Spec me a New NAS

Armageus · 18 Dec 2025 at 15:12

psd99 said:
all good to do but does the mini pc need to actually host the storage... storage costs space

No just run Plex on the mini pc and point it at the media share on the NAS.

(I.e. let the NAS do what it's good at - hosting files)

psd99 · 18 Dec 2025 at 16:03

So how would I make that change now that i have it being hosted via the actual nas?

Would my pc help actually transcode a lot better then?

ChrisD. · 18 Dec 2025 at 20:53

psd99 said:
yes its all setup now plex that is

the 4k streaming isn't very good wireless - I haven't tried my wired devices yet

I suspect some fine tuning on the plex app would help the streaming for example instead of playing 4k I could play say 1080i
Either way I suspect the aging NAS is the bottleneck what do u all think?

I’ve already explained all of this. If the player cannot directly play the file type it will transcode, and unless you get a NAS with a GPU in it, you’ll have the exact same issue. Playing at 1080 when the file type is 4k will force a transcode and without a GPU it will be a terrible experience.

Your best bet is to get a N100 or N150 based mini PC and use that as the server as it can transcode. Then mount the files over SMB.

Again, I already posted this earlier in the thread. Spend some more time reading and doing research on YouTube etc rather than throwing money at a problem you don’t understand.

hornetstinger · 18 Dec 2025 at 20:56

ChrisD. said:
I’ve already explained all of this. If the player cannot directly play the file type it will transcode, and unless you get a NAS with a GPU in it, you’ll have the exact same issue. Playing at 1080 when the file type is 4k will force a transcode and without a GPU it will be a terrible experience.

Your best bet is to get a N100 or N150 based mini PC and use that as the server as it can transcode. Then mount the files over SMB.

Again, I already posted this earlier in the thread. Spend some more time reading and doing research on YouTube etc rather than throwing money at a problem you don’t understand.

Another option is just playing the file, with a player that supports all the codecs. So you just need a basic NAS, no need to go OTT with a NAS with CPU horsepower to do 4K on the fly transcoding.

I have no issues with my cheap kodi box playing 99.99999% of my video files

Armageus · 18 Dec 2025 at 21:27

ChrisD. said:
Again, I already posted this earlier in the thread. Spend some more time reading and doing research on YouTube etc rather than throwing money at a problem you don’t understand.

Some people just seem oblivious despite multiple people suggesting the same

Spec me a New NAS

Hi, so I have a Synology DS416j NAS storing my files, data, and videos on four drives: 2x 16TB and 2x 4TB in RAID 1 and SHR respectively. All drives are seagate. The specs say it maxes at 16TB drives, so two questions: 1. ⁠What happens if I replace the 2x 4TB with 2x 20TB—would it only see...

forums.overclockers.co.uk

psd99 · 19 Dec 2025 at 09:10

ChrisD. said:
I’ve already explained all of this. If the player cannot directly play the file type it will transcode, and unless you get a NAS with a GPU in it, you’ll have the exact same issue. Playing at 1080 when the file type is 4k will force a transcode and without a GPU it will be a terrible experience.

Your best bet is to get a N100 or N150 based mini PC and use that as the server as it can transcode. Then mount the files over SMB.

Again, I already posted this earlier in the thread. Spend some more time reading and doing research on YouTube etc rather than throwing money at a problem you don’t understand.

While I appreciate your update and help, my issue is clearly the NAS not being able to handle 4K content which is why I titled this thread the way I did....

It seems I could use my PC to transcode my videos stored on the NAS. However, it will still depend on my 1GB network. I’ll do some further testing when I have time and set up my PC as the Plex server pointing it at the NAS. Then playing the footage on my phone and TV etc.

However, Ultimately, I’ll definitely be upgrading my NAS as it’s outdated technology.

psd99 · 19 Dec 2025 at 09:11

hornetstinger said:
Another option is just playing the file, with a player that supports all the codecs. So you just need a basic NAS, no need to go OTT with a NAS with CPU horsepower to do 4K on the fly transcoding.

I have no issues with my cheap kodi box playing 99.99999% of my video files

See thing is - my approach has been like this

say I have footage, I would copy it to my external HDD and then attach it to the TV - that always works 100% - I was just looking for a solution that'd work over my wired network
I will do some further testing on this

Armageus · 19 Dec 2025 at 09:21

psd99 said:
However, it will still depend on my 1GB network.

1Gb Network is more than capable of streaming 4K content. 4K bluray content has a peak bitrate of 144Mbps.

It can be a struggle for devices that only have 100Mbps network ports (Like perhaps your TV - but this is the first time that's been mentioned). And again if 100Mbps is a device limitation, then get a better device ! (client). Or add something more capable so that you can transcode and keep the bitrate under control.

