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Thread ID: 135494	2013-11-10 22:22:00	Media Server suggestions & reccomendations	dugimodo (138)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1359346	2013-11-10 22:22:00	TL,DR: I'm considering setting up a Media server and I'd like some Idea of what people use or have tried. I keep my Media collection on an external 4 Bay USB 3.0 HDD enclosure (max capacity 16TB) but I tend to accumulate media "temporarily" on multiple machines that I'm not great at sorting out. Generally if I want to watch something on the TV or a tablet etc I copy it onto a flash drive and plug it in, does the job. What I'm starting to lean toward is a central media server of some kind so I can play stuff on whatever machine I'm on but I still want it to be on the external HDD so I can plug it in directly if required. I started by using the built in features of my netgear stora, it's pretty good and I can download directly to it but it's slow and awkward to set up & use and not the most reliable of things (tends to dissappear off the network right when I want to watch something but I think that might be the cable). mainly though it's way to small in capacity. Now I'm trying Plex which seems pretty good, got it working to my tablets and PC's and streamed a movie to two tablets and a PC simultaneously. I'm finding it a bit slow adding the media and finding what I want to watch but so far it's the best I've tried. Has it's own media centre for android & desktop etc. Tried and failed using windows media player library streaming functions, for some reason when I try adding media to windows media player library from an external hdd it doesn't show up on the network but local pictures do (which is all that's stored on the default C: location). BubbleUPNP for android seems to work ok with this and theNAS for the media that does show up. Considering Windows Home server or a linux based setup, but I really want to keep my collection as is on the external HDD's in NTFS format for the flexibilty it offers and I think both options use different file systems. No I don't back it all up, it's just too big. I back up the stuff I really don't want to lose, the rest I can re-rip etc if it ever happens. So, anyone still reading have any suggestions ?	dugimodo (138)
1359347	2013-11-11 00:40:00	Not much to say on media servers, but there is no problem using NTFS on *nix.	fred_fish (15241)
1359348	2013-11-11 00:51:00	Not much to say on media servers, but there is no problem using NTFS on *nix. Agreed, would suggest Linux based. http://www.havetheknowhow.com/	Webdevguy (17166)
1359349	2013-11-11 01:37:00	I have a synology 412+ NAS box with two bays filled each with 3 Tb drives. I use it as a central store of family photos and videos, ripped copies of my DVDs and my music (CD) which I have ripped into FLAC. There is a version of Plex Media server available for this box which I use to supply video to plex client apps running on an ipad, HTC One phone and a raspberry pi running rasplex connected to a sony bravia tv (2009). This has worked very well. I havent tried 1080 video yet, the raspberry pi might be a little underpowered in which case I will replace it with a HTPC. Once I made sure that I had naming structure for movies/tv episodes correct I found plex found and downloaded plot summarys/posters/background music well. If I add a new movie the new data is downloaded within 5 minutes. My sonos speaker seemlessly connects and streams the flac files. I use the download station on the sonos to bittorrent host various software - mainly raspberry pi Os's and libre office. - no issues there. I realise there are cheaper options as my setup probably cost in the region of 2k, but it was worked very well for me and I have no regrets at all. Creating the thumbnails for the 1000's of photos was a little slow but at least the modern version of the upload program allows you to use the pc's CPU to do the maths rather than the atom processor. I just let it run at night and it took about a week. A.	afe66 (13778)
1359350	2013-11-11 02:04:00	Anything running XBMC should be fine. Raspberry Pi is a little underpowered for the higher-bitrate scenes of 1080p movies but there's other similar devices out there... Then you can just stream everything across the network from whatevs, via SMB, no need for transcoding or anything either. Works great :D	Chilling_Silence (9)
1359351	2013-11-11 02:38:00	I use plex, plex on a server (10 TB internal drives), clients are roku, Apple TVs via plex connect, IOS and a PLex Plugin I wrote for NextPVR. I've also written a NextPVR channel for accessing NextPVR recordings from plex and a scaner for adding NextPVR recordings in as TV Shows (since our air dates etc don't match the US, the metadata isn't added. Takes a bit of getting used to but when going it works well. Not sure why you get a delay in adding metadata, isn't it being read from IMDB and thetvdb?	psycik (12851)
1359352	2013-11-11 05:21:00	I have Amahi home server setup on an old P4 running headless in the garage and a Raspberry pi connected to my TV although I don't have anything in HD so its not a problem	gary67 (56)
1359353	2013-11-11 05:33:00	The raspbery PI (running xbmc I assume) runs HD pretty well. 1080p is most likely ok, 720p it does well with. It hates our 1080i broadcasts though. I run mine through plex so they're transcoded down slightly.	psycik (12851)
1359354	2013-11-11 06:26:00	Yeah it helps if you overclock it, I have mine running 200Mhz fast, but you still notice it on the higher bitrate scenes. Otherwise it's probably a 9/10 overall performance... GUI is a bit laggy "in general"? EDIT: Should say though I'm still quite happy with mine... Just certain parts of "The Hobbit" that could be better, ya know!	Chilling_Silence (9)
1359355	2013-11-11 08:22:00	I use plex, plex on a server (10 TB internal drives), clients are roku, Apple TVs via plex connect, IOS and a PLex Plugin I wrote for NextPVR. I've also written a NextPVR channel for accessing NextPVR recordings from plex and a scaner for adding NextPVR recordings in as TV Shows (since our air dates etc don't match the US, the metadata isn't added. Takes a bit of getting used to but when going it works well. Not sure why you get a delay in adding metadata, isn't it being read from IMDB and thetvdb? I agree with this, I have had Plex for around 8mths now, and feel it has no equal, transcodes to device for codex and resolutions, any device anywhere in the world. You cant beat that. I have setup systems for dozens of people with this, you dont need a powerful system, Core2Duo will do, I especially like the metadata scraping...	SolMiester (139)
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