NAS Mind melt - Want to be able to download/transfer quick

[bloomen]

I do 4K content off a Ex2 Ultra. I tweak the files to make sure they never need to transcode. I don't care about any apps other than Plex and boggo file storage and it's worked perfectly.

I've found my hardware to be rather selective. My TV, a Samsung 7400 or something, won't play avis so old stuff has to be converted to mp4. My sound bar won't do AC3 so it's all converted to AAC. The Samsung's inbuilt apps won't output any sound to other devices so I need to stream through a Roku to get sound to the sound bar.

I presume the Roku can transcode, but it must be way weedier than a shield, but it's easier to sort the files to be accepted for everything from the off.

[Bullett]

Your TV supports the PLEX app.
My slightly older (2018) Samsung plays anything I throw at it. Plex server is running on an ancient microserver. It supports a huge range of file types so most stuff should play natively so you won't need a powerful host to transcode.
TV is connected via wifi
Server is wired to the router

Don't overcomplicate it.

[ericmcn]

Bullett said:

Your TV supports the PLEX app.
My slightly older (2018) Samsung plays anything I throw at it. Plex server is running on an ancient microserver. It supports a huge range of file types so most stuff should play natively so you won't need a powerful host to transcode.
TV is connected via wifi
Server is wired to the router

Don't overcomplicate it.

The host whether Synology or whatever still needs to transcode 4k and that needs to be sent to a TV, unless you have a robust set-up stuttering will be likely. Some of my uhd atmos files are 40+ GB.

Even playing 4k files on a laptop can be challenging unless you have a decent setup and a good player to handle that format.

[bloomen]

ericmcn said:

The host whether Synology or whatever still needs to transcode 4k and that needs to be sent to a TV, unless you have a robust set-up stuttering will be likely. Some of my uhd atmos files are 40+ GB.

Even playing 4k files on a laptop can be challenging unless you have a decent setup and a good player to handle that format.

The only limitation I have is bandwidth. Everything's done over wifi and it only very occasionally struggles with scenes of super high detail like hundreds of birds taking off in 4K. I have a few 40gb plus files and they all run fine.

[DoctorX]

JimbobVFR said:

paulrockliffe said:

I find Plex on the Fire Stick a pain, the Fire Stick is slow when you turn the TV on as it's desperate to do all sorts of stuff with Amazon to get random lists of things you're not interested in watching. When it finally lets you use the menu to select Plex it takes a bit to load up and is then slow anyway.

I ended up using my phone to then Cast to the Firestick just so you could quickly get to what you wanted to watch, but being Amazon the casting is really flaky too as they're still doing the whole boring hate Google thing. You usually lose the ability to pause etc what's playing, then the stream cuts out and it forgets where it was when you restart.

If you want to root the device and install only Plex on it, then there are far better hardware options for less money.

I've just got a 4k Firestick recently in Black Friday for £30 and it's anything but slow with everything I've tried so far. There's been a few versions of the Firestick so I wonder if yours is relatively old and underpowered compared to the latest ones.

I stream from an old PC using Plex. My iPad and TV app run these fine but my Amazon 4K fire stick won’t play sound. I think it’s something thing to do with the file format (MKV). Might be easily solvable to someone with the know-how but may be an issue with Firesticks in general.

[Corso Marche]

@ HannsG

There are a few possible routes to take to get you started, even without a NAS.

If the Samsung doesn't support Google Cast you'll need a Chromecast.
(Or a good *officially licensed* android TV box like the Xiaomi MiBox S or NVidia Shield TV. The MiBox is king for being affordable, the Shield is king for being expensive. There is such a small difference in day-to-day use it is barely noticeable.)

Solution A ;
1. Install Videostream on the laptop or PC which has your video collection, and then the Videostream app on your phone or tablet.
2. Leave the laptop or PC running 24/7 on your network.
3. The phone app will cast the file from your PC to your TV using your internal network. So no lag, or increase in your internet usage. It's super quick and super reliable so long as your internal network is relatively sound.

