Plex on Linux the Easy Way on a Cheap N100 Server ! Hardware HDR tone mapping demoed

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Plex on Linux the Easy Way on a Cheap N100 Server ! Hardware HDR tone mapping demoed

Рет қаралды 11,960

Lon.TV

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 86

@alansmithee.01 2 ай бұрын

This is going to be a widely researched topic among the Plex community next year when a lot of older hardware lose Windows 10 updates next year and don't have official Windows 11 support.

@ShoelessJP 2 ай бұрын

Love the Plex content, keep it up!

@meandmyEV 2 ай бұрын

Great video. That little NUC box is looking more and more attractive. I have a massive gaming PC running 24/7 for Plex and I probably only use it a couple of times a week. I am not sure how much power my PC is using at idle but I bet I could save some energy by switching to the smaller PC.

@alphabanks Ай бұрын

Great video I've been running Emby on Ubuntu LTS for a few years now. The main part of the configuration is creating mount points and setting permissions to connect back to my Windows file server. Eventaully I plan on moving everything over to Docker.

@davedillehunt1807 2 ай бұрын

Thanks for doing this one, Lon! As always, it was very well done. But it was also just what I was looking for. Thanks, again.👍

@ryanw8664 2 ай бұрын

Loved that you covered this, thanks! The only other thing that would’ve been helpful for me would be instructions on how you got the computer to boot onto the other drive to install Linux.

@tac73 2 ай бұрын

Thanks Lon! I've been running a Plex DVR server on a ZimaBoard under Windows 10, without any problems so far. But, switching to Linux is appealing to me. So, now that I have some inspiration, I'm going to give it a shot. 😁

@paulwarner5395 16 күн бұрын

Thanx for the video. Took mee about 2 hours to get this going on Ubuntu 24. Worked well will just take a bit of getting used to . Streams OK to my TV via the Plex Android app via my Chromecast.

@amallica 19 күн бұрын

Incredible on linux

@jaro101v 2 ай бұрын

Awesome! 🎉 thank you very much for this new option.

@LonSeidman 2 ай бұрын

Thank you for support!

@RoastBeefSandwich 2 ай бұрын

An N100 box like this running a lightweight Linux distro like Debian with Docker and Jellyfin, PiHole, etc., containers will be popular for home server users shortly.

@ewenchan1239 Ай бұрын

The N100 can't keep up trying to transcode DTS:X audio down to PCM. I've tried. Can't do it. It's not fast enough. The 4K video can direct stream, but the audio can't be transcoded fast enough.

@cruiserusa Ай бұрын

Good point. We would need more 4K tests to see a complete picture.

@cruiserusa Ай бұрын

so now what? N200?

@ewenchan1239 Ай бұрын

@@cruiserusa Well...originally, I wanted to actually buy a trio of Mini PCs that had the Intel N305 processor in it, but at the time that I was looking to make the purchase, none were available. (Tried looking for the Minisforum UN305(C) and to no avail. The N100s were available, but didn't pass the $/(performance/Watt) metric, so that's how I ended up with a trio of OASLOA Mini PCs that has the N95 processor in it instead.)

@bcretty606 2 ай бұрын

This was a wonderful tutorial for a Linux noob like myself. Would you mind making a video explaining how to add Plex within Docker on Ubuntu since you mentioned that would be your preferred method?

@piman2boek364 2 ай бұрын

I have been running Plex Media Server on a Windows 10 with no problem. Erased the drive and installed Linux. As long as the media was attached to the USB ports it worked properly. But I have 2 different spinning drives on my PC which hold my data. I spent several days trying to resolve permission problems I gave up and loaded Windows 11 and of course it worked properly . I have been running various Linux flavors for many years but am not that proficient with making changes via the terminal.

@Mario00064 2 ай бұрын

Thanks so much for this video Lon!

