Maybe I missed or didn't understand fully on the NAS discussion earlier.
Can Plex be run directly on the NAS? Or would you have a host machine to run Plex & the NAS storage only for media?

You can run a Plex Server directly on my Qnap NAS.

0-0

I serve Plex from my Synology 920+ NAS.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Maybe I missed or didn't understand fully on the NAS discussion earlier.
Can Plex be run directly on the NAS? Or would you have a host machine to run Plex & the NAS storage only for media?

You can do it either way, provided you buy a capable NAS if hosting it there. Like I said earlier, using an inexpensive DS418 for the storage and a PC to run Plex is a way to go. Or a more capable NAS like a DS920+ to both run Plex and store your media.

Thanks. May have to piecemeal a setup together over time & spread out the costs.

If you're running Plex on the NAS, and have a power outage, does it all come back up when power is restored, or do you have to go in & restart services or the like?

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
Maybe I missed or didn't understand fully on the NAS discussion earlier.
Can Plex be run directly on the NAS? Or would you have a host machine to run Plex & the NAS storage only for media?

You can have your data anywhere.
Usually on the same device as serving for convenience.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Which external hard drive is the best to store media for Plex use.
Using a desktop for now. One day I’ll likely set up a NAS.

Any drive is fine.
But why an external drive?
Additional internal is fine too and better performing albeit the requirements are not high for media storage.
I never wasted money on an aftermarket external drive.
I always used enclosures and picked the appropriate drive for the job.
Molten plastic enclosing a regular drive attached by their power supply never made sense to me but is convenient.
If only serving audio I would just attach a 1tb SSD with a USB adaptor that has power for about $10.
If serving video that won't be enough space and look for a spinner of appropriate size.
Still I would have the same drive internally and reserve the USB external for backup.
WD has a great lineup, Black or better, IMO.
Enclosures can vary even ones with removeable bays are very useful.
YMMV

This computer is one of the small/mini form PCs I think they are called. It has space for a 2.5” drive which I have a 250GB SSD for my OS and a 3.5” drive which I have an 8TB WD Purple for my cameras 24/7 recording.

For my Media both Audio and Video I currently have a portable 4TB drive so I can take it between devices. Which I won’t have to do anymore. I also have a 2nd drive that I keep in my safe as a backup.
So when I rip something it goes on the play drive and the backup.

quote:

Originally posted by P250UA5:
If you're running Plex on the NAS, and have a power outage, does it all come back up when power is restored, or do you have to go in & restart services or the like?

The NAS will restore its former state, but it’s better to have a UPS. The UPS will communicate with the NAS to have the NAS shut down safely, and then it can restart after power is restored. I have one of my NASs running as a UPS server, so it will communicate the UPS state to the other NAS, so they will both shut down safely. With a 1500mah CyberPower, my two Synologies, router, modem, and switch will run for around 70 min on battery before shutting down.

This has been a very timely thread!

I'm going to try disc-less video on my new 4K setup, and would like to ask for input if possible.

Main goal is to not need to hassle with BD/DVD discs when playing the movie library, and yet have good quality playback on two 4K TVs here at the house, and potentially on our iPads here and on remote computers when we travel.

Thanks in advance to any intrepid AV Tech experts who can help advise on this.

Background
ISP service is 1Gb/s; most connections are WiFi 6 and mobile devices using that WiFi get internet speeds around 600Mb/s. PCs are Win10. iPads are iPad Pros. We don't watch movies on phones.

Doing a pilot run to check out functionality, and the end-game is likely to be (feedback invited here) ordering a sufficiently beefy NAS setup, packing it full of adequate HDD storage, and both running the Plex server software and storing the video files on that NAS.

Pilot run
Here's the pilot run and the results:
Step 1
Downloaded and installed MakeMKV, and the free versions of Plex Server and Plex Client on my desktop PC, and of Plex Client on my iPad.

