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Can I add a laptop to the plex setup that would be used to convert video instead of a weaker NAS?

FIXXX

There's a synology NAS with a Plex server Synology DS216j, but it's utterly unable to convert any video file that's not perfectly suited to stream on the local network.

 

I have a bit of an older laptop, but not TOO old which I'd like to install plex on, and somehow let that machine be used to convert/encode/whatever when the NAS server is unable to.

Is that a possible thing or will I have to create a totally new server and indicate the NAS as a library (rescan everything, put settings in again, etc)?

CPU R7 1700    Motherboard Asus Prime X370 Pro  RAM  24GB Corsair LPX 3000 (at 2933Mhz)    GPU EVGA GTX1070 SC  Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro M    

Storage 1 x 1TB m.2, 1x 500GB SSD, 1x 1TB HDD, 1x 8TB HDD  PSU Corsair RM1000  Cooling Thermalright Macho Rev B (tower)

Synology NAS 1 x 4TB 1 x 8TB

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Yah, you just mount the NAS on the laptop and point the Plex install on the laptop at the NAS for the folders and it will pull the files and convert them on the laptop.

Current Network Layout:

Current Build Log/PC:

Prior Build Log/PC:

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4 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Yah, you just mount the NAS on the laptop and point the Plex install on the laptop at the NAS for the folders and it will pull the files and convert them on the laptop.

Alright once I'm back home I'll try and see. Thanks!

 

If anyone else had experience with this - please share your experience!

CPU R7 1700    Motherboard Asus Prime X370 Pro  RAM  24GB Corsair LPX 3000 (at 2933Mhz)    GPU EVGA GTX1070 SC  Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro M    

Storage 1 x 1TB m.2, 1x 500GB SSD, 1x 1TB HDD, 1x 8TB HDD  PSU Corsair RM1000  Cooling Thermalright Macho Rev B (tower)

Synology NAS 1 x 4TB 1 x 8TB

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Just now, FIXXX said:

Alright once I'm back home I'll try and see. Thanks!

 

If anyone else had experience with this - please share your experience!

It's how I have my Plex setup myself :P

I have a Linux VM on a beefy server that mounts the NAS shares and it works wonderfully. The only thing to watch out for is 4K content doesn't usually play well with Plex but that's a Plex issue more than anything.

Current Network Layout:

Current Build Log/PC:

Prior Build Log/PC:

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1 hour ago, Lurick said:

Yah, you just mount the NAS on the laptop and point the Plex install on the laptop at the NAS for the folders and it will pull the files and convert them on the laptop.

OK.

So I installed plex on the laptop, and logged in with the same credentials as plex on the NAS. It offered to set up a library, I said no and skipped that step. 

It defaulted to the name of the server as the name of the laptop, but I switched it to the "nearby" option and got the one on the NAS.

But don't know what to do next.

The only viable option is to switch to the new server it created for the laptop, and set up the libraries again, that will take a while as there are lots of things there. I wanted to avoid that.

Yes, I did mount the two drives from the NAS as network drives for the laptop. But the existing NAS plex server doesn't offer an obvious way to add this laptop as a part of the infrastructure.

CPU R7 1700    Motherboard Asus Prime X370 Pro  RAM  24GB Corsair LPX 3000 (at 2933Mhz)    GPU EVGA GTX1070 SC  Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro M    

Storage 1 x 1TB m.2, 1x 500GB SSD, 1x 1TB HDD, 1x 8TB HDD  PSU Corsair RM1000  Cooling Thermalright Macho Rev B (tower)

Synology NAS 1 x 4TB 1 x 8TB

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Plex isn't a *cluster* application. 

You're basically setting up like new, but when you create your libraries you point to the shared folders on your NAS (or drives mapped to your NAS). 

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2 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

Plex isn't a *cluster* application. 

You're basically setting up like new, but when you create your libraries you point to the shared folders on your NAS (or drives mapped to your NAS). 

So I'll make copy libraries on that laptop's plex web app - and identify them as such (to know the difference between those hosted by the NAS) - so when I'm on the phone I'll load that library hosted by the laptop - so the transcoding will be done on the laptop. Correct?