@asan1050 2 ай бұрын

Lon , Thanks for posting this video

@DwadRunninThangs 2 ай бұрын

How do you mount your synology nas to the n100 running Ubuntu server so you can access your media

@john_in_phoenix 2 ай бұрын

I use NFS and mount the NAS, but SMB also works. You need to turn either protocol on in the Synology control panel anyway, I just use NFS because it worked long before SMB was a thing and it's native to Linux (and is a less chatty protocol). Either will work just fine. Just Google "NFS mount Ubuntu" or "SMB mount Ubuntu" and you can find some easy directions.

@DarthV506 2 ай бұрын

You would make a share on the synology (SMB or NFS) then mount it on the linux box. Test it out then add the mount to the /etc/fstab and point Plex libraries at that mount point.

@Cujo71 2 ай бұрын

Thanks for this. I am going to have to move my 2 Plex servers to Linux due to them not being able to go to Windows 11. My 2 run perfectly on the Precision T1700's I have so I see no need to get new machines for 11, which I am not a fan of anyway. I will do my MakeMKV on my Mac Mini. I appreciate the walk-through.

@dg-hughes Ай бұрын

I've got piles of DVDs from years past, a Synology, and some time. What do people use to copy DVDs they own to a file they can stream over Plex? There seems to be a lot of discussion of how many apps refuse to do anything due to copy protection. Some burn files but not to what can be read. I spent a lot of time making files then trying to convert them to a usable format mkv or whatever. Linux and Windows whatever works but most things I tried only did half what was needed.

@Charles0511 Ай бұрын

MakeMkV

@dg-hughes Ай бұрын

@@Charles0511 I had tried MakeMKV but for some reason it wouldn't work I thought maybe copy protection issues? I tried again and it worked I used Emby instead of Plex. Video of the file looks skewed but seems OK when streamed to the TV.

@user-mn8lz7gf6d 20 күн бұрын

I love unbuntu.

@brucerosner3547 Ай бұрын

Excellent very informative video. I set up a lex server on a GMKTec G3 and it works fine except I dislike Windows 11. I was going to install Windows 10 but based on your video I bought a $20 2242 SATA M.2 and will give ubuntu(which looks more like Windows 10 than Windows 11 does) a try. The size, cost, and performance of the little N100 system just blows my mind. Perhaps I'm easy but I'm impressed with the engineering at both Intel and GMKTtec. I'm would also be interested in an unraid Plex video on the same hardware.

@LonSeidman Ай бұрын

These little PCs are amazing for how little they cost. I suspect Intel could push this low end stuff even further but hold back in order to prevent cannibalizing their more expensive processors.

@tunyan168 Ай бұрын

i would suggest using Mobile data wen testing the outside home feature to verify gor certain that it works outside home

@AnuruddhaKarunanayake Ай бұрын

I can confirm Plex 4K HDR to SDR transcode works fine in Windows 10 Pro with latest Nivdia GPUs. I'm currently using MSI GEFORCE GTX 1660 ARMOR 6G OC. Thank you

@LonSeidman Ай бұрын

Yes Nvidia GPUs have been on the list for awhile but if you're using an Intel Quicksync based device Linux is the only way to go right now.

@AnuruddhaKarunanayake Ай бұрын

@@LonSeidman Yes I agree with you. As I heard Intel QuickSync can do more transcodes with less resources. Thank you for your great explanation.

@toxiccan175 2 ай бұрын

I’m planning something similar with OMV and Jellyfin

@DarthV506 2 ай бұрын

That external drive is formatted exfat, that's why there are no permission issues :) If you're not automating things with the arrs, using package managed version installed is fine. One of the big advantages of containers (docker) is avoiding dependency & library hell when different software might need different versions of things like python or java. You should think about doing a video on truenas scale when they make the switch away from helm/kubernetes to docker-compose. Right now, for the majority of users, their charts are basically no different from snaps. You have to have a LOT of knowledge to do anything yourself. That will change this fall!

@LonSeidman 2 ай бұрын

Ahh forgot about the exFAT issue as to why this worked so seamlessly :). Thanks for the tip on Truenas - I'll keep an eye on it! I was looking for the simplest free turn-key solution so this is where I landed. Everything else requires a lot of extra work :).

