Hello.
There are currently 2 hard drives attached to my internet box and Plex is installed on my PC.
In order to be able to play data via PS4 or TV Box, my PC must always be switched on.
Is there a way to install Plex on the Internet box so that my PC is no longer necessary or to set up Plex on the TV box so that it recognizes the films on the “NAS”?
greeting
You cannot install the Plex Media Server on the Internet box. If you don’t want to leave your PC running 24/7, you have the following option: [https://support.plex.tv/articles/201889756-cloud-sync-overview/](https://support.plex.tv/articles /201889756-cloud-sync-overview/)
A purely local, easy-to-maintain solution without a Plex pass is to place the PLEX server on a small Synology Disk Station, e.g. DS 115 or DS116, which will cost you CHF 200-300 including a 2-4 GB hard disk.
As long as you don’t have any videos that need to be downscaled (i.e. UHD to HD etc.), it works perfectly with a small syno.
However, you have to be careful with the latest small Syno models DS118, etc., as there are currently no PLEX server packages that are compatible with the newly used processor.
A real NAS would of course have many other advantages over the HDs on the IB, but it’s not just an either/or question, it can also be an “and”.
In any case, a real NAS is the predestined platform for a media server.
Hobby-Nerd ohne wirtschaftliche Abhängigkeiten zur Swisscom
If you are looking for a really cheap solution: The DS115j with an already installed 4GB disk currently costs CHF 241 at the largest CH online retailer, for example, and is the smallest possible PLEX media server in terms of processor equipment.
It’s not the newest and fastest model, but you can still outshine HDs connected via USB by at least a factor of 3 in terms of speed, and you can use it alongside many other useful software packages (such as Cloud Station, which you can access using With the PC program Cloud Station Backup realtime you can mirror your changed PC documents onto the disk station) you can also install a PLEX server as a package, which can support direct play and direct streaming for any PLEX clients (including the.) without any problems UHD box).
What is not supported is video transcoding, which only runs on powerful processors, but as already mentioned, you don’t need it for normal use (e.g. for streaming to the TV-Box).
If you still have a video like that, you can still start up the PLEX server on the PC, as you can easily operate several PLEX servers in the same network.
So to sum up: For little money you get a lot of performance from a small disk station.
Looking back, investing in NAS is actually one of my best purchasing decisions in recent years.
Hobby-Nerd ohne wirtschaftliche Abhängigkeiten zur Swisscom
sounds good. I assume you mean the: https://www.toppreise.ch/prod_363499.html with 4TB and not 4GB 😉
I would like to consider this and get something like this when I get the chance. is probably more energy efficient in the long run than leaving the PC running.
According to https://support.plex.tv/articles/201373823-nas-devices-and-limitations
Are these the compatible NAS manufacturers:
Asustor (Intel)
Drobo (ARM)
Netgear ReadyNAS (Intel, ARM)
QNAP (Intel, ARM)
Seagate (Intel, ARM)
Synology (Intel, ARM)
TerraMaster (Intel)
unRAID (Intel)
Western Digital MyCloud
Can you possibly say something about that? So regarding price/performance.
Unfortunately I don’t know enough about it.
On the one hand, I don’t want to spend a fortune, but on the other hand, I don’t want to have to load the film for 10 minutes every time so that it runs smoothly.
With my PC it works smoothly and quickly. In addition, everything is connected via LAN.
And as I said, the films are on HDDs on the IB; That’s why Plex still takes a bit of a detour from the PC or you have the bottleneck due to the USB transmission.
Greetings and thanks in advance.
The 2-bay NAS makes sense if you want to process original data with a mirrored disk in a raid group directly on the disk station.
The mirrored disk then protects you against a disk crash, as in the raid network you automatically always have duplicates of all data on the disk station.
If the main purpose is a media server, a 2-bay NAS only brings higher costs, more noise, more energy consumption and more space requirements, but apart from the fact that you can use even more storage (if you dismantle the RAID network), there is actually no additional benefit.
In order to additionally secure the videos on the NAS, which are then automatically only saved on one hard disk and not automatically mirrored twice in parallel on two hard disks, you can still drag a copy of them to an HDD connected via USB.
Personally, I have very good experience with a DS116, which I have been using as a PLEX server with 4TB WD-Red storage for a long time.
The DS116 has a lot of power and is very suitable for video streaming, even demo UHD videos with bit rates of 90 MBit/sec are transferred smoothly to the Smart TV using the PLEX server via LAN cable.
Unfortunately, the DS116 is already pretty much sold out (at the moment I have only found a few offers with 8TB WD-Red storage online) and the direct successor, the DS118, is not suitable for PLEX until further notice because the new processor is not compatible There will be no PLEX package for this in the foreseeable future.
