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I need more files to have the .rear end file extension  
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May 2, 2016 21:00
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The primary case for Plex is that while you may have a primary setup with good receiver and a 7.2 setup as well as mobile devices all with diverse hardware support for video and audio (whose hardware decoders almost never support DTS-TrueHD or whatever for audio or, say, high profile h.264 encoded content). Even if you don't have a smart phone, you may have another TV though that does not have a receiver - say, a kitchen or bedroom TV. There are maybe a handful of TVs in existence that will natively decode even AC3 let alone DTS because the presumption is that if you want that, you probably aren't going to settle for the cheap, tiny speakers that TVs come with and will likely spring for either a high end sound bar that does the decoding or a receiver. You can try to keep re-encoding your media library to match your common denominator in hardware support across your devices while carefully planning out and crossing fingers forever.... or you can just transcode on the server.
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May 2, 2016 21:03
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Shaocaholica posted:AFAIK, Kodi which is not a device but is kind of like one after the initial setup. And it works perfectly on a Raspberry!
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May 2, 2016 21:08
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eightysixed posted:I need more files to have the .rear end file extension Watch more anime.  Or other foreign shows...
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May 2, 2016 21:36
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Plus plex still sends the native file if the device supports it.
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May 2, 2016 21:44
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There's also the case of the old/weird [wmv, mov, xvid, ...] and future [h265/vp(8)(9)/eventually AOmedia] sources that even if they are supported client side you maybe want a h264 stream for the hardware decoding to save battery. Transcoding was a bigger deal when devices only supported very specific codecs/containers, and there was less standardization around h264. Most of the time yeah, you'll just be streaming the native file. But it's still a nice-to-have for future proofing, the aforementioned audio stuff, and just to not have to worry about it.
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May 2, 2016 22:28
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So a Plex server nas is going to be some desktop PC based thing right?
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May 3, 2016 02:24
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Shaocaholica posted:So a Plex server nas is going to be some desktop PC based thing right? e; also thanks guys for the transcode info--I have it enabled on my setup because why not, but I was legitimately curious as to where others had run into limitations.
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May 3, 2016 02:32
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Shaocaholica posted:So a Plex server nas is going to be some desktop PC based thing right? Depends on what you're putting it on. It supports a number of NAS solutions as a plugin. Just install it, point it to your media folder and it'll start serving it up. There are OS specific versions as well. I have it as a FreeNAS plugin and it just coexists there.
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May 3, 2016 02:33
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I have not been following closely so I don't know if it was mentioned, but I moved from Plex to Emby, so check that out as well. If you use Kodi, it's great because it can integrate with it seamlessly.
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May 3, 2016 02:49
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I'm putting together a small file/plex server to move things away from my main computer. Should anything here be an issue for that? PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant CPU: Intel Pentium G3258 3.2GHz Dual-Core Processor ($49.99 @ Micro Center) CPU Cooler: CRYORIG C7 40.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg) Motherboard: ASRock B85M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($61.98 @ Newegg) Memory: Mushkin Silverline 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($30.98 @ Newegg) Case: BitFenix Prodigy (White) Mini ITX Tower Case ($78.99 @ SuperBiiz) Power Supply: SeaSonic 300W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($37.99 @ SuperBiiz) Other: Silverstone Tek 19 Pin USB3.0 Adapter Cable - External to Internal (CP09) ($12.56) Total: $302.48 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-02 21:49 EDT-0400 I have a 2tb id be moving to this to start with, and the os will be on a flash drive. I'm thinking the pentium should be good enough for a couple concurrent transcodes and I can always overclock if needed; I won't be needing 4k for years.
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May 3, 2016 02:56
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Watermelon Daiquiri posted:I'm putting together a small file/plex server to move things away from my main computer. Should anything here be an issue for that? If you're making the effort to build a dedicated box, I'd say you should put in the effort to add another 2tb drive to gain 1 drive redundancy via RAID-1. Other than that, looks fine.
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May 3, 2016 03:04
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Skandranon posted:If you're making the effort to build a dedicated box, I'd say you should put in the effort to add another 2tb drive to gain 1 drive redundancy via RAID-1. Other than that, looks fine. Good point. Completely forgot about that
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May 3, 2016 03:11
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Thermopyle posted:I have not been following closely so I don't know if it was mentioned, but I moved from Plex to Emby, so check that out as well. Yeah, I'm running Emby and am pretty happy. I also ended up not using Kodi much in favor of the Emby client app, but Kodi did seem to work great with it.
