QNAP TS x53D NAS 1080p & 4K Plex Test

[@MrVicius141280]

I would like to know if it can play 4k movies at 100mbit h265 without problems (no transcoding)

[@JamesKing-cc8tz]

I've ended up confused here. Are you suggesting that the transcoding performance will improve when Plex improves/fixes their software? This wasn't 100% clear to me from the video. Are they definitely working on it, or is it a maybe?

[@GregoryCunningham]

Newegg had a really good sale on the 6 bay. Hopefully Plex has fixed these issues with updates, because I bought one to replace a rock solid DS918+

[@simondup]

Did the video station video ever come out ?

[@nikos.dimizas]

I just bought a QNAP TS-253D and I use two Seagate IronWolf 6TB SATA III 3.5" HDD 5400rpm with it. What I want to say is that when I play a 1080p .mp4 H.264 movie within my LAN from my browser using Video Station app and playing the original file (not transcoding to lower res) my CPU usage is between 25% and 35% and the main responsible process for that is ffmpeg. So I don't understand how @NASCompares he gets no fluctuations in his CPU when he plays back video files. Is it something wrong with my setup? UPDATE: I tried to play the videos using Plex Media Server as per the video above and the CPU stays between 3-5% even when doing transcoding to lower res. It is very interesting why Video Station is handling video playback so badly compared to Plex. If anyone has the answer to that please share

[@JacobDicker]

Hi Rob! As much as I like your content this video has a few issues. Firstly, it appears you're using quite low bit rate 1080p files, which is fine, but slightly misleading because Plex won't transcode if the files are smaller than the target bit rate. A 2mb/s 1080p file will not transcode if the target file is 720p 4mb/s, provided the client device can handle the original 2mb/s file. Additionally, transcoding to 480p (the only time Little Shop of Horrors does transcode) is very easy, even for lower powered chips that don't support quicksync video. Secondly, that 400mb/s jellyfish video is hard. Basically nothing can transcode that in hardware the bitrate is so high (the higher the input bitrate, the more power needed to decode as part of the transcoding process). Most 4K blu ray content people will come across is encoded between 40&80mb/s, and there are some Dolby Vision H.265 demo files you might find helpful in future tests as these are, in my mind, a far better representation of the kind of 4K content people may attempt to play. Additionally, I'd suggest using Tautulli as one of your test measuring devices, as it will give you a transcoding speed compared to realtime. If someone is thinking of one of those for a server with multiple users, there's a big difference between a server transcoding faster than 3x realtime (thus capable of managing 2 users easily) or under 2x realtime (and thus basically only capable of supporting one transcode at a time).

[@alanbarber4543]

Seriously, needs to go get some 30+ gig blu-ray remux to use for testing. Gives it a real world push to the limit video file for the transcodeing tests.

[@PhilAMurray]

So it can't Direct Play any 4K content?

[@velocci6666]

I’d like to know the answer to that myself

[@woftamowen]

No issues with directly playing 4k content. Minor glitch when initially playing h.265 video.

[@BrianGarside]

@@woftamowen So if I encode a 4k 10bit file @ 40mbs h.265 it should playback. Normally I have 10mbs encoded HD content.

[@velocci6666]

I'm thinking of buying the TS-653d and using it for plex server (not transcoding), surveillance and of course data storage of my 4K movies. I will watch the movies on my tv using a plex media player using on a windows 10 machine. So the pc will be streaming from the nas but not transcoding. If the nas is also recording video from 2 cameras, will movies still play smoothly without buffering at all?

[@Heligafarsan]

I think using Plex media player on Windows is direct stream/direct play, no transcoding. If its no transcoding then there should be no problem for what you are asking for. My LG C9 tv also has PMP with direct stream from my qnap ts251 1080p and I Have no issues using the Qnap for other stuff

[@TIPER2K]

Will be any performance improvement using Plex Pass ?

[@carlosaceves5946]

I watched your plex TS-x53D vs TS-x73A and I can't decide. I also want to run at least maybe 1 windows VM any recommendations would be great.

[@peny1981]

And what did you choose ?

[@carlosaceves5946]

@@peny1981 473A

[@carlosaceves5946]

@@peny1981 Its alot more future proof with is being 8 core and faster AMD also lets you run ZFS

[@aufgespielt3768]

I always wonder what a lot of users are stressed out with a simple 4K stream. For example, I stream via USB 2.0 (no kidding) in connection with my Fritzbox 7590 wirelessly to my LG OLED C9.

[@deadrabit71]

I switched to TS-653d on the weight of this review and am unable to get anything like this performance.

[@moritz8050]

The question is: Amount of RAM and what hard drives?

[@alexanders.6080]

I guess it's your dell struggling playing those 4k files. Try playing this on a TV.