Solution B ;
1. If you have an android TV device then Archos Video Player for android TV is a great app. Install the app on your tv device (be sure it's the TV app and not the phone or tablet app. It's in the android TV Play Store).
2. Leave the laptop or PC running 24/7 on your network.
3. Make the drive on your PC available as a shared SMB drive (you can password protect it if you have other confidential stuff also stored there.)
4. Point Archos to the folders for your videos (I've 1 for TV progs, and 1 for Movies - both have many, many sub-folders). It will catalog your collection and give you a nice super-quick, super-easy, interface to use.

Solution C ;
1. Leave the laptop or PC running 24/7 on your network.
2. Install Plex Server on your PC, and Plex Client on your other devices.
3. As with Archos you will point it to your collection and allow it to catalog everything for you.

In the future ;
You can replace your laptop/PC with the shared drive with a NAS whenever you see fit or funds allow.

I've used XBMC, then Kodi, then Plex, then Videostream, then Archos.
Archos is what we use daily, as it's quicker, more accurate at cataloguing, and more reliable over extended timeframes than Plex.
I've two MiBox 3's running Archos and playing back from a NAS. Archos stores resume points and other info on the NAS so you can move from one room to another and resume viewing etc
I've an NVidia Shield TV running as a Plex server, with Plex Client on both MiBox's. Archos is a much preferable way to enjoy your tv and movie collection.
In order of personal preference my choices would be;
1) Archos Video Player for Android TV (also run the separate All Codecs for Archos just once, which is a separate app)
2) Videostream (see https://getvideostream.com/ )
3) Plex

Edited by Corso Marche on Thursday 5th December 07:16

[HannsG]

Corso Marche said:

@ HannsG

There are a few possible routes to take to get you started, even without a NAS.

If the Samsung doesn't support Google Cast you'll need a Chromecast.
(Or a good *officially licensed* android TV box like the Xiaomi MiBox S or NVidia Shield TV. The MiBox is king for being affordable, the Shield is king for being expensive. There is such a small difference in day-to-day use it is barely noticeable.)

Solution A ;
1. Install Videostream on the laptop or PC which has your video collection, and then the Videostream app on your phone or tablet.
2. Leave the laptop or PC running 24/7 on your network.
3. The phone app will cast the file from your PC to your TV using your internal network. So no lag, or increase in your internet usage. It's super quick and super reliable so long as your internal network is relatively sound.

Solution B ;
1. If you have an android TV device then Archos Video Player for android TV is a great app. Install the app on your tv device (be sure it's the TV app and not the phone or tablet app. It's in the android TV Play Store).
2. Leave the laptop or PC running 24/7 on your network.
3. Make the drive on your PC available as a shared SMB drive (you can password protect it if you have other confidential stuff also stored there.)
4. Point Archos to the folders for your videos (I've 1 for TV progs, and 1 for Movies - both have many, many sub-folders). It will catalog your collection and give you a nice super-quick, super-easy, interface to use.

Solution C ;
1. Leave the laptop or PC running 24/7 on your network.
2. Install Plex Server on your PC, and Plex Client on your other devices.
3. As with Archos you will point it to your collection and allow it to catalog everything for you.

In the future ;
You can replace your laptop/PC with the shared drive with a NAS whenever you see fit or funds allow.

I've used XBMC, then Kodi, then Plex, then Videostream, then Archos.
Archos is what we use daily, as it's quicker, more accurate at cataloguing, and more reliable over extended timeframes than Plex.
I've two MiBox 3's running Archos and playing back from a NAS. Archos stores resume points and other info on the NAS so you can move from one room to another and resume viewing etc
I've an NVidia Shield TV running as a Plex server, with Plex Client on both MiBox's. Archos is a much preferable way to enjoy your tv and movie collection.
In order of personal preference my choices would be;
1) Archos Video Player for Android TV (also run the separate All Codecs for Archos just once, which is a separate app)
2) Videostream (see https://getvideostream.com/ )
3) Plex

Edited by Corso Marche on Thursday 5th December 07:16

Corso this is so helpful!!

I have on old zoostorm PC which is very noisy. Either the PSU or fan I think.

I might replace these and get it super silent and utilise it.

[RizzoTheRat]

You might find giving the fans a good clean with the hoover nozzle does wonders for the old machine noise levels, but I would always make sure the PC is earthed when you do that.

