Cheapest option for Plex transcoding

krooton

krooton

krooton

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I currently have a Synology DS215j as my NAS, originally using DS Video and the associated app on my Samsung TV to stream video, and have since moved to the much superior Plex.

The Synology can Direct Stream fine, but the pitiful cpu is no good for transcoding, which is often needed due to the Samsung's limited codec library.

So what would be my cheapest option for transcoding nothing higher than 1080p, with the Synology still being used as the storage part of the set-up?

Getting one of the newer Synologys that can transcode is pricey at £400, is there anything in the sub-£200 space that would work?
 
Not sure if I am missing something but if you got a fire stick or a Kodi box can't you install Plex and not need to transcode in order to watch stuff on your Samsung TV?
 
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nvidia shield on offer apparently £135 w/prime , or sign up and get £10 voucher, was it ?

edit - but what codecs does samsung fail on ? I thought they updated their native player
 
It's a 2014 model Samsung, not sure if that is the problem, but it struggles to play some mkvs (usually with AC3 audio)
 
Picked up a Fire TV 4k Box on the Prime Day deal, if it can handle the problem files, job done, thanks :)
 
Yep, I installed Plex on the Fire TV, connected to my Plex server (which is on my Synology) hoping that the Fire TV would have better codec support and therefore not need transcoding, but it still could not play the files I was having issues with within the Samsung TV Plex app.

It also couldn't play files that my Samsung TV could when choosing Direct Stream.

As an example:
Samsung TV Plex App: Direct Play = video but no sound. Direct Stream = video and sound.
Fire TV Plex app: Direct Play or Direct Stream = nothing at all and a message saying it isn't powerful enough to play the file. I even tried reducing the stream/bandwidth in settings to something low but the same problem.

It's not urget, but looks like I will end up building a NUC from second hand components to host the Plex Server on, demoting my Synology back to just being storage.
 
If you haven't sent it back yet get MrMC from the amazon store (£2.43) it's the Python/Plugin disabled Kodi branch that now also includes the developer of the now defunct SPMC branch as well. It includes the official Plex for kodi plugin and is far superior to the Fire's Plex client. It plays pretty much all files without the need for transcoding as it makes far better use of the underlying Android codecs of FireOS.
 
krooton said:
Yep, I installed Plex on the Fire TV, connected to my Plex server (which is on my Synology) hoping that the Fire TV would have better codec support and therefore not need transcoding, but it still could not play the files I was having issues with within the Samsung TV Plex app.

It also couldn't play files that my Samsung TV could when choosing Direct Stream.

As an example:
Samsung TV Plex App: Direct Play = video but no sound. Direct Stream = video and sound.
Fire TV Plex app: Direct Play or Direct Stream = nothing at all and a message saying it isn't powerful enough to play the file. I even tried reducing the stream/bandwidth in settings to something low but the same problem.

It's not urget, but looks like I will end up building a NUC from second hand components to host the Plex Server on, demoting my Synology back to just being storage.
Click to expand...

This is essentially what I did, although for different reasons.

I found my QNAP server too awkward to run the way I wanted it to run (although since changing the way I work, it may be better suited now), so ended up with a PC build.

Granted, rather than build a budget spec pc for this purpose, I built a brand new pc to replace my older one. So I got a new (at the time) R7 based PC, while my older 4770k based machines was slightly reconfigured and demoted to server duties. Granted, an i7 cpu might be a touch overkill for this, but it works well for me. And was probably worth no more than the QNAP cost me anyway.
 
TheMightyTen said:
If you haven't sent it back yet get MrMC from the amazon store (£2.43) it's the Python/Plugin disabled Kodi branch that now also includes the developer of the now defunct SPMC branch as well. It includes the official Plex for kodi plugin and is far superior to the Fire's Plex client. It plays pretty much all files without the need for transcoding as it makes far better use of the underlying Android codecs of FireOS.
Click to expand...

Cheers, I'll give that a go
 
As said. MrMC will solve your problems. I have the same synolSyn drive as you . And had the Amazon fire 4k box using MrMC and it would play everything.
 
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