CPU R7 1700    Motherboard Asus Prime X370 Pro  RAM  24GB Corsair LPX 3000 (at 2933Mhz)    GPU EVGA GTX1070 SC  Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro M    

Storage 1 x 1TB m.2, 1x 500GB SSD, 1x 1TB HDD, 1x 8TB HDD  PSU Corsair RM1000  Cooling Thermalright Macho Rev B (tower)

Synology NAS 1 x 4TB 1 x 8TB

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I think you should be able to switch between them using the server switcher...unless thats a Plex Pass feature?

 

image.png.9da0fd01c2ebebac59b53063b8936bd9.png

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1 minute ago, Jarsky said:

I think you should be able to switch between them using the server switcher...unless thats a Plex Pass feature?

 

image.png.9da0fd01c2ebebac59b53063b8936bd9.png

 

Would it not be more comfortable to use just one server? Making a new one will require looking up all the settings I've changed in the original one.

Lemme try the first idea and see if it works.

CPU R7 1700    Motherboard Asus Prime X370 Pro  RAM  24GB Corsair LPX 3000 (at 2933Mhz)    GPU EVGA GTX1070 SC  Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro M    

Storage 1 x 1TB m.2, 1x 500GB SSD, 1x 1TB HDD, 1x 8TB HDD  PSU Corsair RM1000  Cooling Thermalright Macho Rev B (tower)

Synology NAS 1 x 4TB 1 x 8TB

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4 minutes ago, FIXXX said:

 

Would it not be more comfortable to use just one server? Making a new one will require looking up all the settings I've changed in the original one.

Lemme try the first idea and see if it works.

 

Well yes, it just seemed the way you wrote your question that you wanted to have both running. It would be better to just shutdown the Plex Server on the NAS and just run the one on the Laptop. 

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12 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

 

Well yes, it just seemed the way you wrote your question that you wanted to have both running. It would be better to just shutdown the Plex Server on the NAS and just run the one on the Laptop. 

Oh I see what you mean. 

The reason is that I rarely use my phone during the day. Plex from the NAS works ok for the TV, has wired access to the network, while the laptop has relatively slow wifi.

 

So when I go to bed I can start the laptop. Its' power consumption is small and trying to access the files via a network access app doesn't appear to work. Plus plex follows your progress.

CPU R7 1700    Motherboard Asus Prime X370 Pro  RAM  24GB Corsair LPX 3000 (at 2933Mhz)    GPU EVGA GTX1070 SC  Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro M    

Storage 1 x 1TB m.2, 1x 500GB SSD, 1x 1TB HDD, 1x 8TB HDD  PSU Corsair RM1000  Cooling Thermalright Macho Rev B (tower)

Synology NAS 1 x 4TB 1 x 8TB

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1 hour ago, Jarsky said:

 

Well yes, it just seemed the way you wrote your question that you wanted to have both running. It would be better to just shutdown the Plex Server on the NAS and just run the one on the Laptop. 

So making a library section within the same server appeared to work ok. Though had to tell it to use VLC rather than the plex player, that one appears to want to access local storage and create a new file.. thought maybe it's a local copy the file it wants to play, but there's no indication of buffering being done. Odd.

VLC appears to access it ok.

 

Thanks for the info!

CPU R7 1700    Motherboard Asus Prime X370 Pro  RAM  24GB Corsair LPX 3000 (at 2933Mhz)    GPU EVGA GTX1070 SC  Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro M    

Storage 1 x 1TB m.2, 1x 500GB SSD, 1x 1TB HDD, 1x 8TB HDD  PSU Corsair RM1000  Cooling Thermalright Macho Rev B (tower)

Synology NAS 1 x 4TB 1 x 8TB

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You can task Plex to pre-transcode via "optimized versions" which may help. So as new media is added it will begin converting it to whatever resolution you want. It will create a new file to do this, so it will require more space.

