Spec me a New NAS

psd99 · 14 Dec 2025 at 23:04

Armageus said:
It means get clients that support more file formats without transcoding. TVs rarely support more than the bare minimum, do ideally you'd want a more fully featured client like an Nvidia Shield or an AppleTV.

Also things like subtitles (or the wrong type of subtitles) can cause transcoding, so again making sure you are using the correct options or upgrade to a client that supports them

So do u mean like keep the nas as it is and keep the footage on there etc but get an apple tv device or a nvidia shield?

If so how would the 4k streaming work
Which app would the apple tv connect to be able to view the 4k videos on the nas?

ChrisD. · 15 Dec 2025 at 02:26

psd99 said:
So do u mean like keep the nas as it is and keep the footage on there etc but get an apple tv device or a nvidia shield?

If so how would the 4k streaming work
Which app would the apple tv connect to be able to view the 4k videos on the nas?

How are you currently playing the media?

Armageus · 15 Dec 2025 at 05:46

psd99 said:
So do u mean like keep the nas as it is and keep the footage on there etc but get an apple tv device or a nvidia shield?

If so how would the 4k streaming work
Which app would the apple tv connect to be able to view the 4k videos on the nas?

I'm assuming you are already using Plex (or the alternatives Emby or Jellyfin), hosting that on your NAS and then running the Plex app on your TV.

All that would change is you run the app to play media on e.g. an Nvidia Shield.

(If you currently aren't using something like Plex then you need to tell us what you are using)

spile · 15 Dec 2025 at 06:27

robj20 said:
I wish more would do a NAS without all the extras, doesn't seem many options for plain NAS devices they always lump servers with them.

I don’t understand this. A NAS is a server.

ChrisD. · 15 Dec 2025 at 06:33

I prefer to run storage separate from apps. It tends to perform better, and likely be cheaper in the long run.

psd99 · 15 Dec 2025 at 06:40

ChrisD. said:
Not all do, most consumer grade don’t have GPUs.

ChrisD. said:
How are you currently playing the media?

Long story short

The 4k content is on the nas
And im using dsvideo to as an app on the tv to view the footage

On my pc I have tried vlc player

Both fairly choppy

robj20 · 15 Dec 2025 at 06:41

spile said:
I don’t understand this. A NAS is a server.

While technically yes it serves storage, that's not what we refer to as a server. Though the vast majority of consumer models add in a server for all the apps you can install. A dedicated NAS doesnt include all that and would instead have a very modest CPU and no apps. Its two very separate functions.

psd99 · 15 Dec 2025 at 06:43

Armageus said:
I'm assuming you are already using Plex (or the alternatives Emby or Jellyfin), hosting that on your NAS and then running the Plex app on your TV.

All that would change is you run the app to play media on e.g. an Nvidia Shield.

(If you currently aren't using something like Plex then you need to tell us what you are using)

Alrite let me seen and look into that

I reckon i might have tried plex etc but dont recognise emby or jellyfin

So if i setup plex, jelly fin etc on the nas

Do i need the same apps on the samsung tv?

The ds video app is good but it struggles with 4k content

ChrisD. · 15 Dec 2025 at 06:43

psd99 said:
Long story short

The 4k content is on the nas
And im using dsvideo to as an app on the tv to view the footage

On my pc I have tried vlc player

Both fairly choppy

There's nothing special about 4k media, you just need a drive and network capable of up to 100 Mbps or so, which most modern HDDs can do. The issue is almost certainly going to be the player struggling, or the TV struggling with how the media is made up.

robj20 · 15 Dec 2025 at 06:47

ChrisD. said:
I prefer to run storage separate from apps. It tends to perform better, and likely be cheaper in the long run.

Totally agree. The money i spent on an Assustor only for me to want to change it a few years later, when for less money i could have got a NUC that's 10x more powerful and a NAS with twice as many bays. I now still use my 4 bay Assustor but use a NUC as the server, its not even funny how much faster it is, i no longer have to even care if Plex is transcoding multiple 4k files.

Armageus · 15 Dec 2025 at 06:56

psd99 said:
Alrite let me seen and look into that

I reckon i might have tried plex etc but dont recognise emby or jellyfin

So if i setup plex, jelly fin etc on the nas

Do i need the same apps on the samsung tv?

