What do you use as your Plex server?

[Abaddon]

It's really the best solution for getting files to Direct Play, since sometimes the official application would transcode a file for almost no reason. I unfortunately had to move back to using the official Plex app because PlexKodiConnect slowly increases in storage size (ran out of room on my FireTV and MiBox S)


It'll also depend if the client supports the codec/bitrate. The original PS4 can't handle anything above 4mbps/720p, so it'll always transcode files down to that. Plex will almost always transcode anime (can be avoided if using the Plex application on PC or PlexKodiConnect on Kodi afaik) since it can't display .ASS/.SSA subtitles correctly. You'll have the option of converting it to regular SRT subtitles (loses special colors and formatting) or burning them in (reason for transcode). A little off topic, but Jellyfin handles this correctly I believe.

Looks like you're right about AMD hardware transcoding and Plex. They should update their support page

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Did you try out the Plex for Kodi add-on? I never got on with PlexKodiConnect, but the add-on works well. Basically acts as a seperate Plex client inside Kodi, but uses Kodi to actually play things so has the exact same compatibility. Been my go-to for years now.

 

[sca]

Yeah, you are right. Even the Mi Box S that I have in other room can direct play everything I have thrown at it.

I'm mostly worried about my laptop being on all day (energy and strain on the hardware).

Click to shrink...

It won't be able to play hi10p x264 files, almost no box does (with the exception of the SHIELD powering through it), but it's pretty much exclusively used for anime. There's barely a reason to use hi10p x264 if there's 10bit x265 support on the device

You could rent a VPS, dedicated server, or Plex server if hardware strain is on your mind.

Did you try out the Plex for Kodi add-on? I never got on with PlexKodiConnect, but the add-on works well. Basically acts as a seperate Plex client inside Kodi, but uses Kodi to actually play things so has the exact same compatibility. Been my go-to for years now.

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It's actually what I've tried before PlexKodiConnect. I forget why I dropped it, though it probably had to do with direct playing or that you can't use Kodi's UI. I'll try it again though, thanks for the reminder.

 

[DrEvil]

Synology NAS, it's great, handles 4K well.

 

[deimosmasque]

I use my gaming pc though through two hard drives separate form the the main one.

Though right now I'm have a wierd problem where remote access isn't working and has lead me to discover that Steam Link can't find my PC either.

 

[Kuro]

Just leaving a shoutout to the godawful buggy PS4 app that crashes all the time and legit makes me worry its gonna brick the thing.

 

[Dan L]

I have a bonkers plex server. DanFlix is pretty rocking.

About 70TB of content.

Share with about 20 external users
have 300/100mbs internet.

2700x system, can handle about 15 simultaneous transcodes.

 

[sca]

I have a bonkers plex server. DanFlix is pretty rocking.

About 70TB of content.

Share with about 20 external users
have 300/100mbs internet.

2700x system, can handle about 15 simultaneous transcodes.

Click to shrink...

very nice. Jealous of the upload speed

 

[linkboy]

I have a Western Digital MyCloud 8TB drive and I use my Nvidia Shield as a server. It works perfectly fine for us, but it's currently down as we just moved and I don't have internet setup.

 

[zzz]

What's the oldest piece of hardware that can still transcode 4K sources? Can my old 2500K rig handle it?

 

[Yogi]

Anyone know how well it works to use Kodi remotely by ftp server?

Right now I'm just using my gaming PC and using kodi to stream to my TV but it would be nice to access my media via phone remotely.

 

[Mrflood]

I built an UnRaid box and run plex in a docker. Used an old Dell i5 tower I found cheap on Kijiji.

 

[Mrflood]

What's the oldest piece of hardware that can still transcode 4K sources? Can my old 2500K rig handle it?

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No way, need something alot more powerful for 4K transcoding. That said, most players can direct play 4K streams, so I never have a need to transcode and use an older i5.

 

[Brandino]

My gaming laptop currently.

I tried a pi4, but since most of my endpoints are chromecasts, it had to transcode too much

 

[Ghostmate]

LOL at 'Naughty Stuff'. At least you know how to serve your clientele.

I use a QNAP TS-453A. It's no powerhouse, but the Celeron processor is adequate for 2 or 3 (???) simultaneous transcodes when necessary. I have 5-7 external users with various devices and some on connections that aren't always great, so the server transcodes down as necessary. Also, my upload speed isn't fantastic so I can't always direct stream everything to them.

I would not recommend the SHIELD as a server, unless it's just locally serving up files without the need for transcoding.. I tried using one and also my router as a backup server (Nighthawk X10) - but neither experiment went well.

 

[FernandoRocker]

I have a bonkers plex server. DanFlix is pretty rocking.

About 70TB of content.

Share with about 20 external users
have 300/100mbs internet.

2700x system, can handle about 15 simultaneous transcodes.

Click to shrink...

Honest question here. Do you guys sharing these kind of servers charge for this?

I would like to share my Plex server with my mother, but my internet is slow as molasses.

