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Forum Discussion
Plex Cloud Alternative - ReadyNAS NAS Storage
Barb Gonzalez of SoundAndVision.com posted a great article about using ReadyNAS NAS Storage as an alternative to the soon-to-be-canceled Plex Cloud. We've posted a few snippets below. Read...
I purchased the ReadyNAS 214 specifically to run as a Plex server about 2 years ago. I have not had any ReadyNAS related issues in running Plex. I also run Tautulli for the statistics it keeps on the Plex server. It has been a great combination and met my needs.
I don't have any 4K content yet but expect to start recording some on my GoPro. We'll see how that serves up via Plex. :)
With typical home internet upload speeds, calling a NAS a "viable alternative" for remote access is a stretch, especially with 4K content. Since my daughter moved out, I wanted to give her access to my videos remotely, so I decided to set up Plex. She had a lot of jerkiness, which I thought might be from her WiFi. But even wired, it persisted. Ultimately, I set her up with ZeroTier so she can copy the files and then watch the local copy. That does require a bit more forethought, but works much better.
I probably could have set up transcoding to a slower bit rate, but then what's the point of having HD content?
- Yeah, I agree. That's why I never chose to transcode or even use dlna. I chose paying for more storage vs compressing. just straight rips to 3 dunes in my house. Though I've nevered considered playback for clients outside my network. Interesting. Perhaps transcoding to a smaller file size would be beneficial? But then I guess you would need 2 copies of everything.
I was referring to on-the-fly transcoding, so you wouldn't need two copies. There is a way to reduce it down, but I believe there is only one setting -- not one for local and one for remote. Not that I typically need local transcoding.
Sandshark wrote:
With typical home internet upload speeds, calling a NAS a "viable alternative" for remote access is a stretch, especially with 4K content.
That does depend on your ISP of course. FiOS has always had symmetric upload/download speeds, and they've been promoting near-gigabit service in my area for a while now.
Though the article focus is Plex Cloud (not Plex in general). That was a service that allowed you to create a plex library on Google Drive (and perhaps some other cloud storage). I played with it a bit, but I don't think it was ever linked to real-time transcoding.
Blanker-2 wrote:
Yeah, I agree. That's why I never chose to transcode or even use dlna. I chose paying for more storage vs compressing. just straight rips to 3 dunes in my house.
Well, I'd disagree on this one. DLNA is just another delivery mechanism, it has nothing to do with transcoding or the amount of storage needed. Playing back directly over SMB or NFS has it's advantages, but I don't think DLNA is relevant to space or transcoding.
Reducing a 35-40 GB BluRay down to 15 GB 1080p or so seems like a good option to me.
BluRays use much higher video bitrates than is needed, partly to support full random access. To do this they include a lot more I frames than are really needed for straight playback and chapter navigation. You can easily reduce the storage needed for the video in a typical BluRay by at least 30% (typically ~6 gigabytes) with no loss of perceptual video quality, even on high-end equipment. I'm fine with 1080p AVC at 8-10 mbps myself, which typically saves 10 gigabytes of space.
Another aspect is that most BluRays contain a lot of unneeded audio (lots of languages, and often multiple lossless formats (TrueHD, DTS-MA). If you filter out languages you don't speak, and eliminate some of the alternative audio formats you can shrink many BluRays by ~15 gigabytes or so, with no loss of quality at all.
- Your lucky. On Long Island Optimum has some sort of stronghold in our town that won't allow fios in.
Some dlna servers transcode. I keep it simple, ISO and I like menu support on some dvd and BDs, which as we know none of this is supported by most dlna AFAIR. And the iso allows me to put it back on disc in the event the original gets destroyed. No disrespect to compressing. I'm more of a "would it look better?" Kind of a person, so it eases my mind. Main movie only, one audio track, subs, and forced subs. And the dunes read java so I can usually avoid playlist obfuscation and all that. Where i compromise is not putting everything on the nas if I don't plan on watching it often. And I still get dvds for things like comedies. We'll see what happens when/if I ever get into 4k.....
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