ReadyNAS 102 - Adding drive 2 & Plex / Torrent

mesteele101 wrote:
I just ordered a RN10200 to move my Plex streaming from my windows box to a dedicated device.

That works fine, though hopefully you are aware that the RN102 is not capable of transcoding.

mesteele101 wrote:
Question 1) Will I be able to slide the 4TB drive 2 in at a later time and mirror (RAID-1) without loosing all the information on drive 1?

Yes. The default RAID setting of "xraid" will do exactly that. Just hot-insert the second drive and it should happen automatically.

StephenB wrote:
mesteele101 wrote: I just ordered a RN10200 to move my Plex streaming from my windows box to a dedicated device. That works fine, though hopefully you are aware that the RN102 is not capable of transcoding.

I'm not really sure about transcoding. I'm using the Roku 3 on a wired gigabit / wireless N network. I just checked my Roku 3 and Transcoding was set to automatic. I guess I need to find/ask more questions about how to make Plex on the ReadyNAS 102 and the Roku 3 optimal? The video files I view are; .avi, .mp4, and .mkv

StephenB wrote:
mesteele101 wrote: Question 1) Will I be able to slide the 4TB drive 2 in at a later time and mirror (RAID-1) without loosing all the information on drive 1? Yes. The default RAID setting of "xraid" will do exactly that. Just hot-insert the second drive and it should happen automatically.

That makes it easy.

mesteele101 wrote:
The video files I view are; .avi, .mp4, and .mkv...

You might want to check further on this, but I believe the Roku 3 only supports MP4 (with H.264 and AAC audio) for direct streaming. The codecs (H.264/AAC) create the need for transcoding, not the format. Most MKVs use H.264 for video, but AC3 or DTS audio. AVIs are all over other map, but many use xvid for video and mp3 for audio.

If the info I saw on the Roku3 is true, you'll only be able to watch the mp4s with the RN102.

Options include
(a) converting your other media to mp4 before viewing it,
(b) getting a new player that supports more codecs.
(c) upgrading the RN102 to a NAS with a more powerful CPU - a RN312 perhaps, or a RN514.

(a) is free, but tedious. (b) is probably less expensive than (c). You could look into the WDTV Live (which can connect via plex, but also can access the NAS shares directly).

I just don't want to be needing more at a later date if needed. I have the option to return the RN10200 and order the RN31200. If I'm going to have problems I can do that.

I use uTorrent for grabbing videos off the web, usually they are MP4's x264 (whatever that means).

These are the things I'd like to task the ReadyNAS for;
1) Run the plex server
2) Run the torrent software pulling from an RSS feed
3) Nightly system backups (usually takes about 30 minutes)
4) Stream files to my Roku3 using the Plex app
5) Stream to my Nexus10 using the Plex App

Usually 4 and 5 never happen at the same time.

mesteele101 wrote:
I just don't want to be needing more at a later date if needed. I have the option to return the RN10200 and order the RN31200. If I'm going to have problems I can do that.

Then I'd recommend that you do that.

I don't run torrent add-ons on my ReadyNAS, so I can't speak to your questions on that topic.