NAS For Plex Media Server - 8 Mistakes People ALWAYS Make

[@Philharb]

Suggestion for future videos, use a compressor plugin on your audio. It will help with your volume issues on your videos (guy on the right is much louder)

[@magnuseidesandstad7251]

I did not bother watching this video because of bad audio.

[@TheFbiFilesRepeat]

Me too

[@DaveTaste]

Just turn the volume up and down on your phone when they're talking.

[@brentschmgbert3578]

Same i just gave up

[@berniethebolt5475]

@@DaveTaste I have the volume on maximum and I am struggling to hear

[@carlskinner7768]

Thanks for the video. I leaned a few things, already knew about some others and learned the hard way (3am) on the others. I’m sticking with my Synology 918+. Thanks Robbie for all the Plex videos. you helped me make a sound decision.

[@Bmad185]

MISTAKES 1. CPU 2. Ambient Noise & Distance (The 'Bigger' the NAS, the Higher the Potential Volume) 3. Future-Proofing Your Memory (2GB Minimum, 4GB Recommended, 8GB Ideal) 4. HEVC/H.265 Multimedia!!! (Will VERY rarely Play Natively i.e needs conversion) 5. Plex Pass - Do you REALLY Need it? (Pros & Cons BEFORE you buy) 6. HDMI NAS & Plex Issues in 2021 (Nowhere Near as Simple/Supported Anymore) 7. Transcoding - Do you REALLY Need it? (Are You Spending Money on a Feature You Do Not Need?) 8. Plex Media Server Internet Connectivity (Plex Still Needs Intermittent Internet Access)

[@nascompares]

Thanks dude! Appreciated.

[@Bmad185]

@@nascompares no thank you guys

[@CD3WD-Project]

I got the plex pass just to support the company and the work they put into it.

[@bertramlefarge69]

Excellent, i'd just add that if you get a Shield you'll have a bullet proof solution to playback transcoding, then save your money for larger drives/more bays/ram.

[@hugheffo]

Everything I have is in H.265, on my Qnap NAS, and never had an issue with playback on my PC, laptop, iPad, TV or even phone, and has saved me about 50% storage.

[@joshjones1289]

A decade of using HEVC/x265 and I never have problems, even when watching on a Fire Stick while on vacation. My advice... if you have problems playing x265, modernize. The FS is $40.

[@canuck21]

Maybe they mean 4K content in h.265. I play 1080p no problem, but do have hiccups playing 4K.

[@naughtyorgneiss]

@@joshjones1289 FS?

[@joshjones1289]

@@naughtyorgneiss Fire Stick. Look for the 4K or 4K Max versions.

[@RyRch]

What about remotely? I can’t even play H265 locally (Mac).

[@SteelWolf13]

1:14 1:CPU VS Graphics. The right CPU isn't always powerful. GHZ/Cores 2:14 2:Ambient noise and distance. The "bigger" the NAS the higher the potential volume 04:12 3:Future proofing your memory. 2gig min. 4gb recommended. 8gig ideal. 06:44 4:HVec/H.265 multimedia will very rarely play natively. Needs conversion 12:18 5:Plex Pass do you really need it? pros and cons before you buy. 14:56 6:HDMI NAS & plex issues in 2021 Nowhere near as simple/supported anymore 16:55 7: Transcoding and do you really need it? Are you spending money on a feature you'll never use/need? 20:38 8: Plex media server internet connectivity. Plex still needs intermittent internet access. ADDED BY ME 9:Using the right NAS HDD. Use a hard drive rated for NAS usage and not just an off the shelf computer hard drive. Spend a little extra now and your plex will last longer.

[@nascompares]

You bloody HERO! Thank you! I didn't realise I didn't chapterize this one. You are a gent and a scholar! Have a great week

[@SteelWolf13]

@@nascompares 10:Buying to much NAS? Which series is right for you?

[@RobSandstromDesigns]

I am still trying to come up o speed and determine all of the various elements to be able to watch my videos - stored on my brand new NAS - on my various smart TVs in my house, ipads, etc. I have several TBs of video stored (no counting home videos) that I want to be able to watch from any of my smart tvs or other handheld devices. The concept of a plex server, jellyfish, etc is still confusing to me. Where do I go to get the knowledge necessary to pull all of this together to make sure I don't make costly mistakes - I may have already done so. I didn't think it would be so confusing. I thought it was as simple as putting all of media on the massive storage o a NAS, signing up for a PLEX account, then pointing that plex account to my storage location. All I needed on my Smart TVs, iphone, ipad, or Apple TV was the Plex app and I was ready to rock and role. It is now clear that isn't the case - so trying to start from the beginning and walk through what I actually need, hardware, software, etc to make it work. things like codecs, etc. are next level items for me at this time cause I don't even know how to determine what codecs my videos need. Any suggestion on where to start to get educated?

[@MrNightro]

The big mistake I made when getting into Plex was the need for a constant internet connection. The main reason I got a Plex server was in prep for hurricane season since the internet tends to go down every hurricane season so I was trying to set up a Plex server so my family have movies and TV shows to watch. I spent a couple hundred dollars for an Intel NUC that I upgraded (i7 10710U, 32GB DDR4, 256GB NVMe, 4GB 2.5" SSD), spent weeks ripping over a thousand DVDs & Blurays with both movies and entire complete seasons of dozens of TV shows. Had everything set up and running sweet before hurricane season but first hurricane knocked out the internet and there I was trying to figure out why I couldn't find my Plex folders.

