Synology 413j

MonkeyApple · Jan 31, 2013

Wow, lots of great info here. Thank you! I am considering the SYnology DS413j. I was hoping to move my DVD/Blu Ray library to the NAS and stream it to my BluRay player, TV or Apple TV. I was wondering if I can rip the DVDs and stream them using the Video Station app on the iPad or iPhone and use Airplay? It sounds like from this thread there are limitations as to resolution and format using PLEX since it seems like the 413j cannot transcode due to the ARM processor. Does the Video Station app support transcoding? I'm having a hard time finding specific info for specific models on the Synology site. What format do my movies need to be in once I rip them?

Also, if I use the DLNA capabilities of my Blu Ray player or TV what format should the movies be in?

Ideally I'd love to put the highest quality movie on the NAS and depending on the connection type (local wifi or outside internet) the NAS would adjust the bit rate to stream. Does this exist?

Thanks in advance for any help. It's greatly appreciated!

Eric

[MOD NOTE] Thread created from side discussion of this thread:https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1522038/

Pyromonkey83 · Jan 31, 2013

MonkeyApple said:
Ideally I'd love to put the highest quality movie on the NAS and depending on the connection type (local wifi or outside internet) the NAS would adjust the bit rate to stream. Does this exist?

Thanks in advance for any help. It's greatly appreciated!

Eric

Adjusting the bitrate is transcoding. Therefore, if you are looking to buy a DS413j, you cannot do this. Also, the transcoding is not a limitation of Plex but of the processor itself. ARM processors are not yet powerful enough to be able to transcode video real-time. As a result, you can not transcode to lower the bitrate dependent on where you are.

There is a workaround to this, however, but it involves having a PC or Mac on that is fast enough to do said transcodes. What I do is I have my Mid-2011 iMac run Plex and point the directory to the server. Then I can have the movies stored on the NAS, and have the iMac do the transcoding to my iPhone when I am out of the house. This seems to work perfectly, but again, it requires another computer on when you want to stream through Plex.

Also, if you use the Apple TV 3 preset on handbrake, that should support most if not all DLNA devices. Most DLNA devices also support DTS, but that will NOT be supported by the ATV, or any iOS devices.

MonkeyApple · Feb 1, 2013

Pyromonkey83 said:
Adjusting the bitrate is transcoding. Therefore, if you are looking to buy a DS413j, you cannot do this. Also, the transcoding is not a limitation of Plex but of the processor itself. ARM processors are not yet powerful enough to be able to transcode video real-time. As a result, you can not transcode to lower the bitrate dependent on where you are.

There is a workaround to this, however, but it involves having a PC or Mac on that is fast enough to do said transcodes. What I do is I have my Mid-2011 iMac run Plex and point the directory to the server. Then I can have the movies stored on the NAS, and have the iMac do the transcoding to my iPhone when I am out of the house. This seems to work perfectly, but again, it requires another computer on when you want to stream through Plex.

Also, if you use the Apple TV 3 preset on handbrake, that should support most if not all DLNA devices. Most DLNA devices also support DTS, but that will NOT be supported by the ATV, or any iOS devices.

Thanks for the info. Very helpful! I don't really want to have to leave my iMac on, even though I pretty much do anyway. Do you happen to know which is the least expensive Synology model that would support transcoding?

If I understand correctly, either I spring for the beefier processor in a more advanced Synology unit or I encode everything to something like the ATV3 preset with Handbrake?

Thanks again!

Eric

Pyromonkey83 · Feb 2, 2013

MonkeyApple said:
Thanks for the info. Very helpful! I don't really want to have to leave my iMac on, even though I pretty much do anyway. Do you happen to know which is the least expensive Synology model that would support transcoding?

The models that support transcoding end in +. These are the ones with x86 based CPUs, the cheapest 4-bay model would be the DS412+ found here which is $680 (over 1.5x the price of the DS413j). Also, while the DS412+ does SUPPORT transcoding, it is limited by the processor at doing so. Many users have had issues with 1080p transcoding as the processor is too slow to handle it, especially if the bitrate is high.

