In Home Movie Servers, Plex or NAS or ???, what do you use?

TollKeeper

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Dec 3, 2011
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Do any of you use these media streaming systems? Do you have a preferred streaming device?

I ask because I have a enterprise class server in my basement, has right at 50T of hard drive space, and 72 gigs of ram, 16 cores, Running Windows Server 2012 RC2. My streaming devices vary thru my house. Roku, Amazon Fire, HTPC, desktops, and Cell phone devices.

I so far prefer the Roku. The Amazon Fire has problems with some of the trans-coding (not to mention you cant stream YouTube thru YouTubes app anymore). The HTPC is keyboard/mouse dependent which takes the convenience out of it. Desktops are only for when I am trying to be quiet so baby can sleep, and cell phones are just to small, but use-able when bored.

What do you use or prefer and why?

I realize my server is completely overkill, but I am only into for 850 bucks, its actually pretty good, and I can host some of the websites that I moderate, plus my TeamSpeak server, and a couple gaming servers. I even had a MineCraft server on it for some time. But it was too JAVA heavy, and it just used to much resources.

In the end, it works out pretty good. I have designated 15% of the system to DSR (Deep Space Research), so its not all for not!
 

Blckshdw

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Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
I have been running Plex for about 5 years now, after hearing some of the IT people at a previous job, talking about how they liked it. My media server is a glorified desktop. 3.6 gHz six core CPU on 12GB of RAM. 12TB of storage across a couple of drives. I also feed my security cameras into it. I used to use it as a straight up HTPC, still do sometimes, on my living room TV, but now I can stream to the bedroom and office TVs, which I like.

I thought I'd use it to stream to my phone when travelling, or relaxing at the beach, but that never happens. :uhno: I share my libraries with family and friends, and from what some on the west coast tell me, the stream speed and quality is still good on their end of the line. One of my favorite features is how it auto populates meta data, so I don't have to do it. Comes in handy when I miss DVR'ing a TV show, and download it (or anything really) later, or if someone suggests a series I might like, and the summaries are already there.
 

Reprise

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I use plain 'ol Roku, connected to my broadband router. Which is supplied by my provider, no less. I have the smallest broadband plan they offer - and very rarely does buffering kick in for a few seconds. Having the TVs on the 5GHz side helps, I suppose. But I can still stream YT vids to my laptop (w/o buffering) while concurrently streaming live content to the TV

(Had DTV for damn near 20yrs - back when you had to buy all the equipment & pay to have it installed (or self-install, like I did.) Moved it from old > new house.

Then they started up 'DTV Now' - at less than half the price I was paying for the satellite. Didn't take me too long to 'cut the cable' (although I still have the same content provider, in the end)

The nice thing about this new setup is...I can take Roku with me when I'm camping (glamping?), and stream right to the TVs in the trailer. A beautiful thing.


Back to the 'streaming server', as asked by the OP...

Yeah, I keep it 'easy' these days. Not that I'd ever offer streaming for external (outside) connections - I'm just too paranoid, and I don't 'collect' content (on HDD), anyway. I'm more of a 'live content' guy, and any show I want to stream is on DTVs / Roku's / Netflix's / HBO's servers)

I used to have a 'Replay TV' (like a TiVo) years ago, and I had cracked it to store / play recorded content I made on it, from an outboard server. That was pretty nice, back in the day - precursor to 'cloud storage', I suppose - ?

You must have mega bandwidth to be hosting that kind of content (assuming I understood you correctly). Hope you're charging the subs, to offset the cost.
 

