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Hey guys, i have some dilemma here. I want to buy a NAS, specifically Synology DS220j and I want to use it to store all my data, photos and family videos. I know and I am using Plex Media Server on my laptop to cast videos and films to my chromecast and it works well, but I want to store all media on NAS and then cast it to chromecast. The problem is: I heard about transcoding media to run Plex Server and it requires more advanced NAS hardware to run. I think the model I choose is not powerful enough to transcode the videos in 1080p. What happend if I buy this NAS, fill it with my files, videos and than I cast this files from NAS to Chromecast? Can this NAS handle this process? Most of my family videos are 1080p H264 with bitrate aroud 5 to 10Mbps. Mostly I will be casting only in my home in 1080p (maybe 4K in the future), so I don't need to run it outside of my house. Thanks for your replies and tips.

Does anybody have experience with broadcasting and Livestreams on a medium to large scale (input wise) Context: live stream of events, talks and lectures What we have: fully audio/visual networked building. 8 small lecture rooms, 1 big Auditorium. We get all signals to our server room and get them via hdsdi. The plan is to have simultaneous streams from all 8 lecture rooms and the auditorium. My questions are. What do you guys think is necessary "PC" wise. (Thinking of Intel Xeon because of thunderbolt) And some 2080ti or Quadros. The "capture cards" of our as of now choosing are aja io 4k plus. The audience won't be that big, 1000 people at max. Does anybody have aws or ibm streaming experience? Are there better European hosted services? I am just at the beginning of understanding what might and might not be possible. Any suggestion is extremely welcome. (It won't be suitable for us to have a dedicated streaming Server on premises, as we don't have the bandwidth for multicasts) Johetan

Hello and thanks for your help. So let me explain my current internet setup. I have DSL internet (no fibre available) and have it connected to a modem/router combo(router 1) unit which is connected via ethernet to another router(router 2) to act as an access point for better WiFi upstairs. My Plex server is connected to router 2 via ethernet cable. How can I access Plex from router 1 locally? I can't enable remote access on Plex because I have bad upload speed on my DSL internet. Thanks for your help

Hi everyone, hoping you can help advice before any money gets wasted The plan is to setup a Nas on a vessel accross 5 floors with up to 40 people at a time able to access. Everyone needs to be able to access wirelessly using either phone/tablet or laptop. Ideally downloading files to watch rather than streaming to keep the network fast. --The equipment I have looked at is: Terramaster F5-221 5 bay NAS, cloud storage, intel dual core 2.0ghz, plex media storage, network storage. -- 5x 8tb ironwolf NAS hard drives -- 5x ubiquiti network router, 2.4/5ghz, 450/1300mbps 120m range, Poe injector So the plan would be to have the NAS drive setup with a desktop computer, and a router on each floor conneceted by ethernet. 1. Is the hardware above adequate for this project 2. Which Nas software should we go with? (Windows would be preferred operating system just for ease of use) 3. Is plex the best solution for media access via the routers? 4. Is there any benefit to going with a drive such as an ironwolf over say a barracuda or mixing in ssd? Thanks for any help you can provide. Never setup anything like this before but an avid watcher of linus. I did suggest 100 bluetooth speakers but the guys on the vessel want video to haha Nedders

Hi all, So I just bought a Dell PowerEdge R510 and I'm gonna use it as a media and file server. Only problem is I don't really know what OS to put on it.. I'm quite new to the homlab world. These are my needs: I need to be able to create different storage pools; 1 pool RAID 1 with 2 drives for general storage (VMs, ISOs, ...), doesn't need to be a shared folder 1 pool RAID 6 with 5 drives for all my media, needs to connect to my PC (SMB share) and should also be accessible by a Windows Server VM and Plex VM/docker/plugin 1 or 2 pools with seperate disks for download; Sonarr, Lidarr,... also SMB share so I can access it. I looked at Unraid but that doesn't seem to be what I need (different pools), maybe FreeNAS (but does it handle Windows Server VM well?), ESXi is top choice right now; but what to do with my disks; do I pass them through to the VMs? Like I said I'm only a beginner when it comes to this kind of stuff, gotta start somewhere! Thanks

So I set the G8 key on my Logitech keyboard to "Open media player". This should open my default media player, VLC. Instead, it opens WMP. I found this strange since WMP isn't set as default for anything, including .cda files, which supposedly control this function. This isn't a serious problem, but is still a annoyance. Thank you, and have a nice day!