[@CaptRam1u5]

One note I'd add to the Transcoding point is that the Plex app tends to be pretty bad at determining device capabilities on newly released devices, so even if the spec sheet for you playback device says it can play it natively I'd recommend trying Plex server on a computer to make sure it won't trigger transcode for the media and playback devices you have.

[@lee_cobb]

I'm looking to update/upgrade my NAS. I use it solely for Plex. I have purchased Plex Pass. What I'm looking for in a NAS is The ability to build on the storage, to be able to play 4K content and torecommend,

[@michaelmiller3012]

Right now, Plex server is running on an old Dell R515 server running Windows Server 2019 with 8x8TB in RAID 6 (kept in the basement). The CPUs are weak, though and it can get loaded down if three different clients require transcoding at the same time. I am in the process of setting up the R515 to run something like FreeNAS with a ZFS pool and have that be iSCSI attached via 10G NIC to a Ryzen 2700x system (with 16G of ECC RAM) running Windows 10 acting as server. This will let me use BackBlaze to back up my video collection for a reasonable price AND dramatically improve the transcode hardware.

[@aceofclubskid]

I'm still very new to the NAS space, but I've been slowly upgrading my system for about 2 years now, I built it for cheap and it's been running excellently. -I used my first gaming PC, AMD a10-5800K. It's an unimpressive processor but has pretty decent graphics for the age. That's paired with my 16gb of ram from the same machine. -I went with a corsair carbide 100R case (old PC cases are your friend. They're cheap and have lots of drive bays). -I got a 700W bronze power supply (wildly exceeds my power consumption needs, but it's very efficient and has plenty of power for drives at a low cost) -For storage, I bought 3x 3TB WD red drives running in RAIDZ, and an old 2TB for extra storage of non-critical files. I went with Truenas, which is a bit daunting to work with, but once you're up and running it's pretty easy to manage. Truenas also supports a direct Plex plugin, which took all of 5 minutes to set up. My process now is ripping DVD's directly to my NAS using an SMB share. All in, I think I spent less than $300 for the whole system using my old parts. I couldn't put it in a closet or attic, so it's in my dining room. By selecting a case with a lot of fans and good noise dampening, I've managed a quiet hum from the system. you can hear it's there if you listen for it, but it's quieter than my AC or a house fan. If you're interested in getting a NAS and using plex, my main advice is to view it as a project and a learning experience. It will take time, you will feel out of your depth, and you will have a lot to learn. But, at the end of the day you're learning a lot of valuable skills, owning your media, and you can venture into other projects like running your own VPN, game servers, and lots of other projects.

[@keesverhagen9227]

You did build your own server. What kind of software do you use ?

[@aceofclubskid]

@@keesverhagen9227 I used Truenas. It's not the most user friendly, but it's very robust and scalable.

[@shegocrazy]

No-one ever mentions audio. If the Plex server is on a NAS then can the NAS pass through DTS-MA to an AVR or does it convert it or .....? Presumably a qnap connected with HDMI would pass it through but who wants to use the QNAP Plex interface? It would work if you used - say - a shieldTV to act as both Plex server and client to the AVR but then the NAS would just be a storage device. I think I'm correct in thinking that???

[@JSAVyoutubechannel]

Silly question

[@Alminox]

Is the Synology DS1520+ just as the DS1019+ was? What is the best Synology NAS for Plex post DS1019+?

[@RVSpinX]

Some the tips can be boiled down to.. make sure you know what your Plex client can direct play to ensure you get appropriate NAS hardware. (I aim to do zero transcoding, so I converted all my streaming clients to Nvidia Shields)

[@johnmarkzimm]

I love my nvidia shield. I don’t need it but I want to upgrade to the new one!

[@michael-4k4000]

Why do you need to "converted all my streaming clients"? Am new to PLEX and am trying to learn. The client is who is using the PLEX service right? What needs to be converted and why? thanks

[@RVSpinX]

@@michael-4k4000converted as in, replaced a Roku or Amazon Firestick with an Nvidia Shield as the Plex Client. The client is the part connected to your TV (stream box, PC, etc) vs the the Plex Server which is what sends the video to the client. For an Nvidia Shield Pro (or a PC connected to a TV), it can act as both the client AND the server.

[@fretbuzzly]

I have 3 Shield Pros and even they sometimes have trouble. For example the Pro connected to my 13 year old plasmas TV has problems playing anything with 7.1 audio. So my 1080Ti has to transcode it, which turns out still causes problems and ends up buffering constantly. But if I change the audio to 5.1 it works just fine.

[@FredSanford420]

I tried the shield....it runs rather sloooow for me....lag is horrible. Quick reaction time on my roku and visio apps.

[@r0tb3rt]

I have the TS-653D as Plex media server only with around 2500 movie and 260 TV shows alot in 4k HDR and have no issue with transcoding-. Usually not more than 2-3 people watch so transcoding from 4k to 1080p is no issue and the CPU is at around 60-70% of usage with 3 users and I have the J4125.

[@dominiksojka8490]

Thank you, I didnt know what I can expect from AMD7 5800u. Now I know it will handle NAS and Plex the resources being split 50/50. The Plex clients max 3 inside house, being streamed to something more powerful as Nvidia Shield. I want to run basic website here too, the website I can move later to another device.

