NAS set up and interface solutions

Will i need transcoding? steraming to the plex app on my Tv?
Good question.

What files will you be streaming? What TV do you have?

I can play a 4K rip with Dolby Vision on my Nvidia Shield without any transcode. My LG TV will play 4K HDR on the plex app absolutely fine. The little one's Amazon Fire 7, in the car on the way to grandparents with a ropey 4G connection wants to transcode the same 4K rip.
 
All Most MKVS

FIle size un likliey to be bigger than 4 to 5 GB. Both SD DVD rips and 1080p rips from blurays (compressed with hand break) 5.1 core audio.

TV is an LGB8 or will be streamed to PS5s or Mobile phones/Tablets ect. TVs and PS5 are all hardwired via thernet.
Router is the virgin hub 5. Internet is gig 1? not sure on the exact name.
 
All Most MKVS

FIle size un likliey to be bigger than 4 to 5 GB. Both SD DVD rips and 1080p rips from blurays (compressed with hand break) 5.1 core audio.

TV is an LGB8 or will be streamed to PS5s or Mobile phones/Tablets ect. TVs and PS5 are all hardwired via thernet.
Router is the virgin hub 5. Internet is gig 1? not sure on the exact name.
You will probably not be doing much transcoding unless the devices are cheapies or really old tech. I'm afraid it's going to be suck it and see for you, theoretical maybes are often trumped by real-world experience. The fact that most of your gear is hard wired is a big plus, the various tablets and 'phones on wi-fi, although the Virgin hub 5 is one of the better ones for wi-fi...well you will have to let us all know your real world experience after a couple of weeks.
 
All Most MKVS

FIle size un likliey to be bigger than 4 to 5 GB. Both SD DVD rips and 1080p rips from blurays (compressed with hand break) 5.1 core audio.

TV is an LGB8 or will be streamed to PS5s or Mobile phones/Tablets ect. TVs and PS5 are all hardwired via thernet.
Router is the virgin hub 5. Internet is gig 1? not sure on the exact name.
Nice, gives you 100mb of upload which would be highest bitrate for a full sized Bluray rip. Upload was the main reasons for me going with 1Gb tier with VM. Would love to get an symmetric connection but not happening any time soon round here.

All your devices should be fine without transcoding unless you have something very old.

So all this talk of transcoding, I tested a untouched 9GB 1080p DVD rip stored as MKV on my 2015 Fire 7 Gen5 tablet with Kodi connecting via a file share on my NAS and its fine. No reason to believe that Plex couldn't support direct play mode. Sadly the 8 year old Fire7 couldn't cope with a 22GB 4K rip for a 2 hour movie. Tried that and a 60GB MKV on a 2018 Samsung S9 phone which is the oldest working phone I have and both worked fine though fast forward, rewind and the controls were sluggish.

Thing being its easy enough to test if you are going to need transcoding or not. Put the file on a PC, share it out and then use a media player like VLC or Kodi on the client to see if it can cope with it.

EDIT: just tried a 4K rip recoded to 22GB 1080p and it shows the picture but comes up with 'Source too slow' message every 10 secs or so and pauses playback so I am guessing that its limit.
 
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Also remember that if you want hardware transcoding with Ples you will need a Plex Pass which costs £5 per month
 
Hi again all
Quick question with backing up all my discs again please.

I am up to around 5TB of back up now, doing my best to shrink everything down the best i can using hand break, and only around a third done. My question is, using the same settings, will a movie or tv with black bars , either at the side or above and bellow the picture, take up less space when shrunk compared to something full screen? or does it just compore to the bitrate the bluray was encoded in?

I am running out of space now, and still not in a position to buy the NAS unit and drives, but have a lot of varying file sizes when using Hand break.

I am using the slow setting, and RF 23 for encoding (modified 1080p HQ surround setting) i am only keeping core 5.1 audio either DTS or Doby digital as atmos and DTS HDMA seem to make the file sizes bigger. - Also using H264 for encoding. Should i be doing anything else to help keep the file sizes down?

At this rate, the nas drive will need to be at least 18TB to fit everything and still have a bit for expansion..

Thats 2 18Tb dives , plus the synology unit....NOT Cheap ! and i still cant decide which unit would be best for my needs either....

Been backing up since July now 😶
 

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