@schwizerbueb

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.

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.

@schwizerbueb

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.

So I have the DS116 and the Plex Media Server from the Synology Store, but transcoding, no chance.

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

@Fredi1

In my opinion, Swisscom TV cannot be streamed with PLEX.

Hello @Fredi1

In my opinion, what you want doesn’t work with the Plexserver.

But if you want to watch SwisscomTV on a mobile phone, tablet or notebook, then just use the SwisscomTV Air app 😉

This means you can also watch your Swisscom content on some devices (iOS, Android, PC/MAC browser).

Greetings

Thanks, I just heard that Swisscom can also be integrated into the Live TV & DVR menu on Plex. But I just read it and it will be like that if you say so. I think you probably understand more about it than I do, thank you.

thank you for the report. I’d be happy to, but I think if you haven’t found one then there won’t be any.

@Fredi1

Hier die playlists, good luck;-):

https://www.regardtv.net/t6105-flux-iptv-swisscom