Couldn't disagree more with this. I agree with other comments that a Mac Mini M1 is a great solution to the problem. You can use native screen sharing from your mac laptop or desktop to "view" the desktop of the mac mini and interact with it in a second...no keybords, monitors or other garbage required. Setup your server THERE on the mac mini, and POINT IT to your NAS for your media library. Works like a charm. The M1 doesn't even begin to break a sweat when transcoding/downcoding 4K and other files to clients which are unable to stream/view 4K natively. If you're all mac anyway, NO additional monitors, NO additional ANYTHING is needed. Just use screen sharing to setup your server. Then use your NAS to provide a big RAID pool of storage for PLEX. Much better solution. AND no need to spend $2000 for an i5 or i7 intel NAS which is not going to be work at all better than the M1 or M2 mini. Just get a regular vanilla Synology or QNAP.
I’m thinking of doing exactly this. Are you accessing the media library NAS via gigabit ethernet? How has that been working when transcoding high bitrate 4k?
I’m planning to use an old Mac mini with a DAS, but mostly to store iPhone photos and videos. In the past I had photo stream enabled on my Mac which automatically downloaded photos from my phone onto my Mac. So hopefully I can get that working again and create my own iCloud basically. Using Jellyfin on it to watch movies is just a plus.
I use a 2010 MacBook for my Plex server. I have it connected to an external 2 bay hardware RAID enclosure for the media library. I actually removed the CD drive from the MacBook and ran the eSata connector into the MacBook and connected it to the opened internal Sata port. One of the advantages is that the MacBook serves as my TimeMachine server as well (which some NAS's can do). I also use it for media encoding. I don't have enough space to keep uncompressed versions of my movies, so I encode them all. The MacBook doesn't have a lot of horsepower, but I can just give it a queue of encodings and let it grind away at it. It can also serve as an iTunes server and a print server, etc. etc. An other interesting advantage is that I can dual boot it with an oder version of OSX that still uses Rosetta and I can use my old PPC applications if I want. I just screen share or VNC from another computer and I've got a legacy setup at hand. You lay out a bunch of reasons that a NAS may be the better solution for a lot of people, but for a lot of us other people, having a Mac server is a better solution.
@@surfmarko I think so. I've done the same thing with a 2010 mac mini. But I had to cut a notch in the bottom cover to route the cable out. I have found that some eSATA enclosures don't like this arrangement though. I've upgraded to a Drobo and it won't stay reliably connected over eSATA even though firewire and USB work fine.
@@SD-cu1ir Thanks! I have a Mac Mini and thinking of ways to repurpose after I upgrade the HD to an SSD was thinking 1TB then connecting a couple 5TB externals to act as a media server but didn't know how slow that would be. I'm a kook/noob so gathering info to figure out what works best for me
@@surfmarko If you're just doing media playback and not a lot of simultaneous streams, then just connecting something by USB2 will actually be good enough .. and way simpler than the iSATA to eSATA hack.
I have a top rated QNAP NAS since 2 years - the QNAP TVS672XT - and nothing but problems. During a hardware repair of only a broken Thunderbolt card I had to struggle with QNAP every single week to get my hardware back at all. The QTS 5 OS which has now received the 5th update or so is really crappy. External USB devices (and yes, I'm even using one from QNAP to be fully compatible) lead to a memory leak and the entire NAS just is not responsive anymore and crashes. I'm really really afraid for my data with this QNAP crap - RAID-5 doesn't help if the device/brand is just crap. I'm seriously considering a Mac Mini + external HDD solution as then I have it in my own hands and can fix this anytime (e.g. a Mac Mini can be replaced in days only)
I think this topic deserves a follow up to address how things have changed in 4 years. The newer Apple M1/M2 Mac mini available today have excellent performance per watt, which is super revelvent with electricity prices just going up and up with no end in site. This is especially true if you run your Plex server 24/7. Another bonus is my Mac Mini runs almost silently, even under full load. Can't say the same thing for my undervolted i7-8700k ITX build which is being retired from PMS duties. Currently I'm trialing a base model M1 Mac Mini I picked up for $420 AUD (230 quid) secondhand for transcoding duties while my older Synology NAS handles the file serving. With Mac fanboys all jumping onto the M2 Macs I believe the M1 Minis are a real steal on the secondhand market now.