I have an old box running Ubuntu Server 16.04 with 2 gigs of RAM, an old AMD Sempron 3000+ to its name. I have a bunch (around 11 GB) of music files that I'd like to stream from it so I don't have to haul it all around on any device that I could conceivably want to listen to music on. I know Linus has done a video on this subject, and I was tempted to go with Plex per his recommendation, however, Plex has decided to change their business model(?). I don't enjoy the idea of subscribing to Plex so I can listen to my music that has a length of more than 1 minute. I tried using Subsonic for a time, but I later installed email functionality to the server and, for some reason, it stopped working. For me to use Subsonic, I'll need to either need to install it on another box, or work out what went wrong in the first place. In either way, I don't see me doing because computers don't grow on trees, and I'm not an expert at linux. So I'm asking you guys this, what software could I use for my purposes. I have an android phone so bare that in mind.

Hi I'm looking in to the option of using a NAS like the "Synology Diskstation DS216play" as my storage device for all my local movies and TV shows. As of now I am just using a 2TB external HDD plugged in to my TV which I use to scrape my content to the app Kodi. So my question is, would it work with just plugging the NAS in to my router then access the NAS wirelessly over my home network with kodi without any stuttering or lags? or do I need to also run an internet cable from the NAS ti my TV? how much of an impact does the NAS have on the performance as well as my network speed? it says on their website that it will handle 4K content. My internet is a steady 100/100 Mbit/s fiber connection.

Hello! I want to build a media server(PLEX server), NAS and i need a recommedation about what proccesor i need to buy: I want to stream content 4k to 3 tv and i don't know what processor to buy i5 or i7 kabylake (i read somewhere new kabby lake can do up to 7 streams in in 4k) can u please tell me what do u recommend to buy i5 or i7 kabylake? i search a lot on a google and i can t find nothing sure...

What internal media card reader should I get (1x 5.25)? Something like the NZXT Aperture, and within the same price range. Future proofing would be a good thing, too. I'm not the smartest in this area, so keep that in mind. ;{

According to the Polish news site MyGaming, the small-form-factor Sentry case recently funded their Indigogo campaign. The Dr. Zaber Sentry case, which Linus recently reviewed in this video, is a mini-itx form factor computer designed to compete in size with modern consoles. It's been in development for over two and a half years, and the designers are excited that it's out of prototyping, all manufacturing and supply lines are set up, and they are ready for production. According to an announcement on the Indigogo campaign, the case was extremely popular: As of the writing of this post, the project is 804% funded. A total of 667 backers have raised $156,840 USD in support of this case, with 21 days still left. For those of us with interest in SFF computing, the reason this case is so exciting is manyfold. First, it's only 6.9 liters and has an industrial aesthetic that I personally find very attractive. It's designed to be extremely durable, made with 1mm steel, because it's designed with the possibility of travel in mind; the case fits into many 17" laptop bags. It's also designed to be extremely easy to build in; instead of trying to maneuver a graphics card into the frame of a more conventional case, in the Sentry, the entire top lifts off, letting you slot the graphics card in, and then functions as the PCIe slot retainer when you put it back on. (They even sourced magnetic screws after Linus mentioned it in his review.) Speaking of parts compatibility, unlike other offerings in this size bracket (many of which we saw at CES 2017), the Sentry is designed to work with standard computer parts. It uses a SFX or SFX-L internal power supply (no need for power bricks that clutter cable management and make travel more of a pain), along with a wide variety of full-length and even slightly oversized graphics cards. For more information on the ridiculous amounts of power you can cram into the case, check out their Case Configurator partway down their main page. The community over on [H]ard Forum and here on Linustechtips has been integral to the development of the case, and have come up with many ideas about keeping your parts cool and quiet in such a small form factor. Popular ideas have included modifying the mounting bracket on an LGA 2011 cooler to keep even a 91W CPU cooled more than adequately, and replacing the cooler of a reference-style GTX 1070 with the cooler from a 1080, bought for cheap on Ebay. This way you don't have to deal with the sub-par Founder's Edition cooler of the 1070 and instead cool it with the same vapor-chamber heatsink as handles the 250W Titan XP, all for less than a 1070FE would cost. As Linus Media Group likes to point out, Kickstarter, Indigogo, and all the other crowdfunding opportunities are often things to be wary of, but in the case of the Sentry, I wholeheartedly vouch for the Dr. Zaber boys. They took their time prototyping, going through multiple machine shops and tweaking the design until they found a shop that could do what they needed. They ensured their suppliers would come through and that the shop was able to clear its other orders and just focus on making Sentry cases when the time came. After looking at all their options for selling the case, they decided on an Indigogo campaign, at least at first, in order to more easily navigate EU law and be able to get their case into the hands of fans all around the world. This is not funding their project, nor allowing them to have the funds to design it; that process took nearly three years and all came out of their pockets. If you're interested in small form factor computers, I highly, highly recommend checking this out; it's the elite among the elite, standing up there with some of the best and most famous designs among the computer including the Ncase M1, The Dan-A4, and the Falcon Northwest Tiki. If you're interested, check out the links above: although the first batch of black cases is sold out, a limited-edition white case is still available, or you could opt for a "Long Run" black case, to be produced after all the first batch orders are fulfilled. The designers of the Sentry anticipate that cases will be shipping to backers within 1-2 months of the campaign's completion. EDIT: If you're interested in joining the discussion about this case, the original (and most active) thread can be found here.

