Stream your home media files away from home

Many people overlook a pretty awesome secondary use for a NAS - media streaming! But that isn't quite so useful if you can't view those files away from home...

Intro Screen Music Credit:
Title: Laszlo - Supernova

[bitzer]

can we get a 2020 update for this as this video is almost 5 years old and technology changes rapidly

[cosmickatamari]

This is why I have a PLEX server. Between my wife and I, we have about 400 DVD/BluRays and having everything in one spot is nice.

[AsamiImako]

Love how he mentions a VLC front-end when VLC is perfectly capable of browsing network stores without one. I dunno about downloading them to your device, but there's pretty much no need to transcode anything and it's worked just fine for me.

[XxNightmarexX]

"I reject your reality and substitute my own"

I like it.

[shooterboss]

This was the most amusing video I've seen for a long time. Love it when Linus puts his passion into a speech like that.

[kingunicorn]

love that Mythbusters reference. for those who don't know, he said "I reject your reality and substitute my own"

[enhydralutra]

I personally love Plex, even with some of its limitations. It's even better if you can manage to link it up with something like SickRage and Transmission. That way SickRage can keep track of the shows you want to watch, download them automatically when they're available in the quality you want, rename the files to a standard format and place them into organized folders for your Plex server to read. Yes, this isn't exactly legal, but my cable company charging $15 a month for a DVR because they use a proprietary tuner module should be (and *is* going to become) illegal too.

[dfurball]

Got my Plex Media Server up and running, and shared with my "family members" for free. Thanks for the tip Linus!

[Omnilatent]

You are so spot on with that last part. It's ridiculous what buyers have to endure "copying stuff is illegal" - yeah thanks, I bought this. If I downloaded it I wouldn't see this shitty unskippable piece of shit displayed.

[Ifindcosplay]

Linus wanted to mention. I believe if you have a Lifetime Plex Pass you dont have to pay the $5 activation fee per device for the PLEX app. I have it installed on 4 phones/tablets now with just one Plex Pass account. On the Plex forums some ppl have said they have over 10+ devices with installed apps all with just one Plex Pass account.

[genericasian]

I recently switched to Plex after using MediaBrowser/Emby for many years. There are a lot of nice power-user oriented features (like QuickSync-powered transcoding support) as well as clients for a ton of platforms. The biggest downside is that since it's constantly being developed, it's not always as stable. It also takes a lot more work to get going.

[Scoutth]

Anyone else notice that at 3:56 they circled the wrong one? XD

[elfman]

Surprised you didn't mention Emby(formerly Media Browser). It has a similar pay model to Plex but have found if you like using Kodi as the front end, it is leaps and bounds more flexible than Plex is. Emby is easily elegant and cross platform compatible. I had no problem paying for Premier.

[wajinshu]

Perfect timing.. Just ordered my Synology NAS with 16tb drives :D

[jchambo]

PLEX user here. Have been using it for quite some time (years) and I created a Windows Server 2012 R2 box out of an HP 800 G1 SFF with two 3TB WD RED NAS drives running in RAID1 acting as my File Share server and PLEX server.

That was the first time I ever setup RAID1 and I actually used your Intel RAID video to help guide me through it. Thanks for that! And high five for being a fellow PLEX user.

[elfman]

I've used EMBY (used to be Media Browser) for years and it's fantastic. Clients for just about any player/platform out there, very robust.

[Stretch]

I think an honorable mention should be Kodi (XBMC). It is really good at viewing local content, as well as a lot of streaming content options through various repositories. It can be installed on a lot of different systems, and even sideloaded on ones that aren't natively available. If you are an intermediate to advanced computer user, then I would highly suggest looking into Kodi. I will say the remote streaming option isn't as available as Plex. And yes, Plex is the king in this domain. I have been using it for many years as my primary audio/video solution.

[SuperManitu]

Plex is amazing, and you can help it a little bit with the metadata. Just put a nfo file with the imdb ID in the same folder as the movie/episode and you are good to go.
And there is one other solution called Emby Media Server. It has the same features as Plex, but it's Open Source. I havent tried it yet, but I certainly will

[xnamkcor]

One of the most unexpected features of my NAS was the ability to manage and record from my network cameras. It was a very basic camera, but the NAS's software let me set up schedules and motion detection with zones like in some newer cameras I've seen reviewed that charge for storage and "recording/archiving".

[rudolphna]

I use plex myself, and have for a few years now. It's great, I've never really had any problems (that weren't pfsense firewall related, not plex fault). My servers i3-2100 can sustain 2HD streams smoothly simultaneously and 4 SD streams. In other words, more than enough for your average family.