Home Theater on your Asustor NAS
Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2015 6:42 am
EDIT: I think I better explain a few things about my use of Plex, just so everyone knows where I'm coming from here. I started Plex soon after I bought my first Asustor NAS in April of 2014. This was an AS-202T. I ran that NAS as my main Plex Server for almost a year. It's got the smallest CPU of all of the NASes Asustor makes. My library has grown from roughly 700 movies and about 7200 episodes to now well over 1700 movies and almost 14,000 TV episodes. I shared my media with 20 of my coworkers in Alaska for the last 7 months I was there... I had 5 streaming at one time on the 202T. It was pretty close to the max that unit could do.
Once I decided I wanted to do more with my NAS I found out the 202T was a bit too light and I upgraded it to a 7004T in March of 2015. This machine has 4x6TB HDD in Raid 5 and an external Raid 5 5bay enclosure holding 5x3TB HDD's as well, for a total of 28TB. I'm using just over half of this, and it's all in media to stream via Plex (OK, I have some photos, too.....) This device has had 7 streaming at the same time and never missed a beat. It's rock solid and probably the best device I could have bought for using Plex on for under $5K
That's about me and my experience with Plex. And why I consider myself pretty knowledgeable on the topic.
There have been a lot of discussions about Asustor and the HT functionality with those models that have HDMI out.
As has been discussed elsewhere, XBMC is dead. The project has been effectively done away with, and is now rolled up into the Kodi project. (XBMC became Kodi.) So the support from Asustor for a dead project is, well, likely not going to happen.
Kodi has some hardware requirements that preclude it from working with some of the lower end NASes Asustor has. Specifically the requirements for the Intel drivers for the GPU used in the chipsets. Until Intel releases those drivers getting Kodi working on the 20x, 30x models aren't likely to happen either.
So, how does someone get a HT experience with their NAS? As I've already discussed elsewhere, there is a way to do it. But you have to think about the NAS as one cog, and not the whole engine. Without the cog it won't work, and there are other cogs needed, too. So I'm going to line up the cogs to make sure everyone knows what the options are.
What you need:
Of course, you need your NAS. And some HDDs in it. You can set up the HDDs in any raid configuration you want to have them in, it's not really as important to setting it up as just having everything working. To get a way to actually stream your media, though, you also need an app. XBMC or Kodi as has already been discussed is not an option for some of the models. So the app I'm going to talk to everyone about is Plex. We're going to discuss the finer aspects of setting up Plex a bit later. For now, though, install it from App Central and get ready to work on the other parts you need to have.
The next thing you need to have is a Roku, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV or something similar to hook up to the TV. This is going to be the client to the NASes Server. Any of these work, but personally I'm going to recommend the Roku. The app is bullet proof, and costs a measly $5 unless you get a Plex Pass. (Don't do that until you find out if you like Plex or not. And then wait to see if you want the features a Pass can give you.)
Now that you have a server app, and a client app device, you need to do a few things on the server side to make sure everything works well. Notice for now, we haven't even gone into the server yet. We aren't going to do that for a while, so don't get ahead of yourself..... Just sit back and wait and you're going to like everything as it happens...
Setting up the Network:
Plex likes to have the router set up right to make sure everything works well. Your NAS is also going to like these following steps in the long run, so it's going to make a difference on how well it works, too. We're going to set up a static IP for the NAs, so it's always going to be at the same IP, regardless of any other device you have on your network. Since every router does this differently, you are going to need to read up on the specifics of you router, in it's manual, and make sure you read up on how to do it, log into your router and read up some more BEFORE you do this. (Most of the time the IP you set is going to be something like 192.168.1.xxx. It's the xxx that denotes the NAS specifically, but you need the whole thing. For any examples we're going to use 192.168.1.5.)
After you set the IP on the router, you are going to need to reboot the NAS to make sure it's available at the IP you set. You can't do anything else until you make sure the NAS is working on the new IP.
AFTER you make sure you can get to the NAS on the IP you set up, then you need to read up on Port Forwarding on your router. Asustor's EZRouter function works for some people and doesn't work for others. It relies on uPnP protocols and as each router manufacturer interprets those protocols differently or implements things differently, we aren't going to rely on them to get the functionality we want. We are going to open a port all the time. As I suggested with static IP's, read up on it, log into the router, read some more than make a change on the router to the ports.
But wait! I haven't told you which port you are forwarding, yet, have I.... Plex uses 32400 internally, and this is the port I'm going to tell you to use for now. We'll talk about changing to another port later. So the port Forwarding Rules you set on your router are going to be something like this: Inbound (outside, external, etc.) traffic coming in on port 32400 goes to device 192.168.1.5 on port 32400 inside the network (internal, local, etc.). There are other ports you could forward while you are doing it. Ports for like the ADM (8000 and 8001 by default) SABnzb+ (if you use it, 8088 by default) PlexPy (We haven't talked about this yet, but we will, 8181). Don't do them right now, but just so you know, this is where you are going to set those up, too.
This gets the important set up stuff working. The only reason Plex might have problems with remote access now is if you are in a double NAT situation or have another issue going on. We're going to test this now by going to a website that checks your router to see if the port is open. http://canyouseeme.org This site gives you your outside IP address, and lets you plug in a port number, then tests it to see if it's open to the world. If it says success on port 32400 we're in good shape, if not, there are a few other things to try, so PM me if you have problems.
This is probably long enough as a starter, so I'm going to add more in replies. Please wait to reply to this thread until I give you an "All Done!" so everyone can read it all unbroken by comments.
