Is Plex still a thing?

john_smith · 2024-11-26T09:38:47+0000

Starting to google....but i've an esata port on mine. An SSD in an esata enclosure could work?

What would be very lovely is if DSM has a button, when there's 2 volumes, that will move stuff from volume 1 to volume 2 for you.

robj20 · 2024-11-26T09:42:26+0000

john_smith said:
Oh, that's interesting. What NAS do you have? I'm a 920+. I've 2xSSD as cache and 4x10TB (in Raid5) for data. Are you saying I could have the OS, docker, plex etc running on the SSD and then the raid5 will spin down when not being used?

I have an Asustor Nimbuster 4.
256gb SSD Volume 1 has my OS and apps on.
3x 8tb HDD RAID5 Volume 2 for all storage. They spin down after how ever long I set them to.

Bubo · 2024-11-26T09:46:50+0000

john_smith said:
Starting to google....but i've an esata port on mine. An SSD in an esata enclosure could work?

What would be very lovely is if DSM has a button, when there's 2 volumes, that will move stuff from volume 1 to volume 2 for you.

Which Synology NAS models support using M.2 SSDs to create storage pools? - Synology Knowledge Center

Synology Knowledge Center offers comprehensive support, providing answers to frequently asked questions, troubleshooting steps, software tutorials, and all the technical documentation you may need.

kb.synology.com

Seems like a non starter for anything lower than a 2023 model. And also it says that the DSM OS has to be stored on one of the regular drives anyway, so it would still need to be that 3 high capacity storage drives and a separate small sata ssd for the OS anyway, which unless anyone can tell me different, gimps you on your effective total storage using btrfs.

barmyllama · 2024-11-26T11:35:24+0000

robj20 said:
The biggest plus for Plex Pass is hardware transcoding. I have a few films such as Planet of the Apes with subtitles that really struggle without it. Probably get Pass as some point, I did try Jellyfin a while back but the app isn't available on my TV.

That's why I bought one too. For me it was because I share my sever with family and hardware transcoding eliminated buffering issues for them.

Stelly · 2024-11-26T11:43:07+0000

I run it on Kubernetes, plex is great in my opinion... paid for it ages ago.

Stelly

something daft already!! · 2024-11-26T11:47:09+0000

Plex is amazing, saves popping stuff on USB sticks to share media. I think I have around 100 users on mine. They love watching videos of my garden etc.

Chrisc · 2024-11-26T12:23:16+0000

Ive been thinking of doing my own plex server but I honestly dont know where to start.

does anybody have any recommendations from youtube for setting one up?

barmyllama · 2024-11-26T12:28:09+0000

Chrisc said:
Ive been thinking of doing my own plex server but I honestly dont know where to start.

does anybody have any recommendations from youtube for setting one up?

Linus tech tips has done videos a few times.

fraseredwards · 2024-11-26T12:37:14+0000

Moved to jellyfin, free to run and HD streaming enabled by default. With Plex you have to buy that functionality.

Begbie · 2024-11-26T12:41:47+0000

Chrisc said:
Ive been thinking of doing my own plex server but I honestly dont know where to start.

does anybody have any recommendations from youtube for setting one up?

Id recommend setting up an unraid server with trash guides. Very very simple. I bought an old HP machine for £90 to run it.

robj20 · 2024-11-26T12:55:35+0000

fraseredwards said:
Moved to jellyfin, free to run and HD streaming enabled by default. With Plex you have to buy that functionality.

Limited app availablity though. Otherwise I'd have swapped as well.

Chrisc · 2024-11-26T12:58:58+0000

barmyllama said:
Linus tech tips has done videos a few times.

Cheers for this.

Chrisc · 2024-11-26T12:59:55+0000

Begbie said:
Id recommend setting up an unraid server with trash guides. Very very simple. I bought an old HP machine for £90 to run it.

Cheers, i have an x570 board knocking around and i was thinking about getting started with that, but then i read Intel is better for plex etc. . and i just kinda keep putting it off.

fraseredwards · 2024-11-26T13:00:34+0000

robj20 said:
Limited app availablity though. Otherwise I'd have swapped as well.

Fair enough, must admit I don't know what app availability you mean. I just stream off phone or via Nvidia shield for TVs

robj20 · 2024-11-26T13:03:35+0000

fraseredwards said:
Fair enough, must admit I don't know what app availability you mean. I just stream off phone or via Nvidia shield for TVs

Not available on all Smart TVs.

Begbie · 2024-11-26T13:05:46+0000

Chrisc said:
Cheers, i have an x570 board knocking around and i was thinking about getting started with that, but then i read Intel is better for plex etc. . and i just kinda keep putting it off.

Just remember and consider power if your going to keep it on 24/7.

fraseredwards · 2024-11-26T13:11:11+0000

robj20 said:
Not available on all Smart TVs.

Thanks, had this with older Sammy's for sure

jaybee · 2024-11-26T13:16:18+0000

Infidelus said:
I'll just point out the obvious here. If you sell your DVDs you have no legal right to keep any ripped copies of the media. Just saying

MakeMKV is my go-to for ripping my DVDs & Blu-rays.

Yep, me too though I do tend to use it mostly for the PVR functionality and so I can stream my music.

Err...by sell, he meant chuck in the bin, right OP? CEX often resembles a bin. Easy to confuse.

I remember when I looked at ripping all my films on disc and after doing a few, I realised it was many times quicker to simply torrent the movies I owned anyway, even at high quality bitrates.
I...obviously never did this.

andy_mk3 · 2024-11-26T13:20:37+0000

I run a Plex server on my unraid box. I've tried the alternatives but nothing is as polished and well supported as Plex, despite its flaws, I find Plex to be the best.

edgedemon · 2024-11-26T13:36:09+0000

robj20 said:
Yep I run the server on my NAS dumped all my old DVDs and Blurays on to it. The children especially find it really handy with all their Disney films on there can watch them from anywhere in the house.

Pretty much what I plan on doing. It might be more than an Xmas project though, a quick estimate now, I stopped counting after 200 discs, no wonder she wants the space.

I'm laughing at makemkv, I'm pretty sure it was in beta 15yrs ago when I last used it.

Oh god, Plex does music as well, that will be a very deep rabbit hole

robj20 said:
It's not a Plex issue but a configuration issue. I presume you have the server running on the same volume as your storage.
What you need to do is have a separate volume for your server I use a 256GB SSD this rightly stays active. But Volume 2 which is my RAID5 with all my files on powers down no issues.

OK, That is good to know, I have a 30TB Volume and an ISCSI LUN for my PC. Looks like I will need to add a USB drive as external storage and run it from that then.
Very useful info - thanks!