Step 2
RIPing DVDs/BDs with MakeMKV, and using the file/directory naming conventions I found online here.

Step 3
For the pilot run, the .mkvs are getting put on my old and slow Seagate NAS, a fugitive from the forgotten mists of time.

Step 4
For the pilot run, the Plex Media Server runs on my desktop, and I manually start and stop it. Pointed it to the mkvs on the Seagate NAS and added that folder as a library.

Step 5
I have installed Plex viewing app on my PC and iPad to see how it works.

Findings from pilot run

• MakeMKV is great - RIPing is easy
  
  
• The file naming path I've chosen to help Plex organize things (finding out the IMDB "tt" number for the movie, and putting that "tt"info - correctly formatted - into file and directory names) takes a little time but is not difficult.
  
  
• Running the Plex server on the PC is easy, though the UI to update a library for new files is a little odd.
  
  
• Playing videos from the PC Plex app works fine.
  
  
• I have fired up the free Plex app and tried to play movies on the iPad. It finds them and plays them, but it says it'll only play for a duration of one minute. For that minute, all seems copacetic, but then as indicated it stops.
  

Questions:
1) Free Plex one-minute playback limit on the iPad: Did I misconfigure something, or is that something I would need to go to a paid version to get past?

2) Going over the list of Plex-compatible servers here and narrowing down server options. Since I'm looking for good performance on 4K content, is it enough to limit myself to servers that have hardware-accelerated features in the (2160p) columns, or is there something else I need to consider from that list?

3) Getting the server set up and running, once that's chosen. I'm assuming I stuff it full of good quality HDDs, hook it to the network, buy a 'Plex Pass' license for it (or do the servers come with that?) and move the video files. Or is there more to it than that?

Are you ripping 4K BluRays yet???
If not I can’t recommend this guy enough to possibly flash your current drive or just buy a preflashed drive from him.
I did not have a BluRay drive for the PC so I just bought a new drive from him.
Literally plugged it in and was ripping 4K with ease.
https://forum.makemkv.com/foru...c1195f582a37e24425e5

0) Try mediacentermaster for naming files & downloading metadata (.xml movie details, .jpg DVD-cover & backgrounds, etc). I used the 'auto' naming on makeMKV, then let mediacentermaster do it's thing & move to the library folder, then let plex have at the file. Plex does fine as long as you have title & year correct. Very little for me to do other than click a few buttons -I don't like when I have to go back & forth between keyboard & mouse, so if I say it's easy, it's easy. MCM is a little wonky on design, but it's functionality was always solid.

0.1) What you are doing now will work ok, but having the server & storage separated adds a lot of latency - the spinning yellow circle will suck the fun out of movie night. My firesticks on 5ghz wifi are acceptable. My FireTVs on 1GB ethernet are noticeably more responsive even though they are older.

1) Sorry, no i-devices except the wifes Iphone I never touch & I've had a lifetime plex pass for 10+ years. You'll end up buying it, so don't sweat it. It works.

2)my plex servers are an i7-7700k using the iGPU for hardware acceleration on transcode & a i5-6600(?) using the same - it was worth the extra set-up effort for the GPU accelerated transcoding. I don't know if the all-in-one NAS boxes will do what you want, 4k & H.265 can be tricky (4k -> mobile devices or not-so-fast clients). Transcoding needs some power, either CPU or GPU. Make sure you know what codecs, compression & clients you will be using or use an overkill CPU/GPU. I've had a plex server on a Raspberry Pi 2, but it doesn't transcode.... Buying twice is a lot more expensive than buying the right thing the 1st time. Had a buddy ask me to spec out an unraid server on low-end of price spectrum that would 'do what your system will do'. i3, 4GB, I think I was using 4TB drives then. He went & bought some no-name NAS and smugly told me he didn't need all that stuff. Then shortly sold it for half of what he paid & bought my list, just upgraded the CPU & RAM.....

