Plex

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DeskJockey
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Re: Plex

Post by DeskJockey »

KiwiDave wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 12:01 am One of mine will run DSM7 the other won't - I'm sorely tempted to buy a new box and swap the drives over.
Same, but struggling to justify it.
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Jobbo
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Re: Plex

Post by Jobbo »

I have logged into my Synology box so infrequently I haven't even thought about updating the DSM. Mine's a DS212+ so I don't think I can run DSM7 anyway, but I have inherited a spare DS214 which was used in the office so I could shift the drives over to that and use it. I honestly don't think I'd get nearly enough benefit from the few hours I'd spend faffing around doing so though. If you just use the Synology for storage and as a media server for your telly, what's the benefit to DSM7?
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Sundayjumper
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Re: Plex

Post by Sundayjumper »

DeskJockey wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 8:50 am
KiwiDave wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 12:01 am One of mine will run DSM7 the other won't - I'm sorely tempted to buy a new box and swap the drives over.
Same, but struggling to justify it.
Prices of s/h units on ebay are surprisingly strong, with some careful shopping you might find the cost to upgrade isn't too bad.
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Beany
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Re: Plex

Post by Beany »

Jobbo wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 9:41 am I have logged into my Synology box so infrequently I haven't even thought about updating the DSM. Mine's a DS212+ so I don't think I can run DSM7 anyway, but I have inherited a spare DS214 which was used in the office so I could shift the drives over to that and use it. I honestly don't think I'd get nearly enough benefit from the few hours I'd spend faffing around doing so though. If you just use the Synology for storage and as a media server for your telly, what's the benefit to DSM7?
Mostly security stuff once DSM6 goes fully end of life, in that case.

If you've not had any performance issues then leave it on DSM6 and just get a DSM7 device when your update the hardware down they line, I'd say.

I use the interface a bit more than most so I like DSM7 being a bit faster in that respect.
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DeskJockey
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Re: Plex

Post by DeskJockey »

Sundayjumper wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 9:50 am
DeskJockey wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 8:50 am
KiwiDave wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 12:01 am One of mine will run DSM7 the other won't - I'm sorely tempted to buy a new box and swap the drives over.
Same, but struggling to justify it.
Prices of s/h units on ebay are surprisingly strong, with some careful shopping you might find the cost to upgrade isn't too bad.
Don't tempt me.
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Beany
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Re: Plex

Post by Beany »

I've been thinking of - when I have money - updating to a four bay device, having bulk storage for media (so a pair of 6tb disks etc) and a pair of SSDs for running VMs off of.

If course, I need money for that, but it's nice to have the option.
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Sundayjumper
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Re: Plex

Post by Sundayjumper »

Well, I'm very impressed with this so far 8-)

It loaded itself with DSM7 during the setup and it's all very nicely laid out and easy to use. Shifting large files from my laptop to the NAS I'm getting a very solid 110 MB/s transfer speed which as far as I can tell is close to the limit of a Gigabit Ethernet connection, so all good there too.

Plex continues to satisfy. Every time I've thought "I wonder if you can...." I've googled it and you can.

I'm going to have a tinker with Surveillance Station next. I bought a cheapie CCTV system (NVR + 4x cameras) a while back and although it works, the interface is utter pants, so hopefully the NAS will take the stream from the cameras and deal with it a lot better than the current NVR.
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KiwiDave
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Re: Plex

Post by KiwiDave »

Do let us know how you go on with the Surveillance Station - we have no CCTV here currently but I keep thinking about it, and seeing as we have two Synology NAS it makes sense.

And Beany I know what you mean about the 4 bays - I run two with four 6TB discs in and the initial outlay is a bit :shock: I really want a third I sit offsite somewhere that mirrors via the web but finding it hard to justify it. In NZ cloud services which can hold 12+TB without costing a fortune are a bit slim on the ground...
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Beany
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Re: Plex

Post by Beany »

I think a regular NVR using s-video cables might not work with the Syno @Sundayjumper but can't hurt to try.

@KiwiDave for an off-site backup, you might genuinely be better served by getting a used 12-24 bay rack mount Syno, saving up for some chunky disks and getting it Colo'd in country.

Longer term it'll almost certainly be cheaper than cloud storage, and your can use Hyper Backup to natively back up versioned, compressed versions of the data; I'll grant you though, the numbers really have to add up for that.
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Re: Plex

Post by Sundayjumper »

They're not s-video, they're PoE IP cameras. Just really REALLY cheap ones :D
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KiwiDave
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Re: Plex

Post by KiwiDave »

Beany wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 9:31 pm I think a regular NVR using s-video cables might not work with the Syno @Sundayjumper but can't hurt to try.

@KiwiDave for an off-site backup, you might genuinely be better served by getting a used 12-24 bay rack mount Syno, saving up for some chunky disks and getting it Colo'd in country.

Longer term it'll almost certainly be cheaper than cloud storage, and your can use Hyper Backup to natively back up versioned, compressed versions of the data; I'll grant you though, the numbers really have to add up for that.
Colo'd?
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DeskJockey
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Re: Plex

Post by DeskJockey »

KiwiDave wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 6:56 am
Beany wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 9:31 pm I think a regular NVR using s-video cables might not work with the Syno @Sundayjumper but can't hurt to try.

