Hi,
I currently have a great setup at home with my NAS (DS2413+) and an Alienware Alpha which runs my PMS.
Perfect by the way.. recommend it to anyone who loves Plex (maybe more than we ought to) and want to play anything.
I would like to set up something for my parents on more of a budget.
They currently play their media via a USB drive and an ACRyan Media Box, but they really need PLEX. For all the reasons we all already know why Plex is better so I won't preach to the converted.
They just need a solution with Plex. Period.
I see the setup as: PMS on a NAS and playing it via the PLEX app on their Samsung smart TV with the NAS connected to 1GB network and the TV on wifi. I have read samsung can direct play MKV, but I imagine this depends on the content. I have no experience of this.
Most of the media will be H264 and x264 in MKV container, mostly 720p but maybe some 1080p with bitrate around or under 10Mbps.
I am trying to decide between DS716+ or DS216play. The Latter has a lot of hype currently, but I think the hardware encoding isn't something Plex would make use of, so I am leaning towards DS716+ as the price is not too much different.
I was also considering DS415+ just because of the size difference, although I would initially be setting it whichever solution with only 2x5TB WDRED disks because of budget reasons. How does this compare to DS716+ in terms of performance?
* Happy for ANY advice or experience regarding the choice of NAS.
I think though my main question is about the Samsung TV and PMS from a NAS.
* Will the TV Direct Play so transcoding is not needed?
* Will this play ok over wifi as long as the NAS plugged directly to the switch/router?
* If i do have to direct stream, which NAS will be most capable given the media it will be playing?
Thank you in advance for any suggestions/help
Rae