EDIT: I realized after re-reading this I didn't tell you how to install PMS, though... The simplest way is to install it from the apps listed in App Central. After you get it running, then any updates will be downloaded from Plex's own download pages and then manually updated in App Central. Pretty easy to do, actually!
Once I decided I wanted to do more with my NAS I found out the 202T was a bit too light and I upgraded it to a 7004T in March of 2015. This machine has 4x6TB HDD in Raid 5 and an external Raid 5 5bay enclosure holding 5x3TB HDD's as well, for a total of 28TB. I'm using just over half of this, and it's all in media to stream via Plex (OK, I have some photos, too.....) This device has had 7 streaming at the same time and never missed a beat. It's rock solid and probably the best device I could have bought for using Plex on for under $5K
That's about me and my experience with Plex. And why I consider myself pretty knowledgeable on the topic.
There have been a lot of discussions about Asustor and the HT functionality with those models that have HDMI out.
As has been discussed elsewhere, XBMC is dead. The project has been effectively done away with, and is now rolled up into the Kodi project. (XBMC became Kodi.) So the support from Asustor for a dead project is, well, likely not going to happen.
Kodi has some hardware requirements that preclude it from working with some of the lower end NASes Asustor has. Specifically the requirements for the Intel drivers for the GPU used in the chipsets. Until Intel releases those drivers getting Kodi working on the 20x, 30x models aren't likely to happen either.
So, how does someone get a HT experience with their NAS? As I've already discussed elsewhere, there is a way to do it. But you have to think about the NAS as one cog, and not the whole engine. Without the cog it won't work, and there are other cogs needed, too. So I'm going to line up the cogs to make sure everyone knows what the options are.
What you need:
Of course, you need your NAS. And some HDDs in it. You can set up the HDDs in any raid configuration you want to have them in, it's not really as important to setting it up as just having everything working. To get a way to actually stream your media, though, you also need an app. XBMC or Kodi as has already been discussed is not an option for some of the models. So the app I'm going to talk to everyone about is Plex. We're going to discuss the finer aspects of setting up Plex a bit later. For now, though, install it from App Central and get ready to work on the other parts you need to have.
The next thing you need to have is a Roku, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV or something similar to hook up to the TV. This is going to be the client to the NASes Server. Any of these work, but personally I'm going to recommend the Roku. The app is bullet proof, and costs a measly $5 unless you get a Plex Pass. (Don't do that until you find out if you like Plex or not. And then wait to see if you want the features a Pass can give you.)
Now that you have a server app, and a client app device, you need to do a few things on the server side to make sure everything works well. Notice for now, we haven't even gone into the server yet. We aren't going to do that for a while, so don't get ahead of yourself..... Just sit back and wait and you're going to like everything as it happens...
Setting up the Network:
Plex likes to have the router set up right to make sure everything works well. Your NAS is also going to like these following steps in the long run, so it's going to make a difference on how well it works, too. We're going to set up a static IP for the NAs, so it's always going to be at the same IP, regardless of any other device you have on your network. Since every router does this differently, you are going to need to read up on the specifics of you router, in it's manual, and make sure you read up on how to do it, log into your router and read up some more BEFORE you do this. (Most of the time the IP you set is going to be something like 192.168.1.xxx. It's the xxx that denotes the NAS specifically, but you need the whole thing. For any examples we're going to use 192.168.1.5.)
After you set the IP on the router, you are going to need to reboot the NAS to make sure it's available at the IP you set. You can't do anything else until you make sure the NAS is working on the new IP.
AFTER you make sure you can get to the NAS on the IP you set up, then you need to read up on Port Forwarding on your router. Asustor's EZRouter function works for some people and doesn't work for others. It relies on uPnP protocols and as each router manufacturer interprets those protocols differently or implements things differently, we aren't going to rely on them to get the functionality we want. We are going to open a port all the time. As I suggested with static IP's, read up on it, log into the router, read some more than make a change on the router to the ports.
But wait! I haven't told you which port you are forwarding, yet, have I.... Plex uses 32400 internally, and this is the port I'm going to tell you to use for now. We'll talk about changing to another port later. So the port Forwarding Rules you set on your router are going to be something like this: Inbound (outside, external, etc.) traffic coming in on port 32400 goes to device 192.168.1.5 on port 32400 inside the network (internal, local, etc.). There are other ports you could forward while you are doing it. Ports for like the ADM (8000 and 8001 by default) SABnzb+ (if you use it, 8088 by default) PlexPy (We haven't talked about this yet, but we will, 8181). Don't do them right now, but just so you know, this is where you are going to set those up, too.
This gets the important set up stuff working. The only reason Plex might have problems with remote access now is if you are in a double NAT situation or have another issue going on. We're going to test this now by going to a website that checks your router to see if the port is open. http://canyouseeme.org This site gives you your outside IP address, and lets you plug in a port number, then tests it to see if it's open to the world. If it says success on port 32400 we're in good shape, if not, there are a few other things to try, so PM me if you have problems.
This is probably long enough as a starter, so I'm going to add more in replies. Please wait to reply to this thread until I give you an "All Done!" so everyone can read it all unbroken by comments.
EDIT: I realized after re-reading this I didn't tell you how to install PMS, though... The simplest way is to install it from the apps listed in App Central. After you get it running, then any updates will be downloaded from Plex's own download pages and then manually updated in App Central. Pretty easy to do, actually!