MonkeyApple said:
If I understand correctly, either I spring for the beefier processor in a more advanced Synology unit or I encode everything to something like the ATV3 preset with Handbrake?

This is sort of correct... If you get the beefier processor, you can transcode to play on all devices (with the restrictions mentioned above).

If you convert to the ATV3 preset (and forgo the more expensive model), it SHOULD work on all of your devices WITHIN your network. The downside will be that if you want to play movies outside of your network, your files will be very large, and therefore take both a high speed network (both Upload form your house, and download from your device) and a very high data plan to play. Most 720p videos will take 2GB minimum of space, and the entire file will need to be transferred to your device to play.

There is a great guide on the PLEX website here that will explain everything you ever wanted to know about transcoding!

MonkeyApple · Feb 2, 2013

Pyromonkey83 said:
The models that support transcoding end in +. These are the ones with x86 based CPUs, the cheapest 4-bay model would be the DS412+ found here which is $680 (over 1.5x the price of the DS413j). Also, while the DS412+ does SUPPORT transcoding, it is limited by the processor at doing so. Many users have had issues with 1080p transcoding as the processor is too slow to handle it, especially if the bitrate is high.

This is sort of correct... If you get the beefier processor, you can transcode to play on all devices (with the restrictions mentioned above).

If you convert to the ATV3 preset (and forgo the more expensive model), it SHOULD work on all of your devices WITHIN your network. The downside will be that if you want to play movies outside of your network, your files will be very large, and therefore take both a high speed network (both Upload form your house, and download from your device) and a very high data plan to play. Most 720p videos will take 2GB minimum of space, and the entire file will need to be transferred to your device to play.

There is a great guide on the PLEX website here that will explain everything you ever wanted to know about transcoding!

Amazing info. That guide on the PLEX website is solid gold. Definitely seems like I'll be using my iMac to run PLEX and not relying on any NAS.

So I downloaded the PLEX Media Server and installed it on my iMac. Installed the client on my iPad. Everything works great, as I set up the quality I like for transcoding. It even worked from my iPhone with wifi off and just on the 4G network. I imagine I would get similar performance if the files were kept on a Synology NAS with 7200RPM drives.

MY ONLY problem with this setup now is that the PLEX client doesnt seem to be able to wake up my iMac, even though it is running PMS. I have enabled "Wake On LAN" in my Energy Saver prefs but the PMS seems to be offline. I'd love for the iMac to be able to be in sleep mode and woken up when I want to get some content from it. ANyone have any ideas about this?

Other than this issue, PLEX is great. Probably going to get the Synology 413j for use as Time Machine backups and storage for all music and movies.

Pyromonkey83 · Feb 3, 2013

MonkeyApple said:
MY ONLY problem with this setup now is that the PLEX client doesnt seem to be able to wake up my iMac, even though it is running PMS. I have enabled "Wake On LAN" in my Energy Saver prefs but the PMS seems to be offline. I'd love for the iMac to be able to be in sleep mode and woken up when I want to get some content from it. ANyone have any ideas about this?

Other than this issue, PLEX is great. Probably going to get the Synology 413j for use as Time Machine backups and storage for all music and movies.

This is actually a problem with Mountain Lion (I'm assuming that's what your running?) and has been an issue since release. The same issue prevents it from reconnecting network drives after sleep as well, and I'm crossing my fingers for a fix in 10.8.3.

The 413j will not steer you wrong by the way. I love mine and the app suites that you can get for it are fantastic. Network speeds are also amazing within a home network so you will never have a problem with using PLEX on your iMac and storing media files on your NAS (which is exactly how I run it =D).

My current workaround for the sleep issue is to have the iMac on 24/7, and let it shut off the monitor after 15 mins, and have the "shut off hard drives when possible" checkbox. It takes about 30W when in this state, which is only 15W more than if it were sleeping.