[@r0tb3rt]

@@dominiksojka8490 It will be fine. It has integrated graphics so transcoding is a go and the 5800u is way above the J4125. I´m in the middle of upgrading my NAS too. If it would be plex exclusive I´d stick with my 653D. It´s totally fine and works perfect.

[@life-longpatriot8258]

I've found that when Plex analyzes my library for the first time, it only assigned the correct metadata about 90% of the time. That required a LOT of manual re-work on my part; "matching" or fixing the match that Plex assigned incorrectly. And with DSM 7.0 beta, there is currently no Plex backup and restore feature yet--although it is in the works.

[@nascompares]

I've certainly encounter the former (setting up countless devices for vids and despite the SAME media being used, having rather sporadic results), but the point about DSM 7 and Plex lacking the restore support. Cheers for the heads up dude.

[@SocialWorkProfessor]

I use Filebot but even it doesn't have DSM 7 support.

[@DuncSargent]

I've found that when I experience weird troubles with PLEX server, I restart the machine, make sure Windows is updated, make sure my video drive is updated, update the server to the latest version, update the client to the latest version. Restart the machine again.

[@dividido3723]

People often miss setting up authentication bypass for local ip’s - so they can still access Plex when Plex’s auth server goes down.

[@BrianGarside]

How do you do that? Any links

[@demonfiend621]

Do alot of these concepts still stand up when you have 1 server running plex with a transcoding capable GPU(P1000) with some small local storage and then also a completely separate NAS for its storage? Also, Do you guys ever compare Server NAS? ex:2u 8/12bays?

[@MaxNakfoor]

My enterprise helium drives have super loud heads but the platers are basically dead silent. My consumer air filled drives have quiet heads but the platters sound like laptop fans on full blast. I prefer the quiet idle over the quiet load.

[@mmcdaniel17]

My WD Home Server decides to take down Plex every night at 9:30 sharp can you help me with this about to junk it for something else

[@gepardtilly]

Video starts at 1:22. Could you edit this in the future to make it 8min? Even with double speed it was slow...

[@SocialWorkProfessor]

Oh man. Thanks for mentioning the last one. Number 8 was me. Cursing what the???!! A couple of hours later discovered the problem was with the main Plex server and nothing to do with me.

[@nascompares]

Personal nightmare that one - In the early days I would set the units up for videos on a double secure network at SPAN - totally blocked the Plex central server 'ping' and I would be pulling my god damn hair out...

[@beljim]

@@nascompares Can't we just use the "List of IP addresses and networks that are allowed without auth" in Plex settings to allow any local device to work without the Auth ping to Plex? Then if your Internet goes out or the Plex Auth Server goes down you can still access your libraries.

[@happylad69er]

@@nascompares would that be why I totally lost a server I had named on my local network I ended up moving all the media onto my nas asi couldn’t find the Plex server with that name anymore

[@asdf51501]

There was an ad for Warpath, a WWII game. I watched all three minutes of it. It was badass. No idea if the game itself is any good, but good job to the folks that made that trailer. I have a TS-h886, and stupidly assumed that the Xeon had integrated graphics, but it doesn’t. However, my NAS has most of my blu ray collection from the 2000s and early 2010s and it’s all 1080p. Since this is solely for home with a max possible number of streams is only 5 and usually just 1. Every device in the house is 1080p or better. So turns out it’s a complete non issue for me. Plex works well. The CPU and memory usage has been nonexistent. I did buy a 2nd, cheaper QuTS Hero NAS for big dumb storage and backups from the primary NAS. If that thing doesn’t get full, I’ll probably use it to mine that “chia” cryptocurrency that uses storage somehow to generate coins. Fire up a low power VM on the thing that does that and leave that alone. Because once the bulk of data is there, that thing will be accepting incremental backups and that’s it.

[@black543211000]

Video Transcoding was the first thing I disabled on my PLEX to force Direct play. Transcoding always degrades video quality. All my devices can direct play 4k HEVC, AV1 will be a bit of an issue for awhile as only my newest TV can direct play 4k AV1. As for my PLEX share, it's up to them to get a device capable of playing the files I share and not me to transcode it for them (I'm not running a paid streaming service).

[@B0mb4rd1n0]

Hey folks! Thank you for the amazing work you are doing! A question I have: I would like to build a media center based on N100 unit (or alternatively N305, r any other low TDP - feel free to recommend if you could ), but what I am afraid of that it would not be capable to play k4 HDR files with over 90-100Mbps transfer. Majority of tests I saw are up to 50Mbps. I did tests with cheapo - Synology 220j and it worked fine until around 70Mbps.. and then started to lose frames, pixelize etc. Could you suggest any decent build for this purpose, without breaking the bank, please? To clarify - I need a media center for singular 4k HDR Atmos ~100Mbps media (no transcoding) + thousands of photos storage (RAW quality, each file over 25MB) + additional services pihole, potentially VPN, private cloud etc.

[@velvetrooster5569]

All of the movies and TV shows on my plex server NAS are 720p and I always convert movies and TV Shows to h.264 mp4 format.

[@BVDsGoneFishing]

What if you only us a Synology NAS for Plex and you want to sleep without hearing HDD noises all night? Is a scheduled power on/off the only option. The fans don't bother me, but the drive activity does. I'm forced to have the NAS in my bedroom until I rewire the house for networking.

