What’s your media server setup?

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › What’s your media server setup?

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#2505024 15-Jun-2020 13:46

lxsw20:

HP Microserver running VMware, then Plex sits on a Windows VM. I hope to move it to Docker soon, it will be a good experiment.

Docker runing under vmware, or on the baremetal?

I had a docker container running under a virtualised linux....it was ok, but put it back on my windows baremetal as it can access my video card gpu.

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#2505025 15-Jun-2020 13:53

Probably on a linux vm for a start, server hasn't got a graphics card anyway.

Aborto

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#2505083 15-Jun-2020 14:49

Currently 4 x 8TB drives in a 4 bay NAS, needing to make the move to larger drives soon so Ill be moving to a bigger nas and adding another 4 x 16TB.

Server is a 2700X/1050ti doing double duty as the HTPC and running Emby server. Playback is done mainly with Emby Theatre software on the same PC, but MPC-HC+MadVR is used for some HDR content.

lchiu7

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#2505116 15-Jun-2020 15:49

Dugimodo:

Maybe I'm unusual but I've never found any use for media servers, have tried plex, kodi, and a couple other options but in the end for me it just seems to add an unnecessary front end to what I can already do with ordinary file sharing.

The huge advantages of a media server is

- automatic generation of metadata - so you don't to have to use folders etc. and download album art. Makes the navigation so much nicer and increases the WAF

- if you need it, automatic transcoding of content that your client can't play but can be transcoded to a format it can. I must admit I don't do that but it's a nice feature for some.

For example (and this isn't mine - just some random image I found)

A user only needs a remote control that does up/down/left/right/back and that's all they need.

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#2505172 15-Jun-2020 16:26

Yeah I know, I have tried them as I said. Just not for me.

I don't care about meta data or album art, and a mouse and keyboard gives superior control seeing as I'm using a PC anyway. And with a file browser I can see more files at once, quickly and easily sort by date or title etc. Media servers work, so does a file browser and network sharing.

This sort of pretty front end is wonderful when I'm browsing something like Netflix looking for a movie to watch. But for my own collection I don't need it. For music particularly all I need is to be able to find the album I'm looking for, and a file browser is more efficient at that than any of these options.

I know a lot of people use and love media servers, all I'm saying is that I personally never found any use for it.

Quite frankly setting them up and getting it all working just seemed like work to me and you do need to use folders at least to the extent that plex needs to know where your media is kept and you need to put any new content there so it will recognise it. For my simple setup I can put files anywhere I want and still play them.

So I have a server (NAS), and a large media collection I play on several devices, and there's no media server to be found. and I'm perfectly happy with it.

lookout

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#2505183 15-Jun-2020 16:51

Thanks for all the replies. It's cool to read what everyone is doing.

I spent the weekend trying out a few things. Open Media Vault was easy enough to install but getting apps but Docker is pretty complex. I couldn't get my NAS to mount or point Plex to the right folders. Next I tried Ubuntu which was easy enough - I got Plex running. Then I couldn't figure out how to Remote Desktop from a Mac.

Finally, I gave in and went back to the comfort zone - Windows 10 Pro. Did a clean install and removed all unnecessary apps. Easy to get Plex, Sonarr, Radarr and QBitorrent running. Easy remote access from Mac or PC. For music I've setup a Plex music library and I'm trialling the 'Prism' iOS app. Plex apps on the Apple TV and iPads. I was happy to see the iOS and tvOS Plex app direct plays everything so no transcoding. So far, very happy with this setup.

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Loismustdye

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#2505310 15-Jun-2020 19:10

I’ve got an old Lenovo desktop I picked up off trademe as a plex server.

its an old i5 3470 with 8gb ram and an ssd for Windows. Just got a couple external USB 3 drives running off it for storage.

although I would like to pick up a mini PC at some stage to replace it with that just to save on the room in the Tv cabinet.

have plex running on the OLED in the same room along with an iPad and two Apple TV’s throughout the house.

Intravix

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#2505315 15-Jun-2020 19:26

Two old HP 6300 SFF desktops (i7 2600 24GB, i5 3xxx 16GB) running VMware ESXi.
Docker VM running Plex, Sonarr, Radarr etc.
Synology Diskstation RS2414+ (3x 4TB WD RED)
Samsung 55" 4K RU7100 (only 4K device)

Looking at building a new gaming rig (probably Ryzen). Was considering virtualizing my desktop in ESXi and dual-purposing it as my main compute as well with a second GPU for Plex. Have to reboot my Plex container every time I want to play 4K and sometimes 1080P, then it's OK for a while. But I'm aware it's not the ideal setup (in Docker, old CPU, no GPU) and usually play < 1080P.