Hmm. Considering the 2014 Mac Mini is being discussed here... You can fit up to 2 SSDs in that Chassis. There are 2 drive slots, and a kit for either a second SATA or NVME iirc. I remember the 2012 quad core fitting 2 SATA SSDs. Now if you can get your hands on 2 large capacity SSDs, it should suffice for Plex Media Server. My current setup is just running Plex off my M2 mini with a USB C hub with 2 4tb ssd's connected via TB4.
Interesting take. I had a 512gb nvme ssd from a MacBook that died and 4tb sata ssd available so bought a 2014 Mac mini with a 2.8ghz i5 for £300. I have it set up with plex and asset upnp servers, it handles transcoding very well, I use it to serve photos and sync with various photos sharing apps and it’s also very handy for executing download tasks as it’s hard wired to my router. The WAF factor is also high compared to a NAS. It’s also supremely connectable and controllable if you have another Mac. I have it running fully headless with a virtual 1080p desktop, keyboard, screen and mouse were only required for setup.
you can easily and cheaply upgrade the storage on an Intel Mac Mini. Depending on which model you get, some you can fit two 2.5" SSDs in them, and I believe some you can fit one 2.5" SSD and one NVMe M.2 SSD. 2TB 2.5" SSDs can be had as cheap as $100-150 on Amazon. If you REALLY want to up your storage, you can use a DAS connected via Thunderbolt to the Mac Mini. I have two from OWC: a Thunderbay 4 with 3.5" HDDs and a Thunderbay 4 Mini with 4 2.5" SSDs. I just upgraded from a 2013 15" Retina MBP after dropping it and damaging the display, still runs fine otherwise. I ended going with a 16" MBP M1 Pro and loving it. Was thinking of fixing my old MBP but displays are expensive, and trying to get a used MBP for parts is nearly impossible without spending too much. I also thought about just selling my old MBP as is for parts, but after watching this, I think I'm gonna use my old MBP as a media server for now. It has a 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD that I upgraded on it, but 1TB should do fine for now. Once prices come down, maybe I'll upgraded it to 2TB or 4TB. I can always use external SSDs too for more storage.
Excellent comparison; I'm looking for a dedicated box to run Plex for 4K movies. Currently I transcode on the fly from my main laptop, but encoding 4K and streaming wirelessly definitely taxes my system and I'd prefer to not have my primary laptop locked up while I watch a movie. Thank you!
Yeah. I need something that can also act as a media player and streamer and plex server. I need to stream games too. Like a shield but more powerful. Mac mini it is
I have for the past 8 months or so, had a great deal of issues with my Plex experience an my Synology NAS DS918+. So much so that I have resorted to the extent of un-installing the Synology NAS client from my NAS, re-installing and going through the same 'ripping my hair out experience', i.e. certain content not playing back or the dreaded 'unable to playback' issue. I have decided, for now, to consider another option which is running off my Windows/MacBook laptop with my NAS Plex folders mapped from their. Immediately videos I had not been able to playback are playing flawlessly even when out of the home. I will now do some research into either another more powerful NAS or more likely a NUC/MacMini for this purpose going forward, for now.
Just say that it is also enterprice datacenters that use Mac Minis for 24/7 in years. There is even hardwares to buy for proper mount those in server racks. If it is just a desktop why do this exist?
Eliminated the KVM issue with Remote Desktop on the mini- App Store. I am just trying to setup a Plex server as my Synology 2415+ is getting old- series know with defective Celerons. Can you do a Mac mini Plex setup video? Thanks and love your channel !!!
They have rackable DAS's now which can be setup in Raid.. you can literally run one DAS to a mac mini via thunderbolt 3 (40gbps) and then have the mac mini hook up to ur network via the 10gbps ethernet you can get on the mac mini... and that can all be backed up to another cheap nas for safe keeping... i think the mac mini config wins in todays age vs when this video was made.
