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      09-01-2016, 11:06 AM   #1
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Plex streaming solution

Hey all,

I was wondering if folks on here have any NAS + Plex streaming setups they would care to share. I currently have a QNAP HS-210 NAS with 3TB's of space (way more than I really need but I like room to grow) and a gigabit ethernet wireless router. I wanted to set up a Plex media server to share out the movies and TV shows I have on the NAS currently but the processor in the QNAP is not up to the task. I was thinking a standalone micro-PC running Windows or Linux with the appropriate Plex server loaded on it and connected to the network would work but would like some input from others who might have this already set up.

Thoughts?
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      09-01-2016, 11:49 AM   #2
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I have a Synology NAS with beefy specs. I have Plex directly running on it.

It's the tits. No joke.


Do eeet!
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      09-01-2016, 12:22 PM   #3
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I have a dedicated i5 machine with 16Gigs of memory running on Archlinux on a 12terabyte raid 5 array.

Plex runs really well, especially since I stream at full bitrate. I have two Chromecasts and three Roku units. The Chromecasts sit in the drawer since I bought my first Roku... in fact, I almost hate the Chromecasts...

I have run both Emby and Plex as my streaming database.... both have pros and cons... I am thinking of shifting back to Emby this fall...
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      09-01-2016, 12:56 PM   #4
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Kodi > Plex and free.
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      09-01-2016, 12:59 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fhaze3 View Post
I have a Synology NAS with beefy specs. I have Plex directly running on it.

It's the tits. No joke.


Do eeet!
Interesting. I am hoping for a pretty cheap solution though. I got the QNAP for a good deal and it has been great for me so far. If I did go to a new NAS solution do you know if I would be able to simply pull the drives out of my current NAS and pop them into the new one and keep the data?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shipkiller View Post
I have a dedicated i5 machine with 16Gigs of memory running on Archlinux on a 12terabyte raid 5 array.

Plex runs really well, especially since I stream at full bitrate. I have two Chromecasts and three Roku units. The Chromecasts sit in the drawer since I bought my first Roku... in fact, I almost hate the Chromecasts...

I have run both Emby and Plex as my streaming database.... both have pros and cons... I am thinking of shifting back to Emby this fall...
Wow!! You are serious business. Not sure I need all of that. Right now I am getting by on DLNA to my PS3 for streaming. I am mainly looking to get the more polished interface of Plex (or similar). Not sure I even need transcoding abilities to be honest as most of collection is in .mp4 format.
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      09-01-2016, 01:00 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gtron View Post
Kodi > Plex and free.
Haven't heard of them. I do know Plex is free for the functions I need it for though.

I will check it out.
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      09-01-2016, 01:11 PM   #7
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Just throwing my setup out there as I know pretty much no one would run this in their home.

I have Plex running on Windows Server 2012 R2 in a virtual machine on VMware ESXi 5.5. I think with the resources I carved out for the VM are a single socket core virtual CPU with 4 GB of memory. The server I have it on is a Dell PowerEdge R730 with two E5-2640v3 processors and 256 GB of RAM. The storage for the Plex virtual machine is sitting on a Compellent SC4020 fiber channel array on a 5 TB volume (the array has 25 TB) and the storage for the media files is on a dedicated Micron S630DC 3.84TB 12Gb SAS SSD. If it wasn't for my job, I wouldn't consider doing something like this but because I have the gear....why not?

As far as Kodi, a friend of mine told me about it and I'm going to play with it when I get a chance.
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      09-01-2016, 01:50 PM   #8
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I have Plex running on a dedicated server using WHS2011. I do intend to replace the WHS box (which is almost 6 years old now) with a new server based on W10 but still using Plex (haven't looked at Emby but it's interesting).

In short, we have several clients that access Plex: Roku 3, Roku 4, Xbox One, W10 tablet (Surface Pro 4), and iPad. It just works and works well. As long as you have the hardware to support multiple streams at the resolution/bandwidth you want (eg. 720p or 1080p) it's an effective solution. The Roku 4 and Xbox One are connected via gigabit LAN which certainly helps.
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      09-01-2016, 01:59 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jwzimm View Post
Interesting. I am hoping for a pretty cheap solution though. I got the QNAP for a good deal and it has been great for me so far. If I did go to a new NAS solution do you know if I would be able to simply pull the drives out of my current NAS and pop them into the new one and keep the data?