@DarthV506 2 ай бұрын

@@LonSeidman Lots of projects out there that try to make things as turnkey as synology boxes, but they aren't quite turnkey. TrueNas Scale is currently using helm/k3s and would like to be turnkey but IME it hasn't been. With 20+ years of linux and systems support, I was able to handle the issues. Can't imagine what someone new to linux would do when confronted with a new OS plus the templating/orchestration of helm/kubernetes for issues. With their change to docker-compose, all of the complexity mostly goes away so you can understand what's going on.

@jerrygaguru 2 ай бұрын

This is a great vidhow do the other apps work with plex like removing the commercials from TV shows And convert it to more favorable videos.Formats like I can do in windows

@painkiller895 2 ай бұрын

Running plex direct on synology nas works better than using docker on top of synology. Now Ubuntu server docker and portainer works great also ! just my 2 cents ....

@punkbutler88 2 ай бұрын

can you set the HW transcoder to Intel Quicksync manualy??

@john_in_phoenix 2 ай бұрын

Yes.

@pr0jectSkyneT 2 ай бұрын

I have Plex server running on a Ubuntu 22.04 LXC. The CPU is Ryzen 5900x and the GPU is Intel Arc A380. HDR Tone Mapping doesn't work for me. I installed Jellyfin on the same LXC and HDR tone mapping works fine. I think Plex has compatibility issues with Intel Arc cards maybe.

@DarthV506 2 ай бұрын

Could be the kernel drivers for i915/Arc. The newest TrueNas Scale is using 6.6.29 which has broken tone mapping. The bug is in the 6.6.26 to .30 and fixed with 6.6.31.

@pr0jectSkyneT 2 ай бұрын

@@DarthV506 I'm at kernel 6.8.8 (Proxmox). I'm reading that a lot of Linux users using Intel Arc reporting the same thing.

@DarthV506 2 ай бұрын

@@pr0jectSkyneT Not sure what kernels are available to ubuntu 22.04.

@Miloxkr Ай бұрын

Is there a way to give plex support a suggestion?

@VadimMarchenko 2 ай бұрын

Hi! Since Plex seems to break all feedback loops with their customers. You are my only hope to knock at them. There are two use cases they seem to ignore that would help them to succeed. First and most important. They needed to implement separation of transcoders from storage. That would introduce the concept of the Plex cluster. I've got a Shield Pro which is a superb transcoder, but poor storage and I've got a medium NAS that is superb storage but mediocre transcoder and Shield is not the best thing to have reliable WiFi connection. So most of my library is on NAS but I need to mount it to Shield to enjoy faster start and better quality but all that fails if Shield connection fails. And I have to have a separate library setup on NAS as fallback. This is an annoying setup. Plex should build the way to join libraries on different servers and ability to use transcoder of one server and storage of the other. Second feature is more straightforward. They introduced Home theater as a separate application but that application is lacking the Download feature. They need to include that as I find myself using more that app on my Laptop and Steam Deck over Desktop and being mobile makes Download a must have. Thank you for the great content!

@69mazzz 2 ай бұрын

Let's how Jellyfin runs on it. I am thinking about trying it out myself, but my PC i use as a server is older.

@RomvnlyPlays 2 ай бұрын

If you’re looking for Jellyfin content, Lon doesn’t do it. Tried commenting about it a few times, to no avail

@effbee56 2 ай бұрын

Maybe a linux based surveillance camera system would have lower hardware requirements

@j.r.cardona Ай бұрын

Thanks!

@LonSeidman Ай бұрын

Thank you!!

@cbluebeard 2 ай бұрын

At work, they're starting to swap out some of the regular pc's with those GMTek G2's. They have Windows 11 Pro. You have me wondering if the key/install is legit. How could it be so cheap with a real Windows Pro license?