Blckshdw

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Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
Yeah, I keep it 'easy' these days. Not that I'd ever offer streaming for external (outside) connections - I'm just too paranoid, and I don't 'collect' content (on HDD)

I used to collect DVDs back in the day, and grew a pretty hefty collection. In my 20's I moved around a lot. If I didn't like my apartment, or changed jobs, stuff like that. Got to be a big pain hauling heavy boxes around. Once prices of HDDs started coming down, I looked into converting them to digital files and gave the DVDs away to friends. Did the same with CDs. I'm a self proclaimed pack rat, I don't let things go easily. :redface:

I feel it's pretty secure. You can grant people access in 2 methods. If they also have a Plex account, you can add their user name, or you can grant access to a specific device. They open the app, select connect to existing server, and then it gives them a validation code. I put the code in on my end to authorize it. Then I can see who's doing what, when, and from what device. Can also boot them off if I want to. :biggrin:

You must have mega bandwidth to be hosting that kind of content (assuming I understood you correctly). Hope you're charging the subs, to offset the cost.

Plex itself is free, but I did buy the lifetime subscription for streaming access, due to my initial plan. It was like $100. I don't have a lot of people in there, parents, 2 sisters and a couple of friends. Some have given me some cash, others do favors for me, so it's all good. My internet package is 100/100, which is what I always get when available. Somewhere in the settings is an option to reduce video quality automatically based on the end user's connection speed.

The one time I was out of town somewhat recently, and watched some movies on a friend's TV, it down scaled to 720p, instead of 1080p. Couldn't really tell the difference, although it was on a 42" tv. Might have been more noticeable on a larger screen. :undecided:
 

littleblazer

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Jul 6, 2014
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I asked my cousin what he runs... as it turns out he just has a massive rack in the basement with a disc changer for his movie collection. I think its NAD.
 

djthumper

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Nov 20, 2011
14,950
North Las Vegas
I went through several over the years until I got Plex.
 

TollKeeper

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Dec 3, 2011
8,047
Brighton, CO
You must have mega bandwidth to be hosting that kind of content (assuming I understood you correctly). Hope you're charging the subs, to offset the cost.

I wouldnt say Mega, but its 400x100, although gig service is available to me. Im almost to the point of cutting the cable. But the internet service I need for the Streaming, I let my family and friends have access, who live across the nation, Oregon, Idaho, Missouri, Michigan, Illinois. The reason I dont cut the cable is, Internet is 175 bucks, TV with -ALL- the channels and Internet is 200. This makes it so I dont have to clog up the server with Kids shows for the baby.

I have roughly 12000 TV episodes on it, and some 5000 movies. Probably close to 800 Japan Anime movies, and 1000 Anime TV Series. Im not into that stuff, but my brother is (Heavily, did you know that there are over 150 movies that involve Godzilla?). I have a lot of older TV shows, AirWolf, Smurfs, Doctor Who, 3rd Rock, Ren and Stimpy, Quantum Leap, The Pretender. And the newer stuff, GOT, Star Trek Discovery, The Orville, Jack Ryan. Some odd stuff to, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Dinosaurs, Jon Doe, the Entire MASH Collection, FireFly.

As far as charging the subs.. Not yet. So far no one has exceeded my bandwidth. My brother is an IT guy, and he manages, and keeps my server up to date, he also has a server, with no bandwidth limitations, so he shares that will all the subs too.

But I digress.. It looks like so far, the most popular is the ROKU and Plex.

Plex itself is free, but I did buy the lifetime subscription for streaming access, due to my initial plan. It was like $100.

Same, I just hate how they have come out with newer features, and you have to buy them. GRR!
 
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Blckshdw

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Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
@TollKeeper looks like we have a pretty similar set of libraries, but like the servers, mine's on a smaller scale. :biggrin: Quantum Leap and Airwolf... those take me back. Most of the TV shows I end up deleting after clearing a season. Most of the ones still left, are for my mom, since she gets to them when she gets to them, but doesn't tell me when she's watched them until it's time to get more recent ones. :bonk:
 

TollKeeper

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The series I have been trying to track down in a decent quality is Knight Rider. I fund S1E1 Premier in good quality, but nothing else so far.

The server I overbuilt on purpose. I am hoping to get many years out of it, so enterprise class was the way to go. And for server side transcoding, the higher the build, the less buffer and lag is involved.