[@light-master]

I've had Plex for around 5 years now, and in that time, I have yet to find a single device that doesn't support native h265 support. Almost all my media is in h265 to save space, and the only transcoding I've seen is when someone doesn't change the Plex app's default to 720p for remote plays. I tell them to adjust the settings to original for remote streams, and no more transcoding. (2Gbps internet upload, so no buffering either)

[@TheTimeProphet]

I run mine on a Hewlett Packard Proliant gen8 server. It has bays for 4 4tb drives. I run esxi and run virtual computers, I still run plex using a virtual windows 7. Now I normally use windows 10 but windows 7 takes less memory than windows 10. Now a proliant gen8 is very quiet, and is designed to stay on all the time. It is not too noisy, and I keep it in a separate room

[@michaelflamingsword3131]

I am unable to play HDR 10 bit files streaming from the Qnap and unable to project it on the TV with this. I get an error messsage. The max is 1080p for now. Even though my TV is supporting 10 Bit HDR and is 4K.

[@provideEVERYTHING]

Thank you for the video, I've saved it to reference later as I make my journey in setting up my first NAS. I'm just curious, when and how does an nvidia shield pro come into play and how does that impact what components you require/don't require in a prebuilt NAS system?

[@bikerchrisukk]

Good video, very valid points - but you guys know way more than me. I've done a 'run what I got' jobbie, E5-1650v4, does well transcoding anything and sending via internet to my mobile phone. Mainly going to use at home, so it'll be fine, tucked away.

[@mrdali67]

Is all this even a problem anymore, wether you are into google or Apple, most people play their media on a chromecast/Shield/AppleTV right into their flatscreen they all support most of the the latest codecs. Plex is just a way of organizing your Media in a nice way instead of using a simple media player that shows your old school dlna service. You just stream your personal media from the NAS or local computer that holds your files. Sure PLEX integrates with your payed streaming services too, but any simple dlna service that runs on your pc or NAS can do the same as PLEX. The devices we use for playing our straming services still interacts with them technically via dlna. My AppleTV don't really care if my files on the plex server is in one or the other format unless its some obscure format or homebrewed h.264 or x.265 configurations that isn't standard. It even plays windows WMV files just fine. No need for a Plex Pass unless you really need to encode to a specific format.

[@markusmcgee]

Create a video showing the alternatives to some of the default items we choose for our NAS. For example, Plex server/client vs what's built in for QNAP and Synology.

[@nascompares]

Will do! Added to the To-Do pile!

[@rolithesecond]

Anyone have any suggestions if I can't get outside connection to work? I (think) I've set up port forwarding but it's not working.

[@Evil.Totoro]

I was having problems connecting to my PLEX share on a Synology NAS. I did port forwarding and everything. So my solution was just connecting to it though quick connect, and opening up the PLEX app through it and streaming though the browser. Works really well on my iPad and iPhone.

[@rolithesecond]

@@Evil.Totoro the solution to my problem was that I had a dynamic IP. Asked my ISP for a static one and that fixed the availability problem.

[@carlos_mann]

I am new to all of this, hopefully you can help me out & inform me if I am understanding all this correctly for the reasons why I am wanting to have a NAS in the first place.... First, I have a massive music video collection (over 15 tb). Spread throughout multiple external hard drives. I am wanting to have all of my music & future digital media all in one location that way I can access it anywhere without any problems streaming it. (I'm basically wanting my own Spotify streaming service with my own music). I am thinking on purchasing the Synology NAS Diskstation DS1520+ (Diskless), 5 - Bay, 8gb DDR4 from Amazon that is currently priced at 699.99, along with 5 16tb iron wolf SSD's, (unless there's another brand that's better, and I am only mentioning this brand specifically because thats what popped up on Amazon in relation to this NAS).... Now from my understanding, this already comes with the memory of 8gb, however I have to purchase my own SSD. From what it looks like in the specs there can be 5× 16tb SSD's that I can have that totaling 80tb of storage within just this one unit. However I can expand later on down the road if I need up to 15 more bays, which will allow for me to have grand total of 108 tb of total storage space with additional storage bays (ie Synology DX517), later on down the road. Is what I have said correct & accurate or am I missing something? ....if I missed something on the specs above I found this item on Amazon if you wouldn't mind checking it out and informing with any inadditional info that I may have misunderstood please! Oh and one last thing I also play to purchase the Plex Lifetime Subscription, for the simple fact that it just seems to be the most popular amongst the videos I've watched.

[@Necropheliac]

Recently set up a NAS and thought it was a great idea to use the plex application on the NAS and immediately regretted that decision. Basically the processor is too weak to do the kind of transcoding that is necessary for my use, and keeps the processor constantly pegged at 100% for watching 1 4K hdr video. Switched plex to be installed on a Ubuntu server with an RTX graphics card and mount the NAS shares for the library and its way better. The only reason to use the NAS server to run plex is if you don’t have another capable, stationary computer on your network. Literally any other computer is probably better.

[@FastRedPonyCar]

How hard was it to mount the NAS shares? This is the route I want to take. I currently run plex on a big Lenovo rack server with trueNAS but want something smaller, quieter and less power hungry and am looking at a 4~5 disk Synology or QNAP and a little i5 NUC running Linux.

[@Necropheliac]

@@FastRedPonyCar it wasn’t hard. I’m serving plex from a Linux server. The way it automatically mounts the NAS shares is by setting the config in the “/etc/fstab“ file. It mounts the samba share with cifs instructions so you will want to install cifs on the Linux server, and also share the folders on the NAS as samba shares. It’s pretty easy to look all these things up through google so I’m confident most people won’t have much trouble with it. It works great. 👍

[@wfp9378]

Touching on Plex running native vs Plex in Docker would have been very helpful. Getting the Transcoding working with Plex in a Docker is an arcane art, with the only advantage being that it restarts automatically if it hangs.

