What is the best NAS for a Plex Media Server in 2017?

Which is the best NAS for Plex Media Server?

 Have you ever heard of Plex? Of course you have, why else would you have come here! So, you have made the big decision and want to put all your media (Pictures, music and video alike) in a network enabled device so you can access anywhere in the home, anywhere in the country and indeed, anywhere in the WORLD. However the entire task can appear quite daunting to those who are less versed in the wonderful world of data storage and the learning curve quite steep.

To assist in this arena, many companies have delved into the service of helping you share your data. Chief among them is Plex. Giving you the ability to not only share all of your data to more devices than any other service, they will also fill in the blanks in your catalogue. Providing Thumbnails, filling in descriptions and sorting your digital media files in a far more pleasing user interface. Think of the likes of Amazon Instant, Netflix and over Video on Demand (VOD) services and they are just a small bite of what Plex Media Server can give you.

 The first step to building a Plex Media Server on a NAS, is choosing the right NAS. Not all Network attached Storage devices are suitable for a Plex Media Server. A few of the key brands to look for are:

• QNAP
  
• Synology
• Netgear ReadyNAS
• Drobo
• Seagate NAS
• Western Digital MyCloud 

Plex, 1080p Output and Trancoding – What is the big problem?

 So, you’ve decided to buy a NAS for your Plex Media Server. But how do you know which one is the most suitable? The prices for Network-Attached Storage have really tumbled down in recent years and for as little as £100, you can really pick up a bargain. However before you get your wallet out, it’s worth remembering that those these lower end, home NAS devices will support Plex, they will not have sufficient hardware power to display a 1080p (HD) video file to your other Plex enabled devices. This is all down to something called ‘Transcoding’. Transcoding is the ability to take a large/small file and then change/convert it to a more suitable/optimised version for your destination device. For example. Your 4GB 1080p MKV file may look incredible on your Smart TV… but once you start streaming it your iPad, you will have a file that is too big, too laggy and less suitable for your device. This also works the other way around for larger devices and inevitably is the main reason many will spend the extra £100 and get a superior NAS. When you access a file via plex, the following will occur:

• Once clicked, Plex will request information on the media from the Server (your NAS)

• When it has media information, alongside with the available settings settings (such as Direct Play, Stream Quality, Direct Stream settings), Plex will determine whether it can play the media directly from the NAS as it is (Direct Play) or whether it will need help from the Server to adapt the file.

• If Plex requires hardware assistance, the NAS will automatically attempt to transcode the media file to a format that the Plex software on the destination device can use.

• The Plex software on the destination device will continue to play the file in the new format and will continue to do so as long as the NAS can continue to trancode the media quicker than the file is played. Otherwise the NAS will automatically downscale the file more to ease transit (lowing it to 480p for example).

 Different Media types use different media extensions (eg, Mp3 is a music file format that many are familiar with). Different formats are generally used for higher resolution files. So, typical formats you will encounter are:

Video codec (H.264, divx, xvid, etc.)
File container (mkv, mp4, avi, etc.)
Audio codec (DTS, AC-3, AAC, MP3, etc.)

As well as the Subtitle format(SRT, VOBSUB and PGS.

Be sure to check the media formats on the bulk of your collection to ensure that the media output you require is possible with the NAS you have in mind.

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