cheap plex + NAS setup

neil3k

neil3k

neil3k

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Hi

I have a friend who wants to be able to stream all of his movies to his tv via plex/xbmc from a NAS

What is the cheapest way to do this?

Raspberry Pi and a cheap NAS?

thanks,
 
Roku may be with a NAS?

I picked up a 4 bay Netgear ReadyNas for £180 last week, it's built as good if not better than my Drogo 5N, which costs 3x the price.
 
I bought a WD Live 3tb NAS for £150 and a WD TV Live SMP for £75, together they do the trick perfectly. Play everything I put on the NAS. Has both wired and wireless connectivity too.
But PI and a NAS or external USB drive should be cheaper, obviously the NAS could be easier to share with All your online devices, I access mine from Phone, Tablet, PC and Laptop :)
 
This is all really dependant on what quality of stuff he wants to stream?

downloaded mkv's vs full blu ray rips will require different options in my opinion
 
cheapest client I am aware of is a sky tv now box running the plex software. It has it's limitations (720p for one) but worth it for a tenner depending on what you are looking for
 
neil3k said:
Hi

I have a friend who wants to be able to stream all of his movies to his tv via plex/xbmc from a NAS

What is the cheapest way to do this?

Raspberry Pi and a cheap NAS?

thanks,
Click to expand...

Trouble with a cheap NAS it probably won't be able to run Plex natively very well (or at all) particularly if any transcoding is required. Personally I'm using my old mid-2009 Mac Mini as a Plex server with my data on some NASes and it's fine as long as it's not having to transcode (which for 90% of my files is not needed).

The Sky Now TV box as a client works surprisingly well as a Plex client I've found.
 
As above, a low-powered Plex server is fine (whether it is actually running on the NAS CPU or is running on another machine but getting the files from the NAS doesn't matter)... as-long as you're not needing to transcode... which means that your files stored on the NAS must be the right container/codec/bitrate combination for your chosen client device.
 
I use a Synology 412 NAS to stream 1080P to both my 64" Sammy and a WDTV Live box via TP-Link homeplugs, all using Plex. Works perfectly
 
From Experience no cheap nas £150 or less will have enough grunt to transcode to a plex client.As a client a roku or the rebranded one the Sky now tv unit for a tenner are good bets they run Plex really well.

As a plex server, a decent amd APU or i3 PC would be a better bet.
 
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