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Synology questions before buying


David Patt

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David Patt

Hello,

Fair warning, this will be long and some stupid questions may appear as I am total newbie in all of this.

So I find about Emby like two weeks ago. And I totally love it so I setup portable windows server. I fidlle with it and I like it so I decide take all my media collection to Emby. I use 2 external HDD as my source of media for Emby. 

I watch like 90% of media on my Android TV. So I ask myself why to have PC turned on. I find about NAS and Synology looks like best solution for having server active 24/7.

I look for it in my local PC shop and find DS920+. It is little expensive (around 700 usd) . But it can run 24/7, so my family can connect whenever they want and watch.

Questions :

1, migration server from windows , I hope I can make it done. I try Synology demo at their website , install Emby server but can't connect to it.

2, DS920+ has two USB ports. Can I connect my external HDDs and use them as my media source ?

3, Is Synology server good as windows counterpart ?

4, How many 4k streams can be achieved ?

5, Do you recommend this solution (pricey but convinient) or should I stay at windows version and be dependeble when my PC is running ?

Thanks you for reading such long post and for suggestions and answers.

@FrostByte

@Abobader

@bobaldis

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Hi, yes the Synology is a great option. @FrostByte how many 4K streams can yours handle?

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Do you recommend this solution (pricey but convinient)

Yes I do, especially the new DS920+ which looks fantastic.

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DS920+ has two USB ports. Can I connect my external HDDs and use them as my media source ?

Yes you can.

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1, migration server from windows , I hope I can make it done. I try Synology demo at their website , install Emby server but can't connect to it.

Hi, yes you can. We have a backup guide in our knowledge base:

https://support.emby.media/support/solutions/articles/44001159936-backup

Please let us know if this helps. Thanks !

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FrostByte

I don't really do a lot of multiple streaming since it's just the wife and I.  The most I've ever tested is Direct Playing a 4K remux (so very large bitrate) to my Samsung with everything hardwired while transcoding another 4K movie to my XB1X (wifi 6 then) down to 1080p at the same time.  So 2 movies at once.  I don't share my media outside my house though.

If there is one area that my Synology NAS fails at it is transcoding 4K to 4K.  For instance burning in PGS subtitles on the fly.  My NAS can do 4K to 1080p all day, but 4K to 4K it buffers too much to make things watchable.  For this reason I always have text subtitles in addition to PGS and an additional audio stream  so I never have to transcode no matter which client I'm using and just Direct Play everything everywhere.  

However, the 920+ with J4125 processor has a UHD graphics processor vs my 418play with only a HD graphics processor.  It's always best to Direct play if you can, but the 920+ should be better at transcoding than mine when you have to.

Here's the Intel site on the J4125 if you want to see specifics on it

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/197305/intel-celeron-processor-j4125-4m-cache-up-to-2-70-ghz.html?wapkw=intel celeron j4125

There are a few people on here who have posted that that have a 920+ if you want to search and reach out to them.

Edited by FrostByte
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FrostByte

I migrated from Windows to NAS and everything went fine, but there are a few things that may make it easier before migrating. 

  • Store metadata with your media   
  • Use nfo files  
  • Use the backup plugin. 

The only thing that didn't really move over well were my playlists and I had to use a text editor to mass replace the old path with the new path for them to work.  

 

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David Patt
14 minutes ago, FrostByte said:

I migrated from Windows to NAS and everything went fine, but there are a few things that may make it easier before migrating. 

  • Store metadata with your media   
  • Use nfo files  
  • Use the backup plugin. 

The only thing that didn't really move over well were my playlists and I had to use a text editor to mass replace the old path with the new path for them to work.  

 

Thanks for info. I will do some more research.

Bad thing is i have all my media on external hdds (WD My Book). I was thinking just remove hdd from its shell and put it in NAS but they say it didnt work and i will lose data on them. 

I have 12TB HDD with like 8 TB full. And 8 TB hdd with like 5TB full. Good i have spare empty 8 TB HDD. So i will need do some moving and switching magic.

Benefit of all of this will be i dont need turn on pc when i want watch something and that external HDDs all of them need external power supply. With NAS i will need only one.

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FrostByte

Ya, Synology's raid may not work on external drives without some hacking and even then removing an external drive will mess with any pool you have set. 

Your best bet is to move your stuff to your internal drives like you mentioned.  Emby can view external drives as another share,  it's just not something I would ever want to do.  

 

Edited by FrostByte
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