NAS & Plex - setup help

[iconic]

Hi there

I have a QNAP NAS on my home network and I want to use it as a Plex Server but it's all very new to me. Does anyone have recommendations as to how I can best get my DVDs etc stored on it via my PC? (also on my home network).

 

Specifically...
- What software works best?
- How do I put the DVD disk in my PC Drive and copy across to NAS? (without storing on my PC first)
 

I have installed Plex on the NAS and it then asks for the media folder on where to get the movie(s) from. As far as I can see this cannot be straight from the disk on my connected (via network) PC. 

Sorry if I am missing something obvious!

Thanks.

[Oshino Shinobu]

You need to rip the DVDs to pull the files from them, then move it over to the NAS. If you're ripping movies, you'll want to have a folder on your NAS named "Movies" or similar where you store all of the movies you've ripped, then you point Plex to that folder. For TV Shows, you'd want another folder and another for Music and so on. 

 

When ripping the DVDs, you should have the option to choose the output location. In that case, select the folder on the NAS you want to output the files to and then rip the DVD. That would prevent you from having to store them on the PC then transfer them over to the NAS. 

 

As for the software, a quick search for "best free DVD ripping software" or similar will turn up some results for free software and will likely give you some comparison. Pick one from there as they'll all perform more or less the same functions. 

[ChalkChalkson]

Yes, get a USB DVD or Blue-Ray reader and download MakeMKV (if you want complete .MKV files including multiple languages/subtitles) or AnyDVD (if you want compressed formats and only 1 audio/subtitle track).

Then you only need to select the NAS as the path to store the file in that program.

The location the plex server is looking at is likely to be a "plugins" folder or the like, usually you need to add a path to your folders to the server in the docker settings of that server. I never worked with a qnap NAS but I assume it is similar to unraid, for which I wrote a set by step guide on that very topic (including remote access).