I've run plex on a DS410 and the processor was absolutely hammered. My old Synology NAS system is really good for one thing NAS stuff. I had an old iMac laying around and swapped the HD with an SSD. I loaded Plex and maxed the memory to 16GB . The iMac automatically mounts the NAS share drive and that's where the media is stored. The Plex-iMac also doubles as a second monitor for my new iMac system using a thunderbolt 2 cable between the two. CMD-F2 switches modes between target monitor mode and normal. My matias Bluetooth KB switches between the two systems so no KVM is needed but I do have a second mouse.
Right but if one of your drive drives dies and they’re that big, it’s gonna take you days or weeks or months to rebuild your raid. I mean you might literally ruin another drive lose another drive in the middle of a rebuild. It would be better to have multiple mass servers with much smaller drivesso they can be you can rebuild the raid faster if you lose a drive
@@SM0R3S why not just point your mac mini to your NAS....then you can just use your mac mini as a head unit for getting media and serving...I would assume it would do much better with transcoding then a NAS would. most routers come with USB 3 support as well ...so you could mount a USB 3 external hard drive and add the folder to plex media server.I'm actually using Gsuite to host all my files so I have no hard drives in my house and this allows me to use almost any device I choose as a server.
Yes. Using a Synology NAS on my home network which stores media files. The NAS drives are mounted to mac mini connected to network. Even with a i5 dual core 2012 mac mini upgraded to 16gb of ram, I'm able to play 4k movies directly and transcode them.
I'm wondering whether she keep my 2018 MacBook Air instead of giving it away for 500 or 600 bucks keep it as a server and as a portable or much more portable laptop than a new MacBook Pro
How about Mac Mini M1 as my main computer / plex media server. And connect to Synology D220j for storage via 1 gb ethernet? I just wish Plex Media Server could run as a daemon. Right now as is, it seems I have to log in as the user I installed it under, and run it.. and stay logged in.
Great video, absolutely agree. We have a couple Mac Minis laying around, but the Qnap 251+ has a huge hit for Plex Server. Easy to set up, and has been crazy reliable.
I have the sane situation, but luckily having more TS251+ devices. Unfortunately one of them just broke down after 6 years of use, and by using the others I could save the content on the HDDs. Now I’m building up my Mac Mini 2014 based System as it’s standard, if it brakes down, then I’ll be able to replace it easily.
No offense dude but macOS has remote control capabilities built-in you can access that device from another machine but why would you most people that are doing the things you’re talking about they’re not gonna have you know 400 TB of data they might have you know 50 or 100 DVDs or maybe even Blu-ray at a much larger size You know of a ripped file but I mean I have I don’t have a single Blu-ray because when I last was doing this and my mass has failed it it’s not failed it’s just so outdated. It doesn’t get updates anymore from from western digital but I only bought DVDs because of the face consideration of ripping Blu-ray. I mean Blu-ray are gigantic and most people can’t see the difference Lossless direct rip of a DVD just like the DVD would look being played and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m fine with that. I don’t have to have the highest Fidelity of all what I need is a reliable device that can access and display my movies and maybe dress them up with a media server I believe the Mac mini has something called infuse my idea was plugging the Mac right into my TV Right I mean the current you’re talking about Mac Minis from nearly 10 years I mean when they first came out I’m looking at M2 Mac mini’s that are brand new in the last year. They have HDMI out on them. It’s like HDMI 2.1 They have the latest greatest Wi-Fi they have the latest greatest Bluetooth Literally was thinking of plugging it right into my TV. Ripping the videos onto an external storage device that SSD is not upgradable or changeable it’s soldered I mean the current Mac minis are so limited. You have to buy them with exactly the hardware you want on them or you have to just upgrade the one you got to the next you know if you decide you want something more so I thought was using an external device which be more than fast enough to serve up movies Use the keyboard and mouse you know go pick a movie and play it right on the TV I think confused isn’t that the program that the media server on Mac on macOS you know addresses up your catalog of videos with backdrops and in a pretty pretty icons, pretty tiles, and what not makes it all look pretty like a typical media server I had thought about running flack until I saw this video which would allow me to put the Mac on my desktop, my current horribly outdated windows PC and and serve up the files over the over the network to flex client on the other end, but that seems to complicate the thing I only want to play these videos on one one place And it seems like a $600 chiefest lowest model M2 with 256 GB of SSD and a two or 3 TB external would be more than sufficient in a very complicated way. I was looking for that kind of information you’re talking about 1420 TB storage units I meanI can put every mover I have on one terabyte because they’re all DVD you know between two and 4 GB of space and admittedly, I might someday need more
Joe Joe I also wanted Drobo but got the Lacie NAS PRO, because it’s a LAN NAS, with 2x Gigabit LAN ports, and it’s much faster. But from time to time, my NAS gets disconnected from my Mini, and I have to manually open the folder so it can automatically be mounted again. Does this ever happens to your Drobo?