Currently can't access any of it as my PFSense box died. Need to decide what to do, my Palo Alto firewall is way too power hungry, so may set up some PFsense VMs in HA for fun.

sm1ff

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#2505316 15-Jun-2020 19:33

Dugimodo:
Yeah I know, I have tried them as I said. Just not for me.

I don't care about meta data or album art, and a mouse and keyboard gives superior control seeing as I'm using a PC anyway. And with a file browser I can see more files at once, quickly and easily sort by date or title etc. Media servers work, so does a file browser and network sharing.

This sort of pretty front end is wonderful when I'm browsing something like Netflix looking for a movie to watch. But for my own collection I don't need it. For music particularly all I need is to be able to find the album I'm looking for, and a file browser is more efficient at that than any of these options.

I know a lot of people use and love media servers, all I'm saying is that I personally never found any use for it.

Quite frankly setting them up and getting it all working just seemed like work to me and you do need to use folders at least to the extent that plex needs to know where your media is kept and you need to put any new content there so it will recognise it. For my simple setup I can put files anywhere I want and still play them.

So I have a server (NAS), and a large media collection I play on several devices, and there's no media server to be found. and I'm perfectly happy with it.

I use a media server because I was transferring the video to external drive and connected it to tv and play it from that. Plex is perfect for my needs and other family members also sometimes uses it. I also can get uncompressed dolby true hd/ dts hd ma/dts x too. Its absolutely wonderful

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2505317 15-Jun-2020 19:33

lchiu7:

The huge advantages of a media server is

- automatic generation of metadata - so you don't to have to use folders etc. and download album art. Makes the navigation so much nicer and increases the WAF

I'd list this as a disadvantage. Kodi seems to make a mess of things.

Dunnersfella

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#2505320 15-Jun-2020 19:49

Senecio:

I've repurposed an old 2011 Mac mini with a couple of 2TB Firewire 800 external drives attached. Running Plex media server to a variety of different clients around the house. One ATV 4K and two Nvidia Shields. It does everything that I need it to.

Samesies!

But I have a single 4TB Firwire driver...

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#2505347 15-Jun-2020 20:39

Mine is just the TV itself .. Android powered so it has apps installed for Netflix, Plex, Disney, Amazon Prime and a heap of others I don't use. Home media is then served by a Plex media server + NAS.

everettpsycho

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#2505406 15-Jun-2020 21:16

Loismustdye:
I’ve got an old Lenovo desktop I picked up off trademe as a plex server.

its an old i5 3470 with 8gb ram and an ssd for Windows. Just got a couple external USB 3 drives running off it for storage.

although I would like to pick up a mini PC at some stage to replace it with that just to save on the room in the Tv cabinet.

have plex running on the OLED in the same room along with an iPad and two Apple TV’s throughout the house.

I pretty much have the same. Picked up an old Dell optiplex with a i5 4570 and 10gb of ram. Stick a small 120gb SSD in to hold Windows and Plex server then swapped the old 500gb drive for a 4tb one.

We don't tend to use it much so I just leave it asleep with wol set up. I did stick a TV card in it but when we moved house I don't have an aerial socket spare at the moment, need to find out which one in the splitter is unused and run it straight in to the pc in that's sat next to it.

stocksp

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#2505508 15-Jun-2020 22:33

Dunnersfella:

Senecio:

I've repurposed an old 2011 Mac mini with a couple of 2TB Firewire 800 external drives attached. Running Plex media server to a variety of different clients around the house. One ATV 4K and two Nvidia Shields. It does everything that I need it to.

Samesies!

But I have a single 4TB Firwire driver...

same here but with an 8 tb drive with a 6 tb providing backup. Keep thinking I should get a RAID NAS

stocksp

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#2505509 15-Jun-2020 22:33

Dunnersfella:

Senecio:

I've repurposed an old 2011 Mac mini with a couple of 2TB Firewire 800 external drives attached. Running Plex media server to a variety of different clients around the house. One ATV 4K and two Nvidia Shields. It does everything that I need it to.

Samesies!

But I have a single 4TB Firwire driver...

same here but with an 8 tb drive with a 6 tb providing backup. Keep thinking I should get a RAID NAS

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