The cheapest way we have found to build a system like this is eBay, and finding a retired Google server (which are just painted and rebadged Dell's). Just make sure its reflashed to a Dell BIOS before purchase. Mine is a Dell R720XD, I might need to upgrade to a R730XD if I run out of HDD space thou. still pretty cheap for under 900.
 
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Reprise

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The server I overbuilt on purpose. I am hoping to get many years out of it, so enterprise class was the way to go.

That's probably smart, considering your application.
As for me, I use Moore's Law to my advantage (e.g.; I buy older, cheaper tech for home). Works well for me, at least. :2thumbsup:

PS: Thanks (to all) for the supporting infra / gear info - interesting!
 

Blckshdw

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Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
The cheapest way we have found to build a system like this is eBay, and finding a retired Google server (which are just painted and rebadged Dell's).

Good to know, I'll keep that in mind. I had started pricing out a server build from scratch, and it got pretty expensive quickly. :frown:
 

TollKeeper

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Brighton, CO
Good to know, I'll keep that in mind. I had started pricing out a server build from scratch, and it got pretty expensive quickly. :frown:

The rebadged units are around 1/3 to 1/2 the price (or more, depending on internal parts). The available units from Google/Dell are Dell R710, Dell R720XD, and Dell R730XD. They went to another platform in 2016, and havent retired any of those units as of yet.

Right now there is a really cheap unit, with no HDD. 96g memory. 2x 6 core, for right at 300 bucks. You dont really want the stock standard HDD because they were only 300-500GB. Than its just a matter of finding HDD's and maybe caddys. I bought Enterprise class HDD that didnt meet spec. The off spec was a RPM was 2% off required parameters. 2%, you wont even notice! (especially when ran in a RAID). Slide in a bunch of 6TB HDD's, and you are off and running. 6TB is still reasonably priced, 8TB triples the price.

Figure 400 for server (including shipping)
Figure 400 for 5 Cheap Seagate Enterprise 6tb HDD

Up to 5 years on my setup this far, no complaints!
 

Blckshdw

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Nov 20, 2011
10,665
Tampa Bay Area, FL
I saw the $300 one, but it looks like it's 32g RAM (probably plenty for what I'd need ATM anyway.) The 96g one looks to be twice that, has an unknown setup password, and they couldn't figure out how to reset it. Without researching it, I'd imagine there's a jumper on the board somewhere for a factory reset? :confused: That's probably for the best, I need to stop looking at this stuff anyway. So many mods, so little money. :tongue:
 

TollKeeper

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Aint that the truth... Taking my Mercury to the shop this weekend for some needed body and paint work. Then I gotta start on the replacement rear diff for the wifes Aztek. Then I gotta think about the motor mounts and front diff and rear diff and rear bushings and redoing the front end bushings and ball joints and...................................................................................................................................................

I had the 400 dollar unit saved in My Ebay.. It sold. It was 320 bucks plus 74 in shipping.
 
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TollKeeper

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Ha... My brother bought that unit after I showed it to him!
 
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Blckshdw

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Nov 20, 2011
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Tampa Bay Area, FL
Thank him for me, for removing the temptation. I guess I can be thankful, there's some other stuff I'd have to get too. Server rack, rack mounted UPS, and modify it to work with golf cart batteries for higher capacity. (did that for the UPS on my entertainment center :cool: ) Current one runs for maybe 5 minutes between the computer, router, and POE router for the cameras.

Do you mess with the affinity settings at all, to assign certain cores to certain programs?
 

TollKeeper

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The only one we did that with was the DSR (deep space research). Otherwise we left it alone.
 

coolasice

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Oct 27, 2013
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Northern Maine
I run a SQL share off my living room PC that hosts to multiple fire TV sticks with Kodi around the house. Nothing overly elegant but no complaints yet. ~1200 movies on it.
 
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