Both suck. Buy a mini itx case and motherboard, install your preferred cpu and memory, it’ll have enough room for several drives. Install something like FreeBSD, use ZFS, and your done. Best of both worlds.
Couldn't disagree more with this. I agree with other comments that a Mac Mini M1 is a great solution to the problem. You can use native screen sharing from your mac laptop or desktop to "view" the desktop of the mac mini and interact with it in a second...no keybords, monitors or other garbage required. Setup your server THERE on the mac mini, and POINT IT to your NAS for your media library. Works like a charm. The M1 doesn't even begin to break a sweat when transcoding/downcoding 4K and other files to clients which are unable to stream/view 4K natively. If you're all mac anyway, NO additional monitors, NO additional ANYTHING is needed. Just use screen sharing to setup your server. Then use your NAS to provide a big RAID pool of storage for PLEX. Much better solution. AND no need to spend $2000 for an i5 or i7 intel NAS which is not going to be work at all better than the M1 or M2 mini. Just get a regular vanilla Synology or QNAP.
I’m thinking of doing exactly this. Are you accessing the media library NAS via gigabit ethernet? How has that been working when transcoding high bitrate 4k?
How did you go? Would love to build this myself is there anything you you’ll change if you have done this?
I’m planning to use an old Mac mini with a DAS, but mostly to store iPhone photos and videos. In the past I had photo stream enabled on my Mac which automatically downloaded photos from my phone onto my Mac. So hopefully I can get that working again and create my own iCloud basically. Using Jellyfin on it to watch movies is just a plus.
No seriously, how did you setup the Macmini with the NAS? It's kicking my butt.
Paul Hinson Could you please record a tutorial?
I use a 2010 MacBook for my Plex server. I have it connected to an external 2 bay hardware RAID enclosure for the media library. I actually removed the CD drive from the MacBook and ran the eSata connector into the MacBook and connected it to the opened internal Sata port. One of the advantages is that the MacBook serves as my TimeMachine server as well (which some NAS's can do). I also use it for media encoding. I don't have enough space to keep uncompressed versions of my movies, so I encode them all. The MacBook doesn't have a lot of horsepower, but I can just give it a queue of encodings and let it grind away at it. It can also serve as an iTunes server and a print server, etc. etc.
An other interesting advantage is that I can dual boot it with an oder version of OSX that still uses Rosetta and I can use my old PPC applications if I want. I just screen share or VNC from another computer and I've got a legacy setup at hand.
You lay out a bunch of reasons that a NAS may be the better solution for a lot of people, but for a lot of us other people, having a Mac server is a better solution.
Great info! Could something similar be done with a 2012 macmini?
@@surfmarko I think so. I've done the same thing with a 2010 mac mini. But I had to cut a notch in the bottom cover to route the cable out.
I have found that some eSATA enclosures don't like this arrangement though. I've upgraded to a Drobo and it won't stay reliably connected over eSATA even though firewire and USB work fine.