[@syncacct8576]

I ran Plex in a container on my previous server. Now I have it on metal on my new one. It ran just fine, but I found updating the container a bit too inconvenient.

[@samanthagriffinv2.08]

13:22 VLC is pay for? Really? Since when? I never got a single pay for this prompt. Are you sure you mean VLC?

[@nosurname9652]

Wouldnt be much easier to use "all-eating" and free apps on home devices, like vlc player (some old TVs may need to use Android TV boxes to install it)? So devices will be able to play all media collection from NAS without problems.

[@maplenerd22]

It may be easier, but you'll miss out on the library management (accounts, sharing) features and metadata scraping that plex offers.

[@JasonSimondsMagic]

I don't understand how that would make things easier. If anything it seems like it would be more difficult experience for the wife and kids.

[@Kevin-rf9sx]

My celeron j3455 transcodes 4k hdr material perfectly fine with hardware acceleration. The performance of my system isn't really impacted

[@aerobrain2001]

Touching on transcoding and Plex pass, have I interpreted it fought that if I don’t pay for Plex pass, the benefit of the Celeron over the Ryzen is irrelevant?!

[@aerobrain2001]

When I say irrelevant, I realise there’ll likely be a difference due to the CPU speeds, but I more specifically mean that it wouldn’t use the embedded GPU

[@silvahawk]

What's the best way to share my Plex server on a NAS (Synology) with friends and family while keeping my network safe from non-wanted access?

[@fretbuzzly]

You set that up directly in Plex.

[@BennyTheNerd]

Is there a limit of length of cables between the NAS and TV's or Laptop/computer, where length MAYBE will lower the throughput between the units? And if storing the NAS in an enclosed drawer/cabinet where maybe the heat can't get away easier, can that temperature be to high for the NAS so you'll have to install a fan to extract the heat from that cabinet?

[@unityoc]

Chapters would be nice on a long video like this

[@mainfighter]

Man noise is something I've never cared about in the slightest, I have a R710 sitting next to my TV. It's dead quiet most of the time but when it does need to ramp up it doesn't bother myself or my girlfriend.

[@167sandgate]

I have just purchased an Orange pi5 to be used solely as a Plex Server. It has a Rockchip RK3588S 8 core 64bit Processor and 8GB Ram and says it supports 8K video codec, what i want to know is would this cpu work well with a NAS? Operating system i am using Ubuntu on a NVMe. Thanks

[@estusflask982]

Plex doesn't support hardware transcoding on that processor. But it will work fine for Direct Play.

[@JSAVyoutubechannel]

Mac mini 2014 works well for me with 2 5tb usb drives and connected directly to the router serving 4k hdr locally and transcoding lower res remotely

[@mikehines14]

Question for you guys. Say I wanted to give my friends/family access to my Plex and I'm using a run of the mill Synology or QNAP. How many people could stream from it simultaneously before my NAS can't handle it anymore?

[@fretbuzzly]

That depends on whether any transcoding is needed or not. If not, them it's limited by how fast your NAS can serve the files, which depends on which NAS you have, which hard drives you have, what your ISP upload speed is, etc.

[@HermanIdzerda]

I have bought the Plex lifetime pass, never regretted it.

[@Carvin0]

I bought a lifetime pass and instantly regretted it when I started to set up Plex. Plex is way, way over-engineered and proprietary with in-your-face marketing to manage a private collection.

[@astroplutonium]

Everyone talks about PLEX but noone about Kodi. Why transcode when we reach Gbit speeds now? I am trying to find the incentive, but I can't. You need a filthy expensive NAS, you still need Gbit Ethernet and you need more memory. Where is the Kodi talks?

[@mikemcdonald5147]

is there a media server that once setup doesnt need or use the internet like plex does?

[@maplenerd22]

Emby or Jellyfin.

[@mikemcdonald5147]

@@maplenerd22 thanks will look into them

[@michaelmiller3012]

If you are only using your media on your local network, Kodi is also very good. I use Kodi internally in my house because I prefer the interface for it, and Plex when I am away from home.

[@ericimi]

Can't see a reason to use plex locally, I just use infuse on my apple tv and kodi on sheild and I can play all my 4k disc remuxes lag free. This is with a slow nas over network.

[@Underskore]

I use plex Kodi connect myself locally

[@BerNieSLU]

I'm considering the DS1621xs+, is it good for Plex?

[@KINZERS13GTR]

....Not me building a threadripper server with 64gb ram, and 3tb of nvme, 44TB of 12gb/s scsi raid storage and sapphire 8gb Radeon graphics, just to play and transcode movies. 🤦‍♂️

[@AndyPerry1972]

I know this is an old video now, but I'll ask anyway 🙂 I already have a really powerful server which I bought a couple of years ago when I was contracting, mainly to serve at that time as a development environment of virtual machines. It has 2 Xeon processors and 128GB RAM. I have a VM that I am using as a "media" server and was looking to get some more storage, as I want to start replacing things like Google Drive and backups on to here. Also, I want to start using it to store all of our pictures and DVD and Blu Ray collection. I have purchased Plex Media Server and that is installed. But....what I don't really know a lot about is networking, particularly NAS and I keep seeing these pop up in my recommended items. If I already have this kit, should I really just be buying additional disks (obviously specific to NAS storage), or is there something special about a NAS that would still make that better? To my basic brain, I just see it as a way to have the storage available on the network with some additional processing power to run things like conversions, but if I am leaving my server on all of the time, will a NAS actually be more beneficial? I don't want to spend the money (not saved up yet!) if everything I would have in a NAS is already sitting on my desk in a server. Hope that makes sense.