All this has already been mentioned however.

psd99 said:
However, Ultimately, I’ll definitely be upgrading my NAS as it’s outdated technology.

How is it outdated technology? It stores files, it supports exactly the same raid modes etc as a brand new Synology NAS.

A New Synology isn't necessarily any better at transcoding (other than having a faster CPU for software based transcoding).

hornetstinger · 19 Dec 2025 at 09:28

Only time need to change Nas if they no longer support the drives you want to fit, or it's so slow it's a pain transferring files

My old Nas was single core 300mhz so lms music rescan took ages and made it unusable whilst it was doing this, and max HDD support was 2tb

psd99 · 19 Dec 2025 at 15:25

got it so it seems that the PC is scan/update the 4K footage much more quicker

is it my graphics card and CPU that make that speed a lot quicker when I run the media server via the PC but the media is on the NAS?
which one makes a big difference here?

ChrisD. · 19 Dec 2025 at 20:52

Your PC/GPU will do it fine, but it’s an expensive way of doing it. My PC draws well over 300W under load, exceeding 500W peak.

A £100-150 mini PC with an N100/N150 will be absolutely fine transcoding/updating libraries and sip power in comparison.

hornetstinger · 19 Dec 2025 at 21:49

Annoying Synology have removed EXFAT plugin for their NAS's

No longer access FAT32 drives in the USB port

ChrisD. · 19 Dec 2025 at 21:54

They also removed the driver for any of their models which do have an iGPU IIRC.

Hence why I generally say having a separate box to deal with apps/Plex etc is usually a better idea.

psd99 · 20 Dec 2025 at 22:22

ChrisD. said:
Your PC/GPU will do it fine, but it’s an expensive way of doing it. My PC draws well over 300W under load, exceeding 500W peak.

A £100-150 mini PC with an N100/N150 will be absolutely fine transcoding/updating libraries and sip power in comparison.

Got it. I will keep an eye when their prices drop but what other practical uses would the n100/150 serve me?

I got to be honest though my footage is still a bit choppy when being played
I noticed that if the file is say 20mins at 4k it’ll buffer somewhat
Smaller clips seem to work but im yet to fully test havent had the time

psd99 · 20 Dec 2025 at 22:23

hornetstinger said:
Annoying Synology have removed EXFAT plugin for their NAS's

No longer access FAT32 drives in the USB port

To be honest i cant remeber my synology accepting fat32 but if it could how would that help?

hornetstinger · 20 Dec 2025 at 22:32

psd99 said:
To be honest i cant remeber my synology accepting fat32 but if it could how would that help?

If you used a usb HDD on front panel for backup and they were fat32. Now can't do that.

ChrisD. · 21 Dec 2025 at 02:44

psd99 said:
I will keep an eye when their prices drop but what other practical uses would the n100/150 serve me?

You could run it as a container host, and spin up things like home assistant, Plex, tdarr, Tailscale plus exit node, and loads of other apps.

Dangerous Dave · 21 Dec 2025 at 10:24

Isn’t the best thing to do here is sort why you can’t play it back natively at 4k ? Seems a waste to have 4k files if you are then transcoding them to 1080. Any modern TVs built in Plex app should be able to if not a Sheild/Firestick 4k will play back anything natively.

My recently retired 10 year old Synology 1815+ to backup duties had no issue supplying 4k to multiple devices aswell as running all the containers to manage the downloads/media server/VPN etc. All due to making sure it didn’t need to transcode to the playback devices.

psd99 · 22 Dec 2025 at 11:47

Dangerous Dave said:
Isn’t the best thing to do here is sort why you can’t play it back natively at 4k ? Seems a waste to have 4k files if you are then transcoding them to 1080. Any modern TVs built in Plex app should be able to if not a Sheild/Firestick 4k will play back anything natively.

My recently retired 10 year old Synology 1815+ to backup duties had no issue supplying 4k to multiple devices aswell as running all the containers to manage the downloads/media server/VPN etc. All due to making sure it didn’t need to transcode to the playback devices.

Thats the mystery here to be honest

Transcoding is worse, im using a wired
Network 1gb i beleive my tv is also 1gb

I will do some further testing here

hornetstinger · 22 Dec 2025 at 11:48

psd99 said:
Thats the mystery here to be honest

Transcoding is worse, im using a wired
Network 1gb i beleive my tv is also 1gb

I will do some further testing here

just play the file directly, for example with Kodi on your streamer, locate the path/file then play. If you use a server that caches file it could transcode. If so disable any transcoding options.

The only issues I had with Opus AV1 codec, played fine on the laptop but not the kodi box.