@KiwiDave for an off-site backup, you might genuinely be better served by getting a used 12-24 bay rack mount Syno, saving up for some chunky disks and getting it Colo'd in country.

Longer term it'll almost certainly be cheaper than cloud storage, and your can use Hyper Backup to natively back up versioned, compressed versions of the data; I'll grant you though, the numbers really have to add up for that.
Colo'd?
Colocated. Pay someone to host it in their data centre and provide connectivity. Usually a fairly standard product charged for by power consumption plus extras (device power resilience, connectivity, hands & eyes support, that type of thing).
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Beany
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Re: Plex

Post by Beany »

Wot DJ said. You don't need to go crazy with it, just some rack space, some networking, and enough support from the datacentre company that they'll send someone down to press the power button for you or swap disks that you send to them, upon request.

As I say though, if it was for work stuff, it'd be a no-brainer - for home stuff, it's really dependant on the value to you personally. At the moment for example, I'd not bother. All I've got is some media and some documents that I have saved in GCloud, very little is 'critical' or 'important'

If you were/are making money from the photography etc, then having an offsite backup that is sync'd up every night, and won't be affected by localised issues (fire, theft - eathquakes might be different, perhaps colo in Aus?) might be more justifiable.

Edit: if you search for 'server colocation new zealand' you'll get some results, seems $60-100 NZFunBucks a month, although the ones I've seen have tight bandwidth caps which is pathetic.
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KiwiDave
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Re: Plex

Post by KiwiDave »

I follow.

I'm currently toying up basically sticking a third NAS at a mate's place and keeping them synced via the Synology tools. Or not doing that, using something like Crashplan, spending the six months it will take to slowly get all my stuff up there and then hope I never have to recover from it. Couple of really big data centres being put in here in the next wee while which might change things. Work have also offered to let me put a box in their server room which would be ideal but seeing as I flit between wanting to burn the place to the ground one moment and grimace through it the next, I'm not sure being 'tied' to it feels nice to me.
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Sundayjumper
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Re: Plex

Post by Sundayjumper »

KiwiDave wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 9:19 pm Do let us know how you go on with the Surveillance Station....
Not all that impressed so far tbh. It connects to my cheapie cameras no problem and is happy to do continuous recording but the motion detection is a total fail. I'm getting lots of clips of absolutely nothing happening, yet it's steadfastly refusing to activate when someone comes home, parks on the driveway and walks up to the front door. Which is EXACTLY the kind of thing you DO want recorded.

I'll have a play with the settings but I suspect increasing the sensitivity will just end up with it recording everything regardless.
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unzippy
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Re: Plex

Post by unzippy »

Sundayjumper wrote: Sun Jan 16, 2022 12:45 pm I have a single 2TB 3.5” drive here that will go in to get me started.

I'd get another so you can mirror - toot sweet.

I've got a pair of 4TB in my DS216J running plex - it's fantastic.
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Sundayjumper
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Re: Plex

Post by Sundayjumper »

unzippy wrote: Mon Feb 07, 2022 4:02 am I'd get another so you can mirror - toot sweet.
Already done, I forgot to come back & update !

And after much faffing I think surveillance station is working OK. The internet recommended various permutations of turning the event detection on & off, and rebooting the NAS and now it's mostly working. It seems to trigger almost constantly around dawn but I think that's at least partly down to the cameras, I've noticed their auto brightness/contrast adjustments can be quite abrupt and around dawn I think that's constantly triggering the SS algorithm. It seems fairly reliable detecting people now, that's the main thing.
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Re: Plex

Post by Sundayjumper »

Brief update. Synology event detection never worked reliably so I gave up and left it recording constantly.

TOTALLY unrelated to that....

The heat the last couple of days seems to have killed off one of the HDDs that I'd cobbled together so I'd better bite the bullet and buy some decent ones instead, and it's a chance to increase the capacity too. What do I need ? I'm using it for cameras (as above), Plex, and umm "sharing". Currently about 1.5TB stored, 0.5TB of that reserved for the cameras doing rolling recordings.

WD Red seem to be the default. Is that the correct answer ? In a Synology DS218+, FWIW.
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Beany
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Re: Plex

Post by Beany »

I think reds would be fine. You can get 'surveillance drives' that are intended for constant writing, but I get the impression that they're really for systems that have, say, sixteen cameras and are dumping far more data than a couple of IP cams.

go through the synology drive compatability list and find some WD Red part numbers in the capacity you'd like, then follow the usual process to replace the drives one by one, then once it's done, expand the volume to fill the presumably additional space.

It's not much more complicated than that, which is why I have a Syno meself, and not some homebrew FreeNAS box....
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Beany
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Re: Plex

Post by Beany »

Additional - I'd backup anything you do want to keep - array rebuilding can stress disks badly, so your 'other' drive might shit a biscuit during the rebuild process - it's unlikely, but it's possible.
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