What if any Media Servers actually work?

[Nodscene]

After getting this unit and being pretty excited on what it was reported to do, after reading the sub forums for XMBC etc etc there seems to be nothing but problems and most the stuff isn't working with these series for one reason or another. So what's the best bet to get something reliably working as there seems to be a lot of options. My 606 is fully up to date. The only apps installed are XMBC and a couple codec packs.

Plex
XMBC
Boxee
Popcorn Time
Emby
LooksGood
Twonky
UnPNP V1 and V2

I realize I've mixed in apps but if worst comes to worst I'll use some sort of UnPNP app but I'd rather be able to use XMBC/Boxee app with Plex being the last option as I would need to purchase a Roku or something else to access it. I also have a Mede8er x1000 so I may be able to use that via UnPNP to get a media player look for everything stored on the 606.

Any experiences or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[MikeG.6.5]

Personally, I would have already had Plex installed and running, but then again, I use Plex for a lot of media sharing, including work safety meeting stuff.

Too many clients to name, and some of them are free. (PHT for PC and Mac.) Others are free once you buy a Plex Pass. Most of the rest are $5 a platform without a Pass. Once you get a few clients in your household, you can start something on a tablet, cast it to the TV via either a app for the TV, Roku or Chromecast, continue watching on your PC and go back to the tablet, all without much fuss. Tracking history is done automatically, user by user. Keeping track of your place in the video as you switch from one client to the next means you never lose your place in the movie.

I don't use DLNA at all. There isn't enough security IMO, for the network environment I'm in most of the year. When I first tried DLNA is was problematic, not finding the entire library, losing shows left and right, not easily browsable, etc.

I rely strictly on the Plex Client apps. With the ability to remotely watch any of my movies and shows on any of the client apps from anywhere, the lifetime pass made sense for me. I have 25 users in my list now, and a huge mix of clients. My server is located about 1800 miles from some of them and they are able to watch anything I have with the proper settings on the devices. With my 7004T I've had as many as 7 watching something at the same time, including 2 transcoding sessions.

You say Plex is your least preferred option, but it is bullet proof when you get it installed and working correctly. You won't find that with any of the other media server apps out there. If you convert all of your media to H264 with AAC audio in the 1st audio track and make sure the Web Optimized option is set, you shouldn't have any issues with your NAS buffering on a local network at all. If you do any transcoding on the 60x series with Plex, you aren't going to like the results.

For me, Plex is the only answer for media streaming from my NAS. Everything else is a very poor second.

[Nodscene]

Thanks for that informative post. Basically my biggest concern with Plex is the cost of the program and then something like the Roku to play the movies as I understand Plex is only the server part on the NAS. I believe there are limitations with the 6 series NAS devices. Obviously I'll need to do some testing but being pointed in the right direction really helps. I'm not concerned about security with DNLA as it's just me.

Cheers,

David

[Elusivity]

If you're just using the NAs itself to playbakc media, I've found that even the older supported XBMC version on the 60x series to be perfectly servicable, so long as you're either closing the app prior to leaving the nas alone for hours or being comfortable restarting xbmc or the entire nas every so often.

My uses case in this scenario is primarily in the livingroom by my mrs, and streaming over smb to either xbmc \ kodi on a nuc in the bedroom or a pipo x7 in my mancave.

Honestly it's all down to usecase, I haven't really liked plex since they forked xbmc years ago, but for some like the other poster it works well for his usage scenario.

For your scenario I don't see why running xbmc natively on the nas and ensuring you don't try anything it can't do like 3d or HEVC/H.265 video would be an issue. People bitching about xbmc are usually using shitty source vids, we've rarely had issues and the ios and android remote apps work well, and are preferred over the full sized wireless mouse & kb, mini BT kb and the (admittedly wasted purchase) of the asustor IR and remote kit.

Ignore all the bitching and try both boxee and xbmc yourself in your own setup, it's nothing extra to pay and if you like it then all's the better, although seeing as you're a new purchaser I do find it a bit sad you didn't get a 50xx, 51xx (for the kodi support, it's a newer revision of xbmc with less acual xbmc core issues and more features) or 61xx or 62xx with the 4k output alongside kodi support.

Tbh it's cheaper to have just setup 4 or 8 bay external DAS with seperate drives via usb3/esata than single larger array residing within the nas itself if it's only going to be used for media storage. This alternative setup still works just as well, as you can just link all media within boxee or xbmc into a media type (movies, tv, music, pictures, anime) and reference all locations.

[Nodscene]

Thanks for the feed back. I haven't had much time to play around with it so I'm using it just as a storage for my other devices (Med 1000X3D and Oppo 103D) to play from. Works great obviously but will start seeing what this thing can do at some point.

The reason I got this one specifically was that it was on sale for something like $400 plus I had $230 in points from Canada Computers so all told I paid a whopping $175 for it I can't afford to pay $800+ for a good NAS (not that this isn't but you know what I mean) and I already had 4 2tb WD Black drives on hand plus a 2tb WD Green so I really can't complain about having 7.2tb of data storage plus all the features (albeit somewhat outdated) for the price I paid.