[HannsG]

Well I took my 15 year old laptop out the loft and installed plex as a server and got the plex client on the Samsung and voila.

I've decided to cannabilise a old zoostorm duo core 3.2Ghz desktop I have.

I have purchased the following PSU this morning and will be installing it to make it quieter. Total cost around £30 odd to me.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/QUIET-System-Power-Supply...

Then I'm going to see how this fares before I upgrade to NAS if I feel like doing so.

[Corso Marche]

I started much the same way years ago. Ran Videostream on an old Linux laptop across wi-fi.
Eventually moved to a NAS.

Best of luck. Hope all works without too much hassle.

[HannsG]

Hi,

me again so I have built the server, New PSU, SSD, Upgraded RAM. Its much quieter now, but not quiet enough to be in the living room.

Looking at sticking on Windows 10 and ether Plex or VideoStream.

One thing I am thinking about is rather than have it on 24/7. Is it possible to have the PC/Server turn on when I am looking to save files to it or play stuff off it?

I keep hearing about WOL (Wake on Lan)

Edited by HannsG on Thursday 12th December 16:08

[HannsG]

Corso Marche said:

I started much the same way years ago. Ran Videostream on an old Linux laptop across wi-fi.
Eventually moved to a NAS.

Best of luck. Hope all works without too much hassle.

Gah. Lot of hassle.

I've been running Plex now and I'm very frustrated with the whole transcoding
Tried the Samsung app, tried the firestick app. Even resorted to Kodi and the plex add in.

Lots of stuttering and buffering. I assume the machines and clients are unable to play the files due to codecs and so on?

So what do I do?

Have yet to try video stream, or do I buy a synology?, Apple TV with infuse? Or a Roku? Or na Invidia Shield TV?

Feck knows.

Edited by HannsG on Wednesday 18th December 17:29

[bloomen]

Sounds more like network than files to me. Hardly any files I have, bog standard rips etc, need transcoding with anything.

[HannsG]

bloomen said:

Sounds more like network than files to me. Hardly any files I have, bog standard rips etc, need transcoding with anything.

Network how? Speed?

It's a local area network

[essayer]

What CPU is it? You can try changing the quality in the Playback Settings to try lower bandwidth settings to rule out network issues, if it stutters on 240p maybe the CPU isn’t fast enough

[bloomen]

HannsG said:

Network how? Speed?

It's a local area network

Are bits of it over wifi? Is it all definitely 5ghz? If it's defaulted to 2.4 it won't be able to transmit anything beyond low grade SD.

[HannsG]

bloomen said:

Are bits of it over wifi? Is it all definitely 5ghz? If it's defaulted to 2.4 it won't be able to transmit anything beyond low grade SD.

I have BT infinity 1 and can get speeds of upto 4MB which is st. Virgin media install tomorrow on 360MB though.

Its on both 5GHz and 2.4GHz, although I did switch it to just 2.4GHz to see if it would improve.

One thing though is the desktop is currently connected to the Internet via a powerline adaptor rated at 200mbps.

[bloomen]

I couldn't get my home network beyond cripple speed with a 2.4 ghz router. I had to get a 5ghz one to be able to get everything to play properly and it was about 10-15x faster transferring data.

I don't really get the entire concept of home networks but that's what worked for me.

[Corso Marche]

Try Videostream as an experiment. It'll only take maybe 10 minutes of your time. You'll know then if your home network is the issue or not.

I always found Kodi and Plex overrated. Plex can be a resource hog and noticeably slower when compared to other options. That's why it's a backup option for us if there's ever a problem, rather than what we use daily.

What OS is on that Samsung tv? Is it android TV or an in-house Samsung OS and app store?

[HannsG]

Corso Marche said:

Try Videostream as an experiment. It'll only take maybe 10 minutes of your time. You'll know then if your home network is the issue or not.

I always found Kodi and Plex overrated. Plex can be a resource hog and noticeably slower when compared to other options. That's why it's a backup option for us if there's ever a problem, rather than what we use daily.

What OS is on that Samsung tv? Is it android TV or an in-house Samsung OS and app store?

It's a 2019 Q70R. Inhouse and Samsung apps is the software