 

Unless the laptop is your main laptop, one thing you could do is enable WOL (wake on LAN) and set it so when the lid is closed it does nothing. Then move it to where your NAS is and plug in an ethernet cord. That way when you get home you can just send a WOL packet to it, turn it on and enjoy plex. Then when you're done just RDP to it or create a batch file to shut it down.

 

shutdown -/m IPADDRESS -s -t 1 

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2 hours ago, Mikensan said:

You can task Plex to pre-transcode via "optimized versions" which may help. So as new media is added it will begin converting it to whatever resolution you want. It will create a new file to do this, so it will require more space.

 

Unless the laptop is your main laptop, one thing you could do is enable WOL (wake on LAN) and set it so when the lid is closed it does nothing. Then move it to where your NAS is and plug in an ethernet cord. That way when you get home you can just send a WOL packet to it, turn it on and enjoy plex. Then when you're done just RDP to it or create a batch file to shut it down.

 

shutdown -/m IPADDRESS -s -t 1 

Yup found the optimization thingy, the NAS was really, really slow to do it, so i'll investigate how the laptop manages it.

The network closet, so to speak, is tight, and hot already :) so the laptop cannot really fit properly. I did think to use WOL, but the previously mentioned issue is limiting my possibilities. 

Hard enough to appease my wife not to "clean up" that place - but trying to pass an ethernet cable to where the laptop is nested.

I'll leave it as it is, for now.

Thank you!

CPU R7 1700    Motherboard Asus Prime X370 Pro  RAM  24GB Corsair LPX 3000 (at 2933Mhz)    GPU EVGA GTX1070 SC  Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro M    

Storage 1 x 1TB m.2, 1x 500GB SSD, 1x 1TB HDD, 1x 8TB HDD  PSU Corsair RM1000  Cooling Thermalright Macho Rev B (tower)

Synology NAS 1 x 4TB 1 x 8TB

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5 minutes ago, FIXXX said:

Yup found the optimization thingy, the NAS was really, really slow to do it, so i'll investigate how the laptop manages it.

The network closet, so to speak, is tight, and hot already :) so the laptop cannot really fit properly. I did think to use WOL, but the previously mentioned issue is limiting my possibilities. 

Hard enough to appease my wife not to "clean up" that place - but trying to pass an ethernet cable to where the laptop is nested.

I'll leave it as it is, for now.

Thank you!

Well darn, worth a thought anywho. Though honestly the laptop should be able to handle the heat if you wanted to chance it.. I left mine in a closed closet with a Dell C1100 server for over a year without any issue (though my laptop was running m0n0wall at the time, not very CPU intensive).

 

Last idea - would an ethernet powerline adapter help at all? They won't do gigabit speeds but they should at least keep up with most internet upload speeds.

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1 hour ago, Mikensan said:

Well darn, worth a thought anywho. Though honestly the laptop should be able to handle the heat if you wanted to chance it.. I left mine in a closed closet with a Dell C1100 server for over a year without any issue (though my laptop was running m0n0wall at the time, not very CPU intensive).

 

Last idea - would an ethernet powerline adapter help at all? They won't do gigabit speeds but they should at least keep up with most internet upload speeds.

The closet, is more of a closed shelf, it has the NAS with two drives, another external drive, 3 routers (one for the fiber translation, another for the gigabit service and most routing needs, and a 3rd one that is a backup, serving as an access point + it has AC wifi) and a power adapter for 110v to 220v. All of that - in a relatively small space makes a decent amount of heat causing the NAS to work at nearly 40' celsius. A laptop there will not make it better at all :)

 

PS: Image may show it has some room, but it was left intentionally otherwise all the heat stays inside with no way to move.

20190311_195630.jpg

CPU R7 1700    Motherboard Asus Prime X370 Pro  RAM  24GB Corsair LPX 3000 (at 2933Mhz)    GPU EVGA GTX1070 SC  Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro M    

Storage 1 x 1TB m.2, 1x 500GB SSD, 1x 1TB HDD, 1x 8TB HDD  PSU Corsair RM1000  Cooling Thermalright Macho Rev B (tower)

Synology NAS 1 x 4TB 1 x 8TB

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