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May 3, 2016 03:58
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Anyone here have issues with Kodi not coming back from sleep? Either not waking, waking the display or coming back with no sound, etc. Basically a broken state after sleep. I'll check the Kodi thread too. Just covering my bases.
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May 3, 2016 04:50
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DrDork posted:But that's entirely my question: what devices are people using that actually require transcoding streaming (other than those utilizing cell connections), vice have some option for robust native file support through a Plex front end and potentially a decoder software package? Well for myself, I find myself in the position that I only have access to my cellphone ( iPhone 6 ) where I am staying right now and it pretty awesome that I can just stream all my videos to my phone without needing to convert them first. Normally I also just use an receiver and Kodi when at home. Plex runs on a 2 CPU VM within KVM on my Xeon system. Runs fine and transcodes like a champ. Mr Shiny Pants fucked around with this message at 06:44 on May 3, 2016 |
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May 3, 2016 06:40
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Reading through this thread and I'm starting to think I'm way in over my head. I want something I can easily backup my PC data to, but at the same time use for Plex streaming to devices while I'm not at home (iPhone, maybe a Surface tablet). I really can't tell what I need over what is going to be overkill or not able to handle these seemingly simple tasks. I've got limited room for something, so I can't buy a giant tower and throw it in a closet somewhere. And as far as price goes, I'm thinking $300-$400 USD is what my range is. Is there something simple I can just buy and toss some drives into and call it a day, or should I be looking at a custom solution? I've never done anything along these lines before, so I'm hoping this is the right place to post for some recommendations.
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May 4, 2016 08:56
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A long time ago I used to have a site bookmarked that was just a list of hard drives scraped from different retailers that had them all ordered by price per GB/TB/Whatever. Anyone know of anything like that? Also...I've run out of space in my already-huge case for hard drives. I've either got to retire perfectly functional 2TB drives or figure out a way to add a secondary box for drives. What's a good solution for that?
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May 4, 2016 16:39
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Phone posting but I'd imagine PC Parts Picker had something like that?
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May 4, 2016 16:42
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Thermopyle posted:Also...I've run out of space in my already-huge case for hard drives. I've either got to retire perfectly functional 2TB drives or figure out a way to add a secondary box for drives. What's a good solution for that? SamDabbers posted:I bit on a SAS expander card and the miscellaneous cables and adapters to add more drives using an old ATX case as a cheap JBOD chassis. Trip report to follow once I've got it all set up.
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May 4, 2016 16:50
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Thermopyle posted:Also...I've run out of space in my already-huge case for hard drives. I've either got to retire perfectly functional 2TB drives or figure out a way to add a secondary box for drives. What's a good solution for that? You could get an external enclosure for the disks if you've got an e-sata port that supports multiple drives like: Mediasonic ProBox HF2-SU3S2 4 Bay 3.5" SATA HDD Enclosure - USB 3.0 & eSATA Support SATA 3 6.0Gbps HDD transfer speed https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003X26VV4/ There are also bays that fill three 5.25" bays and give you space for 4x 3.5" disks like this: Rosewill 3 x 5.25-Inch to 4 x 3.5-Inch Hot-swap SATAIII/SAS Hard Disk Drive Cage - Black (RSV-SATA-Cage-34) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DGZ42SM/ I'm not sure of the quality of either of those specific manufacturers since I haven't used an external enclosure since SCSI in the 90s but those links may get you started looking. Alternate answer: build a second computer. 
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May 4, 2016 16:51
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Thermopyle posted:Also...I've run out of space in my already-huge case for hard drives. I've either got to retire perfectly functional 2TB drives or figure out a way to add a secondary box for drives. What's a good solution for that?
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May 4, 2016 16:57
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SamDabbers posted:Quoting myself: How are you powering it? One of the Supermicro CSE-PTJBOD boards? Also, seems like if you have an extra PCIe slot available on the motherboard, another LSI HBA would be cheaper than that expander.
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May 4, 2016 17:40
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Rexxed posted:Alternate answer: build a second computer. I just did this, new drives go into the primary server and the replaced get cycled into the secondary, backup server.
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May 4, 2016 17:48
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Thermopyle posted:Also...I've run out of space in my already-huge case for hard drives. I've either got to retire perfectly functional 2TB drives or figure out a way to add a secondary box for drives. What's a good solution for that? This was my solution years ago. 
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May 4, 2016 17:50
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Saukkis posted:This was my solution years ago.