Good Day Everyone! I just recently got back into computer modding, after a long stint of using Mac's and well... Not modding. I ran across the LTT Youtube channel several months ago, and have to say it has brought me back into the game, so I figured what would be better than to share my new idea and hopefully build with the LTT community. I am the father of three quickly growing kids, and a dynamic shift has started in my household, I have gone from the primary consumer of tech, to the secondary consumer, behind the three kids. Our demand for media, access, and gaming, is growing at an alarming rate. My mac book windows machine and xbox, is quickly becoming underwhelming. As a solution to the ever growing need for tech in my home, the media wall was conceived. The Plan: Wall mount a PC that will act as a NAS/Media Server for the whole home. I have a man cave/ office that will house the machine, and because of that I wanted to make it a piece of art that could hang on the wall as much as an useful piece of equipment. I would love any feed back that you might have as this is simply in the planning stages of its life. The build will consist of 2 Thermaltake Core P5's that for lack of a better term will be smooshed together to create what appears to be one large wall mounted unit (See crappy renders attached to this post). The tripple rad is overkill, however I think it will make for a great conversation pieces, and is for aesthetics only. I plan on running several HDD's in some sort of Raid setup with a single SSD OS drive. Hope to find a decent but not overly powerful GPU, again just for aesthetics. I will keep this updated as I make progress. Any input you might have at all would be amazing!

Okay so my question is sort of: What is Disqus? But more importantly, why is my Facebook account linked to it? And how is it linked to it? I saw my email address listed in the comments section of an article asking me to verify it. I was confused as to how it knew my email and it turns out it's associated with my Facebook and an old version of my Facebook as well ie. It was using a very very very old picture so I am assuming this is one of those ways to link social media accounts together and comment on articles? I never engage in social media buttons and features outside of the social media sites themselves due to privacy concerns. My issue is I know as a fact I have never heard of Disqus and never created an account with them. Site: https://disqus.com/

I am looking for a good 24" or 27" monitor to use for recording games and streaming on Twitch. I would prefer the aspect ratio to be 16:9. I am not willing to spend more than $200 on this monitor. Thanks for the help.

Hi, When I use plex over night my Desktop losses connection affecting the server. Is this a common issue or cant my modem handle streaming my 20gb.mkv files over a local connection? Other Questions: I use makemkv to encode my movies to the server would it be better to encode them and lower the file size to help solve this issue? Cheers.

Okay, so I'm looking for some software that can lock a Windows "UWP" App into focus and prevent closing, minimizing or 'Crtl + Alt + Del' and especially preventing external hotlinking/URI's. So that the user can only interact with THAT APP. It could be closed with a key combo like 'Ctrl + Alt + Del' maybe plus a password box. Uhm thanks

Hey guys, I cannot seem to get a right case for the project i'm doing at work. Since i work at a Sound & Light place and we bought ourselfs a nice huge ledwall to play with. I want to buid a media server / Visuals PC in a flightcase, to produce our visuals , video mapping etc. with resolume or madrix and that sort of things. Since it needs to go on jobs we offcourse want this all nice and safe in a Flightcase. i already found a nice Flightcase with rack mounting inside. The Flightcase is 4U in front and 10U on top. The idea is to get a 2U server / rack case for the build itself, 1U for a drawer to store the mouse / keyboard and other things and then save the last 1U slot for a rackmounted flip up monitor. Well here is the snatch. To build this machine i prefere to have a 2U case capable of housing a full length GPU (if i need a 90° pci-e risers i don't mind). BUT the flightcase can only handle 45cm of rackable length so idealy less would be nice, because i want to keep it wired and connected in the back. and front USB's would be a nice thing than I already searched around for it but i cannot find a good fit for the project , perhaps you guys can help me with sourcing one out Maybe some details , i'm located in belgium so perhaps a case i can find in europe would be nice. So i do't pay a metric butload on shipping costs.