 

[secretanchitman]

2018 Mac Mini (i7 8700B, 512GB, and upgraded to 32GB myself). Absolutely overkill but I wanted something that is stable, quiet and runs macOS. For my media, I have a 4 bay HD enclosure from Mediasonic that uses USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 with 2x8TB Seagate drives and plan to get two more drives later this year.

Bandwidth is only 200/10 from Comcast but it's good enough for the amount of users I have and who watch.

 

[x3sphere]

I just use the same PC use for gaming. Have about 24TB of storage. It doesn't impact performance while gaming at all for me really, though I have a 14 core CPU (i9 10940x). It's always on 24/7 anyway so I see no reason to run a separate box.

 

[Lord Error]

I don't run a Plex server, but instead use Infuse player on Apple TV, with Time Capsule with 6TB disk as NAS. It works really well, and it's all totally seamless. That Time Capsule is probably the best Accessory Apple has ever made. It's a really good router, really good automated wireless backup solution, and with a relatively easily swappable HDD, it's a very good media server too. Uses next to no power when not in use, but it's instantly ready to spin up when needed.

 

[jwk94]

A dell xps 13 from 2016. I have about 30 tbs of data. This thing direct plays 4k content to my shield like a champ. I love it.

 

[reKon]

I currently have close to 60 4K/1080p films in my Plex library (around 1TB of data) and it keeps growing up every week, but I have been using my personal laptop as the media server for Plex. I barely take the laptop out of the house, but I think it's a little bit overkill for Plex, plus I don't know how much energy I'm wasting by using my laptop as the server.

What do you use as a server? A dedicated NAS? Can an NVIDIA Shield be used as a server (not a client) with an attached external HDD? Or how about an Apple TV? Something with enough power to handle 4K.

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Yes, I've done this and it worked very well. I've streamed from my house another state in the US

 

[lunchtoast]

Recently built one with an ASRock a300 deskmini with Ryzen 3400g. Has 2 2tb hdd. Also have 4 slot hdd Bay for expansion.

 

[reKon]

I have a bonkers plex server. DanFlix is pretty rocking.

About 70TB of content.

Share with about 20 external users
have 300/100mbs internet.

2700x system, can handle about 15 simultaneous transcodes.

Click to shrink...

hook me up fam

Recently built one with an ASRock a300 deskmini with Ryzen 3400g. Has 2 2tb hdd. Also have 4 slot hdd Bay for expansion.

Click to shrink...

I love this cases

 

[Vestal]

I run a Core i3-6300 with 32GB ram ESXI Server.
First VM Runs Ubuntu Server Plex and other Media related tools.
2nd VM Runs FreeNas for storage. Currently rocking 8TB of storage on it.

Usually serve at least 2 streams at home and 1 or 2 externally.

Just checked and the ESXI hasn't restarted in over a year, but I have updated both VMs with software patches and what not.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

my regular pc.

Click to shrink...

same.

I mean it's a 3900x system. if it can't handle some light multitasking without impacting other things, what was the point of the purchase?

I have a bonkers plex server. DanFlix is pretty rocking.

About 70TB of content.

Share with about 20 external users
have 300/100mbs internet.

2700x system, can handle about 15 simultaneous transcodes.

Click to shrink...

i'm callin the cops

 

[Dan L]

Honest question here. Do you guys sharing these kind of servers charge for this?

I would like to share my Plex server with my mother, but my internet is slow as molasses.

Click to shrink...

I do charge a modest fee ($75/year) to my friends who have access, my siblings I just give access to. I didn't originally but they actually requested to. I don't do it to make money. It covers the cost of upgrading my fibre to cover it, and the hard drives I add as I have a website set up for them to put in requests and what not. 8TB drives aren't cheap lol. I have been a data horder for years. I started this collection back in 2004, orginally running off of an old crappy laptop with SMB shares to my original xbox I modded with XBMC. Ran the server for myself using xbmc/kodi up to about 5 years ago when I had some buddies ask if they could get on and I switched to plex.

My server is done on the cheap. I literally just use USB 3.0 external drives (with two addin extra usb 3 cards lol) as they are the cheapest way to get data and the speeds are fine for movie files never had any performance issues. It is ugly as fuck as though.

Spoiler: Don't click - non existent cable management will scar you.

It just sits a corner of my storage room lol.

 

[FernandoRocker]

I do charge a modest fee ($75/year) to my friends who have access, my siblings I just give access to. I didn't originally but they actually requested to. I don't do it to make money. It covers the cost of upgrading my fibre to cover it, and the hard drives I add as I have a website set up for them to put in requests and what not. 8TB drives aren't cheap lol. I have been a data horder for years. I started this collection back in 2004, orginally running off of an old crappy laptop with SMB shares to my original xbox I modded with XBMC. Ran the server for myself using xbmc/kodi up to about 5 years ago when I had some buddies ask if they could get on and I switched to plex.

My server is done on the cheap. I literally just use USB 3.0 external drives (with two addin extra usb 3 cards lol) as they are the cheapest way to get data and the speeds are fine for movie files never had any performance issues. It is ugly as fuck as though.

Spoiler: Don't click - non existent cable management will scar you.

It just sits a corner of my storage room lol.

