the exchange, one reason I get 24 Mbs and my Mother gets 95 Mbs wired to the cabinet, it sickens me but the village is getting Fibre to the house by the end of 2018.

I could be moving within the year to a smaller place but that has a fibre cabinet I'd most likely be wired directly to.

Why is the upload only 20 Mbs on Vdsl ?

ED E · 20-06-2016 10:28AM

Deleted User wrote: »

Why is the upload only 20 Mbs on Vdsl ?

There are lots of factors at play, but the biggest is probably optimization for user patterns. Adding more bandwidth to the US takes from the DS, most people use DS far more than US. Then theres things like keeping the PSD low at user end to stop massive noise in the bundle etc.

I'm a heavy heavy user and 99.99% of the time I do just fine with 12Mb up, thats with large backups to Crashplan on the regular.

20-06-2016 11:11AM

Yes download is important but in this age of cloud services etc the upload is just as important.

26-06-2016 10:22PM

Plex still works, it's not perfect. I've to close the app on the NAS and reopen it again sometimes but it's no issue on my mobile with the Qnap mobile app but it works fine most of the time.

I tried to play a few H.265 movies , direct stream and it won't work. I don't know whether it's an issue with the NAS or with the Shield TV but I thought the Shield should play it no problem. It plays about 2 seconds then pauses for about 30 seconds then plays 2 seconds etc.

I read that some Synology NAS can transcode H.265 on the fly ?

27-06-2016 09:44AM

I just read here that the Shield TV will support h.265 transcoding also, that's brilliant. Can't wait for the Plex Server for the Shield to be released.

https://www.plex.tv/blog/nvidia-shield-you-complete-us/

So sadly I have my NAS in my Mothers, if I bring it back home and connected to the Shield I'll be limited to 23 Mbs down and 6 Mbs up instead of 95 Mbs down and 23 up.

I could just get a hard drive for the Shield and throw all the movies on that but that's going to cost more money, if I think about it though it would be much cheaper to get another Shield and connect the NAS to that in my Mothers ! The Shield is really a great device.

Such problems.............

vibe666 · 03-08-2016 03:16AM

I've been playing with H.265 recently and now I'm thinking of transcoding everything to H.265, but it's going to take a while with 16gb of video.

I've got two ML150 G6's that I use for a VMware lab, so I reckon i could fill them full of RAM and upgraded CPU's (2CPU FTW!) and then temporarily re-purpose them purely as transcoding boxes. Just wondering if there's an *easy* option for a pure transcoding box for maximum performance, like a linux distro or something that can account for different source formats/bit rates etc. that I can just point to my media and set it loose without having to manually tweak settings for each file as it's just not practical?

I also posted in another thread about a new <$50 android TV box the TX5 Pro, which has built in hardware decoding for H.265 & VP9 at 4K up to 60fps, which is a game changer imho, the only thing that's really been stopping me from making the jump to 100% H.265 content. I have a 4gb i3 NUC running windows 10 and although it does 720p H.265 fine, it even struggles with higher detailed stuff at 1080p due to the extra CPU overheads compared to H.264 and can't play any 4K stuff at all.

4K TV's are also starting to get decent now, and are coming down in price accordingly, so everything is coming together.

03-08-2016 09:19AM

I wouldn't bother spending my time and money converting to H.265 but I would download as much as I could in future that is already encoded in H.265. Unless you have a collection of stuff you want to Encode from scratch but it's far easier to download it all that's in H.265 already.

Instead, I'd get something like the Nvidia Shield TV and Plex media server and convert on the fly and it's especially useful when out and about and for other devices that don't support H.265 it's an amazing device and the best Android box on the market. And it beats the crap out of any Apple TV too.

vibe666 · 04-08-2016 08:34AM

unfortunately i live in western australia now, so my days of downloading terabytes of movies with reckless abandon on my 100Mbps FTTH in Ireland are long behind me and all I have is 5Mbps these days, so it will literally take a fraction of the time to re-encode than to re-download.

04-08-2016 01:39PM

vibe666 wrote: »

unfortunately i live in western australia now, so my days of downloading terabytes of movies with reckless abandon on my 100Mbps FTTH in Ireland are long behind me and all I have is 5Mbps these days, so it will literally take a fraction of the time to re-encode than to re-download.

If you have serious processing power then fair enough but if downloading H.265 movies at a decent 5Gb size then it won't take that long on a 5 Mbs connection.

I survived for years with just 6 Mbs. Downloading 8-12 Gb over night.

H.265 needs 10 times the CPU power to encode at the same speed as H.264 !

I have a feeling you'd be quicker downloading on 5 Mbs . 5Gb gives excellent quality with H.265 on a 40" screen.

ED E · 04-08-2016 09:30PM

I'm going to transcoding too soon, but with 32 threads of pure grunt it shouldnt take me too long.

04-08-2016 10:32PM

You're not going to be recoding from H.264 ?

vibe666 · 05-08-2016 07:14AM

ED E wrote: »

I'm going to transcoding too soon, but with 32 threads of pure grunt it shouldnt take me too long.

I just noticed I put 16GB of video, that should have read 16TB.

the biggest problem with my download speed isn't even the download speed it's my upload speed, so I never get anything like 5Mbps down, it's 1-3Mbps at best most of the time, but even if it was 5Mbps, it's (from my dodgy napkin maths) still going to take about a year and a half to download everything freshly in H.265, and not all of it is going to still be available online in H.265 (a good chunk of it is in DIVX and MPEG format, as well as some VCD's

(yes I'm old and I've been at it a long time!) and that isn't taking account of exactly how long it would take to search for it all, even if it was all available.

on a side note, I just spoke to my ISP about getting faster broadband and apparently it'll be up to 3 years before ADSL2+ at 24Mbps even reaches my exchange (in a well populated Perth suburb!), ad my only option right now is EFM.

I love how he makes i sound like he's doing me a huge favour offering me 12Mbps for $299 a month (about 200 euro) on a 3 year contract and not charging me the $300 extra they normally charge to install it.

[font=Calibri, sans-serif]For your site and your needs, we could definitely look at an EFM Service. This is Ethernet First Mile and is a Symmetrical 20/20 Best Effort service. Best effort meaning you will have some transmission loss with your length of cable, similar to ADSL. My guestimates on this with 2.2km of cable would see you around 12MBPS symmetrical. [/font]

[font=Calibri, sans-serif]The cost is $299 ex GST (aka VAT, altho it's 10% here) and installation would take up to 90 days. Contract is 36 months and Set up fees I could waive.[/font]

NAS Solution (continued)

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