[@lurst]

A NAS is just a computer that is always on, so if you do add some disks to the server you already have, and configure it to be open on your network, then you have a very simple NAS. So, no, you don't need to buy a new NAS, install FreeNAS on your server, add some disks and you're good to go

[@HieronymousCheese]

Have you checked your electricity bill lately? That's some cool kit you've got, but are you using a sledgehammer to crack a nut (or squash a fly)?

[@AndyPerry1972]

@@HieronymousCheese yeah, I'm sure it is massive overkill. It was probably even overkill for its original intended use, but since I'm not contracting anymore my options are to either sell it all or try to make use of it. I've always been the same to be honest, most of the things I've built tend to be overkill for that just in case I need it moment 🙂 As for the bill...now that everything has gone up like 70 percent, all those choices may now have been made for me 😁

[@sk8er000]

What about buying a medium range NAS for storing video files and a quite good PC with dedicated GPU HW acceleration compatible for running plex media server? Looking at the price to me it seems cheaper than buying only a powerful NAS to run Plex properly. What do you think?

[@timramich]

Why not just build a server. Do you really want all that going on in the background while trying to use a PC?

[@sk8er000]

@@timramich I'm not referring to a proper PC made for regular use but more like a Plex server only PC. NAS have very cool features but comparing the price for the same HW range between a Plex Server PC based and NAS based one they're very different. So I was asking if, for only a Plex poit of view, it may be cheaper to build a specific Plex server (PC based) and buy a medium/low range NAS to store files (using the base management features that every NAS can offer).

[@jakobkrafteltzholtz4990]

@@sk8er000 this is quite a typical solution...often a NUC is used as the Plex server PC (due to the small form factor). Just remember to check the power consumption - keeping a "powerful" pc turned on can be expensive (especially with discrete graphics).

[@charlieharrison230]

Question was looking at a ds1821x fora Plex setup would you have a better suggestion? Looking for maybe 5 or 6 people usage. Thanks

[@FredSanford420]

If the users device cannot play original 265, ie 1080p, it can be made to work by the user changing the resolution, ie to 720p. (Tested with multi TV brands). The only troubles, even with 264, is the audio codecs that were used in movie. Not seemed to narrow down those specific codecs yet. Also, for me, 4k is dumb to have if you a HUGE movie library of like 10k movies and tv shows (137tb 😁)...in terms of space and hardware work load. Just not worth it until a converter can make a 4k movie at around 2gb...lol. But anyway, nice tips as I been thinking about a NAS. But my gaming pc is an absolute work horse, very, very quiet and doesn't even use a 10th of it's power. 17 HD's...😂

[@ALXKRFT]

Hi, xan younadd chapters in future? Highly appreciated!

[@nascompares]

Unsure. Thank you for watching

[@johnreese3762]

Great info, thanks!!

[@chriscardwell3495]

First mistake . . . . why bother with a PLEX server? A NAS can stream many types of video file over a network - let the local device do the decoding Why would you do it any other way?

[@maplenerd22]

People use Plex for the library management capabilities and the ability to play videos on most devices. Features like metadata scraping, playlist, user accounts makes interacting with your library so much easier. It also supports transcoding, so even if the client device can play the file natively, plex server can transcode it so that it can be played on the device.

[@JohnDoe-ls2zu]

@@maplenerd22 Yes, I agree with all your points. In my case, the UI and metadata are not that important and watching my videos on anything but my home theater or home PC is something I never do. About the only Plex feature I would actually use is playlists, but that's about it. So, I use Kodi without the library features and I don't have to manage all that metadata for my thousands of videos. Even my wife agrees that the metadata is not that important to her.

[@maplenerd22]

@@JohnDoe-ls2zu - Of course if that's your use case, then it works for you. But the OP says it was a mistake. No it's not a mistake because a lot people do value the library features and metadata.

[@chriscardwell3495]

@Jimmy Plumber I have the option of managing videos using jRiver which does many of the things you mention for managing music tracks. For videos - I am happy with a simple folder system within the NAS for the time being.

[@johnmarkzimm]

I like plex because it makes all my movies look like they are on Netflix, nice user interface for the family.

[@stafvh5783]

When reading about the requirements to run Plex, and the hassle to make it work as it should, Plex should pay people to want to use it instead of making them pay to get the full shebang.I've been using Kodi for many years now, it's totally free and has also a learning curve, but once configured it simply works, and keeps running, on many platforms, even on 10 year old Nasses. ( btw , very interesting your dual conversation, but take care to level out the audio, the speaker in the right window sounds louder than the other one....I have constantly to adapt my volume on my laptop.

[@danny51577]

I dont know what people keep complaining about the noise for. Unless it sits right next to you. I watched these nas videos for 6 months to try to decide. Finally decided to run it off the pc I was building combined with a nas for pure storage. So ended up with an overclocked 10850k, rtx 3060, and just run plex off of it. Connected to a 40tb wd nas, with shield pro as clients. Best of all worlds.

