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+--- Thread: Plex NAS advice please? (/showthread.php?tid=1193)
Plex NAS advice please? - irf - 05-01-2020
Hi all. I'm new here, so I'm sorry if I do or say anything silly!
I have a small home network with a Synology DS-213j serving home/office needs and Plex. It's very nearly full so I want a second NAS, to use solely for Plex. I will then use the 213j for home/office duties only, with the two current 2TB drives mirrored.
So what can people recommend please? I'm not wedded to Synology, and I find their interface a bit clunky/inflexible to be honest. However this could be different for a modern system.
I'd ideally like a 4-bay NAS, and would start with a single 8TB drive possibly. Reliability and quality for me are most important. I would expect no more than 3 Plex users at a time to be using the NAS, at anything between 720-4k, more or less always on a TV. My maximum budget would be £1000 all-in, though I'd hope to spend less if I can.
Thanks in advance for any pointers...
irf
Plex NAS advice please? - ed - 05-03-2020
Plex is a very demanding app. Transcoding Plex might require very powerful CPU like i7 (TVS-882 or TVS-872T). Or at lest model like TS-673 with a GPU card added manually.If transcoding is not needed (subtitles activates transcoding), the DS918+ should cope with this as well as TVS-673e.I hope this helps.
Plex NAS advice please? - irf - 05-03-2020
Thanks for your response Admin!I've just been browsing the nascompares.com site and seen your handy article/video on NAS with HDMI. Then I realised another requirement for me is HDMI, because the TV directly above where the NAS will sit isn't a smart one - it's a 50" plasma (with a very nice picture), but without the smart capabilities of my main TV. So I thought maybe getting a NAS with HDMI would be a good thing so that family members can watch movies on this second TV rather than the main one. And a remote would be more or less essential for me, having seen your article.I've also realised that maybe a 4-bay NAS isn't necessary and maybe 2-bay would be fine with a couple of big drives, but I'm not set on either now.Given that, which HDMI equipped NAS would you recommend for Plex use? How do you think I would get on with the QNAP TS-453Be or the TS-453B or the TS-251D? I'm fosusing on QNAP because I'm an Android sort of person, not IOS, and because I want HDMI connectivity with a decent control system.Thanks again...irf
RE: Plex NAS advice please? - ed - 09-23-2022
Plex lately have been removed from HDMI access. I would recommend getting an HDMI Android TV, Firestick or similar dongle. This will turn your TV into a smart TV.
QNAP TS-453Be or the TS-453B or the TS-251D are all Celeron-based models. This makes them a good choice for multimedia.
I hope this helps.