Built a NAS server after NAS-ty installation experiences

[AmigaDude]

...
I'm fed up with vendors dropping support for their hardware shortly after selling it. ...

Anyone want to recommend good open-source NAS and NVR software?

Not an answer, but my 2¢ - I went down a similar quest a dozen years ago, and finally decided to go with Synology.

(approx. 2012) bought a Synology DS412+ with 4 3TB drives
Replaced 1 WD drive a couple years ago after an alert. Just pulled out the old one, and stuck in the new one - Hot Swapping worked perfectly.

(now 2024) bought a replacement Synology DS1512+ with 4 4TB drives
still reviewing and copying over files from DS412+

I have video, music, shared files, backup files etc.. loaded and never lost any sleep (or data) over the years. The reason for the upgrade is that the newer s/w features require updated h/w. (even these I don't really need)
Contrast that with every open source solution I tried that all went dark, and/or required more handholding than it was worth -- although they are all FUN to work on.

I'll probably use the 412+ as a backup to my backup, since it works and all I need extra is a battery backup, which I happen to have a spare of as well. Hmm sitting right in front of my old Commodore Amiga. Nah, I better not.

Best of luck to you, and I hope to see you one day on the dark $ide

 

[TickTock]

Brand-new NAS user here, looking for some help...

I recently purchased and set up a Western Digital 8TB My Cloud EX2 Ultra with RAID1. I have joint, DW, and me shares. On my laptop I see these under Network -> MYCLOUDEX2ULTRA and I have mapped them to network drives. So far, so good.

On DW's laptop, it sees Network -> MYCLOUDEX2ULTRA but none of the shares underneath it. This feels like a simple setup thing that I'm missing (I'm an okay computer user, but not so experienced in networking). How do I get her laptop to see the shares?

 

[Route246]

I use makemkv to rip DVD and Bluray.

I usually convert mkv using Handbrake to m4v for viewing on other platforms (mostly iPad, some computer, some TV/Plex).

Handbrake has great flexibility in using HW/GPU assist, varying resolution, FPS and other adjustments. Latest Handbrake even uses Apple Silicon GPU HW assist to convert at a pretty fast FPS (frame per second).

I wouldn't say it's simple, but I don't find it onerous.

I use MakeMKV to rip DVDs and Blu-ray discs, which can take some time but you can start and walk away. I have very little issue with episodes or movies being properly identified, although extras have always been a challenge. I use Filebot and Bulk Rename Utility to make sure everything (particularly TV shows) are named in the format that Plex uses, which can be a bit tricky, but that's specific to my setup with Plex. I still have minor issues with poster art, which is important to me as I'm very visual, and sometimes subtitles, which Plex has never really supported properly, but overall I love it. I actually had two drive fail in my old TS-409, so I upgraded and had to re-rip ALL of my media, and it wasn't as bad the second time since I knew what I was doing.

I use makemkv just to decode a DVD or Bluray. That's all it does and puts it into a Matroska container as I understand things.

Handbrake allows you to generate a file specifically tailored to the target platform such as YouTube, iPhone, TV, etc.

So you can do it with just one program? For some reason, I was using MakeMKV along with Handbrake (and maybe some other software as well). It was a multi-step process (I think because of the copyright and copy protection issues?). Also, the program settings for each of the programs had a lot of variables.

Handbrake has some pretty slick features and is still in open source development. It also has a command line interface so it makes it easy to do batch processing if you have a Linux shell.

Yeah, I vaguely remember Handbrake from long ago, but no, I haven't used it in at least 10 years, it should no longer be necessary for ripping discs. And MakeMKV doesn't really require any settings that I can recall other than where to store the files. At least, it hasn't after I got it working many years ago.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Ah, I think that's why I don't use Handbrake....it's over my head.


Plex takes care of a lot of it automatically, although I forget whether it creates lower bitrate versions or transcodes on the fly, I set it up many years ago and haven't touched the settings since. But good to know about Handbrake, thanks.