Wow!! You are serious business. Not sure I need all of that. Right now I am getting by on DLNA to my PS3 for streaming. I am mainly looking to get the more polished interface of Plex (or similar). Not sure I even need transcoding abilities to be honest as most of collection is in .mp4 format.
When you build your own NAS box, you have many more choices for hardware that is much more 'future proof' than a 'all in one' box like a Netgear or Symbology setup. I do own a four (4) drive Netgear NAS box but that is just for automatic backups (my tertiary backup) of the primary NAS box. Who wants to try and recover 5-10 terabytes of video files you have collected over the years..

Your streaming software of choice (Plex, Emby etc.) will do the transcoding automatically unless specifically set it up not to do this and stream at the full bit rate of the particular bit rate that the video file was encoded at. This is a function of how much CPU power you have. My video files (movies/TV shows) are mostly encoded at the highest bit rate that I feel is necessary for an outstanding picture quality vs. file size. Most 1080p files are around 5Gigs in size. I can have all three Roku units up (plus those idiotic Chromecasts) and streaming with no transcoding (pushing a LOT of data through the WiFi network without any shuddering. That being said, I do not use WiFi routers but WiFi Access points. I have also moved away from the consumer grade WiFi to commercial grade Wifi. It costs more in the short term (startup costs) but are MUCH more powerful and cost less in the long term. I did this because with over 20 WiFi devices (or more) in the house, you can choke a consumer grade WiFI router or access point.

One of the reasons I run Archlinux is because I do not have to slick the boot drive and start over with a reinstall when a new version comes out. e.g.: Fedora, Ubuntu.... My NAS box runs 24/7.
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      09-02-2016, 07:05 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gtron View Post
Kodi > Plex and free.
I use both and Plex has some features Kodi doesnt and vice versa.


To the main topic. I run FreeNAS and Plex Linux based virtual servers off my main desktop. Works great.
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      09-02-2016, 07:32 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fhaze3 View Post
I have a Synology NAS with beefy specs. I have Plex directly running on it.

It's the tits. No joke.


Do eeet!
+1

DS415+ + 14TB (2x 6TB and 2x8TB WD Red) in a RAID configuration.

/thread
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      09-02-2016, 09:55 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Aust350z View Post
+1

DS415+ + 14TB (2x 6TB and 2x8TB WD Red) in a RAID configuration.

/thread
Looks nice but I'm not looking to spend so much $$$ on this. I have plenty more space than I really need (3TB works for me) and the QNAP is doing fine for what it does.

Really I think what I am looking for is a very small server I can set up that would be able to load the library that is on the QNAP and run the Plex server.
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      09-02-2016, 04:35 PM   #13
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Just throwing this out there. Those using such large capacity drives especially SATA drives need to be cognizant of the danger of failed drives and the long rebuild times in a RAID configuration. The rule of thumb for used for enterprise environments is to only use RAID 6 when you are using hard drives over 2 TB in size.
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      09-06-2016, 02:17 PM   #14
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Do you guys think something like an older Mac Mini running as a standalone server would fit the bill? (something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Mac-Mi...0AAOSwve5XN~48)

Keep in mind I am not looking for the end-all/be-all of media servers here. Just something that can run Plex and stream on my local network and maybe transcode a single stream for remote connection.
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      09-06-2016, 11:05 PM   #15
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Just bought this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/262603172251

According to Plex's website this should be OK for some light transcoding which should be perfect for me. I can also remote manage this on my network from my primary Macbook.
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      10-06-2016, 08:59 AM   #16
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In case anyone reads this here is my current state.

I got the Mac Mini up and running with the Plex server. Unfortunately the Plex app for the PS3 (my primary media device) sucks major b@lls. It crashes randomly and stutters terribly. This issue made me rethink my whole media setup. I have opted to pick up an AppleTV 4 to use as my Netflix/Hulu box to replace the PS3 in those duties. The AppleTV has a Plex app as well so I am going to see if that works better. My fallback option will be iTunes home sharing via the Mac Mini which should work as well.