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May 4, 2016 17:53
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Skandranon posted:I just did this, new drives go into the primary server and the replaced get cycled into the secondary, backup server. You know, I just might end up doing this...maybe. Still trying to decide what to do, so right now I'm just going to swap some 3TB's into my smallest zfs pool (only four 2TB drives) which will give me some breathing room to consider what I want to do exactly. I haven't really followed PC hardware in years, much less this stuff that seems more prosumer or small business stuff that seems to be kind of on the rise lately. I've always built servers from retired desktop hardware...like my current server is an i5-750 on a P55 express motherboard. Is there anything Xeon-ish available nowadays that's cheap-ish and performs at least on par with my i5-750 server?
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May 4, 2016 18:11
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IOwnCalculus posted:How are you powering it? One of the Supermicro CSE-PTJBOD boards? SamDabbers posted:I have a spare ATX power supply to go with the old case, and I'm going to hotwire it so I can use the toggle switch on the back of the PSU to control it. My TS440 runs 24/7 on an oversized UPS anyway, so I don't care if the drives just stay on too. IOwnCalculus posted:Also, seems like if you have an extra PCIe slot available on the motherboard, another LSI HBA would be cheaper than that expander. SamDabbers fucked around with this message at 18:24 on May 4, 2016 |
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May 4, 2016 18:21
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Thermopyle posted:A long time ago I used to have a site bookmarked that was just a list of hard drives scraped from different retailers that had them all ordered by price per GB/TB/Whatever. I remember http://forre.st/storage but that was for Newegg only. As for fitting more hard drives, just get a bigger case, no problem.
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May 4, 2016 19:06
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Thanks to the Overstock sale Shaocaholica pointed out a few days ago, I pulled the trigger on a Synology DS1515+ for my first foray into NAS. I mostly plan to use it to store video files. I plan to buy an NUC in the next couple of months to use as an HTPC, but until then I'll be relying on Plex, which I've never used and have read is kind of shaky on the DS1515+. I've got a few questions. The thing doesn't arrive until tomorrow, so apologies if any of these turn out to have really obvious answers.
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May 4, 2016 19:57
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Variable_H posted:And as far as price goes, I'm thinking $300-$400 USD is what my range is. Is there something simple I can just buy and toss some drives into and call it a day, or should I be looking at a custom solution? I've never done anything along these lines before, so I'm hoping this is the right place to post for some recommendations. The problems arise when you want to do both file storage and use Plex because of the transcoding. You wind up paying a good bit more than $200 over just a NAS because you need more CPU and RAM, and because more stuff means you need more cooling, the case becomes larger. $300 - $400 without going into a tower like one of the Lenovo Thinkserver models is pretty difficult without getting into second hand NAS units. What really matters fundamentally is how much storage you need though - if you only need around 2 - 4 TB of space you could get away with a NAS like this and add in 2x of the amount of space needed (so another $110 to $250 in drives). On the other hand, I'm crazy and am trying to sell off most of my equipment and am selling my old custom NAS built into this case and it's run Plex plenty fine for me for a couple years transcoding 1080p h.264 in a limited ventilation closet without a hitch.
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May 4, 2016 20:48
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necrobobsledder posted:Plex Nas stuff Piggybacking on this question. So lets say I want a NAS with a shitload of storage. Say 20TB or so, and hopefully the option for more down the road. But, I am happy to have the actual Plex server reside on a separate box. I am not really confident enough build it all from scratch running FreeNAS or whatever, any suggestions? No specific budget for this, I just have a hard time distinguishing what actually matters for my use case when looking at Synology/Qnap type units.
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May 4, 2016 21:12
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Use xpenology.
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May 4, 2016 21:13
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Why not just build something in this bad boy? Yuuuge
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May 4, 2016 21:50
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emocrat posted:Piggybacking on this question. So lets say I want a NAS with a shitload of storage. Say 20TB or so, and hopefully the option for more down the road. But, I am happy to have the actual Plex server reside on a separate box. I am not really confident enough build it all from scratch running FreeNAS or whatever, any suggestions? No specific budget for this, I just have a hard time distinguishing what actually matters for my use case when looking at Synology/Qnap type units. What sort of NAS were you thinking of that would be able to handle 20+TB but not Plex? Most of the prebuilts bump up the CPU/RAM specs enough to make transcoding more or less viable in their larger units, which you're going to need because you can't reasonably fit 20+TB on a 4-bay drive even using 6TB disks, let alone additional expansion space. I know rolling your own can sound challenging (it's usually not, really), but consider the cost savings: a DS415play runs $500, and holds 4 disks. If you want a 5 disk expansion bay, that's another $500. So you're talking $1000 for an Atom CPU, 1GB RAM, and 9 drive bays. For about $300-$400 or so, you could roll your own and get a much better CPU, 8GB RAM (if not more), and depending on the case, at least as many drives. Just something to think about.