Also, I have not noticed a big difference between 5400RPM and 7200RPM drives. I originally had it filled with 2x 1TB 5400RPM drives and 2x 2TB 7200RPM drives, and recently replaced the 1TB's with 2x 3TB 7200RPM. The speed increase has been almost entirely nonexistent. I still get between 70MB/s and 90MB/s over wired, and around 40MB/s on my rMBP over WiFi. If there is a price difference between the 5400RPM and 7200RPM drives you decide to look at, I would probably say to conserve some $$$ on the energy costs and just stick with the 5400RPM.

MonkeyApple · Feb 3, 2013

Pyromonkey83 said:
This is actually a problem with Mountain Lion (I'm assuming that's what your running?) and has been an issue since release. The same issue prevents it from reconnecting network drives after sleep as well, and I'm crossing my fingers for a fix in 10.8.3.

The 413j will not steer you wrong by the way. I love mine and the app suites that you can get for it are fantastic. Network speeds are also amazing within a home network so you will never have a problem with using PLEX on your iMac and storing media files on your NAS (which is exactly how I run it =D).

My current workaround for the sleep issue is to have the iMac on 24/7, and let it shut off the monitor after 15 mins, and have the "shut off hard drives when possible" checkbox. It takes about 30W when in this state, which is only 15W more than if it were sleeping.

Also, I have not noticed a big difference between 5400RPM and 7200RPM drives. I originally had it filled with 2x 1TB 5400RPM drives and 2x 2TB 7200RPM drives, and recently replaced the 1TB's with 2x 3TB 7200RPM. The speed increase has been almost entirely nonexistent. I still get between 70MB/s and 90MB/s over wired, and around 40MB/s on my rMBP over WiFi. If there is a price difference between the 5400RPM and 7200RPM drives you decide to look at, I would probably say to conserve some $$$ on the energy costs and just stick with the 5400RPM.

Good to know about the 413j and the drive speeds.

As far as the WOL issue, I read that maybe an Airport Extreme Base Station would make it work. Or that even installing the DD-WRT firmware on my Asus N66U might as well, although that process is a bit over my head and skill level!

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...)&id=20120824162242500&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

Thinking about exchanging my Asus N66U for the AEBS but not sure...

Pyromonkey83 · Feb 3, 2013

MonkeyApple said:
Good to know about the 413j and the drive speeds.

As far as the WOL issue, I read that maybe an Airport Extreme Base Station would make it work. Or that even installing the DD-WRT firmware on my Asus N66U might as well, although that process is a bit over my head and skill level!

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx...)&id=20120824162242500&page=1&SLanguage=en-us

Thinking about exchanging my Asus N66U for the AEBS but not sure...

I have the AirPort Extreme and I can assure you that it does nothing to help.

MonkeyApple · Feb 3, 2013

Pyromonkey83 said:
I have the AirPort Extreme and I can assure you that it does nothing to help.

Ah good to know!!! Hopefully 10.8.3 will offer a fix...

I'm going to poke around and see if there are any other solutions.

MonkeyApple · Feb 9, 2013

Pyromonkey83 said:
I have the AirPort Extreme and I can assure you that it does nothing to help.

I got the 413j. Seems to be working well. Just starting to back up using time machine and putting my movies on the second drive. I was wondering what transfer speeds I should expect to and from the NAS. I was reading some charts online and it looked like I should be getting at least 50MB/s and up to 90MB/s. Is there an easy way to measure this? In the DS Resource Monitor, the disk usage only shown at max 10MB/s when Time Machine is backing up. Wondering what's going on. NAS is plugged in to ASUS N66U and computers are accessing on 5GHz wireless band. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Pyromonkey83 · Feb 9, 2013

MonkeyApple said:
I got the 413j. Seems to be working well. Just starting to back up using time machine and putting my movies on the second drive. I was wondering what transfer speeds I should expect to and from the NAS. I was reading some charts online and it looked like I should be getting at least 50MB/s and up to 90MB/s. Is there an easy way to measure this? In the DS Resource Monitor, the disk usage only shown at max 10MB/s when Time Machine is backing up. Wondering what's going on. NAS is plugged in to ASUS N66U and computers are accessing on 5GHz wireless band. Any help is greatly appreciated!

