FreeNAS 4K Plex Server

[cv15xbmc]

Hi Guys,

Thinking of pulling the trigger on a FreeNAS set up that will allow for plex plugin to transcode 4K UHD rips. I don't believe their are any brand NAS's that can do 4K UHD rips with ease at the moment (that are a reasonable price). Most of my content is just standard 1080p in mp4/avi/hevc but I am building quite a collection of 4K dvd's so I want to eventually rip those and have them digitally as well.

I won't need redundancy for the server as I have offsite backups and most of my stuff I have in physical form, but I need something powerful so it can transcode 4K rips if need be to stream to one device. At the moment my client is an Xbox One X but depending on how well Plex works, I might also get a Nvidia Shield.

Can anyone suggest any builds or minimum requirements? It's hard to find good cheap PC gear in Australia.

 

[Chris Moore]

Really? Look at the links in my signature.

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[cv15xbmc]

Really? Look at the links in my signature.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

Suggestions? lol currently looking through the hardware requirements guide, etc in your sig.

 

[LaserAllan]

One thing you are going to have to take into consideration when building a PLEX server that can handle 4k streams is that most lcients will actually transcode some or all parts of the stream.

I personally have a SM server with dual Xeon E5-2670v2s and they are beeing floored by 4k transcodes with PLEX.
I'd suggest that if you are going to build a 4k PLEX server you should first and foremost make sure that you are using a client that can direct play the stream. I think in that case you will be rather fine.

 

[Jailer]

I'd suggest that if you are going to build a 4k PLEX server you should first and foremost make sure that you are using a client that can direct play the stream.

This is the key with 4k content. Transcoding 4k puts a hurt on any system you could possibly build at a reasonable cost at this point in time.

 

[Chris Moore]

I won't need redundancy for the server

I never like to see that. Several people have come here recently with this idea that they just don't need / want redundancy. If you don't want ZFS for protecting the integrity of your data, you can just use a Linux or Windows computer to run Plex and probably spend less money doing it, especially with Linux. Then, in Windows or Linux, you can even use a GPU to accelerate the transcode, so that is another win for them.

There is no purpose in having FreeNAS if you don't want ZFS and with ZFS comes the need for redundancy at some level because it can't do the thing it does without redundancy. If you still don't want redundancy, pleas just go away.

 

[cv15xbmc]

I personally have a SM server with dual Xeon E5-2670v2s and they are beeing floored by 4k transcodes with PLEX.

Like one stream?? that seems insane.

I thought the integrated plex server was a more efficient way rather than a PMS machine. I would want to consider FreeNAS anyway because I'd rather have something customisable with more power than an off the shelf NAS. It might be something that I consider though anyway. I am pretty sure Plex on XBOX ONE X plays everything at the moment except for dolby vision and atmos.

 

[Jailer]

Your confusing direct play with transcoding. I would strongly suggest you head over to the Plex forums and educate yourself a bit before you go any further.

 

[cv15xbmc]

Sorry, I meant like one transcode not one stream. It just seems like a lot for one transcode. It's just crazy to thing with the latest technology we have with a high end server still can't transcode a 4K file without maxing out CPU usage.

 

[pro lamer]

It's just crazy to thing with the latest technology we have with a high end server still can't transcode a 4K file without maxing out CPU usage.

I guess because FreeNAS can't make use of hardware accelerated transcoding like GPU, Intel quick sync (or it's newer version) or even AVX-512 (I'm not sure if avx-512 would be enough and not sure if the only obstacle for Intel quick sync is that those CPUs don't support ECC).

On the other hand I heard of someone trying to passthrough a discrete GPU to a VM hosting an OS and software able to make use of the GPU but don't know if it was a success...

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