[@MatHelm]

I hope by now you've bought a much cheaper NAS for plex, and are paying for it via bitcoin mining with that 3060.

[@danny51577]

@@MatHelm nope. Mining with it and using as my server. Cant mine bitcoin with 3060, but mining other things.

[@dshieh4vids]

Which Synology (DS1520+ or DS1621+) makes a better PMS (w/o Plex Pass) for viewing 1080p content in a wired LAN environment?

[@velvetrooster5569]

I run plex on my DS220+ Synology NAS with 2 4tb drives for a total of 8tb of storage. I also convert all videos to 720p but also always try to download all movies and TV shows at 720p as well to make minimal video conversion.

[@128Benja]

If i choose an uneven amount of storage. Say 3tb. Should i make hdd1 2tb or 1tb? Would it make a difference? If one of the hdd writes and reads faster, would it be better to make it the backup raid 1? Or keep it in front for the primary side of raid 1?

[@SocialWorkProfessor]

Are you using a Synology? If you're not using SHR; different HDDs isn't even an option. RAID doesn't have a primary and a secondary--they backup each other (mirror); so it really doesn't matter which is first and which is second (but keep them in the same order if you ever remove them).

[@NormanTheDormantDoormat]

To add to this: you obviously can mix different sized disks, but the usable storage space might be less than you might anticipate. There is a storage calculator at the synology website.

[@photelegy]

❓ Can you PLEASE make a video about .heic and .hevc decoding? Why can't QuMagie show .heic photos? Many other services like GooglePhotos, AppleFotos, ... can show them easily. 🤔

[@nascompares]

I will look into this and get back to you. Cheers for watching dude

[@lyingcorrectly]

While HEVC requires more transcoding, HEVC reduced the size of my library by ~2TB which on the backup side (Backblaze B2) saves me over 10$ every month. Compared to those savings the extra power consumption of transcoding with Intel QuickSync is a rounding error.

[@iankester-haney3315]

I run my Plex server on a nice PC with a 2080ti for transcoding. NAS is separate with 32TB usable capacity and the Plex Server just uses it. A nice CIFS folder mount makes it seamless. I can then watch on my Nvidia Shield and Roku Ultra.

[@nascompares]

I like BOTH your setup and your user name. You sir definitely did well in the lottery of names... kind regards, Robert (boring) Andrews (yawn) x

[@mariuszfuchs2010]

Can you recommend amd ryzen 5 3400g or 2400g for 4k transoding on plex media server

[@CousinSteve]

I bought $150 Terramaster with a slow arm CPU and it has no issues with 4k video with 1GB of ram aslo

[@trowawayacc]

Dang so its just better to have a Free NAS pc for streaming? Or is that a bust too?

[@justinwilliamson2487]

The best way i run my plex server is using the nvidia shield as the server and my qnap ts-253a as my storage with 12tb runs perfectly with 6 streams and 2 transcoding at the same time from 1080p 10bit then using the qnap as a plex server backup

[@BB-qp5xo]

"A jar of nails falling".....nice and accurate on large hard drive noise. I had to move mine (4x 8TB ironwolfs) from lounge TV room to study cupboard. There is no silencing these things......when having a cinema experience, silience is AS IMPORTANT as the loud scenes. Also I bumped the 920+'s 4 GB of Ram to 20GB (added 16GB as per NAS Compares recommended Crucial ram stick) and I believe it runs smoother. He doesn't recommend you do it (at your own risk due to Synology warranty) but I wouldn't go back.

[@michaelflamingsword3131]

My 8 x Ironwolfs are quiet. An occasional Yink Yank once and a while. But I have installed SSD cache. So that helps. Maybe you can try too.

[@RickyBeck]

@@michaelflamingsword3131 is that SSD cache being used in a Synology NAS primarily used for media playback?

[@ericcarl5253]

So if my Internet goes down I am not able to watch My movies on my TVs?

[@naughtyorgneiss]

Worst case just stream from your phone...

[@stafvh5783]

@@naughtyorgneiss And that's the reason why many people use Kodi. Plex is good at one thing....public relations.

[@neilrose7527]

Major mistake is paying for plex pass as kodi and plex kodi connect addon works for steaming to mobile at no cost and kodi can direct play most files no trasncoding needed. I have a old hp microserver and it works lovley and I steam to multiple clients in and out the house. And most things can run kodi. Phones xbox's pc and nucs plex by it self is worthless

[@johnmarkzimm]

Great information. Thanks

[@syncacct8576]

Buy an old enterprise server from ebay or an auction. That's what I did. I got a Dell PowerEdge T430 with dual 8-core Xeon E5-2620v4 2.10GHz, 96GB DDR4, PERC h730 raid controller, 7x1.8TB 10K 2.5" SAS drives, iDrac8 express, dual PSUs, 2 built in NICs and additional 4 NICs on a PCI board. I added a 10Gb SFP+ card, 256GB SSD for OS and boot and 6x 2tb 2.5" SATA drives from my old server (+2 new for a total of 8). Both raid volumes are configured as raid6. This thing is a monster and it was cheaper than my Synology 1819+ without drives.

[@vinylmonster4907]

I have a ASUSTOR AS4004T w/4x 8TB 32TB NAS thats runs PLEX with no trouble at all as long as the browser used isnt Chrome. The Ironwolf drives make absolutely ZERO NOISE!

