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Install MB3 Server on NAS?


darengibo

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darengibo

Not sure if this has been discussed or in a tutorial (if so, I apologize!).   I currently installed the MB3 Server on my PC, and my movies/shows are housed on a NAS Synology DS1513+.

So, my question is there a way to install the server directly on the NAS so my PC wouldnt have to be on in order to access the files?

I do have PLEX installed on the NAS, but I prefer the interface/speed of MB3!

 

Thanks for any advice/tips

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I have a couple year old model (the 1511) and the biggest problem you will have even when it is one day supported to install on the NAS is the CPU power of them. Basically they are way too underpowered to do any type of transcoding. Now if all you use is the MB Classic and play everything directly then you don't need the power, but if you plan to use a phone or other device for playback, you will run into problems trying to transcode things on a NAS.

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gillmacca

The android app allows you to use an external player, so I'm guessing no transcoding would be required there

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braddles69

Great news Luke, I have the 413j and can't wait to have the server on there and then just the Classic on my HTPC, and my other gadgets.

Cheers and keep up the great work;)

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  • 1 month later...

Very very good news !!!

 

I use my windows 8.1 With MB3 server and I Watch movies on MPC, androïd mobile phone and my iPad With total satisfaction :-)

 

The movies are on my NAS synology DS413j. But my HTPC use a lot of energy and makes noise, so I'm excited about the MB3 server coming up soon on synology NAS (linux) !!!

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  • 7 months later...
Fieperskaivu

Any head way on this feature?

 

Same question! I just picked up the beast known as QNAP 269L and was looking to see if this question had an answer. I guess for now just keep running the server on my desktop and point the libraries to the NAS?

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MndWrp

Forgive my ignorance Luke but will it eventually work on most nas boxes or do you need to make a specific server for each brand?

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Yes we're working on it. we have a newer, easier installation process for ubuntu coming soon that i think will help.

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Deathsquirrel

Forgive my ignorance Luke but will it eventually work on most nas boxes or do you need to make a specific server for each brand?

It would potentially require a different server program for each device though it's likely that the Linux server can be adapted to most common devices.  That said, a lot of these devices will never have the horsepower to run the server and do transcoding so I'm guessing there's no point to supporting quite a few of them.

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Spaceboy

It would potentially require a different server program for each device though it's likely that the Linux server can be adapted to most common devices.  That said, a lot the minority of these devices will never have the horsepower to run the server and do transcoding so I'm guessing there's no point to supporting quite a few of them.

 

i would respectfully disagree

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im85288

The following was posted in the developer section showing some real tests on transcoding, the important statistic is the "index" column which shows how many simultaneous streams can be transcoded. I post it here so that people can have an informed decision on what to expect from their NAS processor.

 

- CPU: various
- Memory: DDR3 4GB x 2, official maximum speed each CPU supports.
- MB: ASRock FM2A88X-ITX+ / MSI Z77A-G65 / ASRock Z87 Extreme4
- PSU: Seasonic S12II 430W
- OS: Windows 8.1 x64
- Encoding: x264 64-bit, CRF=23, preset=medium, all the other parameters are default
- Transcoding: MB3 Server (Higher Speed) to NEXUS 7 2013 over wireless LAN
- Video clip: Casino Royal (ripped from BD in MKV), starting at 'Madagascar', 150s for encoding, 300s for transcoding.
 
 
53c2f7bcaedf7_EncodingTranscoding.png
 
 
 
Transcoding index should be >> 1 to avoid dropped frames. Fortunately only AMD A4-4000 is disqualified. For transcoding dual stream, you may think index >> 2 is enough. But this is often not the case. Index of Core i3-4130 is near 3 (i.e. three times faster), but when transcoding dual video stream, it struggled. Only Core i5/i7 was able to do it without dropped frames. (CPU usage of Core i7 is ~50% somehow, so index is not so different from Core i5.)
 
BTW when transcoding 1080p to 1080p for NEXUS 7 (2013), MB3 Server uses the following x264 profile, preset and ratefactor:
 
 - Auto = Higher Speed (good enough for a tablet)
 - Higher Speed: Baseline@3.0, Ultra Fast, CRF=23.0
 - Higher Quality: Baseline@3.0, Super Fast, CRF=20.0
 - Max Quality: Baseline@3.0, Super Fast, CRF=18.0
 
With the same video clip, I got roughly:
 
- Index for Higher Quality ~ Index / 1.24
- Index for Higher Quality ~ Index / 1.27
 
Plex uses ffmpeg=x264 too for transcoding, but somewhat differently. Basic CPU requirement is the same as MB3, however.

 

 

 

53c2f78f39b55_EncodingTranscoding.png

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Spaceboy

ok, taking out the link in my post makes it look a bit stupid. i was linking to my NAS model, not just a random one. but i can't see how it matches up on your chart.

 

i did do a bit of research before buying it and people said they successfully used it for plex transcoding. tbh i would transcode as little as possible, i get 80Mb/s download, 17Mb/s upload.

 

even if its not sufficient it has 2 gigabit connections, 1 in and 1 out, so using a second pc to transcode is feasible.

 

and even so, cpu power  for nas's is only going to go one way so why are we limiting ourselves?

Edited by Spaceboy
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im85288

There is no Limiting as far as I am aware. Luke says's it is planned so eventually there will be packages for NAS's. Now whether they can support things like transcoding to remote/local devices etc is a different question. Transcoding does not only occur based on bandwidths but also is needed when clients cannot play a certain type of media...for example if your iPad cannot play a MKV file, the server transcodes it into a format the iPad can play. 

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c0m3r

I have a HP N54L microserver which handles my server needs. It is a 2.2GHz dual core AMD CPU and 4GB RAM as standard and has been transcoding just fine for me both local and remote. Only tried a couple of simultaneous streams but dont envisage needing more than this, especially as not all my media is 1080P. Think anyone who expects a NAS or microserver to transcode multiple 1080 streams is kidding themselves and not really necessary on mobile platforms.

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We're not limiting anything but some hardware might.  

 

Deathsquirrel was just trying to set proper expectations as some people may just think NAS == computer so everything should work.

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Deathsquirrel

We're not limiting anything but some hardware might.  

 

Deathsquirrel was just trying to set proper expectations as some people may just think NAS == computer so everything should work.

 

Exactly.  There are a variety of consumer/pro NAS devices in use out there.  Some are basically just modified Linux boxes running on standard PC hardware with a lot of drives and all the horsepower of a typical desktop PC or small server.  These will likely be supportable by a MB3 server, were one released, for that platform and could conceivably support all the standard features.  Others are appliances with just enough horsepower to do their actual job of running the drives and maybe running a bittorrent client.  These will probably not be supportable with a server build that is comparable in features to the existing server.

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Spaceboy

yeah point taken, i would just be surprised if anyone on here has unrealistic expectations around the performance of their nas. people here strike me as having a good understanding of their hardware although that may change as you appeal to a wider and more mainstream audience

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