Hi, I am looking to build up a media library and have a ton of music, a few movies and a few shows. I was wondering where you guys get all your Plex media from especially videos? I'm looking for legal methods!!! Thanks

I want to build a computer running something like the Nextcloud Audio player to stream my music. The challenge for it is keeping it as cheap as possible Standard server things like ECC and virtualisation are not a requirement and I don't mind having to reboot it every once in a while. Reliability just needs to be there to stream music that's on it for like 3-4 hours and that's the hardest load it will be getting. Storage is already provided as I am now running a (REALLY) old laptop which just doesn't cut it and I have installed a 500GB hybrid drive in it which I rather use in a potential new one. Any suggestions for hardware? I've looked into buying a second-hand consumer machine, but people don't know what they are selling and are overpricing crap machines (€500 for a machine running a Core2 Duo E8400 and 3GB of memory).

Hi, Just trying to make some backups of blu ray films that I own. To prevent data loss from my plex server. Does this Method work? https://www.dvd-guides.com/guides/blu-ray-copy/260-burn-blu-ray-avchd-using-imgburn Cheers

Hi guys, I am looking for an upgrade path for my current server. For right now it's serving it's purpose so I am prepared to wait a little longer to upgrade it. Here's what I have. Current Specifications MB - MSI Z77A-GD65 CPU - Intel Core(TM) i7 2600k @ 4.2ghz RAM - 32GB HyperX Fury GPU - MSI GeForce GTX 580 (Used for trans coding) Boot drive - Samsung 850 Evo 250GB (does the job) OS - Windows Server 2016 Datacenter The storage on the other hand is slightly more complicated and is where I would like to see significant improvements. Right now I have 3x 2TB WD Red drives in a RAID 5 using the on board raid controller... but here's where it gets dicey... That array is then combined in software (Using Windows Server File and Storage Services) with another Samsung 850 Evo 250GB in SSD Tiering mode. This is done to improve the read write speeds of the array and I get on average 500MB/s speeds on the array. The aim here is to saturate my network link of 1gbit and the hardware raid on its own was way too slow for me to be satisfied. I know this configuration is by no means ideal and I am very concerned for my data which is why I want t improve on this first and is one area where I would like a lot of advice on what to do and what products will support my needs here. I use this server primarily for storage of most of my data including my very large collection of movies which I host from this server through Plex to all of my many Chromecasts scattered about the house. For now this is doing just fine but storage capacity will need to be expanded in future when I start wanting to consume more 4k UHD content and I will certainly need to have some significant transcoding power if I want to start getting more 4k sources. Aside from it being used as a home media center though, I also use Hyper-V to host some Virtual machines on this system that are primarily used for development purposes... The main guest on this system is a Windows Server Standard 2016 development server used as a RAS (Remote Application Server) with Remote Desktop Services. I run a lot of my development applications through RemoteApp such as Visual Studio 2013/2015/2017 Pro (different versions to meet the requirements of different solutions I work on) I don't have a lot of upfront cash and would like to upgrade bit by bit... starting (I hope) with the storage. I would like to have a high enough storage speed to saturate my network link while still having some redundancy and would like to maintain as much expand ability as possible if I want to add more drives in future (I am satisfied with having to move all of my data off the array before expanding it if that's what is required for me to maintain the current architecture) I have tried software ZFS storage solutions in the past such as FreeNAS and UnRAID but this simply did not meet my windows requirements for running RAS., In addition to this the reliability of simply put... awful. I have so far had near 100% up time with my windows server since I made the move and I am very satisfied. So to cut the rambling short, here are my requirements Storage redundancy that doesn't rely on any one drive High enough storage capacity for a large media collection High enough storage speeds to saturate my network link (preferably 2 times over at 200 - 250MB/s) High CPU clock speed to deal with media encoding and virtualisation High volume of memory to deal with virtualization Some advice wold be very much appreciated. I do ramble a lot and may not have made myself very clear in places so feel free to pick me apart on that point to get any more information that would be useful in helping me, and possibly others, on my quest to create a stable and expandable storage and virtualization server on windows. Thank you in advance for your help

Hi, Which is better external or internal hdd for storing your plex library? Like speeds and lag issues etc. Cheers.

Hey guys! I just bought a Windows 10 PRO key from a website. And downloaded the windows 10 media creation tool, but when it gives me te choice to select which version of windows do I wish to download on my USB, it only says "Windows 10", "Windows 10 Home Single Language" and "Windows 10 N". Which one should I use to install Windows 10 PRO? Thanks!

I need a new laptop for university. I'll be studying Media Production, so I need something that's fast, got long lasting battery, a decent amount of storage (i'll mostly be using external hard drive's but just in case), I just don't want to be spending an absolute bomb on it... I'm not spending more than £450 - £500 at the absolute most, but if there's anything cheaper but just as good then I'll prefer that one. I've tried looking but I can only find really expensive ones, does anybody have any recommendations?