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Best NAS for using Plex?

  • 03-11-2014 7:01pm
    #1
    Pinkman
    Registered Users Posts: 498 ✭✭


    Hi, hope this is the correct forum. Looking into getting a NAS primarily to stream media to my Apple TV and my Samsung Smart TV. I am sick of having to connect external hard drives. Have recently started using Plex and stream to the Apple TV via the IOS app. Works great but dislike having to keep the laptop on.

    Looking at three options. The WD My Cloud, The Seagate Central Wireless and the Synology DS214Play. There is obviously a huge price difference between a 4tb My Cloud and the Synology with 4tb wd red drive (€192 compared to €524 on Amazon). What are the main difference between them in relation to streaming media? Don't know a huge amount about them other than reviews online so I would really appreciate any advice as to whether it is worth spending €250 + extra. Cheers.:)


Comments

  • #2
    CinSoots
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 216 ✭✭CinSoots


    I have the DS214play out in the shed and I use homeplugs to stream Plex. Works fine on Direct Play but the NAS isn't able to transcode with Plex so I can't really stream anything when I'm not at home unfortunately. I have 2 x 4tb drives in RAID 1 in the NAS so I have 4tb storage total.

    If I had my time and money back again I would buy the cheapest, reliable 4 bay NAS and use crashplan ($5 per month) to back it up instead of wasting disks in RAID. This way you can fill it as required so you dont need a large initial outlay on mirrored disks.

    I'd also build/buy a cheap (<€200) transcoding windows PC to hook up headless to the NAS to do all the transcoding, downloading, FTPing etc. You can use teamviewer to connect to it when required. Download manager on the synology works well but it would be so much easier to have a standalone PC doing it for you.

    Someone will say that you might as well build your own NAS as do this but then you are into a new world of messing with freenas, owncloud, Linux etc whereas Download Manager and Windows just work. Anyway, that would/is what I am trying to do now :)


  • #3
    Pinkman
    Registered Users Posts: 498 ✭✭Pinkman


    Thanks for the reply. When you say direct play do you mean with videos that are in formats not compatible with the Smart TV/Apple TV? So will any film/tv show stream via plex to my Samsung Smart TV via the Plex App considering they all play fine via my external hard drive on it? Are subtitles an issue?

    I know the Apple TV can be tricky with formats - I think only MP4 works with it? Most of my TV show are MP4 but a lot of films are AVI so presumably I won't be able to airplay those files via the Plex App. Is the Synology DS Video App able to transcode do you know? I have read you are able to airplay via the DS App so at least that would work for the non MP4 files.

    How is the DS Video App in general and does it have a resume feature like Plex so you can continue watching on a different device?

    Cheers.

    And finally do you need to use both of the bays? Considering the cost I was going to get one 3tb WD Red Drive (£87 on Amazon) and get another when that fills up.


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