Click to shrink...

Oh shit. I known you warned us, but I wasn't prepared for that picture. 🤭

 

[Spinluck]

How well does the Raspberry Pi work as one?

 

[tmtyf]

Would a Synology with something like a Intel nuc be more power efficient than building a full rig?

 

[FaceHugger]

I don't use Plex, my router has a USB 3 port and can run a number of file sharing servers using it. I just use that when I am away on business or the internet goes down (common occurrence here in the stormlands). I have a 1 TB SSD I connect to it, can hold plenty of TV shows and movies.

 

[345]

The Nvidia Shield is supposed to be one of the better Plex servers, I'm quite certain it's only used with an external HDD. There should be plenty of youtube videos with people using it for that. The main drawback iirc is artwork and metadata get stored on the Shield itself, so you'll want the Pro if you have a large collection.

I just use my gaming PC, not that I really game on it much any more. I guess it's more like sometimes I game on my Plex server.

Click to shrink...

the older models are actually better for this because there's a microSD slot, plus nvidia sold one with a 500GB internal hard drive at some point.

i keep meaning to get around to setting mine up.

 

[hom3land]

Honest question here. Do you guys sharing these kind of servers charge for this?

I would like to share my Plex server with my mother, but my internet is slow as molasses.

Click to shrink...

I just share with my family. Even then I monitor usage with tautulli to make sure no weird ip addresses show up.

 

[ThereAreFourNaan]

Honest question here. Do you guys sharing these kind of servers charge for this?

Click to shrink...

Mine is nowhere near that hardcore, but no.

 

[qaz]

removed

 

[Swig]

A got a free i5 8gb RAM SFF PC from work (we all use laptops now, no one, aside from some very specific people use desktops). I bought two 6TB external HDDs and hooked them up. I copy the files from one to the other every night for backups. I use this for Plex, Minecraft server and random file storage. Works pretty well without being a NAS and for relatively cheap without having to build a server machine.

I have a Dell Poweredge in my basement, but its not running and one of the PSUs went out.. It seems like more hassle (and energy waste) to use that when I really dont need it.

 

[Kevers]

My PC. When I finally upgrade this machine I'll probably turn the old one into a server.

 

[Dan L]

pic seems to down

Click to shrink...

Hmmm I just had linked to my google photo may have been the reason, I threw it up on imgur and edited my post:

https://i.imgur.com/QNHwvPH.jpg

 

[kvetcha]

using my main PC right now, an i7 4790k desktop. Will probably do two new builds later this year on Ryzen 4000-series processors.

 

[qaz]

removed

 

[SliChillax]

Using the new Shield Pro attached to a 10tb HDD for all my 4K blu ray rips / remuxes. The Shield is awesome for upscaling 1080 tv shows which is why I bought it.

 

[Deleted member 25600]

My PC. I've considered getting a NAS, but they're damn expensive.

 

[Gavin Robertson]

That picture is amazing.

 

[Mobius 1]

A Synology 718+. Runs the Plex server really well even with 4k content despite the modest CPU.

 

[Deleted member 11796]

Gaming PC with a 10tb drive storing my media library. My rig is starting to show its age, so I'm gonna use this one as a dedicated Plex server once I get enough cash to do a nice new build.

 

[NekoFever]

I have an old Intel NUC running Ubuntu Server as the actual server, and that's connected to a Synology DS414j with 16TB of storage (12TB usable) that holds everything. All my Blu-rays are ripped to it as direct rips, and all my DVDs were run through Handbrake.

I mainly watch stuff through an Apple TV 4K so no transcoding necessary, but my box can handle 1080p transcoding for viewing on the move. I'll buy a new server better equipped to handle 4K stuff at some point but don't really have the space to rip my 4K Blu-rays yet anyway.

 

[CloudWolf]

Used to use my PC with external HDD attached, but I recently bought a lower end NAS (Synology DS218play with 8TB of storage), migrated all my media content there and set up a server on my Nvidia Shield Pro. Works like a dream.

 

[Mavis]

2012 imac, can handle pretty much everything but I haven't started converting my 4k blu-rays as yet, I think it will struggle. Looking at upgrading myself quite soon.

 

[Dan]

Amazon FireTV with Synology 1 disk NAS.

 

[GrinWithoutaKat]

I'm using a 2009 iMac with a 4TB external drive. For years I've been looking at getting a NAS, but to get something that can do the transcoding seems just as expensive as a new computer (although maybe I don't need it. Used to use PS4 as my main Plex player, but now use a Fire Stick). My router has NAS functionality, but when I tried it with a USB drive, it was just constantly spinning and making noise, and with it being in the living room, it was just too distracting.

 

[Deleted member 10234]

My desktop PC is the server (Emby, not Plex) and files are on a NAS. I don't accecss the stuff when I'm not home so I don't need to keep the PC on at all times.

 

[hom3land]

Hmmm I just had linked to my google photo may have been the reason, I threw it up on imgur and edited my post:

https://i.imgur.com/QNHwvPH.jpg

Click to shrink...

Why not just shuck them and put the hdds inside the case?