WD NAS & Plex transcoding

Posted by: Duncan Mann on 31 October 2017

A slightly convoluted request for advice, please - a bit of background for reference:

I've been running an ancient Netgear 4 bay NAS since 2010, and it's now ripe for renewal. I've only ever used this for file storage, but the replacement NAS will also be used to stream to my SU2 - I've previously streamed exclusively from Tidal. From the forum postings, I can see that most people here go for either a QNAP or Synology NAS, paired with Minim or Asset. 

I'm also going to be using the NAS to store a very large Lightroom photo catalogue, together with Final Cut Pro video files, and like the Cloud offering from Western Digital. I've been using a WD Thunderbolt DAS with my iMac for over a year, and it's been great, so was interested to see the availability of the WD PR4100 NAS, which comes with 4Gb RAM and Plex as standard, and it supports transcode on the fly. Since I used iTunes to rip all my CDs many years ago to ALAC, I'm not sure what benefit if any I'd get from transcoding these to FLAC. The SU can read ALAC files natively. 

My queries are:

I. Does anyone have any experience of the WD PR4110 (or the 2 bay equivalent PR2110)? 

2. Given the discussion here on the forum about the SQ benefits of WAV cf. lossless formats such as FLAC, should I be thinking of using the NAS to transcode the ALAC files to WAV, or just let the SU do the job?

3. Is Plex as capable as other media management software, such as Minim/Asset etc.?

Many thanks in anticipation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on: 31 October 2017 by garyi

A couple of things

If its your hope to work off a lightroom library via the network, you are going to need something far more powerful and an extremely fast and robust network. Even then it might not be a fantastic experience. 

Transcoding in PLEX is dependent on the client, over DNLA you may find that its converted to MP3. I love plex but don't use it for serious music playback. This is a red herring. 

I couldn't find reference to the device you mention on the web, but personally I wouldn't touch WD and you will get far far more for your money purchasing a PC that can take a number of drives. Stick OpenMediaVault on it, or FreeNas, or Nas4Free or UnRaid and you have yourself a fully fledged network solution, far more powerful and upgradeable than any off the shelf NAS.

 

Posted on: 31 October 2017 by Duncan Mann

Thanks Garyi

garyi posted:

A couple of things

If its your hope to work off a lightroom library via the network, you are going to need something far more powerful and an extremely fast and robust network. Even then it might not be a fantastic experience.  

Just to note that I'm NOT planning to work with live media on the NAS - I have a 16Tb Thunderbolt DAS (Direct Attached Storage) hooked up to my iMac for that - but for storage of archived photo and video catalogues. I found out the hard way that a network is no place for working on live photo catalogues or video files, so can only concur with your view re that!