NAS for Plex on U4 - help a noob

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serpeantoz
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NAS for Plex on U4 - help a noob

Post by serpeantoz » Mon May 13, 2019 08:06

Hey Guys,

I am thinking about purchasing a NAS to store all my video files and I have a few questions (since I am a noob).

1. Is NAS/Plex a good way to watch and store video files on the U4 (I currently use a portable HDD connected to USB)?
2. Is setting this NAS up for plex easy to do and is there a thread / web page that show us how to do this?

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MrQuade
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Re: NAS for Plex on U4 - help a noob

Post by MrQuade » Mon May 13, 2019 10:12

serpeantoz wrote:
Mon May 13, 2019 08:06
1. Is NAS/Plex a good way to watch and store video files on the U4 (I currently use a portable HDD connected to USB)?
The Plex client on the Beyonwiz PVRs is called Dreamplex. It is a community-written plugin that can connect to your Plex server and give you basic browsing and media playback functionality. It is not a polished and swish as your typical official Plex client, but it is a lot nicer than simply browsing a list of media file names.

It is helpful for keeping your video playback functions synchronised between devices, and the extra movie posters and metadata is nice to have too.

There are a few users who use the Plex client on a Beyonwiz PVR. I personally only use it on occasion, mostly for testing as I don't really need those extra tricks, and it is just more straightforward to browse a list of files.

You may want to consider a NAS that has transcoding capability as well. That's usually a feature on the more powerful and expensive models. A Plex server than can transcode will automatically convert file formats on the fly if the files are incompatible with any of your Plex client devices. This shouldn't be a big problem for the U4 though.
serpeantoz wrote:
Mon May 13, 2019 08:06
2. Is setting this NAS up for plex easy to do and is there a thread / web page that show us how to do this?
The Plex server will be built-in, or be a plugin for your NAS, so the instructions will depend on what NAS you buy, and should be supplied by your NAS vendor.
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Gully
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Re: NAS for Plex on U4 - help a noob

Post by Gully » Mon May 13, 2019 16:02

Hi serpeantoz and welcome

A NAS is a great way to store and access videos for watching with a U4, that's what I do.

As for Plex, I have mixed feelings because of the transcoding that MrQuade mentioned. That's often how Plex manages higher resolution files and in the process it has to reduce the file size and of course the resolution and/or bit rate. It may not give you the best with a 4k file for example.

Mind you others might have had better results.
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peteru
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Re: NAS for Plex on U4 - help a noob

Post by peteru » Mon May 13, 2019 17:27

IMNSHO Plex is a WOFTAM.

Just go for a solid NAS solution and ignore Plex.

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Re: NAS for Plex on U4 - help a noob

Post by MrQuade » Mon May 13, 2019 18:05

peteru wrote:
Mon May 13, 2019 17:27
IMNSHO Plex is a WOFTAM.

Just go for a solid NAS solution and ignore Plex.
In a way I agree that Plex is overkill if you have decent media player client hardware already.

I originally started playing with Plex because I wanted something that would work on my PS3, and then discovered just how widespread the client support was. So having a consistent (or nearly consistent) experience across a wide variety of client devices is a big plus.

The big problem is that the bloody thing is based on DLNA. Now it is somewhat better than regular DLNA in that they can control both the server and client side of the equation, so the inter-operation between all the flavours of client software is better, but it is still not perfect yet. As Gully pointed out, while the transcoding is handy in some cases, other times it will activate when you don't need/want it to, and you end up with a poor quality result, and your NAS server gasping for CPU resources.

I much prefer Kodi if you're talking about a capable media player that does media data scraping and can present movies in a swish looking library. I have run Kodi on the media PC for years, which has only recently been retired in favour of a NVidia Shield that I bought on the cheap.

Kodi has far fewer technical surprises in my experience, and also has the benefit of supporting quite a massive range of plugins. Where is falls short of Plex is when you want to continue playback across a number of different client devices. There is no simple, built in mechanism for synchronising playback position across multiple clients (you can do it with a bunch of plugins and some prayers though).

The V2 can run Kodi, which is pretty amazing I think. The playback performance of Kodi running on the V2 has a little way to go, but the fact that it runs at all is a great start. Once the V2's drivers and the basic software platform for the new chipset matures a bit, I think that Kodi would be the much preferred option over Plex.
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Re: NAS for Plex on U4 - help a noob

Post by serpeantoz » Wed May 22, 2019 08:19

Thanks for all your thoughts.

I will try and use the Synology DS918+ NAS as a files server and ignore the plex server for now.

I have set up the Synology on the network and put some video files in the "Shared Folder".

How do I access these files from the Beyonwiz U4?

Im a bit of a noob and still trying to work out how to access it from a PC on the same network.

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Re: NAS for Plex on U4 - help a noob

Post by Grumpy_Geoff » Wed May 22, 2019 11:12

serpeantoz wrote:
Wed May 22, 2019 08:19
I have set up the Synology on the network and put some video files in the "Shared Folder".

How do I access these files from the Beyonwiz U4?

Im a bit of a noob and still trying to work out how to access it from a PC on the same network.

Firstly ensure your U4, NAS and PC have a fixed, non-changing IP address (reserved IP address assignment by MAC address).