3) 1 plex-pass & you're good to go on all servers & clients. I have 2 unraid servers, 2 android phones, 1 iphone, 6-7 firesticks, 3 kindle fires and a partridge in a pear tree. Oh, 2 Roku TVs in mexico too. Plex has delivered many times over for the cost, if it's still $100, it's a no-brainer for a media server for ripped movies, music & ripped/DL'd TV (Ripping TV still sucks due do the file names on DVD/BR).

Once you have a plex pass, you can join other servers as a 'friend'. 0-0 tried to use mine a few years ago, but he didn't have a plexpass & I had slow internet. My current 'backup' server has good internet if you want to see what a server I haven't touched for multiple months* looks like. >2k movies, 50ish TV series, couple thousand songs. I just started a show whoever was watching last & it fired up, so it isn't dead.

*no clue how long it's been up, I don't use it unless we're travelling. The post-it note on my desk says I last brought it home for backup from my main server in October & I don't think I've logged into the Unraid management interface since. It shuts down as soon as UPS kicks over to battery, tells the UPS it's turning off, the UPS waits 10 minutes, then turns off. Once the AC comes back, the server boots. Multiple old grouchy bastards have access & haven't complained, so it's apparently been working.

I have a Synology DS916+ with WD Red drives and I love it. Setup was straight forward and it just works. It’s been running unattended in the basement for 7 years. It has an operating system GUI that looks like windows that you access locally through a web page. Plex is one of over 200 apps you can download and run on the server. You can monitor it and start and stop the services (apps) from the phone app. Dong goes over all the big points here.

You’ll want the paid Plex option Joel so you can remotely access you server as you mentioned when on vacation. It’s worth the $120 one time, but Plex usually offers it 40-50% off twice a year on 4th of July and I think Black Friday.

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:
Are you ripping 4K BluRays yet???

I needed to get one to test with before answering. Ordered a 4K/4K HDR disc set of Dune (great movie, well worth owning, IMO) which just showed up.

Good news is, my existing PC's drive does standard 4K UHD Blu-Rays just fine.

The other news is, when I put the 4K HDR disc in, the drive didn't even recognize it to try.

That said, I don't know there's enough content out there in 4K HDR to be worth getting new drive(s) at the moment, given I can do UHD.

quote:

Originally posted by snidera:
0) Try mediacentermaster for naming files & downloading metadata

Downloaded it and am playing with it now. Thanks!

quote:

Buying twice is a lot more expensive than buying the right thing the 1st time.
...
1 plex-pass & you're good to go on all servers & clients.

Sounds like a plex-pass is in my future!

quote:

My current 'backup' server has good internet if you want to see what a server I haven't touched for multiple months* looks like.

Thank you for the info and the kind offer! I hope to take you up on it once I'm plex-pass enhanced.

quote:

Originally posted by swampdog:
I have a Synology DS916+ with WD Red drives and I love it. Setup was straight forward and it just works.

You’ll want the paid Plex option Joel so you can remotely access you server as you mentioned when on vacation. It’s worth the $120 one time, but Plex usually offers it 40-50% off twice a year on 4th of July and I think Black Friday.

Thanks for the info!

I’ve got to get on the ball with a home media server setup before too long. I’ve got so much stuff on my plate right now that it may be a while. I should start by just setting aside an area in my basement where I would want to put my internet access point for a more robust router/server setup and start making plans for running some more fiber to account for the fastest possible speeds with 4K content.

OK, one month Plex Pass done.

Current thinking is:

NAS/Plex Server Box: 4-bay QNAP TS-453D-4G (Celeron/4GB, Link to QNAP product page

Discs: 4x Seagate 12TB Ironwolf Pro.

RAID setup: looking for both good read rate and decent storage efficiency. Thinking Raid 5? (losing only 1/4 to parity.)

quote:

Originally posted by joel9507:


RAID setup: looking for both good read rate and decent storage efficiency. Thinking Raid 5? (losing only 1/4 to parity.)