If you want to tackle the topic now, I see 2 options for you:
- You take the DS115j with 4TB for only CHF 241 as an entry-level model and consider the whole thing a real bargain
- You grab one of the few available, much more powerful DS116 with 8TB for CHF 469
I’ve had the DS116 for almost 2 years now and I’ve never reached a performance limit with it.
For me this is a great device that surprised me very positively. The read/write performance in the connection to the PCs in the LAN is also close to the gigabit LAN speed. When making backups from the PC, the DS116 normally shovels around 110 - 115 MegaBytes/sec. and this is very consistent over a long period of time.
As a more modest Sparvariante, the DS115j would definitely fulfill your primary purpose, perhaps just much closer to the performance limit.
And as an addendum: I had two PLEX servers in my network in parallel for a while, one on a high-end Windows i7 PC and the other on the DS116. After a few weeks I uninstalled the Windows server because the PLEX server on the DS116 was absolutely on par (apart from the lack of transcoding option) and I therefore no longer saw any point in running two Plex servers in parallel.
Hobby-Nerd ohne wirtschaftliche Abhängigkeiten zur Swisscom
I have been using and operating a larger Plex server for many years and cannot agree with what has been said here. Before my current server, I was using a Synology 415 play and was not at all satisfied with the performance it offered. With a Chromecast, for example, direct play is hit or miss. Does the Swisscom TV support direct play with subtitles displayed?
My tip if you want it to be cheap:
Get a used Mac Mini with at least an i5 CPU. Then the part doesn’t lie flat straight away when it needs to transcode something (happens more often than you think). If you still want to share your media server with friends and family, you can forget about the NAS anyway…
Another tip, I got nVidia Shiel, it transcodes 2-3 streams silently without any problems.
I use it as a server and client and am absolutely satisfied.
Since only the 16GB version is available in CH, I had to buy a 128GB stick so that there was enough space for transcoding.
At first I wanted to get a Mac Mini, but that thing is already a few years old and I don’t know how long it can handle MacOS updates.
@slices@“x”#23065
The thing is, neither a Mac Mini nor an nvidia shield currently fit my budget. I also have 2 laptops (hp envy dv6 & hp pavilion g6) on hand which I could also use for this. But they would then also have to be in constant operation again.
From that point of view, @Werner’s version actually sounds better and more suitable to me.
A NAS would be useful for me one way or another (especially in terms of backup and possibly as an archive) and if a large part of my films could be played well on it, that would of course be non plus ultra… ^^
Actually, I could simply attach the HDD to the PS4, but unfortunately since Sony doesn’t program it very intelligently, many file formats cannot be played at all - and the connection to the HDD on the IB is not as “practical” and user-friendly as with Plex. You also have to create the lib on the disk accordingly, otherwise it won’t recognize the folders. (unless I’m doing something wrong)
Hanging the HDD on the TV box is also not a good solution because the box also has problems with the file formats (so far it hasn’t been possible for me to play something like that).
I also still have Mycloud from Swisscom. But the TV box can’t play everything. In addition, it would take forever to upload the films to the cloud.
Before Plex, I simply did it this way: I connected the HP pavilion g6 to the TV via HDMI and then accessed the HDD on the IB via the network drive and played the films that way.
You see, there are various solutions (even without a real NAS); But none of them make me really happy 😉 (#firstworldproblems)
As you rightly write, there are many paths to personal “video streaming happiness”.
And of course I don’t want to spoil anyone’s enjoyment of their existing solution, regardless of the hardware.
The main advantage of the NAS solution is actually: Even if you found in practice that a Synology wouldn’t meet your PLEX streaming needs in the worst case scenario, you would still have a very good NAS with many possible applications.
In my opinion, a NAS can never be a bad investment at the current price level.
By the way, you can still reduce the price I mentioned for the DS116 if you can buy an empty case or a model with a smaller disk somewhere (8 TB is rather too much for you, and I had around CHF330 for the DS116 with 4TB at the time paid). Maybe you should also look internationally.
If Synology, I would assume that you would enjoy the DS116 more sustainably and for longer than a DS115j, and the risk that you would still have to start the PLEX server on a PC would be further reduced.
Hobby-Nerd ohne wirtschaftliche Abhängigkeiten zur Swisscom
Hello, I have a question for you. I have a QNAP 251 and a PLEX server installed including films and music. Now I would like to integrate TV channels. I use the TV box from Swiscom including Teleclub. What do I have to do to include this in the Plex so that it can be watched on all TV devices and can also send TV. Is that even possible??? Thank you for an answer and your support. Fredy
