build or buy NAS for plex server

[omninate]

case cooling or CPU? On the case I'm just using the stock fan that came with it. I believe on cpu is also the stock HSF..I'll let you know for sure in a day or two as I want to open it up and clean it.

Well I was curious about both, so thanks for the reply!

 

[Aikouka]

Have you thought about replacing one of your HTPCs with a Roku and using the replaced HTPC as a Plex Server? Something to think about.

I think for most people, using a Roku is fine for them as you may need a beefier back-end if you use multiple Roku devices, but the front-ends are far cheaper ($99 MSRP). However, I did say "most people", as I do not like using a Roku for one reason: anime. I watch a good amount of subtitled anime, and the anime scene has gone far beyond what you're used to seeing in movies for subtitles -- even foreign movies. The big push was to use stylized subtitles (SSA), which allow you to have a lot more customization over position, coloring, etc. Now, instead of seeing a bunch of signs in Japanese, the fansubbers can translate those.

Well, that doesn't translate too well over to PLEX, which will burn-in the subtitles when transcoding as most front-ends don't support MKV but rather MP4. MP4 doesn't support modular stream selection, which means the subtitles have to be burned in. There's also a weird problem with one anime series in particular: One Piece. For some reason, you cannot have the subtitles on. If you do, the video will lag behind the audio, and it's not an issue with processing power as my back-end is powered by an i5-4670k!

I've been rather tempted to build a fun HTPC solution for my kitchen recently, and I finally did it yesterday. It's a touch-based solution (23.6" touchscreen monitor) using Windows 8.1 Pro (WMC support) on an i3 Haswell NUC (mounted to the monitor). Man, I was psyched... until I realized that PLEX Metro has to transcode everything ... and normal Plex Home Theater doesn't support touch since it ignores the mouse.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Man, I was psyched... until I realized that PLEX Metro has to transcode everything ... and normal Plex Home Theater doesn't support touch since it ignores the mouse.

XBMC plus this skin:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add-on:Re-Touched

 

[Aikouka]

XBMC plus this skin:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Add-on:Re-Touched

While I appreciate the advice, I'm not sure if going back to XBMC is really a great option for me now. I've pretty much switched over to PLEX, and I don't think I can create a level of interoperability between the two in regard to metadata and media state (i.e. watched/unwatched, current progress, etc.).

Although, in regard to that, I did notice what seems like a rather annoying bug with PLEX Metro. It doesn't seem to refresh a media's played state if you're just sitting at the screen. For example, I watched an episode of Suits for a few minutes on Metro, stopped it, resumed it for a few minutes on PHT, stopped it, and when I went to resume it on Metro, it tried to resume from where it last stopped not PHT. I'm pretty sure that while PHT wouldn't show the progress in the media's progress bar, it would still present the proper time to me in the "Resume or Replay" dialog.

PLEX Metro does have one nice advantage to it that I believe XBMC also has. It allows you (or in Metro's case, forces you) to use the System Default audio. I like this because this unit is meant to go in the kitchen, and I have a pair of Bluetooth headphones for it, which I can use when I'm doing any relatively loud task while cooking/baking. The reason why it works well is because when I turn on the headphones, Windows automatically sets it as the default device, and when I turn them off, Windows switches back to the speakers. That doesn't affect PHT (have to set a dedicated device), but it works very well in Metro.