@@SD-cu1ir Thanks! I have a Mac Mini and thinking of ways to repurpose after I upgrade the HD to an SSD was thinking 1TB then connecting a couple 5TB externals to act as a media server but didn't know how slow that would be. I'm a kook/noob so gathering info to figure out what works best for me
@@surfmarko If you're just doing media playback and not a lot of simultaneous streams, then just connecting something by USB2 will actually be good enough .. and way simpler than the iSATA to eSATA hack.
I have a top rated QNAP NAS since 2 years - the QNAP TVS672XT - and nothing but problems. During a hardware repair of only a broken Thunderbolt card I had to struggle with QNAP every single week to get my hardware back at all. The QTS 5 OS which has now received the 5th update or so is really crappy. External USB devices (and yes, I'm even using one from QNAP to be fully compatible) lead to a memory leak and the entire NAS just is not responsive anymore and crashes. I'm really really afraid for my data with this QNAP crap - RAID-5 doesn't help if the device/brand is just crap. I'm seriously considering a Mac Mini + external HDD solution as then I have it in my own hands and can fix this anytime (e.g. a Mac Mini can be replaced in days only)
I think this topic deserves a follow up to address how things have changed in 4 years. The newer Apple M1/M2 Mac mini available today have excellent performance per watt, which is super revelvent with electricity prices just going up and up with no end in site. This is especially true if you run your Plex server 24/7. Another bonus is my Mac Mini runs almost silently, even under full load. Can't say the same thing for my undervolted i7-8700k ITX build which is being retired from PMS duties. Currently I'm trialing a base model M1 Mac Mini I picked up for $420 AUD (230 quid) secondhand for transcoding duties while my older Synology NAS handles the file serving. With Mac fanboys all jumping onto the M2 Macs I believe the M1 Minis are a real steal on the secondhand market now.
Thank you for the information, I think I'm going to use my Mac mini m1 and buy a 4 bay enclosure.
Hmm. Considering the 2014 Mac Mini is being discussed here... You can fit up to 2 SSDs in that Chassis. There are 2 drive slots, and a kit for either a second SATA or NVME iirc. I remember the 2012 quad core fitting 2 SATA SSDs. Now if you can get your hands on 2 large capacity SSDs, it should suffice for Plex Media Server. My current setup is just running Plex off my M2 mini with a USB C hub with 2 4tb ssd's connected via TB4.
How about combining Mac mini speed and NAS file management?
Mac mini M1 + Symnology NAS + 5G remote + Ethernet = high speed portable computing?
Interesting take. I had a 512gb nvme ssd from a MacBook that died and 4tb sata ssd available so bought a 2014 Mac mini with a 2.8ghz i5 for £300. I have it set up with plex and asset upnp servers, it handles transcoding very well, I use it to serve photos and sync with various photos sharing apps and it’s also very handy for executing download tasks as it’s hard wired to my router. The WAF factor is also high compared to a NAS. It’s also supremely connectable and controllable if you have another Mac. I have it running fully headless with a virtual 1080p desktop, keyboard, screen and mouse were only required for setup.
9:01 Nope. macOS has remote screensharing built into the OS.
can it be used from a windows pc tho?
The game has changed with $450 "renewed" M1 Mac minis and $250 4TB SSDs. You can control any Mac mini over Remote Desktop/vnc...
Are these external drives you plug in?
you can easily and cheaply upgrade the storage on an Intel Mac Mini. Depending on which model you get, some you can fit two 2.5" SSDs in them, and I believe some you can fit one 2.5" SSD and one NVMe M.2 SSD. 2TB 2.5" SSDs can be had as cheap as $100-150 on Amazon. If you REALLY want to up your storage, you can use a DAS connected via Thunderbolt to the Mac Mini. I have two from OWC: a Thunderbay 4 with 3.5" HDDs and a Thunderbay 4 Mini with 4 2.5" SSDs.