[@Heligafarsan]

My LG c9 has the plex player and I’m streaming 1080p blu-ray ripped, with srt subtitles x264 and x265 no problem and has direct play/stream. Buuut, if I try with the same files on ps4 pro or even my ps5 then its crazy transcoding going on. Qnap ts-251 4gb ram

[@pauldoree3967]

PS4 is known for being poor with Plex.

[@Heligafarsan]

@@pauldoree3967 So I’ve noticed. Im just happy that my C9 plays about anything on a older low budget NAS. Something that my older Sony TV (with plex media player app installed) didn’t manage.

[@pauldoree3967]

@@Heligafarsan I’ve got the C8. Love it, it plays most formats without transcoding. The TV is connected directly to the Synology NAS via Ethernet, so it’s a gigabit link. No problems even with large 4K files,

[@larryfradette7259]

I just migrated to DS920+ and bought a Plex Pass for Life; this works well for me and do not want to risk dealing with subscriptions later on. Probably after Synology DSM 7 is released, I would like to see a video utilizing the best DSM tools (synology or third party) with Plex media server centered. I just set-up DS file to automatically add photos from my phone for Plex did not work too well or easily and support for this is ending in June anyways. If there are better ways of organizing family photos and home movies before sending to Plex, that would be helpful. I will see what happens after I clean up my music collection. I like iTunes, but nice to listen to FLAC versions and have an Android phone.

[@chriscardwell3495]

Very pleased with jRiver - majority of my music stored as flac files (spend as much of little as you want on a DAC) Long term aim to use the jRiver server feature with music streamed to other rooms jRiver can manage different sorts of collections (music tracks, photo collections and videos), some with well over 200,000 items. Includes program options for developing personalized views of your collection

[@GalaxianGamer]

You can go to settings and remove internet authentication and plex can always work offline

[@markstanchin1692]

Soo what't the best all around nas for everything?

[@nascompares]

Way, WAY to broad a subject to have a single answer... like asking 'what is the best PC?, 'What is the best TV?' or even 'What is the Best Food?' - it is a massive question of budget, size, power requirements, storage needs, connections and more. If you fire over some requirements (maybe to the NASCompares free advice section, as the comments here get bombarded quickly), I can definitely narrow it down for you!

[@johnmarkzimm]

Unraid! Install all kinds of dockers including Plex.

[@bigguy8749]

What format video file for Plex ? Mkv mp4 what’s best and will Apple Music be added to Plex ?

[@michaelmiller3012]

MKV and MP4 are not formats, they are containers. Each (and particularly MKV) can hold MANY different formats of video and audio. To illustrate, your question is a bit like asking whether the jar holding the strawberry jam is inherently better than the jar holding the apple butter when what you really need to be concerned about is the actual strawberry jam and apple butter.

[@Kaulat123]

I love your videos, but please, improve your audio quality. Too soft and you fade in/out. This applies to nearly ALL your videos, terrible audio quality.

[@kilbeam99]

The chapters are wrong Thanks for the video though!

[@jllerk]

Howto install nvidia T4 in a synology diskstation, video focused on cooling it ^^

[@DaPoets]

I've had Plex Pass for years and love paying for it.

[@nascompares]

Thank you for commenting dude. You 'love' paying for it? Are you able to elaborate a little more on why you were happy to pay? Just so users can get a better understanding of the Pros and Cons

[@DaPoets]

@@nascompares I have no restrictions while using it. I see all the data I want, can seen when my family loads up stuff to watch while at home or away, and it just feels complete. I figure $5 a month or what ever it is is meaningless for an app that I use so often.

[@seppomuppit]

I still can't figure out why people bother with plex over just a simple smb share

[@kibapoohead4633]

METADATA

[@ewitte12]

If it isn't fast enough I can just use the PC for the server again and the NAS as storage. I have a 7950x/4090 combo with 64GB.

[@CorazonDeCristoCano]

Thanks for the info. For #1, it's not clear what CPU is recommended for 4k/8k transcoding. You mention Celeron CPUs are adequate for 1080p transcoding. What's recommended for 4k and up transcoding? The regressive HDMI support is a bummer. Should those who want better HDMI support wait for new lines of hardware to be released?

[@nascompares]

You want to look at an Intel Core (i3/i5/i7/i9) or the newer GPU equipped Intel Xeon W series - they will smash through the bulk of 4K in Plex

[@chewchy9052]

Nice explanation ty

[@seanzhang3873]

Why would I use Plex when I can use Jellyfin for free?

[@groggrog1]

That's easy. External sharing.

[@stafvh5783]

@@groggrog1 And how many people do or need that?

[@groggrog1]

@@stafvh5783 probably a lot

[@Bmad185]

Yes Mate!

[@Mike_Malloy]

The guy on the left is hard to hear. Problem with YT is everyone has a different camera/mic setup. Easy to tell when someone uses quality equipment to post YT videos. Short of that, viewers don't stay around long.

[@dota2tournamentss]

what a bs about h265, most of my library is h265 and it never needed any transcoding on any of the devices, you just mixing stuff up as plex is not transcoding to 265 due to license but there is no problem with any licensing for direct play of h265 files

[@user-jm8ky1kn2t]

Chrome only started supporting H.265 in 2022. Do some research before commenting on a 3 year old video

[@dota2tournamentss]

@@user-jm8ky1kn2t lol like you watch plex on google web browser and not in the client

[@jacqueshollands5630]

Nice informative video, gents

[@DragonKastle]

Having a nas in the same room as viewing area makes no difference at high volume I play movies…