Spec me a NAS

[HungryHippos]

Aye but he wanted to use Plex, I guess if Plex requires transcoding it only leaves you with two choices, get a device capable of playing the files with Direct Play, or put up with KODI (which isn't bad by any means).

 

[FrankJH]

Why do people bother with transcoding? Why not just get a device to play them as full files?

I can promise you - if you have 1080p BR rips with full hd audio, for the most part you will not be able to stream these through wifi without some kind of transcoding

All well and good when you can rely on Ethernet from source to player/screen, no problem at all - but even a new air 2 will struggle streaming the hd audio overhead (and why bother trying when its just not necessary with the comparative lo-fi speakers on any tablet)

The above is based on over 500 BR rips (approx 15TB) at full quality on Plex Unraid server Ive been running for the last 5 ~ years. I have a (small) number of "b movies" that aren't of the highest quality (even though its a direct BR copy) that will stream at full quality over wifi but VAST majority wont unless you either rip at less than full quality or transcode at some point.


While I would advocate getting as many drive bays as possible to avoid replacing hardware too soon, depending on your needs I would be very mindful of doing the same thing for discs (once you have space, you will find you relatively quickly fill it, and for me at least much quicker than I expected - so don't go for discs that are only "reasonably" sized for your needs.)