I just upgraded from a 2013 15" Retina MBP after dropping it and damaging the display, still runs fine otherwise. I ended going with a 16" MBP M1 Pro and loving it. Was thinking of fixing my old MBP but displays are expensive, and trying to get a used MBP for parts is nearly impossible without spending too much. I also thought about just selling my old MBP as is for parts, but after watching this, I think I'm gonna use my old MBP as a media server for now. It has a 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD that I upgraded on it, but 1TB should do fine for now. Once prices come down, maybe I'll upgraded it to 2TB or 4TB. I can always use external SSDs too for more storage.
Excellent comparison; I'm looking for a dedicated box to run Plex for 4K movies. Currently I transcode on the fly from my main laptop, but encoding 4K and streaming wirelessly definitely taxes my system and I'd prefer to not have my primary laptop locked up while I watch a movie. Thank you!
Great video, Thanks for comparing.
Yeah. I need something that can also act as a media player and streamer and plex server. I need to stream games too. Like a shield but more powerful. Mac mini it is
I have for the past 8 months or so, had a great deal of issues with my Plex experience an my Synology NAS DS918+. So much so that I have resorted to the extent of un-installing the Synology NAS client from my NAS, re-installing and going through the same 'ripping my hair out experience', i.e. certain content not playing back or the dreaded 'unable to playback' issue.
I have decided, for now, to consider another option which is running off my Windows/MacBook laptop with my NAS Plex folders mapped from their. Immediately videos I had not been able to playback are playing flawlessly even when out of the home.
I will now do some research into either another more powerful NAS or more likely a NUC/MacMini for this purpose going forward, for now.
Just say that it is also enterprice datacenters that use Mac Minis for 24/7 in years. There is even hardwares to buy for proper mount those in server racks. If it is just a desktop why do this exist?
Eliminated the KVM issue with Remote Desktop on the mini- App Store. I am just trying to setup a Plex server as my Synology 2415+ is getting old- series know with defective Celerons. Can you do a Mac mini Plex setup video? Thanks and love your channel !!!
They have rackable DAS's now which can be setup in Raid.. you can literally run one DAS to a mac mini via thunderbolt 3 (40gbps) and then have the mac mini hook up to ur network via the 10gbps ethernet you can get on the mac mini... and that can all be backed up to another cheap nas for safe keeping... i think the mac mini config wins in todays age vs when this video was made.
Very helpful!
I've run plex on a DS410 and the processor was absolutely hammered. My old Synology NAS system is really good for one thing NAS stuff. I had an old iMac laying around and swapped the HD with an SSD. I loaded Plex and maxed the memory to 16GB . The iMac automatically mounts the NAS share drive and that's where the media is stored. The Plex-iMac also doubles as a second monitor for my new iMac system using a thunderbolt 2 cable between the two. CMD-F2 switches modes between target monitor mode and normal. My matias Bluetooth KB switches between the two systems so no KVM is needed but I do have a second mouse.
Still recommending NAS in todays double or even tripled energy costs? 🤔
Yes. Yes I am. How much is your data worth?
Right but if one of your drive drives dies and they’re that big, it’s gonna take you days or weeks or months to rebuild your raid. I mean you might literally ruin another drive lose another drive in the middle of a rebuild. It would be better to have multiple mass servers with much smaller drivesso they can be you can rebuild the raid faster if you lose a drive
Is it possible to combine the Mac Mini and NAS for a Plex server, to get both advantages?
You can, but You'll want USB3 or better (Thunderbolt 3) for the Data transport from external HDD to Mac Mini.
@@SM0R3S why not just point your mac mini to your NAS....then you can just use your mac mini as a head unit for getting media and serving...I would assume it would do much better with transcoding then a NAS would. most routers come with USB 3 support as well ...so you could mount a USB 3 external hard drive and add the folder to plex media server.I'm actually using Gsuite to host all my files so I have no hard drives in my house and this allows me to use almost any device I choose as a server.
Yes.
Using a Synology NAS on my home network which stores media files. The NAS drives are mounted to mac mini connected to network.
Even with a i5 dual core 2012 mac mini upgraded to 16gb of ram, I'm able to play 4k movies directly and transcode them.