The 50-90 MB/s I get is on wired networks, and also, I have updated to the beta software which has increased network speeds by a lot. Time Machine also can't utilize the full throughput of the network speed due to its compression and packet syncing, so 10 MB/s is about normal. Try copying a movie or something back and forth between the NAS and this will give you your network speeds. On my rMBP I got about 18 MB/s UL and 14 MB/s DL between myself and the NAS on 5Ghz wifi. As soon as I plugged a hardline in through my thunderbolt port, it jumped to 94 MB/s UL and 90 MB/s DL.

MonkeyApple · Feb 11, 2013

Pyromonkey83 said:
The 50-90 MB/s I get is on wired networks, and also, I have updated to the beta software which has increased network speeds by a lot. Time Machine also can't utilize the full throughput of the network speed due to its compression and packet syncing, so 10 MB/s is about normal. Try copying a movie or something back and forth between the NAS and this will give you your network speeds. On my rMBP I got about 18 MB/s UL and 14 MB/s DL between myself and the NAS on 5Ghz wifi. As soon as I plugged a hardline in through my thunderbolt port, it jumped to 94 MB/s UL and 90 MB/s DL.

I upgraded to the Beta kind of unintentionally, as I thought I needed to do so to get Cloudstation to play nice. I also moved my router and hard lined the computer/router/NAS and now I get proper speeds after troubleshooting some cables.

Got PLEX all set up on my iMac and I'm starting to put my movie library on there. One problem I am having is that it seems like the NAS volume/share is not kept alive, even though the iMac is set to NOT sleep. Plex says there is a problem playing any movie after a period of inactivity. WHen I go to the iMac and open a finder window and navigate into the NAS Shared folder then it starts working again. Do i need to do something to keep the share mounted or alive????

Pyromonkey83 · Feb 11, 2013

MonkeyApple said:
One problem I am having is that it seems like the NAS volume/share is not kept alive, even though the iMac is set to NOT sleep. Plex says there is a problem playing any movie after a period of inactivity. WHen I go to the iMac and open a finder window and navigate into the NAS Shared folder then it starts working again. Do i need to do something to keep the share mounted or alive????

The mounted file should never get disconnected if the iMac doesn't go to sleep. I'm not sure what your issue would be here. Does your iMac log you out after a period of inactivity perhaps?

I would just double check your user settings and network settings and make sure... Otherwise I have no idea!

MonkeyApple · Feb 11, 2013

Pyromonkey83 said:
The mounted file should never get disconnected if the iMac doesn't go to sleep. I'm not sure what your issue would be here. Does your iMac log you out after a period of inactivity perhaps?

I would just double check your user settings and network settings and make sure... Otherwise I have no idea!

The iMac doesn't log me out. I'll have to review the network settings. Maybe something changed when I switched to Ethernet versus Wi-Fi. I tried accessing Plex media this morning after not touching the computer for 6 hours and it worked so maybe something was just off when it wasn't working before. Thanks for the help!

Sevententh · May 27, 2013

I have a similar problem. Plex is installed on iMac, mkv files are stored on my Synology RS812 and I've created a new section (NASFilms) in My Library to the NAS movie folder.

All films are shown, except when I try and play them on either iPad or AppleTV (2) I get the message "Unable to play media, An unknown problem occurred."

If I copy a film locally to my iMac, create a new section (localFilms) for this folder in Plex, the film will play.

Does anybody have any ideas? I think this is an access problem but I've opened guest to READ only in the NAS movie folder, created a user called Plex and done the same but neither work...

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