PLEX... anyone?

Does anyone have a Plex setup?. Maybe we can discuss Plex setups here as I’m fairly new to Plex and can use some ideas about various setups.

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Reserved for OP.

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I am much more familiar with plex’s competitor emby - but what set up are you talking about actual software setup or storage setup or just general information?

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Software and storage… I never heard of emby… I’ll Google and read up on it.

As far as plex go I’m pretty much all in, but I had issues streaming 4k movies. I’ve since ordered a new PC with the speed to transcode 4k on the fly. I’m also setting up a nas as we speak.

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I’ve toyed with it a bit but I only know enough to be dangerous. I’m more of a Kodi person myself.

You’ll need a pretty fast Internet connection to stream 4K (I think).

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I think I got the at covered… 250 Megabit internet. My home network is 1 gigabit. I’ve seen 4k movies stream at 40 megabytes per second, I think I’ll be good as far as networking though.

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Shut up! Who is your provider?

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Wow, I would kill for half that speed. I use unraid as it is pretty simple to set up and maintain. Not sure how much storage you are going to run with but I can give you a few tips there.

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Comcast aka Xfinity

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Just now:

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I just bought a Synology NAS 418play and loaded it with 4x8tb Seagate Ironwolfs NAS HDD. I plan on using it for my plex server. They have a software based raid hybrid called SHR. After setup I have 21+ TB storage space…

What is unraid…

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Unraid is a cut down unix based nas - it uses software raid.

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@Pro_Vapes you just hit the nail on the head. You have to have enough speed (and RAM at times) to be able to decode realtime. As you stated, you’ll know when you haven’t spent enough LOL.

I have a Synology NAS and you can Plex and/or Disk Station. More is typically better with NAS’s (most of the time), so don’t be afraid to not cheap out.

Plex is free, but you’ve also got the Plex Pass option. What’s the diff ??

One thing you MUST figure out AHEAD of time, is where you purchased your media. If it’s iTunes, you will probably have problems with Plex and DS due to the DRM (I’m an Android PC guy).

Don’t mean to side step your software questions, but the hardware questions are almost MORE important before you decide on what version software to stream. Just my .02.

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**This is due in tommorow… **

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Nice, ok, so you are using the PC as a NAS ? Dedicated NAS ?? What media are you planning on streaming, how often, and how much total ?

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I plan on a lot of 4k encoding and some plex transcoding. The NAS is strictly for storage as I read they can’t handle transcoding 4k…

The PC will be my dedicated NAS server.

Oops… SORRY… Edit

The PC will be my dedicated Plex server.

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If you buy one of the better ones, you can do it all, and with multi bay, hot-swappable drives, that you can setup in multiple RAID types.

It depends how you want to attack it. I use my PC’s and laptops for other things, so for me, it was worth buying a Synology 918. Dedicated box, and it’s got around 56 TB top storage depending how you array the drives.

  • 4GB DDR3L-1866 memory, expandable up to 8GB; Scalable up to 9 drives with Synology DX517
  • Quad-core processor with AES-NI hardware encryption engine; Dual 1GbE LAN with failover and Link Aggregation support
  • Encrypted sequential throughput at over 225 MB/s reading and 221 MB/s writing
  • Advanced file system offering 65,000 system-wide snapshots and 1,024 snapshots per shared folder
  • Dual-channel H.265/H.264 4K video transcoding on the fly. Operating temperature: 5°C to 40°C (40°F to 104°F).Maximum Internal Raw Capacity: 56 TB (14 TB drive x 4) (Capacity may vary by RAID types)
  • Compatibility: HDD/SSD, IP Camera, Surveillance Devices, Router, Network Card, Other Devices

Now if I’m streaming native files at 4K to say our 4K tv’s easy peasy. If it has to transcode then I think it drops to 1080P. It get can confusing, all the file formats, devices, etc., but the general rule is, get the fastest processor and as much RAM as you can. The quad I’m running, with the upgraded RAM, hasn’t let me down yet. For me, having it doing it dedicated, leaves my other devices free.

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@Pro_Vapes I totally missed this ^^^. Let me know what you think of it.

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Please stop!! I can only orgasm so many times. :woozy_face:

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Got it…love it. My husband is the nerd though. I just get to ask him for something or log in and type it in, so my part is very basic and simple. He does have our immediate family all networked in though, including my son who is stationed in NY, so it’s nice for him to still be able to access it.

If you need any specific help I can pass your email addy on to my loving nerd though…lol. If he can even help, you may be more advanced than him with it already.

Just let me know…

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