NAS 4k streaming?

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marmel

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#269912 14-Apr-2020 17:17

Not sure which topic this fits into so I've gone with off topic.

I have quite a lot of 4k video, mostly of the kids etc.

I also have a lot of older DVD's I want to rip so I have the choice of watching them on numerous devices.

I am thinking of using Plex as a database, what would be a good option to store the data?

I've been thinking Synology but there is a lot of info around decode/transcode etc and its a bit confusing.

Videos will be mostly streamed to either a 4k TV or an Apple TV 4k.

I have Cat-6 throughout the house and google wifi points.

Looking for suggestions cheers.

wratterus

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#2461254 14-Apr-2020 17:22

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MfYoJkiwSqCXg8cm5-Ac4oOLPRtCkgUxU0jdj3tmMPc/edit#gid=1274624273

Check that document out.

Something like the DS918+ probably a good starting point.

Jase2985

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#2461264 14-Apr-2020 17:38

surely if your ripping them you would encode them into a format that your apple tv and TV could play natively and not need to be transcoded. that would mean most NAS units would do the trick.

marmel

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#2461268 14-Apr-2020 17:40

Jase2985:
surely if your ripping them you would encode them into a format that your apple tv and TV could play natively and not need to be transcoded. that would mean most NAS units would do the trick.

Yes I was thinking this would be the best way to do it.

TwoSeven

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#2461274 14-Apr-2020 18:03

I think Lon Seidman over on youtube does a bit with Plex and NAS devices. He recently did a video on HVEC hardware decoding I think looking at hardware transcoding.

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rb99

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#2461295 14-Apr-2020 18:31

Or Emby. MakeMKV for the DVDs.

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davidcole

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#2461296 14-Apr-2020 18:32

They’re ex dvd aren’t they? Why are we talking about 4K streaming? They’re a 576 mpeg2 source. Ripping to a mp4 would suffice for most devices to direct play.

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marmel

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#2461297 14-Apr-2020 18:33

davidcole: They’re ex dvd aren’t they? Why are we talking about 4K streaming? They’re a 576 mpeg2 source. Ripping to a mp4 would suffice for most devices to direct play.

Hi, as per original post I also have quite a lot of 4k video.

afe66

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#2461474 14-Apr-2020 22:59

My Plex Synology Home movie video experience.

I've got a synology 412+ running plex media server and a sony A1 and atv3. My network is cat6 and router/switch all 1gps even the old 412+ has 1gps Ethernet port.

Ive turned transcoding off as all files either MOV from a canon550d or mp4 (HTC Phones, HTC Re, Samsung s9+, Gopro5 black)

I had a one attempt at getting the ATV to play 1080 and it didnt work and I didn't play with it as my primary display device is the TV so was troubleshooting that. (i'll play with ATV over the next week if I have time to confirm that the old ATV isn't happy - maybe record some 4k or 1080 on an iphone 11 and see if it streams to ATV3)

Ripped DVDs using handbrake (Ubuntu) and stored on synology streams seamlessly to A1. (500Gb movies and tv episodes)

Its great to play on android tv or ATV or ipads. You can send the std def movie files / tv files to ipad for off line viewing which is great for kids on planes.

Even 2 year old understands the interface.

Has a very high wife acceptance factor and we ran plex client on the ATV for several years until we upgraded to fancy 4k tv and started using the default Netflix/youtube/Plex apps

Ive found issues with using plex over the last couple of days as I have started thinking about using plex for showing home videos for the first time as opposed to being used as a data store.

- plex client on android tv has issues with portrait views taken on my S9+ in that it cant distinguish and tries to play them in landscape view so off by 90 degrees. Recorded in landscape view its fine.

- 1080 or 720 recorded using gopro5 or HTC re are ok by default as they record in landscape mode

- android tv client will play 1080 and 4k from the gopro fine but it takes 45s of buffering before they play

- using the w10 client plays the portrait mode of phone files fine and there is no delay is playing gopro 4k (standard)

- vlc for android plays these files ok but don't have the nice interface.

So I expect the android tv client is a bit crap starting 1080 and 4k

While I realise you have ATV4k if the files play normally on ATV4k (ie without transcoding) and you have a good network, you should be fine I would have thought from a network speed point of view.

There might be issues with creation dates vrs modification dates if you haven't got the recoded dates encoded within the home video files. I think this is an issue with linux system underlying the sinology but as all my home video files have the recorded date in metadata it seems ok. (from google searching)

When you display the home video files within the plex client order the library to display by release date (like a commercial movie) rather than creation date which just lists date the file was saved on synology .

You can also use the synology for other NAS goodness of course.

(I am also to admit that my problems could be completely my own, I have tried to keep video files were recorded with standard settings ie I haven't gone chasing codec or modified recording setting to make things work)

marmel

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#2461476 14-Apr-2020 23:05

Very helpful afe66 thanks.

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#2461478 14-Apr-2020 23:19

Feel like a project during Lockdown?

Got an old PC lying around?

Re-purpose it as an unRAID server!

But seriously - if you are so inclined you might be able to do this for only the cost of the unRAID SW - and there is also a free 30 day SW trial - so you could test it for NIL$.

I have been running my unRAID server for 8 years now - has been excellent over that time. Highly recommended.

lchiu7

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#2461607 15-Apr-2020 08:40

Just to add a personal datapoint. I don't have a 4K display (though I have 4K content on UHD). I use Plex server running on a modest PC with content on local drives. For the player I use an Odroid C2 running Kodi.

Anyway I came across some 4K content encoded as HECV which is apparently quite CPU intensive to decode. I tried playing on my Odroid and it was too jerky etc. to be playable. Turned out Plex was trying to transcode it to 1080P. Plex recently released an update to turn off transcoding on the server (a highly requested feature over a number of years) and when I turned it off, the 4K stream went down directly to the Odroid and it played it fine. And this content also had a Dolby Atmos audio track which also decoded fine.

So I presume (but can't test) that if I had 4K display it would be fine also since the step for the Odroid to downscale the image to 1080P for my display would be eliminated. So the PC and the GbE connection for the content are perfectly fine for 4K content.

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marmel

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#2461609 15-Apr-2020 08:44

lchiu7:
Just to add a personal datapoint. I don't have a 4K display (though I have 4K content on UHD). I use Plex server running on a modest PC with content on local drives. For the player I use an Odroid C2 running Kodi.

Anyway I came across some 4K content encoded as HECV which is apparently quite CPU intensive to decode. I tried playing on my Odroid and it was too jerky etc. to be playable. Turned out Plex was trying to transcode it to 1080P. Plex recently released an update to turn off transcoding on the server (a highly requested feature over a number of years) and when I turned it off, the 4K stream went down directly to the Odroid and it played it fine. And this content also had a Dolby Atmos audio track which also decoded fine.

So I presume (but can't test) that if I had 4K display it would be fine also since the step for the Odroid to downscale the image to 1080P for my display would be eliminated. So the PC and the GbE connection for the content are perfectly fine for 4K content.

Yes thats the impression I get, if you can avoid the need for transcoding then a much more modest setup would be fine. I do have an old Fritzbox in the garage, I wonder if I could set it up as an access point on have an external drive attached that might suffice?

TwoSeven

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#2462096 15-Apr-2020 18:23

afe66:

My Plex Synology Home movie video experience.

I've got a synology 412+ running plex media server and a sony A1 and atv3. My network is cat6 and router/switch all 1gps even the old 412+ has 1gps Ethernet port.

I thought the DS412+ supports transcoding only to 720p. Not sure if it is s/ or h/w decoding though.

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