RAID 5 would be the most efficient use of space.
However, RAID 5 today is not generally considered a recommended redundancy level.
It really depends on how much storage space you need.
RAID 10 would yield much better performance and redundancy albeit more costly and less space efficient.

Unraid simulates RAID5 or RAID6 (? whatever is 2 parity discs). I have run unRaid's software RAID5 for 10+ years and only had 1 disk actually fail. Unraid sent me a notification, emulated the data, I ordered a new disk from Amazon, replaced the failed disk, UnRAID rebuilt the the data on the new disk & away I went. I have also replaced the parity drive & biggest data drive with larger drives at least once on the main rig & I have worst-cased the backup server to see how it would fail since all the drives were old when I installed them.
The only time I've ever lost data is when I was using JBOD (just a bunch of disks) on windows.

No downtime is the main benefit of RAID. You don't want it as your only backup for 'mission critical' data, hence my 2 UnRAID servers + cloud. If you only have 4 bays, I would not give up 2 for parity as part of the design process. That said, I'm only using 3 disks on my main UnRAID server (3x 6TB for 12TB storage) - my total data storage shrank when I upgraded the server because I compressed 2k movies....
If you are starting from new & using RAID 5 or 6, get the biggest HDDs you wallet can handle.
Parity needs to at least the biggest drive in the array for most RAID types.
HDDs get cheaper over time (maybe not now, haven't bought one in 3 or 4 years), so don't buy 24TB worth of drives for 5TB worth of data.
For estimation:
All compressed to H265, scrapping any audio & subtitles other than Eng/Esp.
My 1080P BlueRay rips are ~5GB
DVD rips are 1GB

I haven't done any 4k or 4k HDR rips, but files that I've acquired via other means have been in the 20-25GB range (H264 or H265). My 5yo is the biggest consumer of media in our house, he's not exactly a videophile yet & I don't have a great 'theater' to really take advantage. I am getting more 4k content & so far it's been a pain in the ass for playback on various clients vs the fairly bulletproof 1080p H265.
I would vet the NAS & clients well to make sure they can direct-play as much as possible. Transcoding can eat up a lot of time, power & patience.

The sweet spot for drives seems to be 14TB right now. You can get a 14TB WD Easystore from BestBuy on sale for $208. They seem to go on sale every other month. You shuck the drive and you have an unlabeled Ultrastar.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
The sweet spot for drives seems to be 14TB right now. You can get a 14TB WD Easystore from BestBuy on sale for $208. They seem to go on sale every other month. You shuck the drive and you have an unlabeled Ultrastar.

ehh, I'm always leery about doing that - you never know what drive you'll get. You might get an ultrastar or you might get a SMR Red or Green depending on the size you buy.
SMR is really bad for RAID. I got burned when WD changed /some/ Red's to SMR & created the Red Pro/Plus. I was using 4TB then & it is SLOW. swapped it for a 6TB Red Pro after about 6 months. It's still in use, it's just really damn slow when you have to write a large amount of data. When I populated the backup server, I just wrote it to 90% full with data that doesn't change too much. It lives it's life spun down most of the time & when it's active, it's usually for read or parity check.

BB shows 255 for the 14TB USB HDD, Amazon has the WD Red Pro 14TB for 260 5yr warranty vs 2.
I do agree that it looks like 14TB is the sweet spot for $/TB.

QNAP Box shows up Tuesday courtesy of Amazon, drives next Friday courtesy of Newegg. You guys convinced me to up to 4x14TB. Good call, wasn't all that much more than 4x12TB. Will see how it goes.

Meanwhile, getting the hang of MakeMKV and have RIPed 118 movies so far.

Am starting to think about network security now. As things are, I have a cable modem and a bunch of eero6s, and the PCs, phones and iPads that connect do their own thing re: security. If I do set the QNAP up to serve files remotely, I'm guessing that adds risks I'm not currently running.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: joel9507,