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  #2415630 10-Feb-2020 16:57
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Gilco2:

 

I say Synology. Had WHS2011 then UNraid and Asustor. Asustor was unreliable over time and eventually moved to a Synology DS418play and havent looked back. So far rock solid and Plex Server does support live TV and TV TUner recording which I use a bit. The tv tuner I have is HDHomerun and has been flawless.  I store videos and my home files on it 

 

I must find out how you made that work. Couldn't see an option on Plex on my Synology when I set it up. Perhaps I'd better revisit it 🙂




davidcole
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  #2415659 10-Feb-2020 17:26
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allan:

Gilco2:


I say Synology. Had WHS2011 then UNraid and Asustor. Asustor was unreliable over time and eventually moved to a Synology DS418play and havent looked back. So far rock solid and Plex Server does support live TV and TV TUner recording which I use a bit. The tv tuner I have is HDHomerun and has been flawless.  I store videos and my home files on it 


I must find out how you made that work. Couldn't see an option on Plex on my Synology when I set it up. Perhaps I'd better revisit it 🙂



Might be a Plex pass (pay) option




Previously known as psycik

Home Assistant: Gigabyte AMD A8 Brix, Home Assistant with Aeotech ZWave Controller, Raspberry PI, Wemos D1 Mini, Zwave, Shelly Humidity and Temperature sensors
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decibel
316 posts

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  #2415697 10-Feb-2020 19:59
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If you have some spare hardware, you can build your own.   https://www.xigmanas.com/

 

 

 

 




Gilco2
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  #2415850 11-Feb-2020 07:50
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allan:

 

Gilco2:

 

I say Synology. Had WHS2011 then UNraid and Asustor. Asustor was unreliable over time and eventually moved to a Synology DS418play and havent looked back. So far rock solid and Plex Server does support live TV and TV TUner recording which I use a bit. The tv tuner I have is HDHomerun and has been flawless.  I store videos and my home files on it 

 

I must find out how you made that work. Couldn't see an option on Plex on my Synology when I set it up. Perhaps I'd better revisit it 🙂

 

Hi, You have to have Plex Pass for it to be available. Its not perfect layout but works for my needs


dklong
167 posts

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  #2415854 11-Feb-2020 08:00
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+1 for the Synology DS418play. Has been a very reliable and flexible solution for me, and very easy to configure/use. 

 

I would suggest the 4xx over a 2xx as I always end up using more disk space once its there than I expected. You can start with just 2 disks mirrored  and move up to 4 disks RAID5 over time as your requirements increase. The Synology Hybrid RAID also lets you mix different sized disks as you upgrade. it costs a couple of hundred $ more to start with but saves replacing the unit down the line.

 

Plex runs well on this unit... though I believe it only supports 2 concurrent transcoding streams. Not an issue for my setup but might be for some.

 

You should think of a modern NAS as a small, pre-configured server with a slightly limited set of additional packages that you can install on them. This can include mail servers, DNS Servers, web servers and many others.

 

As an example, I run a CALDAV server which allows my desktops and phone to share a common calendar. I also bought a cheaper Synology NAS located at a mates place and use the Synology Cloud Station software to backup up personal files to it as an off-site backup. I don't bother with backing up recorded TV or ripped DVDs off-site but definitely wanted family photos etc to be recoverable if something disastrous happened. There are also options to back up to various Cloud storage providers.

 

Also... I need to say that the performance over a Gigabit LAN with a four disk RAID has been excellent. I regularly move media files across the network and consistently see around 110 MBps reading or writing to the Synology.  All in all one very happy customer! :-)


jonathan18
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  #2415875 11-Feb-2020 09:00
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I don't think it's always necessary to go with a four-bay NAS, as it'll depend heavily on what you use it for; I've managed fine for years with a two-bay NAS, and at this stage I'm planning on replacing it with the same. I know that needs can grow over time, but in my case it's actually dropped given the move towards streaming movies and TV programmes vs having them stored locally (I only have 2GB drives in it, and there's currently plenty of free space!).