To access the U4's movie/movie directory from your PC (the U4's "Movie" share) enter \\beyonwizu4\Movie in File explorer (Windows explorer).
You should be able to assign this to Window's Quick Access. The U4 should also show uo in the Network section of File Explorer (although it can sometimes take quire a while to show up).

To access the U4's web access interface, OpenWebif, enter http://beyonwizu4 in a web browser.

To get to your NAS share, or a PC share, firdt browse for network shares to mount - MENU>>Setup>>Network>>Network browser.
Wait for the network search to complete. Select your server, provide user/password if needed (Windows shares nearly always requires it), the server should expand and available shares should then be shown (if it doesn't expand, select it, OK).
Select the server share to be mounted>>OK. Another chance at password, then the Mounts editor screen is presented with mount details populated.
At this point in time, don't change 'Local share name'. Press GREEN/Save, reply yes to save mount. You'll get a first popup, then press OK on the second popup (don't press EXIT). That should be it.
Exit back to live TV.

To access the share files -
In the media listing, press YELLOW/Location and it should list your network shares, then select the share - does your share work?

To go back to displaying files from your home movie location, press TV/RADIO button on the U4 remote (between STB and TV-OUT buttons).

If the share works, and you want to rename it, go to Mountpoints management (in MENU>>Setup>>Network>>Mount Manager) and change 'Local share name'. Press GREEN/Save. Again, don't press EXIT, let the prompts time out or press OK. Then reboot before doing anything else.

Is your "Shared Folder" using either of NFS or Samba/CIFS, and not DLNA?

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Altimes
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Re: NAS for Plex on U4 - help a noob

Post by Altimes » Fri Jun 14, 2019 18:22

Hello,

I am climbing that same learning curve as you right now on a 918+, so I am happy to share my discoveries. The Synology DSM seem to have its own kind of approach which to me was not "obvious". Anyone who has been there with DSM please feel free to chime in with any advice and / or warnings. In the way of full disclosure, for me, the NAS is intended to replace a hodge podge of external disks used as repositories for recordings, backups of PCs, Macs and iPads.

So far the sequence is Create a shared folder "Wiz", Create a local user WizUser, go into the shared folder manager and grant Read/Write to the Wiz user. Next mount the Wiz directory on the Windows PC (providing user WizUser/password credentials) within Windows, drag and drop into the mounted NAS Wiz folder. This all went OK for me.

Then follow GG's guide on mounting the NAS Wiz folder on the U4 using the username/password that you created on the NAS (hint, I picked a password that would be easy to enter using the remote :wink: )

Let me know how you go.

Alan

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Re: NAS for Plex on U4 - help a noob

Post by Altimes » Sun Jun 16, 2019 13:07

FWIW I have just given the 918+ NAS a bit of a performance hammering. Copying files off of three systems simultaneously to the NAS it was reporting a peak of about 180 MBPS, so living up to the advertising more or less. This is with the dual NICs connected as a LAG on a smart switch. So far a happy camper.

However,....... I have yet to find out if it is possible to get the native video tools / viewers to see the subtitles within the Wiz ts files :( , everything that I have tried so far effectively says “no subtitles here buddy”......VLC and the Wizen of course see them without issue :P

Alan.

T4, 4TB
U4, (small SSD)
IceTV EPG
LG OLED65E8PTA
Akai AK5021S6WOS
Sony HT DDWG800
Wired Network via Telstra Max2 - ASUS RT-AX86U, Netgear DGND3700, GS108TV2, WNDR3700
Synology 918+

serpeantoz
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Re: NAS for Plex on U4 - help a noob

Post by serpeantoz » Fri Feb 07, 2020 23:10

I'm not sure why, but lately when I am start browsing the Synology 918+ with the Beyonwiz U4, initially, not all the folders are shown. If I browse alternate folders and start watching something, all the folders are eventually populated - usually 10 seconds later.

I assume this is because the Synology 918+ is 'waking up' and takes 10 seconds to scan all the folders.

Is there a way / setting I can use to speed this up?

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MrQuade
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Re: NAS for Plex on U4 - help a noob

Post by MrQuade » Sat Feb 08, 2020 01:56

serpeantoz wrote:
Fri Feb 07, 2020 23:10
I assume this is because the Synology 918+ is 'waking up' and takes 10 seconds to scan all the folders.

Is there a way / setting I can use to speed this up?
Possibly.
I would advise you to not allow the Synology to sleep for starters. Server devices that are supposed to be "always available" should not enter sleep states, or you can get weird effects like this.

How are you accessing the Synology too?
If it is via dlna, then don't ;) dlna is just a crap protocol. Create a proper mount to a SMB or NFS share instead.
Logitech Harmony Ultimate+Elite RCs
Beyonwiz T2/3/U4/V2, DP-S1 PVRs
Denon AVR-X3400h, LG OLED65C7T TV
QNAP TS-410 NAS, Centos File Server (Hosted under KVM)
Ubiquiti UniFi Managed LAN/WLAN, Draytek Vigor130/Asus RT-AC86U Internet
Pixel 4,5&6, iPad 3 Mobile Devices

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