[SOLVED] Thecus NAS apps needed

[128MB]

I have a Thecus N4560 NAS and am looking for the apps like miniDLNA, thecus itself doesnt support the older nas anymore and all links are gone and only PLEX still sorta works but its hogs resources.
Only thing i want to do is stream my movies to dlna smart tv... i can transfer from and to pc perfectly.

 

[gggplaya]

Plex has a built in DLNA server, but it's not turned on by default. Once you turn it on, it should work better than any generic miniDLNA service since plex does a better job of scraping metadata and thumbnail art. https://support.plex.tv/articles/200350536-dlna/

If you're trying to use DLNA to solve transcoding issues, the DLNA player will simply just not allow the video to play instead of transcoding. Though the plex server may just try and transcode it for you. However, your intel atom processor is not powerful enough.

Your best bet is to buy a KODI box, or an AppleTV 4 or newer with the INFUSE app.

 

[128MB]

i just got the damn thing with 4 brand new wd red pro... learned the hard way again; i dont need some thumbnails and stuff i just want the files to pop up on the tv like the shared folder on the pc or laptop.
its 12TB of movies ...

 

[gggplaya]

Regardless, DLNA is not the end all solution, many movies and files that plex needs to transcode, DLNA won't bother to play. Many more modern video codecs, older TV's don't have support for and they need transcoded. The same goes for the sound.

Your best bet would have been a Celeron processor NAS. Then you can use Plex Pass and it would hardware transcode everything.

Is TWONKY already pre-installed on your NAS? During that vintage, Twonky was fairly popular as a preinstalled DLNA server.

 

[128MB]

no twonky installed, only plex is preinstalled in the os.

i dont get the difference in sharing a movie form my pc hard drive or sharing the movie file from the nas. doesnt the tv do the encoding ? or does my pc do that from windows ?

 

[gggplaya]

no twonky installed, only plex is preinstalled in the os.

i dont get the difference in sharing a movie form my pc hard drive or sharing the movie file from the nas. doesnt the tv do the encoding ? or does my pc do that from windows ?

What DLNA server did you have on your PC? With many of them, they'll transcode and your computer has a nice beefy processor to do it. It's been my experience with DLNA that most of your movies will work, but then you always run into a few movies that require some sort of transcode. Whether it's the actual video, the sound or just the container.

 

[128MB]

dlna on pc ? i just share the movies folder in windosw and i can access it on the tv just like its a thumb drive and i just watched 4k lotr with it like its nothing.

 

[gggplaya]

dlna on pc ? i just share the movies folder in windosw and i can access it on the tv just like its a thumb drive and i just watched 4k lotr with it like its nothing.

Then why do you need DLNA, if you can access the folders directly via a SAMBA share? Your NAS should have Samba(windows) and FTP protocols available on the network. FTP is the most efficient.

Accessing via SMB is what's done with Appletv and Kodi, so that's the best avenue. The box or tv will decode it if the codecs are supported

The problem with DLNA server is it creates a client profile for your TV. The profile has a list of supported codecs and protocols on your tv. If something is not supported, it won't play. The DLNA client on your tv, may not even support all the codecs that your tv is capable of hardware decoding.

That's been my experience with DLNA, Plex and direct SAMBA. I've literally used and tried every type of system out there.

 

[128MB]

i have no idea why i need it as nothing else works now. the nas has ftp and smd and its enabled and now i can use dlna on the tv but now i cant access it on the pc itself ... djeesh there goes my entire day of progress.

 

[JamesKarter]

no twonky installed, only plex is preinstalled in the os. motherboard

 

[gggplaya]

I think Thecus may have enabled DLNA on PLEX by default. So plex is the default DLNA media server.

With any DLNA media server, you have to select which shares to serve up. This is a manual operation on all the NAS unit's I've used. It's possible for the DLNA to scan your entire NAS, but that would be a security and privacy network to serve up everything on your network. It should alway be a manual designation of the share.

So if you didn't do this anywhere other than Plex, then PLEX is your DLNA server.

If you didn't log into a samba share with your NAS crediential on your TV, then it's DLNA you're access, not SAMBA. Unless you have an open share on your NAS that doesn't require credentials.

If all of the above is accurate, then there will be some videos PLEX will struggle to transcode or won't allow you to play. However, your NAS seems to have the same processor as the Synology DS415Play. If Thecus managed to get plex to hardware transcode with your atom chip. Then it may be able to transcode things fine, I'm not sure.

 

[SamirD]

If you don't need any of the servers other than file serving, then just turn those other things off and let the TV see the files like a regular share. If you can get that share feature to work correctly, I think you'll have what you want.

 

[128MB]

should have done more research when buying a nas, plex works for now but its a bit wonky and i sometimes have to manually start the service and not all movies are showing up.
if i had the space id just put the drives in my pc and ditch the nas.

 

[kanewolf]

should have done more research when buying a nas, plex works for now but its a bit wonky and i sometimes have to manually start the service and not all movies are showing up.
if i had the space id just put the drives in my pc and ditch the nas.

You "bought" an 8 year old device. Hopefully you didn't spend more that $50 for the chassis.

 

[gggplaya]

should have done more research when buying a nas, plex works for now but its a bit wonky and i sometimes have to manually start the service and not all movies are showing up.
if i had the space id just put the drives in my pc and ditch the nas.

The files residing on the NAS, or residing on the PC makes zero difference. They'll be served up on the network as a Samba(SMB) share.

I suspect the files that aren't showing up is because they aren't compatible with your tv, so plex is purposely hiding them because your NAS can't transcode them. On my QNAP, it still allows the tv to try and play them, but the tv will throw an error.

DLNA sucks, I don't use it for a reason. Not all my files will play with DLNA without transcoding.

Your best bet is to buy a better client device and stop trying to force DLNA to be your solution. Use Kodi or an Apple TV4 or newer with the Infuse app.

 

[USAFRet]

I have my video lib living on my QNAP NAS, and a small PC to read that and serve out to the TV.
Simply drag the ISO to VLC, play, done.

I tried Plex. For about 5 minutes.
Turns out, it does NOT read/index ISO files. Direct disk image of the DVD.

The vast majority of my lib is ISO files, so it is useless for me.

 

[SamirD]

should have done more research when buying a nas, plex works for now but its a bit wonky and i sometimes have to manually start the service and not all movies are showing up.
if i had the space id just put the drives in my pc and ditch the nas.

You can get external cases for drives or just upgrade your case and transplant all the drives over. I'd be interested in your leftover nas then because I only have basic nas needs.