 

In the OP's case, however, that may make sense given he wants to also store camera footage.

 

But, yeah, I'd agree with some of the posts above that the OP is better to stick to an off-the-shelf NAS, not build his own; also, to select a brand that's got a reputation for being easy to use and set up. I also was a newbie when I bought my current Netgear NAS, and it was (and remains!) a dog...

 

I'm at the same position of determining which NAS I will buy next; I'd been waiting for Synology to release a new version of the DS218, which has apparently been a long time in coming, but perhaps it's just not worth waiting?

 

Also, my thoughts had been to get the 218+ over the 218play, given the Intel processor, double the RAM etc - is it worth that additional cost?


phrozenpenguin
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  #2415896 11-Feb-2020 09:29
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Reanalyse:

 

Do you have spare Raspberry Pi -have a look at https://www.instructables.com/id/PiNAS-the-Raspberry-Pi-NAS/

 

I suggest you do not consider this unless you just want a learning experience and proof of concept. The Pi does not have decent ethernet or drive capability, and microSD cards are not reliable for OS long term.


 
 
 

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).
JimmyH
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  #2424424 20-Feb-2020 10:55
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Plex is good. It’s not just about fancy art/metadata, although that’s a pretty attractive benefit. It’s also about easy navigation, keeping track of what has been watched, letting you resume play in a different room, and parental controls for kids etc. Emby and Jellyfin are also alternatives that are worth looking at*.

 

Your 40-50 movies is next to nothing in terms of storage space. Most Plex users would consider that to be a *tiny* library, and in the Plex forums you will see people with more than 10,000 films discussing setups. Unless you are looking at uncompressed 4K remixes or blu ray rips, you are probably talking 5-8GB each (say 400GB in total). A few thousand photos, likewise, takes up comparatively little space given the size of hard drives these days.

 

A cheap 2-Bay NAS will run you to about $250. Throw in 2 4TB NAS-rated drives in RAID1, at about $250 each, and also add an external 4TB USB drive for backup. More space than you have indicated you will need and at about your stated budget.

 

Personally, I recommend going with a minimum of a 4-Bay, with 8TB drives in RAID5. Purely to provide room to grow, on the basis that storage needs *always* tends to grow over time. I never thought I would fill my NAS (8-bay, RAID6, 6TB drives). But it’s now close to full with only one empty bay left, and I’m pricing a replacement for next year).

 

My Tip #1 – use decent media players (eg Apple TV, Chromecast Ultra, or nVidia Shield). Using media players that can play most media types without requiring the NAS to transcode mean that you can go cheaper on the NAS.

 

My Tip #2 – connect media clients to the NAS using wired connections (Ethernet or Ethernet-over-powerline) wherever possible. WiFi can be a bit flaky for streaming, especially for HD video in a decent sized house.

 

My Tip #3 – make backups of anything you can’t easily replace (eg family photos). NASes with RAID are fault tolerant and can survive a drive failure. But RAID is about fault tolerance and uptime. It IS NOT the same thing as having a backup. 

 

(* I use Plex and for many years loved it. Lately changes being made to Plex are irritating me more and more. I’m planning to trial a move to Emby or Jellyfin next year when I upgrade my NAS)


Rincey
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  #2425567 22-Feb-2020 18:58
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Anyone played with Jellyfin? Basically FOSS version of Plex.


Ge0rge
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  #2425602 22-Feb-2020 21:02
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Rincey:

Anyone played with Jellyfin? Basically FOSS version of Plex.



I have Jellyfin running on an Unraid server and an OpenMedia Vault server - both in Docker containers. They serve to a mixture of RPi, PC, Android tablets and phones - all on local networks. Only having ADSL means I don't have the upload to stream outside of home.

I find it works very well - basically does what it says on the label, with good WAF as well - always a bonus!

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