The ds video app is good but it struggles with 4k content

Yes install Plex on your NAS and there is likely an app for your TV (if not then an Amazon stick or Roku are cheap devices to try)

The benefit of Plex is that it can be more intelligent with regards to Transcoding. A lot of the time a full transcode isn't needed, just a container swap to a format that TVs etc are happy with

robj20 · 15 Dec 2025 at 07:04

Id say its only worth using Plex if you either have a fairly hefty CPU or you pay for the Plex Pass. Otherwise Jellyfin could be the better choice. You still might get software transcoding though for things like audio and subtitles.

ChrisD. · 15 Dec 2025 at 07:04

psd99 said:
Alrite let me seen and look into that

I reckon i might have tried plex etc but dont recognise emby or jellyfin

So if i setup plex, jelly fin etc on the nas

Do i need the same apps on the samsung tv?

The ds video app is good but it struggles with 4k content

You have 5 parts to consider.

The file type (how the media is encoded)
The storage the file is on
The network
(optionally) the server which serves up the files, such as Plex, Emby, Jellyfin
The player

If the file type is crap, fewer players can natively play it. If it's an app such as Plex, it will then ask the server to transcode it. If the server is on a ARM CPU, or even Intel/AMD which doesn't have a GPU then it will struggle because you need a really highly performant CPU to transcode 4k. Even if you had one, you want to avoid CPU transcoding because it's really expensive (lots of power/resources required) compared to a GPU doing it via it's encode/decode engine.

What I suspect you're doing is using an app on the TV to read the media file over a network share. Installing Plex on the NAS or TV won't help you here, nor will upgrading the NAS. Additionally you'd need to pay for Plex Pass otherwise you won't get hardware transcoding. What I'd do is buy one of the many £100-150 ish mini boxes with an Intel N100 or N150 in it, install your OS of choice then install Jellyfin (hardware transcoding is free as it's FOSS). Then point Jellyfin at your NAS share. The UI won't be as polished as Plex, but it does the job. Then install the Jellyfin app on your TV.

Alternatively figure out why the file type is incompatible with the player, this could be the free option. I don't know anything about the player you're using so can't help.

Running your own media is easy, but getting some stuff to play can be more challenging and I'd suggest doing some further reading or check out guides on YouTube.

Snapshot · 15 Dec 2025 at 07:19

robj20 said:
While technically yes it serves storage, that's not what we refer to as a server. Though the vast majority of consumer models add in a server for all the apps you can install. A dedicated NAS doesnt include all that and would instead have a very modest CPU and no apps. Its two very separate functions.

Sounds to me like the definition of server has been shifted.

robj20 · 15 Dec 2025 at 07:21

Snapshot said:
Sounds to me like the definition of server has been shifted.

No you are just being obtuse for some reason. We all know what people mean when they mention a server, and its not a NAS. A NAS by definition is a very specialised single function device server, but it's not what we refer to as a Server.
A NAS by definition cant do most of the things a Server can do, a Server can do everything a NAS can do and much more.

psd99 · 15 Dec 2025 at 09:50

I wll recheck the rest of the coments later on but I got plex installed on the NAS and I ave given the internal user read/write permissions on the shared folder within DSM

but I can't see my media on my plex URL - I can't seem to add media either - the add button does not work just says 'get plex media server; and then it downloads a file a .spk file
/
what am I doing wrong

robj20 · 16 Dec 2025 at 07:11

psd99 said:
I wll recheck the rest of the coments later on but I got plex installed on the NAS and I ave given the internal user read/write permissions on the shared folder within DSM

but I can't see my media on my plex URL - I can't seem to add media either - the add button does not work just says 'get plex media server; and then it downloads a file a .spk file
/
what am I doing wrong

If you log into Plex you'll need to add say a Movie library and a TV shows library, point these to the folders you have your media in.

ChrisD. · 16 Dec 2025 at 20:42

psd99 said:
I wll recheck the rest of the coments later on but I got plex installed on the NAS and I ave given the internal user read/write permissions on the shared folder within DSM

but I can't see my media on my plex URL - I can't seem to add media either - the add button does not work just says 'get plex media server; and then it downloads a file a .spk file
/
what am I doing wrong

It sounds like it’s not set up as a Server. Did you use a claim token during install?

psd99 · 17 Dec 2025 at 16:31

ChrisD. said:
It sounds like it’s not set up as a Server. Did you use a claim token during install?

not that I can remember...

psd99 · 17 Dec 2025 at 16:36

ChrisD. said:
It sounds like it’s not set up as a Server. Did you use a claim token during install?

so the plex application is installed on the NAS and I am able to click on the URL and it takes me there but I can't seem to add the media

is the media added via the NAS or the plex URL?