Plex Server - 4K

Christo · 27 Sep 2020 at 22:17

Since Google Play Music is being shut down and Youtube Music is a weak option (especially if you own your own library of music) I have looked in to various alternatives, and it seems Plex a good one. The bonus being I can serve my video content to my 4K tv better.

I have been looking in to a Plex server option that can stream 4K content and it seems like just buying a NAS might be the cheapest/best option (eg a DiskStation DS220 or a TS-253Be - around £300ish) or just a Nvidia Shield TV. Id like the option to use it as my main data storage/backup, so that likely discounts a Shield.

Was wondering if this would be the right assumption? Id love to build a server myself but comparing costs is it really worth it? Will NASes really cope with 4K? (My memory of my old QNAP was it being so slow.)

JohnG7 · 27 Sep 2020 at 22:20

Whatever you do I advise you look at Emby, far better than Plex (I have a Shield 2017 non Pro) and you will not see those warnings about network speed or such (long time error).

Christo · 27 Sep 2020 at 22:29

JohnG7 said:
Whatever you do I advise you look at Emby, far better than Plex (I have a Shield 2017 non Pro) and you will not see those warnings about network speed or such (long time error).

Nice thanks, Ill have a look. Do you stream 4k content?

JohnG7 · 27 Sep 2020 at 22:30

Nope but got same warning on 1080p when I was Plex Pass sub payer, ditched it and went to Emby, far better hands on support via a forum they actual take part in and new beta builds most days.

You can read here some got issue with 4k on Plex.

If you have certain GPU's you can do a lot of the work on the GPU instead of your CPU if you need to transcode or encode/burn subs on the fly.

Emby - The open media solution

Forums - Emby Community

Also a few user projects like the Kodi Skin that basically become Emby but within Kodi (not the same as Plex plug in in Kodi), hard to explain unless you see it.

Christo · 28 Sep 2020 at 12:01

Thanks - but that will be an expensive proposition, a new build. Can the NAS's above cope with 4k and work well?

JohnG7 · 28 Sep 2020 at 18:32

You said your going to go NAS or Shield, the price does not change to use Emby over Plex. :confused:

I do not use a NAS so cannot comment but I like my NV shield but my PC is the server and Shield the client.

R4z0r · 29 Sep 2020 at 07:40

If you get clients that support 4K then you don’t need an expensive server capable transcoding. I think the shield does so I’d recommend you get whatever synology NAS works for you size wise. Tbh, the lower spec ones are great as they can easily stream 4K files (quite Low bw from a network perspective) and much lower power.