Home media player help

[BGARK]

I have an older Synology NAS, connected to a new LG TV

Using PLEX media player to watch movies etc, however, with some files, it spends forever buffering and even has trouble with some sub-title tracks. Even though some movie files are pretty small, only a couple of GB.

I might upgrade to a new media player, maybe keeping the same hard drives.

Any suggestions, what is the best or latest kit out there these days that can handle and stream anything that gets thrown at it?

Thanks.

[Road2Ruin]

Firestick 4k

[BGARK]

Road2Ruin said:

Firestick 4k

Where do you save your own media files?

[alorotom]

There’s a hardware guide on the Plex website and forums ... a new symbology will do it tbh.

I have a iMac with external drives that runs all mine but appreciate it’s not the cheapest or most elegant solution.

[hutchst]

If you feel like a project you could try the quad sata hat on a raspberry pi 4.

[matt666]

BGARK said:

Where do you save your own media files?

Media files go on your NAS then use something like Kodi on the firestick to play them.

I have this set up and it doesn’t even struggle with 60GB Blu-ray rips

[xeny]

BGARK said:

Where do you save your own media files?

I put mine on the Synology and use VLC on a FireStick which works pretty well.

[h0b0]

matt666 said:

Media files go on your NAS then use something like Kodi on the firestick to play them.

I have this set up and it doesn’t even struggle with 60GB Blu-ray rips

Use the Plex App on fire sticks, much easier once you unpin the Plex free stuff and put your own back.

All my Plex issues have been down to the type of media and not size. If this is a buffer issue, then it could be down to transcode. Some formats are not ideal and take a bunch of pc power to transcode. Up until last week I was running a server from 2015 with HDs from 2011 with no issue for 4K Plex. I just updated the HDs and loaded windows 10 on the server and it’s like it’s brand new.

Edited by h0b0 on Saturday 31st October 12:13

[Paul Drawmer]

I have an old NAS which on my network. My TV is also wired into the network. When I want to play a movie on the NAS, I select it as the source on my TV.
I don't use a media player system.

[maccas99]

Paul Drawmer said:

I have an old NAS which on my network. My TV is also wired into the network. When I want to play a movie on the NAS, I select it as the source on my TV.
I don't use a media player system.

Yes, that's the basic DLNA way of playing media. Using Plex is different, you need the backend server and the front end player. Depending on the file format and size it will have different demands on the Plex server. Most new Synology NAS devices are capable of running Plex Server but some older ones will start struggling.

[page3]

BGARK said:

I have an older Synology NAS, connected to a new LG TV

Using PLEX media player to watch movies etc, however, with some files, it spends forever buffering and even has trouble with some sub-title tracks. Even though some movie files are pretty small, only a couple of GB.

I might upgrade to a new media player, maybe keeping the same hard drives.

Any suggestions, what is the best or latest kit out there these days that can handle and stream anything that gets thrown at it?

Thanks.

You may mind it’s simply configured for Plex to transpose format on the fly which your NAS is struggling with. I don’t know the LG app, but see if it has any direct streaming options as they may sort it for you. Personally, although I use Plex server I tend to use Kodi with PlexMediaConnect add on for client as it’s a more traditional home cinema app, more configurable and better featured.

[Paul Drawmer]

maccas99 said:

Paul Drawmer said:

I have an old NAS which on my network. My TV is also wired into the network. When I want to play a movie on the NAS, I select it as the source on my TV.
I don't use a media player system.

Yes, that's the basic DLNA way of playing media. Using Plex is different, you need the backend server and the front end player. Depending on the file format and size it will have different demands on the Plex server. Most new Synology NAS devices are capable of running Plex Server but some older ones will start struggling.

Thanks for the explanation; which leads me to ask why bother to use a media server? Doesn't it just make the whole job more complex?

[Road2Ruin]

It's mainly done as most TVs are a bit selective about what media formats they play and plex will play mostly anything. They are also usually rubbish in how they display and sort the media files, whilst plex is very good.

[paulrockliffe]

I would suspect the issue is with the TV. I had the same issue playing from Plex on a Raspberry Pi, the first one that's probably not really good enough, the simplest fix, is simply to use the Plex App on your phone and cast to the TV - It should support cast - if that works then a) you have a fix and b) you know it's the TV that's the issue.

The new Google Chromecast is really good though, I would fix your issue with one of those. It's not really a Chromecast anymore, it runs Google TV and plays everything I've thrown at it perfectly with Plex.