DS923+ experience or alternative suggestions?

[westhill 5]

I have a DS920 DSM6.x running Emby and my ARR setup today.

I am looking to buy a DS923 to modernize my setup to DSM 7.x and act as a backup to my DS920. I also have a DS216+ for non-Emby stuff.

I have heard a lot about the CPUs not being well suited for Emby transcoding. I do not access Emby over the web and as far as I know I don't use transcoding much or at all. My clients are IOS/Android and Google TV/Android apps for the most part.
 
Does anyone have any experience with the DS923+ that you can share? Would I be better with a DS1621+ or some other model instead? I have two SSDs installed in my 920 for docker as it was noisy when running on my HDDs in the 920, that is one reason I am drawn to DS923 as I can install M2 SSD as a volume and put docker on there.

[Luke 37112]

Hi, the DS923+ looks like a great choice to me, and more than capable of being a backup machine.

[FrostByte 5052]

Nothing wrong with a DS923+ if you're not transcoding.  My DS1821+ has a Ryzen processor and supports M2 drives as volumes also and I run Emby server on it just fine.  Clients include Shield, Android phones, and Samsung TV.

[westhill 5]

13 hours ago, FrostByte said:

Nothing wrong with a DS923+ if you're not transcoding.  My DS1821+ has a Ryzen processor and supports M2 drives as volumes also and I run Emby server on it just fine.  Clients include Shield, Android phones, and Samsung TV.

Cool, sounds similar to my setup. I there a way to determine via logs if I ever use transcoding? I know I can see direct play on media playing when I look at the server but uncertain if I periodically use it unbeknownst to me

[Luke 37112]

4 hours ago, westhill said:

Cool, sounds similar to my setup. I there a way to determine via logs if I ever use transcoding? I know I can see direct play on media playing when I look at the server but uncertain if I periodically use it unbeknownst to me

If you see any occurrences of master.m3u8 in the logs, then you're not direct playing. That doesn't necessarily mean you're doing a full video transcode though.

[FrostByte 5052]

Also, if you have any transcode or remux named logs in the folder

Edited July 6, 2023 by FrostByte

[westhill 5]

I am seeing this log entry several times:

User policy for {username}.EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True

Not 100% how to read that, is it merely saying transcoding is allowed for the client?

I see what appears to be transcoding of my HDHomerun Live TV feed, it records a .ts file then triggers a refresh on the title.

I would imaging if I download titless to a client for offline viewing that would also trigger transcoding, no?

Thanks for the help on this, I really appreciate it.

 

[Luke 37112]

8 hours ago, westhill said:

I am seeing this log entry several times:

User policy for {username}.EnablePlaybackRemuxing: True EnableVideoPlaybackTranscoding: True EnableAudioPlaybackTranscoding: True

Not 100% how to read that, is it merely saying transcoding is allowed for the client?

I see what appears to be transcoding of my HDHomerun Live TV feed, it records a .ts file then triggers a refresh on the title.

I would imaging if I download titless to a client for offline viewing that would also trigger transcoding, no?

Thanks for the help on this, I really appreciate it.

 

That just means it is allowed for the user. It doesn't necessarily mean that it will happen.

Quote

I would imaging if I download titless to a client for offline viewing that would also trigger transcoding, no?

Only if needed based on the download options and what the device supports.

[westhill 5]

32 minutes ago, Luke said:

That just means it is allowed for the user. It doesn't necessarily mean that it will happen.

Only if needed based on the download options and what the device supports.

Cool, thanks. I will do a bit of testing, thanks for coming in.

Bottomline, my setup has been awesome for 1.5 years, a bug or two but nothing big. That said, I am willing to pay $$$ to have a second setup so I can test new releases of everything and have a backup system. My old 216+ is a different kernel and Docker and some containers did not work as expected on that older system

[Mpmarvin999 7]

On 7/3/2023 at 8:41 AM, westhill said:

I have a DS920 DSM6.x running Emby and my ARR setup today.

I am looking to buy a DS923 to modernize my setup to DSM 7.x and act as a backup to my DS920. I also have a DS216+ for non-Emby stuff.

I have heard a lot about the CPUs not being well suited for Emby transcoding. I do not access Emby over the web and as far as I know I don't use transcoding much or at all. My clients are IOS/Android and Google TV/Android apps for the most part.
 
Does anyone have any experience with the DS923+ that you can share? Would I be better with a DS1621+ or some other model instead? I have two SSDs installed in my 920 for docker as it was noisy when running on my HDDs in the 920, that is one reason I am drawn to DS923 as I can install M2 SSD as a volume and put docker on there.

If I were in your shoes I wouldn't be looking at the DS923+ to replace the DS920+ unless you were absolutely sure you wouldn't need the transcoding capabilities. You say you're using it as a backup then that would be fine. Depends on your definition of backup though. I bought a DS220+ on 2021 on Black Friday. My first dip into NAS solutions. Had I known then what I know now I would have jumped up to the 920+ and I'd be more than happy about it to this day. The 220 is doing fine it's just I would have like to have had the additional bays and cores. As it is now I'm going to hold off for a few more years and see if they decide to come out with a newer 92X+ series with a cpu with gpu again. I would love to find a gently used 920+ but the price people want right now my money is better spent being not spent. lol  Even my 220+ is going for over 100 dollars more than what I paid for it in 2021.

[westhill 5]

Saying the 923 would be a backup for my 920, I misspoke. I want to modernize my setup but would like a parallel setup to test out all new software, DSM, etc

That said, I have found the DS423+ is likely what I would pickup, it has the same CPU as the 920 and supports volumes in the M2.SSD bays

[Ninja_Gundam 8]

Nice answer.. I am evalutating this nas too,

but after I've read a lot, I'm more oriented to Qnap TS-464-8G..  seem more fitted to run all and can have external expansion too etc (only minus seems to be wattage consume vs amd solution)

Btw I've just read a Plex note, they added a transcoding amd support now.. but only for SDR (dunno what will be in pratic terms).

 

Chooo

[Ninja_Gundam 8]

11 minutes ago, Ninja_Gundam said:

Nice answer.. I am evalutating this nas too,

but after I've read a lot, I'm more oriented to Qnap TS-464-8G..  seem more fitted to run all and can have external expansion too etc (only minus seems to be wattage consume vs amd solution)

Btw I've just read a Plex note, they added a transcoding amd support now.. but only for SDR (dunno what will be in pratic terms).

 

Chooo

I forgot to add.. maybe even Emby will be able to have AMD optimized support in future?

I always used Synology..and I'm a bit scared of move all on QNAP.. 

 

Chooo

[Luke 37112]

2 hours ago, Ninja_Gundam said:

I forgot to add.. maybe even Emby will be able to have AMD optimized support in future?

I always used Synology..and I'm a bit scared of move all on QNAP.. 

 

Chooo

HI, yes we can certainly do that.