Plex on ReadyNAS Pro

Jjnsgy wrote:
1. For a relative newbie, how do your players recognize the NAS via NFS or CIFS? I can disable ReadyDLNA, but need PLEX for ease of streaming for my non-techie relatives.

The only time I've used CIFS for doing media playback from NAS was when I was using Boxee. It's... OK. But if you're delving into DLNA or PLEX, you're doing far better already. ;)

Jjnsgy wrote:
2. I understand the lack of transcoding with DLNA. My Handbrake copy has 2 channels so I can use that for streaming even for my projector expecting my preamp to do the up converting. Recommend that over the 6 channel? Both will have to play through the bluray player before going to the preamp.

There are definitely different thoughts and approaches to this. What will make sense for you will depend on many factors. I will describe my situation and perspective and let you take away from that whatever you will. ;-)

As perhaps a side effect of my photograph processing workflow, I abhor keeping extra copies of files around. I have evolved toward digital negative (DNG) format as my primary hi-res copy -- I shoot in raw format, whenever possible -- and only export in lesser formats to publish/print; I *never* store these for myself. Similarly, transcoding is attractive to me because I can keep a single source media file and let it be translated on-the-fly depending upon however and wherever I might view that file.

At this point, some will argue that this is a waste because pre-transcoded files are much more efficient, you have original CD/DVD/BluRay media if needed, etc. But to me this is a hassle. Once I transcode a physical media, it gets stored away in a place I never ever want to go back to. My grandchildren can unearth those and gasp that we ever used such horrid products. I therefore want to rip the media into as good a format as the best device I use can display. So I preserve full resolution, I do modestly reduce bitrate, and I keep full audio (passthru, so doesn't matter if it's AC3/DTS/etc). I can see the argument for doing the other, but of course situations vary.

Jjnsgy wrote:
3. In regards to your 3 suggestions: How do you beef up a Pro 6?

About the only two ways I've ever heard of a Pro 6 being upgraded (for performance) are memory and CPU. I haven't upgraded my CPU but I have 8GB of RAM in it now. I run several NAS-side services -- Transmission, Automatic, PLEX, DVBLink (TVSource + IPTV), etc -- and found that default memory (my Pro6 was diskless) was way to constrained. I have not, as yet, had issues with the CPU. Newer PLEX releases have gotten much better about CPU usage and adaptive transcoding... I have had as many as three simultaneous streams going and simply not noticed an impact.

Jjnsgy wrote:
And if you have a Pro and are streaming 1080p bluray streams, what type of players do you have? As of now, my Handbrake files stream very well via PLEX using my Roku 2xs and bluray player.

My primary viewers are:

• PLEX app on Samsung Smart TV (8xxx)


• PLEX app on iPhone

I have also used or occasionally use:

• PLEX Home Theater (Mac or Win)


• Roku (various; have to manually adjust bandwidth)


• PLEX app on Android


• DNLA (PS3)


• DNLA (Samsung Smart TV, but really bad codec support)


• Windows Media Center

More importantly, on the mobile devices, is that I view both at home (WiFi N 5GHz) *and* remotely (HSPA+ or LTE). This, for me, is the real power of PLEX. I don't have to pre-think what, how, or where I view my media. I just view it. My favorite recent use case was iPhone 5, ship-board WiFi (meaning satellite), and PLEX. That was from the Bahamas, and my uplink at home is about 200KB/sec (nominal). I was mostly viewing 720p MKVs with 5.1 audio, but for fun I watched a bit of a 1080p AC3 just to prove I could. The only issue I encountered was occasionally having to relog into ship WiFi because of how they manage that part. And, for the record, we had unlimited WiFi with our suite so I wasn't too concerned about usage fees. ;)