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May 4, 2016 22:17
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Honestly don't know. I've only just started thinking about this and I have no prior experience with anything NAS related. I'm comfortable with rolling my own on the hardware side, I've always built my own PCs. The software side, not as much. Reading a little about Xpenolgy that does look fairly appealing. I have about 9TB of data right now, and its only gonna go up, so I gotta figure something out.
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May 4, 2016 22:44
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Software wise a NAS is really quite easy, as long as you pick non-garbage-tier hardware. If you stick with good hard drive controllers, meaning pretty much only either whatever is built into the motherboard chipset or whatever affordable LSI SAS controller you can buy used, any of the NAS distros out there will be a cakewalk to install. I've been using NAS4Free for years, FreeNAS is the commercially-owned version that forked off of it a while back, and Xpenology is literally the same interface that a Synology uses. Installation across the board is pretty much "use another computer to dump the OS image onto a USB stick, configure your NAS to boot from said stick". The rest of the configuration you do from there, such as IP addressing, array configuration, fileshares, and any server apps (Plex) you install on it, will be things you still have to do if you don't roll your own. I haven't used Xpenology myself, but aside from not wanting to upset that which already works, I've seen posts here warning others away from kicking off OS upgrades since the Synology code doesn't always play nice with Xpenology. So if you're the type who will habitually check for new firmware and flash it without double checking, perhaps don't use Xpenology? Unless you specifically want the smallest possible footprint and really want to just buy a box that is supported by one company from OS to power supply, roll your own NAS.
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May 4, 2016 23:09
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necrobobsledder posted:The problems arise when you want to do both file storage and use Plex because of the transcoding. You wind up paying a good bit more than $200 over just a NAS because you need more CPU and RAM, and because more stuff means you need more cooling, the case becomes larger. $300 - $400 without going into a tower like one of the Lenovo Thinkserver models is pretty difficult without getting into second hand NAS units. The Plex stuff is really just secondary to having a good storage/backup solution. That QNAP NAS you linked should be able to do most of what I'm wanting. Thanks for the help.
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May 4, 2016 23:44
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There's a few legitimate reasons to go with a prebuilt NAS, but they generally don't apply for most home users that are looking beyond the 8 TB range I believe. 1. Time = money, you need it now, you have money, and you don't want to be a sysadmin and pick any part at all whatsoever. If this is your attitude for buying stuff for your house, I'm available for consulting gigs because you could probably afford someone billed at $175 / hr either to set it up right or you'll pay a lot more for data recovery. 2. Your needs aren't much besides a network attached box to drop crap into a box and you're just bad at computers normally and don't care to learn much more. 3. You really want Time Machine support but don't want to deal with the software to get it done right (FreeNAS doesn't do it right and oftentimes corrupts requiring a new sparse bundle frequently for me, never had a problem with my Time Capsule). 4. You have some serious space / power issues constraining your build and are willing to pay a bit more yet don't need a whole lot of power. It's still potentially better to grab a quiet 1U PSU and a U-NAS case for a 8 bay starter kit, but this case is one of the toughest I've ever had to work with before and cost me a fried motherboard before. Anyone else should expect to get more bang for their buck by doing a custom build using something like a Thinkserver I linked, which is a half-way point between a full custom crazy pants territory and a prebuilt lazyNAS. emocrat posted:I just have a hard time distinguishing what actually matters for my use case when looking at Synology/Qnap type units. The big catch for ZFS users is expansion down the road and unless you're willing to roll some dice to keep resilvering all your arrays one drive at a time for probably a week or two straight you're going to need a supplemental array to build that will either become your new array or a temporary one that you copy your data back from. It's why I'm even considering a 16+ bay NAS / SAN (I'm slightly insane and am considering Infiniband over 10GbE FCoE).
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May 5, 2016 01:09
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Any thoughts on the Synology DS-216+ vs the Synology DS-216j? Biggest difference between the two seems to be the DS-216+ uses a much more powerful Intel Celeron. I don't really plan on using this for much more than just plain RAID-1 network attached storage, so feel like I could probably just use the DS-216j? Not sure if I'll regret not just getting the beefier model down the road if the latter ends up being way slower.
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May 5, 2016 01:22
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