Is worth using my old 2010 Mac mini and external hard drive as backup plex server
I'm wondering whether she keep my 2018 MacBook Air instead of giving it away for 500 or 600 bucks keep it as a server and as a portable or much more portable laptop than a new MacBook Pro
How about Mac Mini M1 as my main computer / plex media server. And connect to Synology D220j for storage via 1 gb ethernet? I just wish Plex Media Server could run as a daemon. Right now as is, it seems I have to log in as the user I installed it under, and run it.. and stay logged in.
Great video, absolutely agree. We have a couple Mac Minis laying around, but the Qnap 251+ has a huge hit for Plex Server. Easy to set up, and has been crazy reliable.
I have the sane situation, but luckily having more TS251+ devices. Unfortunately one of them just broke down after 6 years of use, and by using the others I could save the content on the HDDs. Now I’m building up my Mac Mini 2014 based System as it’s standard, if it brakes down, then I’ll be able to replace it easily.
MacOS doesn’t support all codec types, example AV1 without conversions.
do you like WD EX2 for a Plex server?
No offense dude but macOS has remote control capabilities built-in you can access that device from another machine but why would you most people that are doing the things you’re talking about they’re not gonna have you know 400 TB of data they might have you know 50 or 100 DVDs or maybe even Blu-ray at a much larger size You know of a ripped file but I mean I have I don’t have a single Blu-ray because when I last was doing this and my mass has failed it it’s not failed it’s just so outdated. It doesn’t get updates anymore from from western digital but I only bought DVDs because of the face consideration of ripping Blu-ray. I mean Blu-ray are gigantic and most people can’t see the difference Lossless direct rip of a DVD just like the DVD would look being played and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m fine with that. I don’t have to have the highest Fidelity of all what I need is a reliable device that can access and display my movies and maybe dress them up with a media server I believe the Mac mini has something called infuse my idea was plugging the Mac right into my TV Right I mean the current you’re talking about Mac Minis from nearly 10 years I mean when they first came out I’m looking at M2 Mac mini’s that are brand new in the last year. They have HDMI out on them. It’s like HDMI 2.1 They have the latest greatest Wi-Fi they have the latest greatest Bluetooth Literally was thinking of plugging it right into my TV. Ripping the videos onto an external storage device that SSD is not upgradable or changeable it’s soldered I mean the current Mac minis are so limited. You have to buy them with exactly the hardware you want on them or you have to just upgrade the one you got to the next you know if you decide you want something more so I thought was using an external device which be more than fast enough to serve up movies Use the keyboard and mouse you know go pick a movie and play it right on the TV I think confused isn’t that the program that the media server on Mac on macOS you know addresses up your catalog of videos with backdrops and in a pretty pretty icons, pretty tiles, and what not makes it all look pretty like a typical media server I had thought about running flack until I saw this video which would allow me to put the Mac on my desktop, my current horribly outdated windows PC and and serve up the files over the over the network to flex client on the other end, but that seems to complicate the thing I only want to play these videos on one one place And it seems like a $600 chiefest lowest model M2 with 256 GB of SSD and a two or 3 TB external would be more than sufficient in a very complicated way. I was looking for that kind of information you’re talking about 1420 TB storage units I meanI can put every mover I have on one terabyte because they’re all DVD you know between two and 4 GB of space and admittedly, I might someday need more
I love my Qnap TS-451+
The way you say celeron is kinda cringy. Otherwise, great video.
I had a drobo connected to my Mac mini.
Joe Joe I also wanted Drobo but got the Lacie NAS PRO, because it’s a LAN NAS, with 2x Gigabit LAN ports, and it’s much faster.
But from time to time, my NAS gets disconnected from my Mini, and I have to manually open the folder so it can automatically be mounted again.
Does this ever happens to your Drobo?
raid in not backup... EVER
It's fine for movies...
mac
good cooling system
choose one
Yeshwant Kethineni 2019 Mac Pro *enters the chat*
Let’s compare hand motion and listen to saliva speaking :)
Both suck. Buy a mini itx case and motherboard, install your preferred cpu and memory, it’ll have enough room for several drives. Install something like FreeBSD, use ZFS, and your done. Best of both worlds.