How good is Plex on a NAS at streaming 4k? (1 Viewer)

[Psychopasta]

Peeps

I am building a new home theater system for 4K movies. I use an Apple TV 4K for streaming, and as I have a Synology NAS I am thinking of ripping all my old BluRay DVDs to it and using Plex to stream the data. I can get everything on its own Gigabit wired network.

My question is, how well will Plex on a NAS compare to streaming the data directly from a BluRay DVD player?

- Mark

 

[Josh Steinberg]

If you make bit perfect rips (that is, using a program like MakeMKV to make bit for bit identical copies without applying any additional compression) it’ll be exactly the same.

On average, each DVD will be about 4-8gb of data, and each BD will be about 35-50gb of data, so one question you’ll have to answer for yourself is whether you have enough storage or whether the cost of adding storage is worth it to you.

 

[Psychopasta]

I have 8 TB free on the NAS

Thanks Josh!

 

[Greg.K]

Biggest issue with Plex for 4K UHD discs on an Apple TV is that it doesn’t support Dolby Vision, or Atmos in a TrueHD track (as most all Atmos UHD discs use).

Some people use the Infuse client to get around the DV issue but TrueHD Atmos is just not supported by the ATV. Only DD+ Atmos used by streaming services. Apparently the Nvidia Shield does support it though.

Apple TV & Plex will work great for DVD and 1080p Blu-ray rips though.

 

[Psychopasta]

So a dedicated 4k Blueray player will still give better results then?

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Beyond those issues, some/all of which might be very minor or inconsequential for your specific use case(s) in practice, do realize a big part of the equation is time/effort you'd have to invest into ripping (and managing/organizing/maintaining) your library. How much of your library do you really want available via your NAS (as some/many might find only a moderate portion, not all, makes most sense)? And do you really want to invest that much of your time/effort into that besides the $$$ on hardware?

_Man_

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Full disclosure: my projector is 1080p so 4K/UHD isn’t an issue for my Plex setup at this moment.

When I started setting up my server a few years ago, I decided that it was going to be focused on ripping DVDs and BDs only, and that if/when I upgraded to UHD, would just rely on the discs for those. I have about 1000 DVDs/BDs and I don’t anticipate having anywhere near as many UHD discs. This allows me to have the convenience of having my (ridiculous) large collection in the attic instead of cluttering the living room. I also know that a great deal of the BDs/DVDs I collect will never be released in UHD so I know the version I have is as good as it’s going to get.

Maintaining a server is definitely an active hobby more so than a “set it and forget it” endeavor. The big question I think is why are you interested in a Plex server? If the idea of actually ripping the discs and setting it up and maintaining it sounds like fun, it might be a good hobby extension for you. If it sounds like a hassle or just something to do quickly and be done with it, it might be more effort than it’s worth.

I know that’s kind of a vague answer but the “why” of why you want to do it is probably the best way to figure out if it’s worth it for you.

 

[DaveF]

So a dedicated 4k Blueray player will still give better results then?

Do you own and watch 4K UHD discs?

If so, do you watch in DolbyVision or listen in Atmos?

If you‘re ripping discs to a NAS, are you able to rip 4K discs?

 

[DaveF]

Biggest issue with Plex for 4K UHD discs on an Apple TV is that it doesn’t support Dolby Vision, or Atmos in a TrueHD track (as most all Atmos UHD discs use).

Some people use the Infuse client to get around the DV issue but TrueHD Atmos is just not supported by the ATV. Only DD+ Atmos used by streaming services. Apparently the Nvidia Shield does support it though.

Apple TV & Plex will work great for DVD and 1080p Blu-ray rips though.

The Shield is a great streaming device. I use it for all my personal HTPC streaming. Much better device than AppleTV for my needs.

 

[Psychopasta]

Hey guys,

I've used Plex to make backup copies of many DVDs. I'm from the UK originally and had a bunch of DVDs where it's easier to rip and stream than deal with multi-region players.

My original question was to find out if there'd be any inherent loss in ripping and then streaming from Plex now we're into 4k UHD territory. From Josh's answer, I think there is no bit loss in the ripping, and from Greg I get that the Plex client on Apple TV won't yet handle the Dolby Video and Atmos audio data. Have I got that right?

The alternative is to stream via the Plex client on a Windows PC, will that resolve the Atmos and Dolby Vision issues?

Overall I am happy to spend the time ripping a brand new 4k DVD and would rather stream the rip than play the DVD because the optical surfaces are very fragile. And I really don't want the rest of the fam handling the optical discs...

- Mark

 

[Wardog555]

No such thing as a 4k DVD.

The only time when there is a loss in quality is when you encode it to a lower size.

Using make mkv on its own results in a direct 1:1 copy of the movie. Also known as a remux

Just be mindful on the storage capacity if you decide to so this. I'm now on 80 plus TB and still need to expand.

 

[Psychopasta]

Hey @Wardog555. what is the correct term?

 

[Wardog555]

UHD blu-ray

 

[smithbrad]

Just be mindful on the storage capacity if you decide to do so this. I'm now on 80 plus TB and still need to expand.

A lot of good points made. You have not mentioned the size of your collection, which is why I quoted the comment above from another poster. I have almost 8 TB's available in my NAS. However, I currently have 40 TB's of extracted content that I have stored on external HD's that I can swap in and out of the NAS based on my current interests. Most are TV shows, which represents about 2/3 of my TV collection on disk. I have some 2000+ movies that there is no way I am going to attempt to extract from the disks, mostly being blu-ray.

Thinking about the size of your collection now and where you think it will be in the future, and what your overall goals are for what you want to store on the server will help you judge how much you want to spend on drives and how much effort you want to go through to accomplish it. For many of us, it is about convenience and flexibility, as well as a hobby we don't mind doing. For some, it may become overly burdensome rather quickly.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I have 8 TB free on the NAS

That would probably fit somewhere around 200 BDs; possibly less depending... Figure 4K discs would take up ~2-2.5x as much space.

_Man_

 

[Psychopasta]

Hey guys, thank you all very much for the helpful replies

 

[Wardog555]

You have not mentioned the size of your collection

This is the size of my media collection! Why do you think I even mentioned it.
It varies from SD content all the way up to 4k and even one or two in 8k

I don't have 80TB worth of images, documents and or gaming do I? That's a different situation. If I added everything up it will easily be over 100TB

 

[smithbrad]

This is the size of my media collection! Why do you think I even mentioned it.
It varies from SD content all the way up to 4k and even one or two in 8k

I don't have 80TB worth of images, documents and or gaming do I? That's a different situation. If I added everything up it will easily be over 100TB

Sorry for the confusion. I used your post to quote as a reference, but to ask the OP what size their media collection was.