Raspberry Pi 4b Plex

[NineEyeRon]

Budget (including currency): Cheaper than a 2 bay NAS...

Country: UK

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 1 plex stream of early 2000s TV shows and older (480i or whatever the standard was).

Other details: Needs to be quiet, is going in a bedroom or living room and is to replace using a gaming PC as a plex server.

 

Also needs to be small, has to fit on a small shelf or in a small gap.

The plan is to use a Rasberry Pi 4b kit (Bluetooth is good) and a USB drive.

 

Currently a bit baffled about file types, transcoding (I don’t think this is an issue but not sure yet) and if this will be snappy enough for its use. It is really just for the wife to watch her old TV shows, and sometimes me but rarely, if never, us at the same time. We will use the plex apps on our tablet to access the server over wireless, the pi itself will be wired to the router.

 

I’m thinking of getting a kit so I get a case etc, I have a raspberry pi shop I can cycle to so might go there.

 

Really just need some help validating the build.

 

1. What do I need to check regarding my file types (make sure I am not transcoding 720p and above as I have read this is not the right build for that)

2. What do I need to look out for when buying a usb3 HDD. Can the Pi power it?

3. How loud will this be? (Quieter than gaming PC I hope).

4. Is this actually going to work, loading times acceptable (doesn’t have to be super fast) etc.

 

Any help validating this before I go ahead is greatly appreciated.