The only thing I am still trying to figure out is the best way to replace the Blu-Ray capabilities of the PS3 so I can remove it from the setup completely. I considered upgrading the Mac Mini's optical drive to a Blu-Ray but it seems like that player options out there are limited. I may just go all digital and rip my whole collection as well.
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      10-06-2016, 09:32 AM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zx10guy View Post
Just throwing this out there. Those using such large capacity drives especially SATA drives need to be cognizant of the danger of failed drives and the long rebuild times in a RAID configuration. The rule of thumb for used for enterprise environments is to only use RAID 6 when you are using hard drives over 2 TB in size.
This.

I run 12 x 4TB drives in my Synology using RAID6.
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      10-06-2016, 10:30 AM   #18
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It'll be interesting to see when erasure coding technology hits the consumer market to provide an alternative and maybe a replacement to RAID altogether.
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      10-12-2016, 11:56 AM   #19
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Quote:
Originally Posted by protecon View Post
This.

I run 12 x 4TB drives in my Synology using RAID6.
For sure. Just take the time and go all digital. It's worth it. I had to make a choice expanding storage on my server (six 2 TB RAID 5 on a Perc 6i in a Poweredge 1900). Converting to a NAS was too cost heavy for my taste and so was new RAID card (to support larger drives and I won't buy cheap bullshit) + new, larger drives. I just got two external 8 TB drives USB 3.0 (one for the media and one for backup). I had thrown a USB 3.0 card running on PCI-e X4 a couple years back. No complaints about speed with it.
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      10-12-2016, 12:14 PM   #20
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I've got a QNAP TS-870 upgraded to an i7 and 16GB RAM.

Running Plex with 32TB of HDDs in RAID 5.

I stream to 4 clients in my house - all Apple TV4s or Xbox Ones. I also share my library with a few "offsite" friends an family - again ATV4s, XB1s and even a Nexus Player (Android TV)

Most of the clients need transcoding of either Audio, Video, or both - depending on the source file format... Also running an HDHomerun and the new Plex Beta with DVR - which I've set up to do OTF Transcoding or recordings.

Point I'm trying to make is that a NAS - with sufficiently high specs - can definitely handle whatever Plex can throw at it.
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      10-12-2016, 01:23 PM   #21
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Harlequin View Post
I've got a QNAP TS-870 upgraded to an i7 and 16GB RAM.

Running Plex with 32TB of HDDs in RAID 5.

I stream to 4 clients in my house - all Apple TV4s or Xbox Ones. I also share my library with a few "offsite" friends an family - again ATV4s, XB1s and even a Nexus Player (Android TV)

Most of the clients need transcoding of either Audio, Video, or both - depending on the source file format... Also running an HDHomerun and the new Plex Beta with DVR - which I've set up to do OTF Transcoding or recordings.

Point I'm trying to make is that a NAS - with sufficiently high specs - can definitely handle whatever Plex can throw at it.
True, a NAS can do the job. You have to admit though, your NAS is a serious powerhouse. It is basically a streamlined mid-range server in that configuration (with the cost to go with it). The basic QNAP TS-870 prices out at $1400. For that price you can build a pretty stout server with tons of space like yours.

My hope was to find a solution that kept things as cheap as possible while serving my limited needs. I seem to have that now with my Mac Mini and ATV4.
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      10-12-2016, 05:17 PM   #22
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Oh, I agree completely. A NAS is often the most efficient but also most expensive option.

I've been through all the permutations of file storage over the years - starting with a PC with JBOD array, moving to Windows Home Server (god that was horrible), then a PC running FreeNAS, then a pair of mid-range DROBOs.

I even tried a Blade Server and a couple of iSCSI Disk Arrays that I got from work when they were decommissioned but the noise and power usage were both phenomenal and the Drives were just too expensive to add more capacity...

The QNAP is by far the most expensive of the lot but it's also been the most trouble-free and I have mine set up with Plex, Transmission, SickRage, Web Hosting, etc so it means my entire infrastructure operates off a single headless device and I don't need to have anything else on 24/7.
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