@john_in_phoenix 2 ай бұрын

The key is legit. I have installed a new SSD and done a fresh install of Windows 11 via the media creation tool, and no problems. The only problem is that the media created has no drivers for the ethernet or wifi hardware. Easy work around is to use a $20 USB gigabit ethernet device to load Windows 11 so you can then install the drivers you need. No "this copy of Windows needs to be activated" desktop logo, just a legit copy of Windows 11 pro direct from Microsoft rather than China. The Intel ethernet drivers and Realtek Wi-Fi drivers are easy to find.

@stemlator 2 ай бұрын

Looks like they're retailing for about $140, which is $50 less than the cost of a Windows 11 Pro license. The bigger concern is the malware some of these NUCs from unknown brands come with. That and a lack of drivers/support would drive me toward buying HP or Dell machines if I were buying machines for business.

@cbluebeard 2 ай бұрын

@@stemlator my feelings exactly

@john_in_phoenix 2 ай бұрын

@@stemlator I just wiped the SSD and used the media creation tool (straight from Microsoft) to install a fresh Windows 11 pro image. It's legit, no activation required (the key is in non-volatile memory). I actually purchased a new SSD so I could swap between the two testing Plex under Windows and Linux. Any modern machine with UEFI bios stores the license key in non-volatile memory (that means anything less than approximately 15 years old).

@LonSeidman 2 ай бұрын

So from what I gather they are buying legit OEM licenses for these PCs which cost a lot less than retail. Although I suspect the ones they are buying are not supposed to be distributed in this way.

@darkknite2k11 2 ай бұрын

Hey Lon.... I ran into something yesterday while trying to help my in-laws. They are not tech savvy, and Comcast customers. The Plex app is available for the cable box, but does not have access to media. Could you possibly share some insight? Thanks.

@LonSeidman 2 ай бұрын

I suspect the Plex app on Comcast is just for the free streaming shows.

@darkknite2k11 2 ай бұрын

@@LonSeidman well that's crazy. Lol. Probably a rights issue.. Thanks for the reply.

@Doktati 2 ай бұрын

❤❤❤

@jmr 2 ай бұрын

I wonder if there is anything similar to Diet-pi OS for mini PC like this? Diet-PI does require the command line but it's very easy and lightweight. You can install programs like Plex from the command line. That's how I started using Plex and Home Assistant in the first place. It basically uses Docker containers but all the Docker images are optimized. It's an awesome OS and does all the hard stuff like permissions for you. EDIT: I think Diet-PI will run on this.

@DarthV506 2 ай бұрын

Really depends if you need the GUI. Ubuntu Server LTS defaults to only installing the basics.

@jmr 2 ай бұрын

@@DarthV506 Yes but the cool part of Diet-pi for beginners is you can run a single command then select what you want to install from a list. Stuff like Plex, FreshRSS, Nextcloud, Docker, and Portainer. Lots to choose from. It's way more complicated to use any standard builds of Linux headless. It's even easy then using a Linux desktop in many ways.

@DarthV506 2 ай бұрын

@@jmr Lots of issues when something goes wrong. You're not learning how it all works. I'd rather learn how it works, then I can fix it when something breaks!

@jmr 2 ай бұрын

@@DarthV506 It's a good OS for people that just want to get things done and it can be a great learning platform. I like to tinker and fix things but not everyone has the time.

@johnvogt621 2 ай бұрын

Why doesn't windows allow this? Can Mac computers hardware tyranscode?

@trapexit 2 ай бұрын

You know what goes well with Plex on Linux? mergerfs ;-)

@christothegreat1 2 ай бұрын

You should be able to show a few seconds of video without audio, not full screen, and be within the fair use rules.

@LonSeidman 2 ай бұрын

The length of the video shown is not what makes it fair use - it's the use itself. And this wouldn't constitute a fair use.

@royk164 Ай бұрын

If your Mini pc has a SSD made by Netac, it WILL die after about 1 year!

@aaaa7842 2 ай бұрын

Jellyfin is better than plex

@streamx2 Ай бұрын

Its called UBuntu. I don;t know where UMbuntu comes from? As an educator, you should pay attention to how you pronounce things. Imagine being a maths teacher and teaching kids 2+2 = 7.